List of Illustrations

Figures Figure Introduction 1: High Commissioner Sir Robert Stanley at the inauguration of the first Council in 1952 . . . .19 Figure Introduction 2: Salana Ga`a, the first President of the first Malaita Council, and some of its members in 1952...... 20 Figure Introduction 3: Two of the Malaita Eagles, with weapons. . .26 Figure Introduction 4: Destroying Dodo Creek Agricultural Station in 2000 ...... 26 Figure Introduction 5: ’s Chinatown burning during the riots in April 2006...... 27 Figure Introduction 6: Ishmael Idumaoma Itea (circa 1904–2005) at Sango, Fataleka, 1988...... 30 Figure Introduction 7: Noel Fatnowna (1929–91) and Rex Ringi Angofia in Honiara in 1988...... 30 Figure Introduction 8: Three east Fataleka leaders in the Bubuileli Council House, 1976...... 31 Figure 1.1: Malaitan plank-built ocean-going canoe from Langalanga Lagoon ...... 49 Figure 1.2: Malaitan women and children in dugout canoes near one of the artificial islands, possibly in ...... 50 Figure 1.3: Maasupa Village, Maro`umasike (Takataka or Deep Bay), east `Are`are, 1970s...... 52 Figure 1.4: Langalanga women using hand drills to make holes in the process of making akwala`afi shell wealth in 1933. . . .57

vii Making Mala

Figure 1.5: Langalanga women grinding shells to make akwala`afi during a 1998 demonstration of shell wealth manufacture for tourists on Gwaelaga Island ...... 58 Figure 1.6: Lobotalau rolls up his bata after a mortuary feast for the death of Na`oni`au at `Ai`eda in east Kwaio in August 1996. . 58 Figure 1.7: Porpoise hunting at Bita`ama, north Malaita, early 1960s...... 60 Figure 1.8: Gwali Asi of artificial island was an important bigman in Lau Lagoon early in the twentieth century . . . . .61 Figure 1.9: A large hamlet in central Kwaio, inland from Sinalagu, in `Oloburi Harbour’s watershed. Two men’s houses sit at the upper reaches...... 62 Figure 1.10: A well-built hamlet at `Ai`eda, inland from Sinalagu in Kwaio, at 853 metres (2,800 feet) above sea level...... 68 Figure 1.11: `Are`are woman wearing traditional jewellery and smoking a pipe, 1969...... 69 Figure 1.12: `Are`are woman and child, 1969 ...... 70 Figure 1.13: Bush women at Roas Bay, south Malaita, 1906. . . . .72 Figure 1.14: Sacrificial altar at Ferasubua Island in Lau Lagoon, 1906...... 77 Figure 2.1: Christie Fatnowna with the model ship made by Jack Marau...... 84 Figure 2.2: John Renton managed to get this piece of wood with its message on both sides to the Bobtail Nag in August 1875...... 95 Figure 2.3: An illustration of the Peri survivors being picked up by HMS Basilisk off the coast of Queensland in early 1872. . 104 Figure 2.4: Recruiting at Maanakwai in north Malaita...... 108 Figure 2.5: Malaita men in the 1920s at the age typical of labour recruits...... 108 Figure 2.6: This photograph from Bundaberg in 1889 is of the Helena, a 126-ton schooner, which made 40 voyages from 1882–99, and the May, a 237-ton schooner, which made 15 voyages from 1888–94 ...... 114 viii List of Illustrations

Figure 2.7: There are no known photographs of accommodations below decks. On the early voyages it would have been much more basic. This sketch is by William Wawn, who was a captain in the labour trade from 1875 to 1894. It probably depicts one of his 1880s ships ...... 117 Figure 2.8: Men from and Malaita on Foulden plantation at Mackay, Queensland, in the 1870s...... 118 Figure 2.9: At Mackay, Hugh Hossack owned one of the larger ‘Kanaka stores’, shops that catered predominantly to Islanders. They bought their trade boxes and their contents there, and were allowed to store their possessions there. The photograph shows how central Islanders were to Hossack’s trade, and his relationship with them...... 122 Figure 2.10: This photograph, of a Malaitan canoe in Fiji, presumably manufactured and decorated there, is one of the most remarkable from the overseas plantations. The image, from a collection by A.M. Brodziack & Co., was probably taken in the 1880s. The canoe is in Walu Bay, an old local shipping area and Solomon Islander settlement...... 137 Figure 2.11: Malaitans at Innisfail in north Queensland early in the 1900s. The slit-drum and the bows and arrows would have been made in Queensland...... 138 Figure 3.1: Queensland Kanaka Mission baptism by full emersion, Johnstone River, Geraldton (Innisfail), 1906...... 146 Figure 3.2: Students at Mary Robinson’s Anglican Selwyn Mission when it operated from Marian in the Pioneer Valley west of Mackay. The photograph dates from the 1890s when William Wawn visited...... 154 Figure 3.3: Many mission photographs are of groups of men, though women and children also attended services and classes. This group is at the Selwyn Mission in 1905...... 156 Figure 3.4: The congregation at St Marys Church at Pioneer, outside Mackay, in the early 1900s...... 157 Figure 3.5: One of the Islanders’ grass-roofed churches in north Queensland, possibly the one at Cordelia Mount...... 158

ix Making Mala

Figure 3.6: The Churches of Christ Mission Hall in the Isis, with John Thompson’s house alongside ...... 167 Figure 3.7: Rev. McIntyre with his Sunday school class, Presbyterian Mission at Walkerston...... 168 Figure 3.8: This photograph is thought to be of the Methodist mission to Islanders in Fiji...... 174 Figure 3.9: Kwailiu Fatnowna and his wife Orrani and family at Mackay in 1906, not long before his death...... 181 Figure 4.1: St Andrew’s College, Kohimarama, Auckland, New Zealand. A small number of Malaitan students were there between 1862 and 1867...... 198 Figure 4.2: The Melanesian Mission school at Uru, east Malaita, 1906...... 200 Figure 4.3: Clement Marau and Joseph Wate`ae`pule in about 1890 ...... 205 Figure 4.4: The new church built at Fiu, 1904...... 212 Figure 4.5: A food storage house at `Adagege Island, Kwaisulia’s stronghold in Lau Lagoon, 1906...... 220 Figure 4.6: Rev. Arthur Hopkins’s mission house at Ngorefou, Lau Lagoon, 1906...... 222 Figures 4.7–8: Outside and inside the mission palisade at Ngorefou, 1906...... 222 Figure 4.9: St Barnabas College staff and students, Norfolk Island, 1906...... 227 Figure 4.10: Interior of the St Barnabas College dining room, Norfolk Island...... 228 Figure 5.1: Peter Abu`ofa in middle age...... 233 Figure 5.2: Men and youths of `Adagege, Kwaisulia’s island, Lau Lagoon, 1906...... 235 Figure 5.3: The final decision to close the Queensland Kanaka Mission and reestablish it as the South Sea Evangelical Mission was made at this religious convention at Katoomba, New South Wales, in 1904...... 244 x List of Illustrations

Figure 5.4: The 12-ton lugger-style Daphne, which Florence Young brought with her in 1904. The ship served as the main means of transport for the QKM until the Evangel arrived in 1907...... 245 Figure 5.5: Florence Young, superintendent of the Queensland Kanaka Mission and the driving force of the South Sea Evangelical Mission until the mid-1920s...... 246 Figure 5.6: Mrs L.D. Eustace, holding classes at ‘Yungaba’, the Immigration Depot at Kangaroo Point, Brisbane, 1906. . 251 Figure 5.7: Malaitans on the beach just after returned labourers have been landed with their boxes of trade goods, northwest Malaita, 1907. Similar scenes occurred thousands of times between the 1870s and the 1930s...... 255 Figure 5.8: A scene of labourers returning to east Kwaio, probably at the site of the present-day SSEC Gounaabusu Village at the southern end of Sinalagu Harbour...... 258 Figure 6.1: SSEM mission staff and children in the 1910s. . . . .263 Figure 6.2: Senior teachers at Baunani in the 1910s...... 264 Figure 6.3: The SSEM church and school at `Oloburi, east Malaita . .268 Figure 6.4: Evangel, the first of many SSEM ships of this name. It was built for the mission in Sydney in 1906 and arrived in the Solomons the next year ...... 268 Figure 6.5: Northcote Deck at a river baptism at Maanakwai in north Malaita...... 270 Figure 6.6: Much of the religious teaching employed a roll of illustrated Bible stories. Here Northcote Deck and his staff carry a roll as they go ashore to preach at Fouia in Lau Lagoon...... 274 Figure 6.7: The newly constructed SSEM mission house at Onepusu, west Malaita, probably in 1905...... 276 Figure 6.8: Malu`u mission house, north Malaita, probably in the 1910s...... 278 Figure 6.9: Feriasi SSEM mission station on the mainland opposite Kwai and Ngongosila, east Malaita...... 282

xi Making Mala

Figure 6.10: The SSEM mission station on Ngongosila Island, east Malaita...... 284 Figure 6.11: Street scene in the women’s quarters on Ferasubua Island, Lau Lagoon, 1906...... 287 Figure 7.1: The residency, the Malaita resident magistrate’s (later the district officer’s) house, and the office built for Thomas Edge-Partington in 1910 ...... 316 Figure 7.2: The police commander’s house at `Aoke, built for Frederick M. Campbell in 1912...... 319 Figure 7.3: Malaita’s first protectorate official, Resident Magistrate Thomas Edge-Partington, with the Armed Constabulary. . . 324 Figure 7.4: Men from an inland village around 1910...... 325 Figure 7.5: Mary Edge-Partington in the living room of the resident magistrate’s house, `Aoke, 1913 or 1914...... 331 Figure 7.6: `Aoke police barracks and tennis court, pre-1915. . . .332 Figure 7.7. `Aoke hospital in about 1914...... 333 Figure 8.1: On board a recruiting vessel in about 1914...... 339 Figure 8.2: The river mouth at Baunani, showing the young coconut palms on the Malayta Company plantation . . . . .346 Figure 8.3: SSEM teachers at Manaba, part of the Malayta Company plantation...... 349 Figure 8.4: The Baunani labour line accommodation sometime before 1914...... 351 Figure 8.5: Arisimae, the most feared ramo in `Are`are...... 357 Figure 8.6: Two brothers, Donatien and Jean Coicaud, served as Catholic priests on Malaita. This is Donatien and one of his congregation, probably from the late 1910s at Buma. . . . .358 Figure 9.1: William Bell with his police...... 364 Figure 9.2: William Bell on patrol by canoe...... 367 Figure 9.3: Three of William Bell’s police...... 369 Figure 9.4: In 1921 the protectorate provided the Malaita administration with its own patrol vessel, the ...... 379 xii List of Illustrations

Figure 9.5: An elderly Peter Abu`ofa in a SSEM group photograph with his rival Shem Irofa`alu (later a key Maasina Rule leader), among others, probably from the 1920s...... 386 Figure 9.6: A game of cricket at `Aoke during William Bell’s years as district officer ...... 394 Figure 9.7: Waterfront view of Onepusu, the SSEM headquarters, in the late 1920s or 1930s...... 400 Figure 9.8: School boys drilling at the SSEM Onepusu School, 1922...... 403 Figure 10.1: A member of the ‘Whiskey Army’ expedition, possibly one of the crew from HMS Adelaide sent from Australia to support the 1927 government expedition to east Kwaio. The Malaitan man is from Kwaio...... 409 Figure 10.2: Feeding the labourers and police who accompanied the punitive expedition to east Kwaio, 1927...... 411 Figure 10.3: Lining up to pay taxes at Maro`umasike (Takataka or Deep Bay), southeastern `Are`are, about 1936. A policeman stands on the right...... 417 Figure 10.4: Hospital of the Epiphany at Fauaabu, northwest Malaita in the 1930s...... 420 Figure 10.5: Qaibaita leper colony, the first in , was established in 1929 as an outstation of the Hospital of the Epiphany at Fauaabu. In the 1930s it was moved closer, to a new site overlooking the hospital ...... 421 Figure 10.6: Patients at the Hospital of the Epiphany at Fauaabu. . 422 Figure 10.7: Training a young boy as a dresser (an orderly) at the Hospital of the Epiphany at Fauaabu...... 422 Figure 10.8: SSEM girls’ school at Onepusu, with Mr and Mrs Cronau and son, and Miss Dring...... 425 Figure 10.9: This dance was performed at the Hospital of the Epiphany at Fauaabu in the early 1930s...... 444 Figure 10.10: Peter Abu`ofa in old age working on carving a slit drum. By the time Abu`ofa died in 1937 he had become alienated from the SSEM, which he helped found...... 446

xiii Making Mala

Maps Map 1: Solomon Islands...... 1 Map 2: Malaitan topography, passages, bays and place names. . . . 40 Map 3: Called Greater Bukida by some archaeologists, one long island once stretched from Buka to Isabel, with Guadalcanal almost joined to it, but never Malaita, which was within easy reach but required a sea crossing...... 44 Map 4: Malaita languages and dialects. Guala`ala`a is the language of Kwai and Ngongosila, and is also used for trade along the east coast...... 47 Map 5: East Fataleka migration patterns from Bina to Fokanakafo Bay, according to oral testimony in the 1970s ...... 65 Map 6: The Malaitan ‘eight isles’ world and the extent of the trading area for Malaitan shell valuables...... 75 Map 7: Shipping routes between eastern Australia and Asia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries...... 88 Map 8: Sketch of Port Adam from the visit of HMS Havannah in 1850 ...... 98 Map 9: Typical recruiting voyages around Malaita, 1881–95. . . .115 Map 10: Typical recruiting voyages around Malaita, 1897–1900. . 116 Map 11: Sugarcane growing areas in Queensland and New South Wales ...... 141 Map 12: Early Melanesian Mission bases, 1877–1909...... 202 Map 13: Major SSEM and Malayta Company plantation bases on Malaita...... 262 Map 14: Major foreign bases on Malaita, 1910 ...... 315 Map 15: The 24 kilometres of Malayta Company land claims along the west coast of Malaita in 1920...... 347 Map 16: Major settlements around Malaita, 1930s...... 412 Map 17: By the mid-1920s, the SSEM had spread throughout Malaita and , with other bases on Guadalcanal, the and Rennell and Bellona Islands. . . . . 426 xiv List of Illustrations

Plan Plan 1: Gender divisions in Malaitan houses, villages and canoes, and garden design ...... 71

Graphs Graph 1: Migration of Pacific Islanders to Queensland, 1863–1905, showing total migration, and numbers from Solomon Islands and from Malaita Island. The black section indicates Malaitan recruiting...... 113 Graph 2: Migration of Pacific Islanders to Queensland, 1863–1904, showing ships’ voyages that visited Malaita Island ...... 113 Graph 3: BSIP annual labour statistics, 1924–39...... 416

xv This text is taken from Making Mala: Malaita in Solomon Islands, 1870s–1930s, by Clive Moore, published 2017 by ANU Press, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.