Connecting Oral History and Social History in Solomon Islands

Content and Context: Connecting Oral History and Social History in Solomon Islands Christopher Chevalier A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The Australian National University June 2021 © Copyright Christopher Chevalier 2021 All Rights Reserved i Candidate’s Declaration This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university. To the best of the author’s knowledge, it contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where cited in the text. Christopher Chevalier June 2021 ii Acknowledgements This thesis is the culmination of a seven-year journey in Solomon Islands and Australia involving many people to acknowledge and thank. I would also like to acknowledge the many lands that I have travelled on and the traditional custodians of those lands—past, present and emerging. In Canberra, the Ngunnawal, Ngambri and Ngarigu peoples; in Brisbane, the Turrbal people and Coorparoo clan; in Melbourne, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people; and the Wiradjuri people of Wagga Wagga, NSW. In Solomon Islands, the Mataniko people, the original landowners of the area on which Honiara was settled; the Bauro and Arosi peoples of Makira; and the Roviana- Kazukuru people in the Vona Vona lagoon. Next, I would like to thank the participants who have provided the life and career stories that form the core of the thesis, as well as other informants who contributed to the three case studies. Except for those who asked for anonymity, most of the participants can be named. In the first case study: Afu Billy, A.V. (Tony) Hughes, the late John Roughan, and David Sitai. Other interviews with friends and family members included: Lois Mamau, Kuria Hughes, Sasabote P., Warren Paia, Paul Roughan, Mary Sitai, and Frida Sitai. In the second case study: the late Helen Barrett, Pam Goodes, Marion Gray, Pat Halpin, and Helen Morris. Others who provided helpful interviews were Barbara Barrett, Anne Lanham, Alice Watoto, Edith Fanega, and Fr Francis Tohe. In the third case study: George Amo, Sarah Ben, Timoti Daonanita, Joe Denty, Edith Fanega, Verlyn Gagahe, Bolton Hebala, Versilyn Isom, Philippa Kakasi, Margaret Luilamo, the late George Maebata, Adam Oliana, Winston Pitikamoki, Albert P., Annie P., Belshazzar Sasa, Judith S., Charles S., Suhote Sikihi, Olive S., Isiah Tukuvaku, Gabriel Vagi, Stanley Waisi, Stephen Wakataku, and Alice Watoto. Other informants were Prudence Filo, Jacqui Guy, Sir Nathan Kere, Michael Larui, Dr Judson Leafasia, Alby Lovi, Rueben Ma`au, Dr Divi Ogogo, Dr Jimmi Rogers, Dr Elizabeth Rogers, and Rosie Sisiolo. In Solomon Islands, several government departments, agencies and institutions provided essential support for my research. My thanks to the Ministry of Health and Medical Services and Ministry of Education (especially Undersecretary Timothy Ngele) for permitting the research; to Tony Heo, Director of the National Museum, for supporting my research application; and to the Makira and Ulawa Provincial Government and Premier Thomas Weipu for permitting the research in Makira. I would also like to acknowledge members of the Campbell, Kuper, Mamaloni, and Sitai families, who gave me their time and information for the family history part of the research that was discontinued. My thanks also to Grayham Bercy Tahu, a former colleague and great friend, who iii filmed and recorded interviews with American war veterans and commemoration services in August 2014. In Australia, I would like to thank the Australian National University for accepting me into the PhD program and providing financial assistance for fieldwork and oral history training. In the School of Sociology, I would like to thank my supervisors Kevin White and Baptiste Brossard for their patience and wisdom throughout the long thesis production process. I pay tribute to all the fellow PhD travellers at the school who completed or are completing their own arduous journeys, particularly Phillip Ho and Joe McCarthy. I also thank the many other academic staff and administrators, including at the Educational Research Centre, for organising course work, seminars and workshops that were part of the learning process. I also thank the former State Society and Governance in Melanesia (SSGM), now the Department of Pacific Affairs (DPA), and particularly Anthony Regan, for the chance to teach on the annual Pacific Research Colloquium and the opportunity it provided for demystifying research methods and promoting participatory methods for Pacific scholars. Thanks to the fellow students of Melanesia and the Pacific at SSGM and the DPA for their fellowship and shared interest. Also to John Cox, Georgina Phillips, Dan Evans, Joanna Spratt, and Terence Wood—many thanks for your insights and conversations about the Solomons informed by your own research journeys and experience in aid and development. Special thanks to Madeleine Regan at Flinders University, who has completed her thesis on oral histories of Italian (Veneto) market gardeners, and whose monthly Skype calls have been a mutual source of knowledge and encouragement. Finally, my thanks to friends and family who have helped me to the finish line. To great mates, Paul Cullen in Melbourne for his rude wit and welcome phone calls, and Dick Dabner in England for his humour and sharp insights. My beau-frère (brother-in-law), Ian Lucas, and my sister, Barbara Chevalier, have been enormously helpful with their encouragement and interest in the thesis, their editorial skills and patience, healthy food, walks and talks. To my daughter, Katharine Kakasi Chevalier from Malaita, and son, Manoa Satala Chevalier from Viti Levu, I hope you will appreciate how rich is the history of Solomon Islands and the Pacific. Last, but certainly not least, my love and thanks to Maggie Kenyon—wonderful wife, midwife, educator and voyageuse extraordinaire—for all our adventures, from the islands of Kenya, to Sudan, the Pacific, and now the Australian Outback. Hopefully, her mother’s wish might yet come true and her daughter will be married to a doctor, although a medical degree might have provided a shorter route and a more lucrative future. iv Abstract ‘When a person dies, a library is lost’ is an adage in oral history that underpins and motivates this thesis. Not only is personal history lost but also social history. This thesis explores the use of oral history methods to record personal and professional histories in Solomon Islands and to recover post-war social history that might otherwise be lost or forgotten. The thesis presents the life histories and oral testimonies of 27 Islanders and seven expatriates who lived and worked in Solomon Islands during the colonial and independence eras, and relates their experiences to the post-war social history of Solomon Islands. The life histories and oral testimonies are presented as three collective case studies. The first case study includes four individuals—two Indigenous and two expatriate—who were prominent in Solomon Islands government and civil society. The second case study includes five Australian missionary nurses and relates to their recollections of their work at Fauabu hospital on Malaita from 1968 to 1984. The third case study records the career histories of 25 nurses who trained during the colonial era and became nursing officers after Solomon Islands achieved Independence in 1978. The interview narratives were summarised and supplemented with other source materials to produce individual, group and collective histories. These histories illuminate multiple connections, changes and continuities in Solomon Islands since the Pacific War ended in 1945. The thesis includes analysis of the impact that my personal background has had on the research. My career as a health care professional and social researcher in Solomon Islands since 1989 positioned me as a (former) insider to the country’s health care systems. I was an outsider in terms of Solomon Islands identities and cultures. My status as both an insider and outsider has inevitably influenced the contents of the oral histories and social history produced. The thesis presents a new model of oral history methodology in six ‘domains’—visual, spatial, oral- aural, textual, numerical and digital—covering three phases of oral history—primary (recording and collection), secondary (curating and processing), and tertiary (analysis and interpretation). I also develop a social history framework which enables individual and group lives to be situated within their wider social, historical and geographical contexts, and viewed from the micro (personal and group), meso (social, institutional and cultural) and macro (national and international) perspectives. v The thesis examines literature from oral history, social history and sociology—in particular, C. Wright Mills’ Sociological Imagination (1959) and R.W. Connell’s Southern Theory (2007). I also draw on, and draw attention to, Solomon Islands history and anthropology, and decolonisation of Pacific history and research. Pacific scholars such as Tracey Banivanua Mar, David Gegeo, Kabini Sanga, Linda Tuhiwai Smith and Teresia Teaiwa argue that Pacific history and research by outsiders often ignore or diminish Indigenous history and peoples. Decolonising oral history methods requires methods and protocols that are culturally appropriate and the engagement of Indigenous people in all phases of the research process. However well-intentioned outsiders might be, using oral history methods in academic research can recolonise

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