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Political Reviews

Micronesia in Review: Issues and Events, 1 July 2015 to 30 2016 michael lujan bevacqua, landisang l kotaro, monica c labriola, clement yow mulalap

Polynesia in Review: Issues and Events, 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016 peter clegg, lorenz gonschor, margaret mutu, christina newport, steven ratuva, forrest wade young

The Contemporary Pacic, Volume 29, Number 1, 93–188 © 2017 by University of Hawai‘i Press

93 in Review: Issues and Events, 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016

Reviews of American Sāmoa, Hawai- departments. They include the first- ian Issues, , Sāmoa, , time appointment of seasoned public , and are servants who have worked their way not included in this issue. up the ranks. Tepaeru Herrmann was appointed secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration, and The year under review was a pivotal Gail Townsend replaced the retiring one as the Cook Islands celebrated its secretary of the Ministry of Education, fiftieth anniversary of independence. Sharyn Paio. Reappointments included Over the last twelve months, immedi- Elizabeth Wright-Koteka as chief of ate and longer-term concerns have staff for the Office of the Prime Min- seen old relationships revisited and ister, Elizabeth Iro as secretary of the new ones forged. In this review, partic- Ministry of Health, Bredina Drollett ular attention is given to highlighting as secretary of the Ministry of Internal the leadership of women in advanc- Affairs, and Daphne Ringi as chief ing the Cook Islands across different executive officer of the Office of the sectors and issues as political powers Public Service Commissioner (opsc continue to shift and take hold. 2015). Although women are increasingly This year also saw Teremoana elected and appointed as parliamen- Yala appointed as Cook Islands’ high tarians, heads of government depart- commissioner to . With ments, chairs and directors of statu- thirty-five years of public service tory bodies and private entities, and experience, including fourteen years customary titleholders, there appears as a senior official at the Cook Islands to be little progress made toward High Commission in New Zealand, transforming the gendered nature of Yala is very familiar with Cook Cook Islands politics. Indeed, despite Islands’ development and diplomatic women’s making up approximately representation needs (cin, 3 June 50 percent of the country’s popula- 2016). Although not the first woman tion and positions held in the public to be appointed to the position, she is service, their representation remains the first to take up the office; tradi- low across positions of authority and tional leader and former head of the leadership (Ministry of Finance and Koutu Nui (traditional leaders group) Economic Management 2012; Minis- Te Tika Mataiapo Dorice Reid was try of Internal Affairs 2011). announced in April 2011 to take up Nevertheless, key appointments the role but passed away unexpect- have been made this year. Six women edly before being able to assume the were appointed as heads of minis- appointment (cin, 23 June 2011). tries among the thirteen government A less obvious but nevertheless

127 128 • 29:1 (2017) noteworthy appointment was also tariat implementation of the Pacific made with Caren Rangi taking up a Regionalism framework (cin, 6 May directorship on the Board of Direc- 2015). She provides the committee tors for the Cook Islands Investment with a small island states perspective, Corporation (ciic). Based in New supported by her private sector and Zealand and with ties to Northern and economic development experience. Southern group islands in the Cooks, Having served on the Cook Islands she holds a range of community and Tourism Corporation Board of Direc- national level governance roles. She is tors for ten years, she is credited with the national president of pacifica Inc, transforming the agency’s financial a pan-Pacific women’s organization in management (cin, 3 Nov 2015). As New Zealand, and serves as a board an executive member of the national member of the Creative New Zealand ­private sector organization, the Arts Council as well as the Pacific ­Chamber of Commerce, she has also Homecare Services and Charities Reg- been instrumental in the capacity istration Board (pacifica Inc 2016). development of local businesses (cin, Responsible for the oversight of all 21 Sept 2015). government assets including land and Recognition can also be given to a number of state-owned enterprises, the country’s young women. Despite ciic makes use of Rangi’s expertise in the controversy between the legiti- attending to its affairs. These include macy of two pageant associations, the development of seabed minerals Natalia Short was crowned one of two and preparation of the with Miss Cook Islands. Having won the the United Nations International Sea- Miss Cook Islands Association title, bed Authority, which gives the country Natalia has been an ambassador for mineral rights to a specified area of its key causes. A business management , and a joint- graduate, she attended the General venture agreement with gsr (Global Assembly of the Red Cross in Geneva Sea Mineral Resources nv). This as the youth ambassador of the Cook allows the Belgium-based private com- Islands Red Cross. She also supported pany the opportunity to explore and the End the Violence campaign as mine the designated area held by the the #ENDtheviolence Ambassador Cook Islands (ciic, 15 July 2016; cin, for Punanga Tauturu, a Cook Islands 26 July 2016). Caren Rangi’s appoint- women’s voluntary organization (cin, ment can be seen as a reflection of 30 April 2016). the government’s openness to looking But concern about women’s par- beyond its geographical boundaries in ticipation in politics is not just about making use of skilled Cook Islanders increasing the numbers in leadership to provide expertise for the country. positions. As one of four women mem- As an example of Cook Islands bers of Parliament (mps), Democratic women’s leadership outside of the Party mp for Titikaveka is country, Teresa Manarangi-Trott was active in her parliamentary work. She appointed to the new Specialist Sub- is a member of the select committee Committee for Regionalism support- for the Family Law bill, which is set to ing the Pacific Islands Forum Secre- table overhauled and outdated family political reviews • polynesia 129 laws. More protection for survivors of outside of the Pacific Islands Forum sexual offenses is a part of the bill; this leaders group in (pir, 26 June includes criminalizing marital rape, 2016). which is not an offense in current law. The parliamentary session was After two separate incidents of rape chaired by Brown, the Cook Islands against young women were reported, Party’s only woman member and and drawing on the 2014 report on deputy Speaker of the House, and family health and safety (Te Marae attended by the Opposition members. Ora and others 2014), Napa stated Democratic Party mp Albert Nicho- that “we are such a small nation, but las, who last year crossed the floor the figures advise us that one in three to take up a cabinet position with women are subjected to some form the cip government, also attended of physical and sexual abuse” (cin, the session (cin, 22 June 2016). The 17 March 2016). Napa has called on members subsequently voted Brown as all parliamentarians to support the the prime minister; however, she was bill, which is waiting to be tabled in not sworn in by Queen’s Representa- ­Parliament. tive Tom Marsters. He upheld Speaker This year also saw a woman chal- of the House Niki Rattle’s ruling of lenge the prime minister’s position for adjourning Parliament sine die (with- the first time. Rose Brown, mp for the out a designated future date) (Pearl- Teenui-Mapumai electorate in Atiu, man 2016). While Brown may not became central to continued political be given the accolade of first woman maneuverings within the country and prime minister, she is the first woman a failed coup to oust the current prime to be nominated by an Opposition minister and his government. After coalition to be sworn in to the highest winning her seat in the 2014 election, office in the Cook Islands. first-time mp Brown crossed the floor In speaking out about the move to to join the Opposition coalition. In a change the government, mp Brown as bold move, the Opposition coalition the current leader of the Opposition sought to remove the Cook Islands coalition expressed her shock at the Party (cip) government when Parlia- dirty politics and failure of all politi- ment retired from its 17 June 2016 cians over the years to make neces- sitting. The Opposition members met sary political reforms. In pointing out at Parliament on Monday 20 June and that the government has sat for only asserted that the parliamentary session ninety-three days in the last five years, that ended on the previous Friday had Brown is looking for political commit- not followed the procedure correctly, ment to make changes. She stated, “I whereby no proper resolution to close am not interested in the power, I am the sitting was carried. Being of the interested in helping my people, no view that Parliament was still in ses- matter what they think about politics sion, the members undertook to hold or the people who continue to feed a no-confidence vote against Prime off the system” (cin, 30 July 2016). Minister Henry Puna, who flew out Elected by the Democratic and One of the country to attend the inaugural Cook Islands parties “as the leader of Small Island States meeting being held Unity in Parliament not as the leader 130 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) of the opposition,” Brown aspires the tribe is left behind, and no one in to have the join the village is forgotten” (Cook Islands and connect with efforts for a “real Sun 2015). government of national unity.” This In reflecting on these words in real intention is particularly poignant at terms, the Cook Islands examined its this time as Brown reported that the relationship with its cip executive had recently agreed to partner, New Zealand. While the Henry Puna’s stepping down as prime Cook Islands remains responsible for minister (cin, 30 July 2016). Over- its domestic and foreign affairs, New all, the diverse leadership of women Zealand provides development assis- expressed in the year under review tance through a traditional donor-aid highlights the quality of women’s recipient relationship. In 2015, a new participation in the country’s affairs aid agreement was signed between despite the ongoing everyday chal- the Cook Islands and New Zealand. lenges women face and the need for The performance-based agreement increased representation locally and is touted as a historic arrangement further afield. because of the shift from project-based The celebratory nature of this to the higher aid modality of budget year culminated on 4 August 2015 support. This modality will see a with the official commemoration of working group set up, consisting of the country’s fiftieth anniversary of the two countries’ respective govern- self-governance. The proceedings took ment representatives, to engage in place with full island-style ceremony higher-level domestic policy dialogue and entertainment. Attended by a rather than deal with the opera- wide range of local and international tional details of projects (cin, 7 Nov dignitaries, the warm, cloudless day 2015). On the one hand, this kind included commemorative speeches, a of ­modality favors the country-own- religious dedication, flag raising, cake ership ­principle with the use of the cutting, and cultural performances. Cook Islands’ own country systems to A flyover by an manage external development activi- ­commercial flight, a twenty-one-gun ties and funds. On the other hand, salute from a New Zealand navy with increased levels of policy influ- ­vessel, and gift giving to the diplo- ence accorded a donor, budget support matic corps also took place. In his can be seen as eroding small island Constitution Day speech, the prime developing state sovereignty, whereby minister acknowledged the challenges its policy space shrinks as external the country has faced in its journey actors and mechanisms get involved as a nation. He paid homage to past in a country’s decision making (Khan leaders and partners who have shared 2007; unctad 2014). Having this and shaped the journey so far. Look- particular development partner at the ing to the future, Puna noted that the Cook Islands’ policy-making table in key lies in embracing a cohesive and this way reflects an “inverse sover- inclusive approach, as in the vision of eignty” effect (Murray and Overton the Cook Islands’ first premier, Papa 2011) wherein such a policy ­dialogue Arapati Henry, in which “no one in arrangement can be seen as an political reviews • polynesia 131 increased demand and conditionality resident in the Cook Islands to lead, placed on the Cook Islands. serve, and live among their people as a During a year that has also been contributing factor to the diminishing about celebrating the new and not (authority) of the Ui Ariki (cin, just what has happened over the past 25 July 2016). fifty years, another relationship has There are 23 Ariki in the Cook also taken a notable historic turn. In Islands, with 16 sworn in as members 2015, a signing ceremony of the constitutionally formed Are took place between the Cook Islands Ariki (House of Traditional Chiefs). government and Te Kīngitanga (the This is a parliamentary body that King Movement) at Tūrangawaewae provides advice to the government on Marae, in Ngāruwāhia in New a range of issues. In September 2015, Zealand. This Koreromotu (cultural the Are Ariki undertook its first-ever ­covenant) gives recognition to the tour of New Zealand and “historical, ancestral and cultural ties since it was formed in 1966 (Radio between the Maori people of the Cook New Zealand 2015). Taking advan- Islands and Aotearoa” (cin, 27 Oct tage of this opportunity to connect 2015). Areas of cooperation include and consult with Cook Islands com- “environmental issues including munities, they held discussions on freshwater, climate change and fisher- a range of matters. These included ies; economic development including absentee titleholders; the role of investment and commercial oppor- the Aronga Mana (group of chiefs, tunities; social and cultural issues sub-chiefs and heads of families) in including language preservation and granting Cook Islands residency to development and health and social foreign nationals; and the occupation well-being” (cin, 27 Oct 2015). Seen rights and vesting orders related to as strengthening ancestral ties and the land-tenure system (cin, 21 Sept acknowledging the indigenous author- 2015). Also on the agenda were the ity of both countries, the covenant fiftieth anniversary celebrations of the also reflects the ability of the Cook establishment of the House of Ariki Islands government to engage in part- that would take place in 2016. nerships that go beyond its sovereign The three-year wait for Teina state–defined relationship with the Bishop, the leader of the One Cook New Zealand government. Islands Party, to have his day in court Closer to home, the government on corruption charges came to an end took to challenging its own indigenous during this year of review. In Novem- leaders, the Ui Ariki. Prime Minister ber 2015, Chief Justice Thomas Puna invited the Ui Ariki to consider Weston granted leave to prosecute their roles, functions, and contribu- the former cabinet minister on two tions to their tribes and the country charges of bribery and corruption as a whole in the twenty-first century (cin, 10 Nov 2015). Bishop was found before seeking more funding from guilty of corruption when he received the government. Puna pointed to the funds from a subsidiary of Chinese prolonged absenteeism of chiefs who fishing company Luen Thai toward reside overseas and are not physically the purchase of hotel accommodations 132 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) in . Bishop’s sentencing will signature of the prime minister as the take place in August 2016. He could minister of marine resources. face jail time of up to fourteen years, Sadly, this year also saw the pass- ending his seventeen years of service ing of two prominent artists who, as a member of Parliament and forcing through their creative work, reflected another by-election to be held for the their dedication and advocacy for Arutanga-Nikaupara-Reureu elector- Cook Islands culture and authority. ate in Aitutaki (cin, 30 July 2016). From Atiu and Rarotonga, Ian George In the face of the impending worked as an educator and was a prosecution and subsequent verdict, well-known painter and sculptor. In Bishop continued to lobby to resolve particular, he drew on Oceanic totems marine resources management issues, such as Tangaroa (God of the Sea) to which remained active throughout provoke comment on the loss of Cook the year. Following on from the 2015 Islands and Pacific indigenous control public debate and petition opposing and cultural imperialism (Art Associ- purse seine fishing, the prime min- ates 2016). ister agreed with Bishop, who was Eruera Te Whiti Nia was a film- Opposition coalition leader at the maker, sculptor, activist, and tradi- time, to establish a select committee tional titleholder from Ngati Makea to examine the issues, including the in Rarotonga and Te Ati Awa in anti–purse seining petition especially New Zealand. He safeguarded Cook concerned with the use of fish-aggre- Islands culture through his art, which gating devices (fads) (cin, 18 May included his sculptural and spatial 2016). The signing of the Sustainable responses to the concept of the Are Fisheries Partnership Agreement with Korero (house of history and learn- the European Union is also proving to ing) within the paepae Ariki (chief’s be a controversial part of the debate. palace) of Taputapuatea in Rarotonga Advice from Foreign Affairs Secretary (Nia 2010). He protested for politi- Tepaeru Herrmann called for removal cal change as a member of Nga Tama of a clause that was interpreted as Toa (an indigenous activist group as undermining the government’s author- part of the Māori sovereignty and land ity: “This kind of text is objectionable rights movements of the 1970s and and Pacific Islands countries have 1980s in New Zealand) (Ngā Taonga collectively resisted long and hard 2016; cin, 13 June 2016). Both men against such text appearing in any were strong advocates for the collabo- kind of access arrangement or Treaty ration of cultural and artistic efforts Convention language in this region” across . (cin, 7 June 2016). However, the Overall, the half-century milestone advice was considered unfounded or of independence was celebrated with lacking in substance according to the much fanfare. The year’s events have European Union and the Ministry of shown that old and new relationships Marine Resources (cin, 7 June 2016), can be established, redefined, and with the European Union ratifying advanced. While the economic, social, the agreement. The cabinet-endorsed cultural, and environmental matters agreement is now waiting for the continue to require attention, the political reviews • polynesia 133 meaningful contribution of the coun- Overton. 2011. The Inverse Sovereignty try’s women in these matters has been Effect: Aid, Scale and Neostructuralism in highlighted. Calls for political reform Oceania. Asia Pacific Viewpoint 52 (3): still remain at the forefront of much 272–284. public opinion. It would seem timely Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision. 2016. then that a woman prime minister Remembering Eruera Te Whiti Nia. lead the 2017 elections as an option http://www.ngataonga.org.nz/about/news/ to ­pursue an inclusive approach where remembering-eruera-te-whiti-nia [accessed no one is to be left behind and forgot- 26 June 2016] ten. Nia, Eruera Te Whiti. 2010. Are Korero. Master’s thesis, Auckland University of christina newport Technology. opsc, Office of the Public Service Commis- References sioner. 2015. People. http://www.psc.gov .ck/?page_id=3092 [accessed 30 July 2016] Art Associates. 2016. Ian George. http:// www.artassociates.co.nz/our-artists/ian pacifica Inc. 2016. National Executive. -george/ [accessed 15 May 2016] http://www.pacifica.org.nz/?page_id=21 [accessed 1 Aug 2016] ciic, Cook Islands Investment Corpora- , Pacific Islands Report. . Small tion. 2016. International Seabed Authority pir 2016 Islands State Leaders Gather in Palau for Contract Signing. 15 July. http://ciiconline .com/latestnews/international-seabed Inaugural Meeting. 26 June. http://www -authority-contract-signing/ [accessed .pireport.org/articles/2016/06/26/small -island-state-leaders-gather-palau 30 July 2016] -inaugural-meeting [accessed 26 July 2016] cin, Cook Islands News. Rarotonga. Daily. Pearlman, Jonathan. 2016. Queen’s Repre- Cook Islands Sun. 2015. The Cook Islands sentative Steps in to Stop Attempted Coup Celebrates 50th Year of “Self-Govern- on Tiny Cook Islands. The Telegraph, ment.” January–June edition, 3. https:// 22 June. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ issuu.com/cookislandssun/docs/cis007 news/2016/06/22/queens-representative _jan-jun_edition_2015_8.0 [accessed -steps-in-to-stop-attempted-coup-on-tiny 23 Aug 2016] -co/ [accessed 26 June 2016] Khan, Shahrukh Rafi. 2007. wto, imf Radio New Zealand. 2015. Cook Islands and the Closing of the Development Policy Chiefs Visit Expats. 7 October. http:// Space for Low-Income Countries: A Call www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific for Neo-Developmentalism. Third World -news/286300/cook-islands-chiefs-visit Quarterly 28 (6): 1073–1090. -expats [accessed 5 May 2016] Ministry of Finance and Economic Te Marae Ora, Cook Islands Ministry of ­Management. 2012. Cook Islands Demo- Health, Cook Islands National Council of graphic Profile 2006–2011. Rarotonga: Women, United Nations Population Fund. Government of the Cook Islands. 2014. Te Ata O Te Ngakau: The Cook Islands Family Health and Safety Study. Ministry of Internal Affairs. 2011. Cook October. Rarotonga: Government of the Islands National Policy on Gender Equal- Cook Islands. ity and Women’s Empowerment. May. Rarotonga: Government of the Cook unctad, United Nations Conference on Islands. Murray, Warwick E, and John Trade and Development. 2014. Trade and 134 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017)

Development Report, 2014 Global Gover- Fenua Communication already owns nance and Policy Space for Development. the weekday newspaper -Infos. New York: United Nations. Unsurprisingly this change in owner- ship transformed tpm, once feared by local oligarchs for its investigative reporting and scathing editorials, into a more docile publication. While du In the often-turbulent recent politi- Prel continues to write good editori- cal history of French Polynesia, the als occasionally and the magazine year under review was a relatively still contains investigative articles, the calm one. Against all odds, Edouard publication has clearly become more Fritch consolidated his power as the mainstream and now contains a lot country’s president, transforming his of trivia, missing some of the intellec- tenuous tenure in office into one based tual depth of the old monthly edition. on a comparatively solid majority, and Also, for outsiders, the both reliable uniting under his leadership all politi- and manageable chronicle of impor- cal forces that oppose both indepen- tant political and social events that dence and Fritch’s predecessor Gaston tpm provided is being missed. Flosse. Meanwhile, for the first time What remained the dominant in over a decade, the country hosted a topic in local politics for the first half French presidential visit, which made of the review period, however, was some hopeful impressions, but at the the ongoing power struggle between same time the French government con- President Edouard Fritch and his tinues to stubbornly refuse to engage predecessor, Gaston Flosse, until it with United Nations institutions to was essentially won by the former work with them toward the country’s in early 2016. In September 2014, decolonization. when Flosse was removed from office The review period started with because of a definitive conviction in a yet another unfortunate change in corruption case, his longtime confi- the local media landscape. In August dant and former son-in-law Fritch had 2015, at the end of the summer break routinely taken over the presidency (as one of its many anachronistic with the understanding that Flosse colonial absurdities, French Polyne- would continue to hold the reins of sia follows the French metropolitan power from behind the scenes. Fritch, calendar and is thus the only country however, developed his own taste for in the to have its political power, and tensions between long “summer vacation” during the the two soon become apparent. In pleasant austral winter and not during May 2015, the majority party Taho- the very hot season at the beginning eraa Huiraatira split when Fritch of the year), the formerly monthly formed his own caucus in the local news magazine Tahiti Pacifique (tpm) assembly named Tapura Huiraatira, became a weekly, after having been and on Flosse’s order all members of sold by its founder and editor Alex the new formation were expelled from W du Prel to local Chinese business Tahoeraa. Fritch subsequently formed tycoon Albert Moux, whose company a minority coalition government with political reviews • polynesia 135 the small anti-independence opposi- namely, that assembly backbenchers tion party A Tia Porinetia (atp), while are tempted to cross the floor toward Flosse’s “rump-Tahoeraa” several whichever political formation is in times attempted to block the govern- power if some types of advantages ment by withholding support in criti- or minor government positions are cal budgetary votes. However, Flosse offered to them or their family mem- failed in efforts to enlist the support bers—Fritch was able to extend his of the pro-independence Union Pour majority throughout the remainder of La Démocratie (upld), which would the year. Starting off with 16 members have been necessary to create a new in June, over the following months majority and overthrow Fritch in a Tapura Huiraatira was able to woo 5 no-confidence vote. more Tahoeraa members into turn- Meanwhile, the process of formally ing their back on Flosse and joining splitting Tahoeraa into two mutu- them. Finally, in the first week of ally hostile organizations was far December, even one of upld’s mem- from over, as both factions attempted bers, Joëlle Frébault of the Marquesas to gain control over the party as a Islands, defected to the government whole. After an unsuccessful attempt side, which, including the 8 seats of by Flosse to oust Fritch from Taho- Tapura’s coalition partner atp, now eraa, in which he continued to hold added up to 29 seats—a bare but the vice presidency, in mid-August workable majority that no longer 2015, Fritch fought back and filed a necessitated any tradeoffs to gain complaint with the local courts ask- upld’s tacit support in passing laws ing them to declare Flosse removed or making budgetary appropriations. from the party’s leadership, arguing Consequently, on 9 December Tapura that as a convicted felon he cannot be and atp merged into a common cau- Tahoeraa’s chairman according to the cus named Rassemblement pour une party’s statutes (ti, 15 Aug 2015). Majorité Autonomiste (autonomiste The complaint dragged along in local political discourse meaning in through the notoriously slow and support of the current political system ­inefficient court system and hear- but opposed to independence; ti, ings were several times postponed 7 Dec 2015; dt, 9 Dec 2015). (ti, 12 Oct 2015), but it was soon As the next step, Fritch and atp rendered obsolete by more solid leader Teva Rohfritsch prepared the political maneuvers to consolidate merger of the parties themselves, Fritch’s power outside of Tahoeraa. implying that the president had By mid-, Assembly Speaker definitively given up any attempts to Marcel Tuihani, second-in-command wrest control over Tahoeraa from within the Flosse loyalist “rump-Taho- Flosse. As Fritch’s group and atp eraa,” opined in an interview in Tahiti were essentially identical in terms of Pacifique that between Fritch and his their platforms—opposing both Flosse party, “reconciliation was no longer and independence—the merger was conceivable” (tpm, 13 Nov 2015). less an issue of harmonizing politi- Following one of the most basic cal ideas than of trading offices and “natural laws” of local politics— posts within the hierarchy of the new 136 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) party. Finally, on 20 February 2016, discourse appealing to nostalgia of the merger was formalized during a the “good old times” when Flosse founding convention in the Aorai Tini was president (occasionally laced with Hau congress hall in Pirae, Fritch’s Tahitian nationalist and anticolonial home municipality, where he is the rhetoric to woo voters who would mayor. Attended by at least 8,000 otherwise support upld), the octo- people, the convention confirmed the genarian but vital Flosse might well new party’s name as Tapura Huiraa­ have yet another comeback in the next tira, its logo and color (red), as well as elections in 2018. its basic platform. The party claims to On the other hand, the more stand for more transparency and hon- consistently anticolonial, “sovereign- esty in politics and to support innova- tist” upld (the term independence tion and reform (ti, 20 Feb 2016). having been increasingly replaced by While the latter sounds good, it sovereignty in their discourse) is now seems rather doubtful whether the only the third-ranked political force, party seriously stands for these values, holding ten assembly seats. But despite as Fritch’s tactics of majority forma- having lost significant numbers of tion in the assembly are virtually votes in the last territorial election as indistinguishable from those of earlier well as several municipalities in the majorities under former presidents town council elections that followed, Flosse, Temaru, and Tong Sang. Fur- upld still has large numbers of core thermore, the leading team of Tapura supporters, among rural and working- Huiraatira consists almost exclusively class as well as urban intel- of former Tahoeraa cadres—unsurpris- lectuals, along with an unbreakable, ingly so, since just like Tapura, atp broad popular majority in the city of and its predecessor parties are virtually Faaa, the country’s largest municipal- all earlier splits from Tahoeraa arising ity, where Temaru has been mayor from personal differences with Flosse. since 1983. The triumph of having A truly innovative political movement succeeded in mobilizing the majority that seriously aims at political reforms of UN member states to the country’s has been needed for many years but reinscription on the list of non-self- currently seems nowhere in sight. governing territories (nsgts) in 2013 But Fritch’s success in wresting was certainly no small achievement power from Flosse should not be and has helped to consolidate sup- misinterpreted as a definitive defeat of port among the party’s followers. Tahoeraa, as the “Old Lion” and his While many youths see upld as just as party are far from having sunk into dominated by a fossilized oligarchy of obscurity. With eighteen members, old-generation political leaders as the Tahoeraa still has the second largest pro-French parties, there are also some caucus in the assembly, and in Faaa rising stars within the sovereigntist on 28 November, Tahoeraa held its movement, including Moetai Broth- party convention, which was also well erson, a young intellectual gaining attended by thousands of delegates prominence as a confidant and pos- (dt, 30 Nov 2015). With his crude sible successor to Oscar Temaru. but electorally successful populist In all these political developments, political reviews • polynesia 137 women play an increasingly important French regional elections. As French role, a role that was certainly never Polynesia has an electoral system of as pronounced during the last century proportional representation, the new and a half or so. As in other Eastern law resulted in a dramatic increase Polynesian societies, women in leader- in the number of female assembly ship positions were quite prevalent members, from only a few to almost during the nineteenth century in 50 percent after the 2001 election, several of the islands that are now part the first conducted under the new of French Polynesia. Queen Pomare law. That year, the new assembly IV of Tahiti (who reigned 1827–1877) also elected its first female speaker, is quite well known, but many of the Lucette Taero (Tahoeraa, in office monarchs of the smaller kingdoms in 2001–2004). the Leeward and Austral Islands prior Of course, being enforced by a to their colonization by were law from the outside, the new situa- female as well (Gunson 1987). While tion did not at first correspond to real in the late nineteenth and early twen- distributions of power, and a male tieth centuries all these monarchies candidate headed virtually every party were formally dissolved and replaced list in 2001. With the small number with the patriarchic colonial regime of of overall seats in the assembly and France, some aspects survived far into the fragmentation of the political the 1900s, and matriarchs of promi- landscape, this meant that the actual nent local families, usually of chiefly proportion of women in the assembly descent, retained influence in local was still significantly less than half. In politics throughout the twentieth cen- the long run, however, a trickle-down tury. One such example was Tuianu Le effect could be observed, and the Gayic (1922–1995), a descendant of gender parity law has contributed to the Teva chiefly family, who as mayor raising the profile of female participa- of Papara on Tahiti’s southern coast tion in politics. For the 2004 elec- during most of the 1980s and 1990s tions, a significant number of party was one of the first women to lead a lists had female head candidates, and local municipality. Nonetheless, such there have been two small political public political careers were the excep- parties created and lead by women— tion for women, and electoral politics Nicole Bouteau’s No Oe E Te Nunaa, on the territorial level remained fairly and Sandra Levy-Agami’s Te Mana exclusively men’s domain until the Toa—both founded in the first decade turn of the twenty-first century. of this century and at one point each In 2000, however, the French holding one assembly seat. Since the national legislature passed a gender early 2000s, there has also been an parity law that radically changed increase in the number of municipali- that situation. From that year on, all ties headed by female mayors. How- party lists for the election of assembly ever, as in most other Pacific Island members were required to alternate societies, top leadership positions are between male and female candidates still difficult for women to achieve, (Government of France 2000), based and none of the major political parties on an older law requiring the same for has yet had a chairwoman or a female 138 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) candidate for the country’s presidency. that have been expressed by pro- Even Taero, who was not very popular independence activists for many years as assembly Speaker, did not pursue a about the country being “invaded” career of higher political offices after- by French settlers are thus most likely ward, and so far all her successors as justified to some degree. Speaker have been male. Population increases on com- While gender parity is far from paratively small islands lead to an achieved, the country faces a variety increased scarcity of land, and thus of other statistical challenges as well. inevitably to conflicts about land According to the most recent census, titles. For many years, the local court there are more than 271,000 inhabi­ has been inundated with land cases, tants (ti, 31 Aug 2015). This figure many of which take years or decades makes one worry about the carrying to be resolved, if at all. In the hope of capacity of the islands—less so on speeding up some of these cases, the the outer islands, but certainly on French Ministry of Justice announced Tahiti, where about two-thirds of the the creation of a separate land court in population lives. While the return of January 2015, after the idea had been outer-island people from urban Tahiti contemplated for quite a while (ti, 12 to their home archipelagos has been Jan 2015). Later in 2015, it became increasing, the process of urbaniza- clear that this time the land court was tion of more and more parts of the indeed a serious project, as the French coastal plain of the main island as state acquired the property of the well as some of its valleys and ridges former psychiatric hospital complex is continuing as well. Since fertility at Vaiami in western (ti, 23 rates have lowered to an average of June 2015), and later it was officially fewer than two children per woman, announced that the land court would the ongoing population increase (up be headquartered there (ti, 15 Sept from about 250,000 a decade ago) is 2015). Construction and remodeling most likely due to increasing French is to begin in September 2016 and immigration, even though the statistics the court is to be operational in early say that more people are leaving the 2017. territory than moving in. The absence The land court is a controversial of ethnic statistics since 1988 makes it project, however, since many Tahitian hard to clarify, but it appears the out- land rights activists dispute whether migrants are mainly indigenous Tahi- French law and French courts have tians while the immigrants are chiefly jurisdiction over the matter in the first French. In comparison, independent or place. Indeed, when King Pomare V fully self-governing Polynesian coun- and several district chiefs of Tahiti tries like Sāmoa or the Cook Islands signed the annexation agreement have either a stable or a decreasing between the Kingdom of Tahiti and population, because out-migration France in 1880, a clause explicitly of Islanders there is balanced only exempted land matters from the by natural growth of the domestic transfer of authority and reserved population and not by any significant these to be judged by Tahitian courts. foreign immigration. The worries Unsurprisingly, in reaction to the land political reviews • polynesia 139 court announcement, heir apparent finally became available. The vaccine of the Pomare Teriihinoiatua has been authorized in Mexico, but Joinville Pomare, speaking for many not yet in French Polynesia, because like-minded activists, reiterated his the French permit for the product is long-standing demand for the creation still pending (ti, 9 Dec 2015). Preven- of customary councils to deal with tion of a tropical disease like dengue land disputes under Tahitian custom- is a low priority for French health ary law instead (ti, 13 Jan 2015). bureaucrats, even though it is a high The intrusion of French colonial priority for the tropical overseas ter- legislation into local society and its ritories, which once again get the short harmful effect on Polynesian ways end of the deal. of living was nowhere as evident as One of the more recently intro- in a French metropolitan law made duced mosquito-borne infections, the applicable to the country in August Zika virus, became a global pandemic 2015. This law, which prohibits in 2015–2016, to the point of raising payments in cash over 119,300 cfp concerns at the United Nations and francs (us$1,115) immediately created the World Health Organization. When a variety of problems on the outer the epidemic hit French Polynesia in islands, where most people have no 2013–2014, it was considered rather bank accounts—as on many of the harmless compared to dengue and to smaller islands there is no bank—and chikungunya, the other new virus, as receive their wages or salaries in symptoms were milder and no fatali- cash, which they keep at home. These ties occurred. But later a correlation people typically need to pay more than was established between an unusu- 119,300 cfp francs in cash occasion- ally high occurrence of microcephaly ally, for example, to purchase larger (smaller-than-normal heads) among items such as vehicles, agricultural babies born during the French Poly- and fishing machinery, or boats, or nesia Zika epidemic, which alerted to pay for their repair (ti, 31 Aug health authorities worldwide to the 2015). Ostensibly passed as a measure danger of the disease ( Star- against money laundering, the law Advertiser, 2 Feb 2016). might make some sense in France, but Overall, with the repeated epidem- it clearly is an absurdity in French ics and their often-fatal effects, the Polynesia, or any Pacific country with continuous laxity and ineffectiveness small outer islands, for that matter. of mosquito eradication programs Another example of the effects of and other protective measures in the colonial policies (both French and country is astonishing. Governmen- local) is the negligent way the authori- tal authorities are not the only ones ties deal with the new mosquito-borne to blame. To this day, in contrast to viral diseases that increasingly ravage several other Pacific Island countries, the Pacific Islands. Dengue fever, the barely any house in Tahiti, even of oldest of those, coming to the coun- wealthier people who could easily try in repeated epidemics since the afford it, is equipped with screens in 1980s, has been researched for several its doors and windows. decades, and in 2015 a vaccination In February 2016, attention turned 140 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) again to the uneasy relationship sanitary, social, and economic conse- between Papeete and Paris, as French quences of the atomic weapons tests President François Hollande visited conducted in the territory from 1966 the country for several days, the first to 1996, and he agreed that France French head of state to do so since owed the country redress for these Jacques Chirac in 2003. Hollande consequences. In his speech, Hollande has had a rather lukewarm relation- also admitted that the 2010 Morin ship with Papeete’s political class. The Law providing for the compensation local pro-French leaders are allied of nuclear-test victims had been virtu- with Hollande’s right-wing oppo- ally of no consequence, as only very nents, and he had betrayed the local few individuals have actually received allies of his French Socialist Party, the compensation, and he announced that pro-independence Tavini Huiraatira the law would be modified by decree party (which is the main component within the current year in order to of upld) by opposing their ultimately enable all victims of radiation-caused successful bid for reinscription on the health problems to receive appropriate UN decolonization list despite hav- compensation. Furthermore, the presi- ing previously promised in writing to dent announced the appropriation of support it. financial and technical resources to During his visit, however, ­Hollande continue the cleanup of irradiated or sent out two important positive sig- otherwise polluted former test sites nals. Very significant was his gesture and military support bases, as well to place a wreath on the tomb of as the creation of an information and Pouvanaa a Oopa (1895–1977), the documentation center on the tests country’s early nationalist leader who in Tahiti and French government had been imprisoned on trumped-up subsidies for the oncology section of charges by the French colonial admin- the territorial hospital in Taaone in istration in the 1950s and whose Pirae so that radiation-induced cancer descendants have repeatedly asked for patients can be treated locally (dt, 23 a formal rescinding of his unjust crimi- Feb 2016). nal conviction. Hollande’s act was all Nonetheless, the president’s speech the more significant as he breached the also contained inaccuracies about normal order of protocol by honoring Tahiti’s history, since Hollande grossly Pouvanaa first, before laying another exaggerated the historical depth of the wreath at the cenotaph in downtown islands’ political ties to France, claim- Papeete to honor the local soldiers ing that “in the eighteenth century fallen in French wars (ti, 22 February the destiny of your people became 2016). united with that of France” (ti, 26 Feb Second, Hollande acted in stark 2016). In fact, the first islands of what contrast to his predecessors by being is today French Polynesia were not responsive to the demands made on taken into possession by France until him by representatives of Moruroa e 1842, and it was not until the turn Tatou and other nuclear-test-victim of the twentieth century that all its associations. Without reservation, he islands came under French rule. admitted to the heavy environmental, The Moruroa e Tatou associa- political reviews • polynesia 141 tion remained skeptical (ti, 22 Feb respectively the “father figures” of 2015), since as of August 2016 the the “autonomist” and “pro-indepen- promised modification of the Morin dence” political ideologies and now Law has yet to be enacted. Nonethe- advocates of a further political evolu- less, Hollande’s plans found fertile tion toward either free association soil in Fritch’s government. After (Flosse) or full sovereignty (Temaru). more detailed discussion with Paris, Where Fritch’s and Hollande’s inter- Fritch announced in early June that ests coalesce is that both would like to the country’s government would create a “new deal” that looks good make a formal agreement with Paris but does not call into question the before the end of 2016 to redefine current political framework of French mutual relations, which he dubbed Polynesia being an overseas political the “Papeete Accords” in the style of entity within the French Republic. the 1998 “Nouméa Accords” of New Both hope that such a “deal” could be Caledonia. A central point of these used in making a claim to the United accords will be a formal recognition of Nations that the 2013 reinscription the damages done by nuclear-weapons as a non-self-governing territory was testing and of France’s obligations to unnecessary. provide redress, as Hollande outlined As part of this master plan, Fritch in his February speech. Furthermore, has also been very active in regional the accords are to contain pledges politics, especially within the Polyne- by Paris to provide for the improve- sian Leaders Group (plg), in which ment of the country’s infrastructure he is emerging as the second-most and telecommunications systems, as important leader after Sāmoa Prime well as for the support of Polynesian Minister and plg founder Tuilaepa culture. The candidacy of the classical Sailele Malielegaoi. In July 2015, Polynesian temple complex of Marae Fritch hosted a special plg meeting Taputapuatea on to be listed in Raiatea on Marae Taputapuatea as a world heritage site with unesco itself, where the plg leaders solemnly is to be officially promoted by France. signed the Taputapuatea Declaration Generally, all areas in which the coun- on Climate Change—a significant try lags behind France in socioeco- contribution to raising Fritch’s profile nomic terms are to be gradually raised in the region (rnzi, 16 July 2015). to French standards—a policy that Later during the review period, Fritch resonates with Hollande’s program traveled to Sāmoa to sign partnership to eliminate inequalities between the agreements, mainly concerning tour- “mother country” and the overseas ism development ( Observer, 24 territories (ti, 9 June 2016). April 2016), and made a demand to The planned accords are clearly the Pacific Islands Forum demanding part of Fritch’s grand strategy of full membership for French Polyne- ­leaving a permanent mark on the sia, for which he apparently received political landscape and thereby support from New Zealand (pir, 3 raising his profile as a local states- May, 26 May 2016). The signing of man, stepping out of the shadow of the Taputapuatea declaration was his predecessors Flosse and Temaru, followed up by another plg meeting 142 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) in Papeete in late June 2016 (pir, 29 General Assembly to adopt another June 2016). resolution reminding administrative Between Hollande’s new com- powers to submit the information mitment to provide redress for past requested on their respective nsgts wrongs and to set relations between without delay (United Nations 2015a). Paris and Papeete on a new course, Before the annual meeting of the UN and Fritch’s increasingly proactive Decolonization Committee on 24 regional diplomacy, one could indeed June, international decolonization get the impression that the country is expert Carlyle Corbin testified that on a positive postcolonial trajectory. French Polynesia’s so-called “auton- However, a deeper analysis shows that omy does not meet international stan- this is not so, and any resemblance to dards” (otr, 30 June 2016), echoing the Nouméa Accords for New Cale- similarly critical testimonies presented donia is symbolic at the most. Unlike to the committee by upld representa- the latter, the planned Papeete Accords tives Richard Ariihau Tuheiava and would not include any upgrade in the Moetai Brotherson (otr, 27 June, 28 degree of self-government granted June 2016). to the country government. Second, A month earlier, new French High unlike in , there is no Commissioner René Bidal assumed attempt to reach a consensus among office, succeeding Lionel Beffre (ti, 30 the main political parties of French May 2016). While the replacement of Polynesia, but instead there would the high commissioner every few years merely be a convention between Paris is routine, it is indeed remarkable and the majority of the day in the that since 1977, when the title of the Papeete assembly. Finally, there is no French government’s representative timeline leading to a self-determina- was changed from governor to high tion referendum on the political status commissioner, almost all officeholders of the territory. have been white metropolitan French- Unsurprisingly, institutions of the men, the one exception being a white United Nations and UN-affiliated metropolitan woman in the early experts have been far from impressed 2000s. If indeed Hollande’s govern- by France’s efforts in dealing with the ment is insisting on full equality of the territory, or rather with the absence overseas territories within the French of such efforts. During its seventieth Republic, one might wonder why his ­session, the UN General Assembly government is not appointing a person once more noted France’s lack of of color from one of the other over- cooperation with UN authorities seas territories to this position. regarding the territory, French Polyne- Given all these pieces of evidence, sia being for the second time in a row decolonization indeed still has a the only one of the seventeen territo- long way to go in French Polynesia. ries on the nsgt list about which the Yet, like others in the Pacific, the administrative power refused to trans- country is in a process of transition mit information as obligated under in this regard, as there has been an article 73e of the UN charter (United increased interest in looking back on Nations 2015b). This prompted the and appraising the colonial past, from political reviews • polynesia 143 the nineteenth century to the second attended by both Oscar Temaru and half of the twentieth—an assessment Senator Lana Tetuanui of the pro- enlarged on in a recently published Fritch camp (ti, 5 Jan 2016). book by Tahiti-based French anthro- lorenz gonschor pologist and political scientist Bruno Saura (2015; tpm, 11 Dec 2015). Several important people joined the References ancestors during the review period. In early December 2015, Jacques-Denis dt, La Depêche de Tahiti. Daily. Tahiti. Drollet passed away at age ninety-two. http://www.ladepeche.pf Through the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, Government of France. 2000. Loi orga- Drollet was an important local politi- nique no 2000-612 du 4 juillet 2000 ten- cal figure in Pouvanaa’s Rassemble- dant à favoriser l’égal accès des femmes et ment Démocratique des Populations des hommes aux mandats de membre des Tahitiennes party, although he later assemblées de province et du congrès de la Nouvelle-Calédonie, de l’assemblée de la joined other local politicians in oppor- Polynésie française et de l’assemblée ter- tunistic switches of allegiance. He also ritoriale des îles Wallis-et-Futuna [Organic became known to the tabloid press as Law No. 2000-612 of 4 July 2000 to the father of Hollywood actor Marlon facilitate equal access by women and men Brando’s son-in-law, who was mur- to the positions of provincial assembly and dered by one of Brando’s sons in the congress member of New Caledonia, of 1990s (tpm, 11 Dec 2015). Another assembly member of French Polynesia, and important twentieth-century Tahitian of territorial assembly member of Wallis politician from Pouvanaa’s entourage, and Futuna] https://www.legifrance.gouv Daniel Millaud, died on 21 June at age .fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT eighty-seven. Millaud had succeeded 000000216538&categorieLien=i [accessed 24 July 2016] Pouvanaa as French Polynesia’s sena- tor in Paris and held the Senate seat Gunson, Neil. 1987. Sacred Women Chiefs from 1977 until succeeded by Gaston and Female “Headmen” in Polynesian ­History. The Journal of Pacific History Flosse in 1998 (ti, 23 June 2016). Among the deceased was also an 22 (3): 139–171. important descendant of Tahitian Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Daily. Honolulu. royalty and, to return to the theme of http://staradvertiser.com this year’s reviews, a powerful female otr, Overseas Territories Review. Blog. community leader. On 31 December http://overseasreview.blogspot.com 2015, Geneviève Moeterauri Tetupaia pir, Pacific Islands Report. Daily Internet i Hauviri Salmon-Pomare departed news. Honolulu. http://pidp.eastwestcenter this world at the age of ninety-one. .org/pireport The princess was the great-great-great- granddaughter of Queen Pomare IV rnzi, Radio New Zealand International. Daily radio and Internet news. . and the adopted granddaughter of http://www.rnzi.com Queen Marau, King Pomare V’s con- sort. With many local political leaders Samoa Observer. Daily. . descendants of the old arii (chiefly) http://www.samoaobserver.ws class, the funeral was prominently Saura, Bruno. 2015. Histoire et mémoire 144 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) des temps coloniaux en Polynésie fran- fortnight of each other. Of Te Rōroa, çaise. Pirae, Tahiti: Editions Au Vent des Ngāpuhi, and Ngāti Whātua, Manos Iles. had an extensive background in ti, Tahiti Infos. Weekday newspaper and woodcarving and sculpture, ­having Internet news. Tahiti. http://www.tahiti carved the meeting house of his -infos.com Matatina Marae in Waipoua Forest tpm, Tahiti-Pacifique Magazine. Formerly (Tamati-Quennell 2015). Colleen, of monthly; weekly from August 2015. Te Popoto o Ngāpuhi ki Kaipara and Tahiti. http://www.tahiti-pacifique.com Te Rarawa, was world renowned for her clay work, which has been exhib- United Nations. 2015a. Information from Non-Self-Governing Territories transmit- ited throughout New Zealand and in ted under Article 73 e of the Charter of the the , the United King- United Nations. Resolution adopted by the dom, Australia, and (Tamati- General Assembly on 9 December 2015. Quennell 2015; Creative New Zealand a/res/70/94. http://www.un.org/en/ga/ 2015). Te Rarawa lost a greatly loved search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/70/94 leader, Gloria Herbert. She was the [accessed 27 Sept 2016] chair of their iwi authority, served on ———. 2015b. Question of French Poly- the Waitangi Tribunal, and was well nesia. Resolution adopted by the General known as being caring and gentle but Assembly on 9 December. UN General also very determined. Ngāreta Mete Assembly, 70th session. a/res/70/100. Jones of Te Rarawa was a lifelong http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc worker for change for Māori. She was .asp?symbol=A/RES/70/100 [accessed 27 one of the founders of Kawariki, the Sept 2016] movement that brought out a new generation of northern youth in the 1980s to protest ’s failure to honor Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the Māori Issues Māori-language treaty between Māori Over the past year we lost a num- and the queen of (Waatea ber of leaders who spent their lives News 2015b). Waereti Pōpata (Wal- fighting for justice for Māori. In ters) of Te Paatu, Ngāti Kahu, was a September 2015, Lady Emily Latimer fearless Māori rights advocate and one of Whakatōhea passed away. She of the first Māori community health was a staunch supporter of Māori in workers. her work with the Māori Women’s In November 2015, we lost Dr Welfare League and Māori Wardens Bruce Gregory of Ngāti Te Ao, Te and was a tireless supporter of her Rarawa. He was the member of Par- husband, Sir Graham Latimer, who liament (mp) for Northern Māori from died nine months after his wife in June 1980 until 1993. He dedicated his life 2016; he had chaired the New Zea- to Māori health and the sovereignty of land Māori Council for many years. his hapū (group of extended families) September 2015 was a particularly sad (Collins 2015b). In January 2016, month. Two of our best-known clay it was Andy Sarich of Ngāpuhi. He artists, Manos Nathan and Colleen was dedicated to the retention of the Waata Urlich, passed away within a Māori language in Te Taitokerau (the political reviews • polynesia 145

North) and served on a wide range of these great leaders, celebrating their community committees, councils, and lives and achievements, and bidding the Lotteries Commission (Waatea them farewell as they joined their News 2016a). In February, it was ancestors. Emeritus Professor Ranginui Walker Among the women leaders who of Te Whakatōhea. He fought for passed away, Gloria Herbert was a almost five decades to lift the burden rare example of a chairperson of her of and marginalization off iwi’s representative body. Although Māori. He was one of Maoridom’s women continue to play significant most influential academic leaders leadership roles in whānau (extended and advocates for Māori rights and family), hapū, and iwi (groupings of social justice. He used his columns in hapū), English colonizers denied the the weekly Listener magazine and his role of women as leaders (Mikaere six books to educate New Zealand- 2010) and trained and promoted ers about the history of this country men for roles of political leadership. and the abrogation of the human and Nowhere is that reflected more clearly treaty rights of Māori that continues than in the influential National Iwi to this day (Mutu 2016a). Chairs Forum (Mutu 2016b, 230). Whai Ngata of Ngāti Porou left us Of the now 72 chairpersons of iwi in April 2016. He was the journalist who make up the forum, only 8 are and broadcaster who established the women (National Iwi Chairs Forum Māori news program Te Karere on 2016; Forum Secretariat, pers comm, tvnz, leading a small group in the 4 Aug 2016). There is a much better successful battle to maintain a Māori balance in Parliament, where 11 of the presence on national television. He 26 mps of Māori descent are women: was also a lexicographer who helped 3 in the governing National Party, 3 in complete his father’s English-Māori Labour, 2 each in the Greens and New dictionary (Harawira 2016). In May, it Zealand First, and 1 in the Māori was Mānuera Tohu of Ngāti Kahu and Party. Metiria Tūrei is a co-leader of Te Rarawa, another lifelong advo- the Greens; Mārama Fox a co-leader cate for the retention of the Māori of the Māori Party (which currently language. He served on the Kōhanga has two seats in Parliament); while Reo (Māori language immersion Paula Bennett and Hekia Parata are preschools) National Trust for many ministers in the National government. years and was a greatly esteemed However, none of these mps represent orator and expert in tikanga (Māori Māori, and for the two Māori women law) and whakapapa (genealogy) and mps who do—Nanaia Mahuta and a kaumātua (respected elder) for the Meka Whaitiri—their first loyalty is to . In June, it was their Labour Party rather than to their Rob Cooper of Ngāti Hine. He made constituents. huge contributions to Māori health In order to reclaim our mana motu- and education, with a long record hake (autonomy, power, authority, on treaty education and social justice and control derived from the gods), issues. Thousands of mourners trav- which includes our sovereignty, and eled to pay their respects to each of to put an end to the treaty and human 146 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) rights violations Māori continue to Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias com- suffer, constitutional transformation mented, “It is possible we will see is a necessity. Since 2010, a group increasing pluralism in New Zealand’s of constitutional specialists, Matike domestic legal order in fulfillment of Mai Aotearoa, have been drawing Treaty guarantees” (Elias 2015). Past up models for a constitution for the Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer is country based on tikanga and the two now advocating for a written constitu- founding documents of present-day tion, which has to recognize the Treaty New Zealand, He Whakaputanga o Te of Waitangi because “it actually makes Rangatiratanga o Nu Tireni (the 1835 government here legitimate” (Moore declaration of Māori sovereignty and 2016). A columnist in the Far North’s independence) and Te Tiriti o Waitangi Northland Age quoted extracts from (Mutu 2015, 276). After extensive the Matike Mai Aotearoa report in her consultation with Māori throughout column for several months (Herbert- the country, Matike Mai Aotearoa Graves 2016), which drew a number published its report in February 2016 of vitriolic and racist responses from (Jackson and Mutu 2016). It sets out one letter writer and letters of support the very strong case for constitutional from others. transformation that moves the coun- Māori nevertheless continued try from a governance system that is to battle the government on many defined by, controlled by, and serves fronts. Perhaps the most sobering the white majority to one that is inclu- battle was that against homeless- sive of and respects all New Zealand- ness. Soaring housing costs fueled by ers and recognizes that Māori can and speculators and developers as well as will take back control of their lives the government’s refusal to intervene and resources. It sets out six indicative have resulted in alarming numbers of constitutional models that have arisen families sleeping in cars because they from the discussions. Each provides cannot pay for housing. Many of the for the “rangatiratanga sphere,” that adults sleeping rough are employed, is, the sphere of influence of Māori; and most are Māori. Despite attempts the “kāwanatanga sphere,” the sphere to highlight the plight of these people of influence of the British Crown; (Harris 2015), government inaction and the “relational sphere,” in which has led to some Māori communi- Māori and the Crown work together ties making their marae (traditional as equals as agreed in Te Tiriti o Wai­ communal meeting places) avail- tangi (Jackson and Mutu 2016, 9). able to families. Te Puea Marae in There has been increasing acknowl- South Auckland was inundated with edgment of the need to transform New responses to its call on the public to Zealand’s constitutional arrangements, donate food, clothing, bedding, and especially among the country’s large money (Clarke 2016a). But their Pacific Island, Chinese, and Indian persistence in helping and then find- communities, who continue to experi- ing housing for the homeless did not ence discrimination (United Nations reflect well on the government. Staff in General Assembly 2014). From within the minister of social housing’s office the Pākehā (European) community, retaliated by attacking the chairman political reviews • polynesia 147 of the marae, a senior police inspec- The tribunal was ordered to rehear tor (tvnz 2016). The minister subse- the application (Vertongen 2015; Feint quently apologized. 2015). The Crown has appealed that Māori were joined by large num- decision as well as the same decision bers of people in opposing the Trans- with respect to the Mangatū Incorpo- Pacific Partnership (tpp) Agreement. ration (see Mutu 2016b, 232) to the Despite the government’s maintaining Court of Appeal, whose rulings are a tight veil of secrecy around negotia- still awaited. tions between the twelve countries The Waitangi Tribunal received involved, information provided by a number of applications for urgent Professor Jane Kelsey and a team hearings into the government’s recog- of legal scholars indicated that the nizing mandates to negotiate settle- tpp agreement allowed international ments. The government requirement companies to override Māori rights that it deal only with “large natural and to sue the government if it inter- groupings” is inconsistently applied vened in a manner that lowered their and usually disenfranchises many planned profits. Key issues were the claimant groups. It inevitably causes government’s ceding the country’s huge and bitter divisions within and sovereignty to international companies among claimant communities as they and the threats those companies posed fight over who is going to represent to natural resources, especially with them. Claimants are painfully aware respect to flora, fauna, minerals, and that they are fighting over mere water; to the affordability of medi- crumbs that the government provides cines; and to the country’s Smokefree in exchange for extinguishing their 2025 Strategy (Kelsey 2015). A com- claims and legal rights, but they are plaint to the Waitangi Tribunal and crumbs that impoverished communi- huge protests throughout the country ties desperately need. Despite that, the all fell on deaf ears. The government tribunal turns down almost all of these signed the tpp agreement on 4 Febru- applications. It did, however, agree to ary 2016. urgent hearings for the Hauraki Col- The progress of Tiriti o Waitangi lective with respect to the Tauranga claims against the Crown continued Moana Governance Group (Coyle to be plagued with problems. While 2015) and for Ngātiwai with respect the government flooded media outlets to the Ngātiwai Trust Board Deed of with press releases about progress Mandate (UnRuh 2016). Those hear- being made in settling treaty claims, ings have yet to take place. the reality in the courts and the The tribunal reported on its inquiry Waitangi Tribunal, and for claim- into the mandate for the largest ants, was very different. Ngāti Kahu iwi, Ngāpuhi (Mutu 2016b, 231), of the Far North was successful in its upholding claims that the Crown application to the high court to quash had breached the principles of the the Waitangi Tribunal decision not to treaty by choosing to recognize the give them binding recommendations mandate of the negotiating group, over the state-owned enterprises and Tūhoronuku. It concluded that the Crown forestlands in their territory. hapū should decide how and by whom 148 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) they are to be represented in settle- Winston Peters, went into battle in ment negotiations. It recommended Parliament for Ngāti Kahu and forced that the Crown delay negotiations an admission from Minister of Treaty to give the hapū the opportunity to of Waitangi Negotiations Christopher confirm whether they wished to be Finlayson that the land does belong represented by Tūhoronuku (Jones to Ngāti Kahu (Mason 2015). The 2015). Controversy and bitter infight- minister retaliated by attacking Ngāti ing continued to beleaguer the iwi. Kahu’s leadership. Elders and marae When the chairperson of Tūhoronuku representatives responded by issuing a was arrested and charged and then stinging attack on the minister (Collins eventually pleaded guilty to shooting 2015a). While that brought a measure and possessing a protected bird species of respite for Ngāti Kahu for several and attempting to pervert the course months as they awaited hearings with of justice (Northern Advocate 2016), respect to their claims in the Court the group replaced him. They then set of Appeal and the Waitangi Tribunal, about working with the hapū to try to by June 2016 the minister was at it resolve their issues. again, indicating that he would ignore The government has worked hard the mandate Ngāti Kahu gave to its to prevent the public from knowing rūnanga (council of representatives, how much claimants loathe the forced parliament) and find someone else to treaty claims settlements that are negotiate with (Finlayson and Flavell unilaterally designed and applied by 2016). the Crown (Sykes 2015, 34). However, In Taranaki, bitter divisions over one example of claimants who are pre- the Pekapeka block being excluded pared to stand their ground against the from Te Ātiawa’s settlement contin- government and attract public atten- ued (Martin 2016; Pihama 2016). tion is Ngāti Kahu of the Far North. In Hawke’s Bay, Ngāti Hinemanu Like others, they have refused to and Ngāti Paki continued to protest accept government offers to extinguish against the government’s rushing their claims. Instead of the political through the Heretaunga Tamatea pathway of direct negotiations pre- settlement in order to prevent their ferred by the government, they have seeking binding recommendations in chosen the legal route and are await- the Waitangi Tribunal for their lands ing hearings for binding recommenda- in the Kāweka and Gwavas forests tions from the Waitangi Tribunal. In (Waatea News 2015a). Objections to September 2015, several hapū of Ngāti an ex-employee of the Office of Treaty Kahu repossessed the Kaitāia airport Settlements heading the negotiations after the government decided to sell for Heretaunga Tamatea were ignored it to a neighboring iwi. The land had (Moana Jackson, pers comm, April been taken under the Public Works 2015), although the Crown regularly Act during World War II. That legisla- ignores conflicts of interest to impose tion requires governments to offer the its own employees on claimants as land back to those from whom it was their negotiators (Mutu 2016b, 229). taken, that is, the Ngāti Kahu hapū. Rangitāne of Wairarapa were still New Zealand First’s veteran politician, battling to stop their claims from political reviews • polynesia 149 being subsumed and extinguished without consultation or compensation under another iwi’s settlement (Crom- (McBeth 2016). Te Ohu Kaimoana, bie 2015). Āraukūkū hapū went the ­iwi-controlled company that to the high court after their claims ­manages Māori commercial fisheries, were included for extinguishment took the government to the high court in Ngāruahine’s deed of settlement when it refused to negotiate a resolu- without the knowledge or permission tion. The government then applied of either Āraukūkū or Ngāruahine. to the court to adjourn the case until Āraukūkū had not been included in the proposal had been passed into any negotiations, and Ngāruahine law (Stuff 2016). While iwi are very had not negotiated on their behalf. A angry that the meager settlements they Ngāruahine negotiator reported that fought so hard for can so easily be the minister could not say why he had unraveled by unscrupulous politicians, arbitrarily included the claim, but he it sends a clear signal that if the gov- also refused to remove it (McLach- ernment can violate settlements with lan 2015). impunity then they are not durable Meanwhile, those who have settled and can all be revisited. continue to run into problems with Despite the anger directed at them the government violating their settle- over treaty claims settlements, the ments. Ngāti Whātua o Ōrākei filed government still managed to enact in the high court to stop the govern- legislation extinguishing the claims of ment from selling lands for which Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa, Ngāi Takoto, they hold rights of first refusal as a and Ngāti Kurī in the Far North and result of their treaty claims settle- Ngāti Hineuru in the central North ment (Brown 2015). Waikato-Tainui Island. The government claims to did likewise to stop the sale of lands have enacted legislation for 69 settle- used by Solid Energy (a state-owned ments and that 49 still remain (Office enterprise) at Huntly. They have rights of Treaty Settlements 2016). In fact of first refusal over those lands as there are many more than that, but the a result of their settlement (Clarke government simply refuses to recog- 2016b). Taranaki ki Te Upoko o Te nize them. Ika found itself embattled with Port Another time-consuming battle has Nicholson Block Settlement Trust been that against the rewriting of Te when the trust tried to sell lands the Ture Whenua Māori (the Māori Land iwi had recovered through their settle- Act) of 1993. It took twenty years to ment. After much turmoil, the people’s pass that into legislation. It returned wishes were adhered to (McLachlan control of Māori land to its own- 2016). However, the greatest outrage ers and made the sale of Māori land was expressed over the government’s difficult. Greedy speculators and land starting to unravel the 1992 fisheries grabbers could no longer target it. settlement by banning fishing in its The rewriting was initiated in 2012 by proposed Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary. Attorney General Christopher Finlay- The settlement guaranteed Māori the son (who is also the minister of Treaty right to fish the area, but establishing of Waitangi negotiations and associate the sanctuary removed those rights minister of Māori Affairs). While aim- 150 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) ing to free up Māori land for utiliza- ment has been refusing to discuss tion, the bill also facilitates its sale, the matter despite having promised which Māori have fought so hard to the Supreme Court in 2012 that it stop. When Māori opposition to the would do so (Mutu 2014, 211). The rewriting became too intense, in 2014 battle to force the owners to remove the attorney general passed it over to the ship Rena—which was wrecked Te Ururoa Flavell, the new minister of on Ōtaiti (Astrolabe Reef) off the Māori development, with instructions Motiti Island in the Bay of Plenty in that he have it passed into legisla- 2011 (Mutu 2013, 168)—became tion. The National Iwi Chairs Forum more difficult with the Bay of Plenty consulted very widely on the bill, Regional Council decision to leave the receiving instructions from throughout wreck on the reef. Ngāi Te Hapū of the country that if the 1993 act was Motiti Island is appealing the decision to be rewritten, only Māori could do (Waatea News 2016b). After fighting so because the land is theirs (National a designation placed on hapū land in Iwi Chairs Forum 2014). Māori Land 1963 to take it for the Rotorua East- Court judges prepared a lengthy sub- ern Arterial road (Mutu 2014, 211), mission on the bill, severely criticizing the hapū of Te Arawa were thrilled it (Love 2015). The Waitangi Tribunal when the designation was finally lifted also severely criticized it, upholding in April. And four Ngāi Tahu tribal the claims of landowners opposed to entities welcomed the decision stop- the bill (Love 2016a). The bill was ping Christchurch City Council from introduced into the House in May. It discharging treated wastewater into ignores the Māori Land Court judges’ Akaroa Harbour. They opposed the advice, the Waitangi Tribunal’s recom- council’s appeal against the decision mendations, and the overwhelming to the Environment Court, which opposition of Māori landowners. It resulted in the council’s discussing and focuses on developing Māori land then proposing a series of options, rather than retaining it in Māori almost all of which Ngāi Tahu sup- control and portrays loss of Māori ported (Law 2016). ownership as the fault of the Māori Also on the good-news front, Māori owners (Love 2016b). The bill has filmmaker Taika Waititi has won no been characterized as yet another land fewer than eight international film confiscation, and the matter has been festival awards for his comedy Hunt referred to the United Nations (Proc- for the Wilderpeople (IMDb 2016). tor 2016; Walsh 2016). And Lisa Carrington (Te Aitanga Battles to protect Māori natural a Māhaki, Ngāti Porou), paddler resources persisted around the country extraordinaire, won the World Paddle throughout the year, although in some Awards Sportswoman of the Year areas there was welcome relief. Both at the Annual World Paddle awards the New Zealand Māori Council and held in Barcelona, Spain. She has won National Iwi Chairs Forum contin- her sixth World Cup gold medal in ued to fight to have the government as many races in the k1 200 meter recognize and acknowledge Māori ­(Baalbergen 2016). ownership of water. The govern- margaret mutu political reviews • polynesia 151

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Māori Issues. The Contemporary Pacific Attempt-to-put-brakes-on-Te-Ohu 27:273–281. -Kaimoana-challenge-to-Kermadec-Ocean -Sanctuary [accessed 30 Aug 2016] ______. 2016a. Obituary: Ranginui Walker 1932–2016. Uninews 45 (2). Auckland: Sykes, Annette. 2015. Te Miina o Papa­ University of Auckland. https://cdn tūānuku – Te Mana o te Wahine. .auckland.ac.nz/assets/central/for/the mlr Oct: 33–42. -media/publications/university-news/2016 Tamati-Quennell, Megan. 2015. Manos % -% issues/Uni-News-issue- -April 20 20 2 Nathan and Colleen Waata Urlich. -2016.pdf [accessed 24 Aug 2016] Museum of New Zealand blog, 21 Sept. ______. 2016b. Polynesia in Review: Issues http://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2015/09/21/ and Events, 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015: manos-nathan-and-colleen-waata-urlich/ Māori Issues. The Contemporary Pacific [accessed 23 Aug 2016] 28:227–237. tvnz. 2016. 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Lifelong Worker for http://gisborneherald.co.nz/opinion/ Change Ngareta Jones Dies. 7 Sept. 2193637-135/land-confiscation-in-2016 http://www.waateanews.com/Waatea [accessed 30 Aug 2016] +News.html?story_id=MTAzNTc=&v =155 [accessed 23 Aug 2016] Stuff. 2016. Attempt to Put Brakes on Te Ohu Kaimoana Challenge to Kermadec ———. 2016a. Andy Sarich a Champion Ocean Sanctuary. 17 June. http://www of Te Reo o Te Taitokerau. 26 Jan. .stuff.co.nz/national/politics/81167527/ http://www.waateanews.com/ 154 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) waateanews?story_id=MTI3NDY= decolonization by granting it a large [accessed 24 Aug 2016] degree of self-government in 1979, ———. 2016b. Rena Fight Not Over an arrangement similar to other for Motiti Hapu. 5 April. http://www autonomous dependent territories .waateanews.com/waateanews/x_story in the region. _id/MTMyNjQ= [accessed 30 Aug 2016] However, the 2008–2009 global Walsh, Kristine. 2016. Gisborne Land Use financial crisis hit the island’s mainly Case Taken to UN for Opinion. Gisborne tourism-based economy particu- Herald, 29 March. http://gisborneherald larly hard (after earlier disruptions .co.nz/localnews/2235419-135/gisborne ­including miscalculated investments -land-use-case-taken-to [accessed 30 Aug in a locally owned airline in 2006), 2016] and from 2010 onward, the local government’s budget operated at a deficit. This necessitated annual subsidies from the Australian fed- Island eral government ranging from a$3.2 The year under review was a fateful ­million in 2011 (us$2.4 million) up one for , and indeed to a$7.5 million (us$5.6 million) in for the entire Pacific Islands region, the 2014–2015 financial year. Under as it marked the unprecedented the 1979 statutes, Norfolk Island ­recolonization of an island territory was not allowed to borrow money by its administrative power without in order to cover deficits without the ­territory’s consent, an anachro- ’s ­permission, which was nistic act going against the current of not ­forthcoming. In 2010, Australia decolonization of the past six decades first refused to provide the requested and comparable in modern history ­budgetary subsidy but then agreed to only to the reactionary French policies it on condition that Norfolk Island toward its Pacific possessions from the paid Australian federal taxes and late 1950s to the mid-1980s. Austra- accepted financial oversight by federal lia’s recolonizing policies sparked an officials, which the local government outburst of Norfolk Island national- agreed to under protest (C Nobbs ism and a well-organized resistance 2016b). movement struggling both locally The 2007–2013 Australian Labor and globally for the restoration of Party government under Prime Minis- ­democracy to the island community. ters Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd had A British colony settled in 1856 agreed to further negotiations with from Island by the descen- the Norfolk Island territorial gov- dants of the Bounty mutineers and ernment over the issue, and the two their Tahitian partners (some of whom governments had signed a “Norfolk later returned to Pitcairn to become Island Road Map” for that purpose the ancestors of that island’s current in 2011. But the Liberal Party govern- inhabitants), Norfolk Island became ment under Tony Abbott that came a of Australia in to power in Australia in 2013 repu- 1914, and six decades later Australia diated this compromise and instead initiated steps toward the island’s advocated a hard-line, reactionary political reviews • polynesia 155 approach. A report commissioned by to the bill’s passage, no parliamen- the federal government in 2014—orig- tarian acknowledged this obvious inally intended to look into economic denial of democracy, and some even issues, not political institutions—rec- mocked the more than two-thirds ommended shutting down the Nor- majority vote in the referendum as folk Island government altogether merely representing “some” people and replacing it with direct rule by on the island being “unhappy” or Canberra, and the Abbot govern- having “concerns” (Government of ment followed the report, introducing Australia 2015b). Further protests and corresponding legislation in Austra- complaints by Norfolk Island Legisla- lia’s Parliament. The Norfolk Island tive Assembly Speaker Legislation Amendment Act 2015 was and Chief Minister Lisle Snell used all first tabled in the Australian House of available avenues, such as an article Representatives on 26 March and in in the Commonwealth Parliamentary the Senate on 13 May. Association’s magazine (Buffett and The Norfolk Island government Snell 2015) and a letter to Queen reacted immediately to the impending Elizabeth II (A Nobbs 2016, 26), but threat to its existence. On 27 March to no avail. 2015, while the bill was moving As a consequence of the Nor- through the federal parliament, the folk Island Legislation Amendment island’s Legislative Assembly called Act, the Norfolk Island Legislative for a referendum to be held on 8 May Assembly as well as the executive among the local voters on the ques- branch were dissolved on 17 June tion of whether the people of Norfolk 2015 and the administration of the Island should have the right of self- island was placed under the authority determination and should be consulted of Canberra-appointed administra- before any changes to their political tor Gary Hardgrave. All assets and institutions were made by the Austra- public accounts held by the Norfolk lian Parliament (Norfolk Island Gov- Island government were seized by the ernment Gazette, 27 March 2015). Australian federal government. Shortly The result could not have been clearer, thereafter, Federal Minister Jamie with an overwhelming majority of 624 Briggs designated a handpicked five- out of 912 participants (68% out of member “advisory council,” ostensibly a 92% turnout of registered voters) to allow some kind of ­community ­voting “Yes” to the question (rnz, consultation process, but for the next 9 May 2015). twelve months the island was ruled However, the Australian Parlia- by a regime with no accountabil- ment ignored the referendum, and ity to the population. Perhaps most with strong bipartisan support from important on a symbolical level, the the ranks of both the Liberal govern- Norfolk Island Legislation Amend- ment and the Labor opposition, the ment Act 2015 deleted the preamble bill passed both houses on 14 May of the Norfolk Island Act 1979, which and was assented to by Australia’s recognized the Pitcairn descendants governor-general, Peter Cosgrove, on as a culturally distinct people and 26 May 2015. In the debate leading acknowledged their special relation- 156 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) ship to the island (Government of legislative furnishings without con- Australia 2015a, 2001). sulting unesco and the local board As is common in cases where that administered kavha at that time, democracy is abolished and replaced Australia violated its international with an authoritarian regime, what obligations (C Nobbs 2016a). followed were very worrisome prac- All of these arbitrary and antidemo- tices of limiting freedom of speech cratic measures led to strong reactions and of arbitrary, extrajudicial punish- and resistance on the part of the island ment of political opponents. The local community. As soon as the Australian radio station was placed under heavy government announced its intent to censorship, the broadcast of opinions unilaterally change Norfolk Island’s ­critical of the Australian govern- system of government in October ment was prohibited, and dissenting 2014—long before the actual bill journalists, including the hosts of a was introduced in the federal parlia- popular satirical show, were fired ment—two petitions were presented (Newshub, 4 July 2016). In the same to the and House of vein, a local government employee Representatives, containing 830 and who criticized Hardgrave using insult- 834 signatures, respectively, asking for ing language in a private Facebook the island community to be consulted post had her salary reduced and was by means of a referendum before any told that she would be laid off as soon legislative process would start in that as the new administrative system was matter (A Nobbs 2016, 6). implemented (smh, 25 May 2015). On 18 May 2015, immediately Another common policy for after Canberra had ignored the postcoup authoritarian regimes is to island’s 8 May referendum and passed rewrite history and seek to erase the the unwanted legislation, a represen- memory of the previous democratic tative group of local political leaders system of government. Hardgrave’s founded the Norfolk Island People neocolonial administration followed for Democracy (nipd) association as this model well, and in October a local, national, and international 2015 it permitted the removal of the pressure group for the maintenance furniture and all other items from the of the island’s self-government. The legislative chamber, which became a founding board members included completely empty room, annihilating the then Chief Minister Lisle Snell; all physical evidence that a legislature four of his predecessors, including of Norfolk Island had ever existed. current Assembly Speaker and long- The legislative chamber was located serving Chief Minister David Buffett, in the Old Military Barracks, one of who had repeatedly held either office the historic buildings dating from the since 1979 and might be considered early nineteenth century British penal Norfolk Island’s “elder statesman”; settlement that is part of the Kings- several other current or former cabinet ton and Arthur’s Vale Historic Area ministers and legislators; and Albert (kavha) and has been inscribed on Buffett, president of the Norfolk the unesco World Heritage list since Island Council of Elders (nipd 2015). 2010. By unilaterally removing the By July 2016, more than half the political reviews • polynesia 157 population of Norfolk Island had him the most resented person on the become nipd members (Newshub, island. For the annual 4 July 2016). celebration on 8 June, during which Later in 2015, the island saw a the landing of the Pitcairners in 1856 rare protest march through its streets, is reenacted, Hardgrave was disinvited with several hundred participants— to participate and play the traditional an enormous turnout for the small role of the British commissioner community of about 1,700 (rnz, 29 welcoming the Pitcairners, which was Sept 2015). In parallel, Hands Up customary for Australian administra- For Democracy, another organiza- tors. In addition, several shops on the tion loosely associated with nipd, island put up signs declaring them- created a protest installation right in selves “Hardgrave-free zones” (New the middle of (the island’s Zealand Herald, 27 July 2015). commercial center), next to the main In November 2015, former Chief shopping mall, where it put up hun- Minister Andre Nobbs (in office dreds of wooden signs each showing a 2007–2010) traveled to London and green hand—symbolizing democratic gave a speech before British members choice—and on which a supporter’s of Parliament at Westminster asking name was inscribed. for their support (A Nobbs 2016, 1, The fact that opposition to Aus- 28, 31–32). Several UK parliamentar- tralia’s recolonization scheme was a ians have since become committed mass movement representing the vast supporters of Norfolk Island and majority of the local people, and not a conducted a mission of inquiry on marginal group of political radicals as the island in September 2016. This is constantly claimed by Administrator quite significant, as Norfolk’s origi- Hardgrave and Canberra politicians, nal colonial relationship was directly was impossible to miss. Besides the with Great Britain, while the island’s Hands Up installation and the nipd administration was handed over to headquarters opening in a refurbished Australia against the Islanders’ wishes. building in the center of the shopping In the three months preceding the precinct, Norfolk Island’s iconic flag final takeover on 1 July 2016, protest with the pine tree in green and white moves intensified. On 22 April, nipd went up everywhere—in people’s through its president Chris Magri; yards, on their fences, on car dash- the dissolved Legislative Assembly boards and radio antennas, and so through its Speaker David Buffett; on—as did wooden green hands. The and the Council of Elders through only places that still flew the Austra- its President Albert Buffett sent a lian flag next to that of Norfolk were petition to the UN Special Com- official buildings; the rest of the island mittee on Decolonization, arguing became an ocean of solid green and for Norfolk Island to be listed as a white, an outburst of Norfolk patrio- non-self-governing territory (nsgt). tism rarely seen so graphically in the The petition provided comprehensive island’s previous history. documentation as to why the island Administrator Hardgrave’s attitude qualifies under the rules outlined in in the face of criticism soon made UN General Assembly resolution 1541 158 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) of the 1960s that defines a nsgt as a Despite all of this, Australia’s neo- territory geographically separate and colonial machinery kept moving for- culturally and/or ethnically distinct ward. Adding insult to injury, under from its adminis­trative power (Nor- the new system Norfolk Island was folk Island 2016). The petition was to become subject to the laws of the delivered by well-known human rights Australian state of New South attorney qc, and (NSW) yet would have no representa- a few weeks later it was augmented by tion in the NSW legislature. In May a joint opinion by two eminent British 2016, the NSW Parliament passed the and Australian lawyers (Lowe and Norfolk Island Administration Bill Ward 2016). 2016, which was assented to by the While awaiting UN action, for- NSW governor on 7 June 2016 (Gov- mer Chief Minister Snell further- ernment of 2016). more called for a royal commission Due to intense lobbying by nipd, the to inquire into the antidemocratic NSW opposition Labor and Green actions of the parties opposed the bill and their (The Guardian, 26 April 2016). The representatives helped expose its anti- next day, a mass gathering of about democratic nature, but these efforts 350 people took place in the yard were fruitless, as it passed with the of the Old Military Barracks, out of votes of the Liberal-led majority (The which the Legislative Assembly and Guardian, 2 June 2016). While Labor all its furnishings had been forcefully remained anti-Norfolk at the federal removed, and which is sited opposite level, at least the Islanders had won Government House, the residence the coherent support of the Australian of Administrator Hardgrave. The Greens, which made a public state- meeting resulted in an open letter to ment criticizing the Norfolk recoloni- Hardgrave calling for his immediate zation scheme (Rhiannon 2016). resignation. In addition it galvanized On 1 July 2016, referred to by the establishment of a “tent embassy” locals as “invasion day,” the new to permanently occupy the compound, system became effective as planned. with protestors setting up tents, ban- In one of the few non-English news ners, and upside-down Norfolk Island articles on the situation, Norwegian flags as a symbol of distress in this journalist Dag Øistein Endsjø sum- strategic location, well positioned to marized it most dramatically: “Tomor- attract the attention of tourists visiting row a country ceases to exist, but the the historical buildings in the area (A world doesn’t care” (Endsjø 2016). As Nobbs 2016, 22). Loosely modeled a non-self-governing external territory on the iconic tent embassy of Austra- of Australia, the island was now ruled lian Aboriginal activists in Canberra, directly by the federal government in at the time of writing this review the Canberra, which is responsible for all protest camp is still being maintained federal and state level services. While by a core group of activists who have the latter are provided according to vowed to remain until a Legisla- NSW laws, the island is not part of tive Assembly is reconvened in the NSW and thus has no voice in the ­building. making of those laws. political reviews • polynesia 159

On the federal level, however, is handled by an elected regional Norfolk Island now purportedly had council headed by a mayor. Council representation, as it was included in elections took place on 3 June 2016, the electorate of Canberra in the Aus- and the results once again confirmed tralian Capital Territory. Of course, the majority position in favor of self- in an electorate of several hundred determination and against the imposed thousand, the few hundred votes from changes. Out of the five elected mem- Norfolk practically do not matter at bers, only one, Queenslander David all. But since Australia has a policy Porter, advocated a pro-Australian requiring all eligible citizens to vote in position. A second member, Islander elections, the law will have the effect Rod Buffett, was politically more of forcing , against ambivalent, while the other three (for- their consent, to vote in elections mer Chief Minister Lisle Snell, Robin where their votes have no effect (Aus- Adams, and John McCoy) were nipd tralian Electoral Commission 2016). members advocating for the return of One of the most obvious negative self-government (smh, 1 July 2016). consequences of the new system was At the first council meeting, in a the abolishment of Norfolk Island refurbished building in Burnt Pine stamps. The Norfolk Island post to which some of the furniture sal- office was closed down, its services vaged from the Legislative chambers now performed by , had been relocated, Robin Adams which accepts only Australian stamps. was elected mayor and John McCoy This change deprived the island of an deputy mayor. Engaged in the bal- important local industry, the selling of ancing act of being simultaneously stamps to collectors—an important a nipd board member and the per- source of revenue for very small ter- son charged with implementing the ritories, once Norfolk’s largest before unwanted new system of local govern- the start of mass tourism. ment, Adams is probably the person Furthermore, the new regime is also with the least desirable job on the undermining the few opportunities island. Having previously served for the island had to engage internation- three years (2010–2013) as Speaker ally, as there are fears that Norfolk of the assembly and then as minister might no longer be able to participate of cultural heritage and community as a separate country in international services in Snell’s cabinet, Adams had sporting events, and its local legisla- been an outspoken advocate of more ture will also no longer be a member engagement by Norfolk Island in of the international Commonwealth Pacific regional organizations, and in Parliamentary Association (cpa)—a an article in the cpa magazine she had particularly humiliating experience proposed resolving the impasse by fair since, at the time of the abolition of and mutually respectful negotiations the Legislative Assembly, Speaker with the federal government, suggest- David Buffett was sitting on the cpa ing that the Norfolk community serve Executive Committee (Adams 2016). as a bridge between Australia and the According to the now-applicable Pacific Islands region and thus be seen NSW legal system, local governance as a foreign policy asset for Canberra 160 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) rather than a colonial burden (Adams to represent each of the eight original 2014). Pitcairn families (A Nobbs 2016, 12). Despite the island’s dire circum- While Adams and the other council stances, Adams’s rise to its highest members have been trying to work elective office is another example of within the new system and make the rising tide of women taking up the best of it for the time being, they political leadership in Pacific Island quickly learned how extremely hard countries and territories. While Adams this was, as there was so little maneu- is the first elected female politi- vering space. Even on the local govern- cal leader of Norfolk Island, there ment level that is purportedly left for is a long history of women holding the elected councilors to administer, influential positions in island society, the agenda has been preset by Can- which may well be a heritage from the berra and enforced by its unelected Tahitian side of the Islanders’ ancestry, agents such as the council’s general as during the late eighteenth century manager, Lotta Jackson. The council- Polynesian societies were far more ors and mayor are expected to merely gender balanced than those of West- put up a brave front. In early August, ern Europe. The most notable conse- Councilor Snell publicly expressed his quence of this is the fact that Pitcairn frustration, stating that he had tried to and Norfolk are pioneers in granting work within the new system but that it women the right to vote. Women were was creating nothing but problems for formally granted on Pitcairn the community (The Norfolk Islander, as early as 1838—the world’s first— 6 Aug 2016). and this was continued on Norfolk Certainly the new system of gov- when the Pitcairners relocated there ernment came with some short-term in 1856, until women’s voting rights benefits. As supposedly equal Aus- were temporarily abolished by colonial tralian citizens living in a part of decree between 1897 and 1914 (Irving Australia, Norfolk Islanders now have 2013). Even though during the auton- access to Australian health care, social omous government period no women security, and welfare benefits, but all held the chief executive position, the of this comes at enormous cost. The Legislative Assembly usually had one community that previously had its to three female members out of a total own social welfare and health care of nine (Norfolk Island ­Legislative systems funded by moderate contribu- Assembly 2015), a relatively high tions and very few kinds of taxes is proportion compared to most other now burdened with manifold new and Pacific Island states and territories increased taxes. These include previ- where, during the 1980s and 1990s, ously nonexistent income taxes as women members of Parliament were well as land rates (ie, property taxes). extremely rare. The structure of the The latter, which are supposed to be Council of Elders, reestablished by the main source of income for the the Legislative Assembly in 2008, also regional council, are especially going reflects the importance of women’s to be a heavy burden for many local community leadership, consisting of families who are land rich but cash an equal number of men and women poor, in a society where, like elsewhere political reviews • polynesia 161 in ­Oceania, there is a strong cultural “irrelevant.” In a letter to the local attachment to one’s land. At the same newspaper, nipd board member Brett time, elderly locals are at risk of los- Sanderson expressed his indignation ing their pensions, since under the at the local community being “treated new system their landholdings will like a bunch of errant schoolchildren” be counted as assets when calculating at the meeting (The Norfolk Islander, their pensions, while previously, under 13 Aug 2016). In many ways, the Norfolk’s own laws, this was not the meeting confirmed that what Australia case (A Nobbs 2016, 12). was imposing was an “unprecedented Overall, it appears that the qual- and regrettable return to the dark- ity of services and the quality of life est days of colonialism,” to quote an is decreasing rather than increasing nipd press release (nipd 2016). under the new regime. In a detailed The argument always brought report on the impacts of the forced forward to justify Australia’s heavy- changes, Andre Nobbs, former chief handed action, namely that the minister and technical advisor to autonomous government between the Council of Elders, described 1979 and 2015 was a “failed experi- how health problems connected to ment,” does not hold up under closer stress and anxiety have dramatically scrutiny. As economist and writer increased in the 2015–2016 period, as Chris Nobbs pointed out, before the many Islanders are concerned about global financial crisis of 2008, Nor- the future of their livelihoods and their folk Island under its own government survival as a culturally distinct com- was performing well economically, munity (2016, 11). and unlike most governments in the Equally worrisome is the continuity world it always managed to balance of an authoritarian style of governance its budget. Attempts to diversify the under the regional council system. economy away from its sole reliance At a public meeting on 10 August, on tourism and thereby produce a at which the author was present, a larger surplus always failed because “Community Strategic Plan” that of Canberra’s systematic obstruction had initially been drafted before the of those projects, not because of any establishment of the Norfolk Island fault of the local government (the one Regional Council and amended by the exception being the miscalculated council under General Manager Jack- airline investment mentioned earlier). son’s aegis (Norfolk Island Regional Canberra also never returned revenues Council 2016) was presented, and derived from Norfolk’s Exclusive people were asked for questions and Economic Zone to the island. Under comments. Under a pretext of “com- these circumstances, it is disingenuous munity engagement,” the meeting was to call a political system in existence micromanaged by Jackson to follow for over three decades a “failed experi- a predetermined script, and people ment” only because after these first who made critical comments question- thirty years the territory faced finan- ing the legitimacy of the process as a cial difficulties mainly due to a global whole were told disparagingly that economic crisis (C Nobbs 2016b). their questions or comments were Interestingly enough, such an analy- 162 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) sis was also confirmed by a former a change in voting rights to include Australian deputy administrator of all Australian citizens living on the the island, , who recalled island for six months while excluding the island being in very good overall non-Australian long-term residents shape during his tenure in the early who had previously been enfran- 1990s (abc, 23 June 2016). Statisti- chised (Irving 2013). The 2015–2016 cally, according to the latest figures recolonization scheme will create even from 2014, Norfolk Island held the more drastic changes in that direc- third-highest position in terms of gross tion, as immigration by is domestic product (gdp) per capita and now unlimited while non-Australians the among (mainly and Britons), all Pacific Island states and territories, even if they have lived on the island surpassed only by and New for many decades, are now considered Caledonia (Avakov 2016, 10, 70). “foreigners” and must apply for resi- Looking back into history, Aus- dency visas (A Nobbs 2016, 13). tralian desire for dominance and The unfolding colonial drama of Norfolk hesitancy and resistance Norfolk Island may also draw atten- toward such policies is nothing new. tion to the other little-known rem- The island, which from 1856 had nants of Australia’s colonial empire, been a self-governing colony within which besides Norfolk includes the the British Empire, faced remarkably Cocos-Keeling Islands and Christ- similar issues a century ago, when it mas Island in the Indian Ocean, both lost its autonomy through similarly populated largely by Southeast Asians. oppressive actions and was made into Both are being run as overseas territo- a dependency of the newly founded ries with only minimally empowered Commonwealth of Australia, with local municipal governments and which it has had an “uneasy relation- are subject to a crude mix of legisla- ship” ever since (O’Collins 2002). tion by an Australian state in which Even before the current crisis, while they have no representation (Western the autonomous government was still Australia) while being forced to vote operational, Canberra was jealously in a distant federal electorate largely guarding its influence and prevent- irrelevant to them and in which their ing any moves toward more connec- small numbers do not matter (North- tions between the island and the rest ern Territory). Thus, Christmas and of Oceania. For instance, attempts to Cocos-Keeling might serve as exam- establish a satellite campus of ’s ples of what Norfolk can expect from ‘Atenisi University on Norfolk Island Canberra’s ­neocolonial “reforms.” in 2009 failed, as Australia would not In terms of gdp per capita and the give its permission (e-mail from Peter Human Development Index, the two Maywald, Secretary of Government of islands have been lagging behind Norfolk Island, to Michael Horowitz, mainland Australia just as much as, if Dean of ‘Atenisi University, 15 Oct not more than, Norfolk Island under 2009). Similarly, in 2004, Australia for its autonomous government (Avakov the first time interfered with the local 2016, 10–11, 69–70)—a fact that system of governance by ­imposing dispels any notion of alleged eco- political reviews • polynesia 163 nomic benefits of direct Australian strident critics of the Norfolk Island rule. On Cocos-Keeling, which in recolonization scheme and published 1984 had voted for integration with several editorials to raise awareness Australia in a UN-supervised vote, the on the issue among the Australian Australian administration as recently public (Stanhope and Wettenhall as 2009 imposed such archaic and 2015; Wettenhall 2015). sinister colonial policies as policing It is indeed hypocritical that and punishing not only local school- ­Australia has been condemning children but also adult employees at Pacific Island states (such as their workplaces for speaking their after the 2006 military coup) for an native Cocos Malay instead of English alleged lack of democracy, while it is (The Australian, 1 Sept 2009). Only busy implementing antidemocratic in the face of local and international policies on Norfolk Island. This is outrage and protests was this policy in stark contrast to New Zealand, ended (Welsh 2015, 57–58). On which has also at times been criti- (which for obscure cized for a ­similar policy of prescrip- reasons, unlike Cocos-Keeling, never tive ­interference into Pacific nations’ had a vote of self-determination), domestic affairs, but which at the Canberra imposed one of its notori- same time is much less hypocritical, ous asylum-seeker internment camps as it has a much better decoloniza- without consulting the local popula- tion record. Of the two New Zea- tion. Christmas has recently increased land–affiliated Pacific Island entities demands for more autonomy, ironi- of similar size to Norfolk Island, Niue cally citing as a model the very status has been a self-governing nation in of Norfolk Island that Canberra was free association with New Zealand in the process of dismantling (sbs, 18 since 1974, like the much larger Cook Dec 2015). Islands have been since 1965, and Interestingly, the above-mentioned while Tokelau, which did not vote in Jon Stanhope was also Australia’s sufficient numbers for a similar politi- administrator of the Indian Ocean cal status in 2006, remains a non- territories from 2012 to 2014. A self-governing territory under New ­diametrically opposite personal- Zealand ­sovereignty, it has a largely ity from Hardgrave, Stanhope tried autonomous local government exercis- to act responsibly and forwarded ing at least as much authority as the ­grievances expressed by the local Norfolk Island government had under people of Christmas and Cocos-Keel- the 1979 law. ing to his superiors in Canberra, but While certainly not perfect, New all of them were ignored. On leaving Zealand’s policies toward Niue and the post, Stanhope publicly apolo- Tokelau have clearly set a bench- gized for the failure to deliver good mark on how to act responsibly governance and democracy to the toward small dependent territories in people of the Indian Ocean islands the region and respect their right of (A Nobbs 2016, 7). Together with self-determination. It is indeed both Emeritus Professor Roger Wettenhall, ­astonishing and saddening that Aus- Stanhope has been one of the most tralia appears to be unwilling 164 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) to learn from its sister nation across Endsjø, Dag Øistein. 2016. Øyfolket mot the in this respect and overmakten: I morgen opphører et land instead perpetuates outdated colonial å eksistere. Innbyggerne på Norfolkøya policies. kjemper helt alene mot storebror Australia [Islanders against Superior Power: Tomor- lorenz gonschor row a Country Ceases to Exist. Residents of Norfolk Island Are Fighting on Their I would like to thank Andre Own against Big Brother Australia]. Nobbs, Robin Adams, and Chris Klassekampen [Daily newspaper, Oslo], Nobbs for providing helpful informa- 30 June. tion and for reading earlier drafts of Government of Australia. 2001. ­Norfolk this review. Island Act 1979. As amended 2001. https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/ C2004C05695/7fab534e-eaf0-45c2-9e85 References -0e92d174c822 [accessed 7 Sept 2016] ———. 2015a. Norfolk Island Legislation abc, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Amendment Act 2015. https://www Daily television, radio, and Internet news. .legislation.gov.au/Details/C2015A00059/ http://www.abc.com.au a3b28bb5-3c1f-4744-805b-d24410a749a8 Adams, Robin. 2014. The Commonwealth [accessed 7 Sept 2016] of Australia and Norfolk Island: Bridging ———. 2015b. Norfolk Island Legisla­tion the Divide. The Parliamentarian 95 (2): Amendment Bill 2015. Second Reading 92–95. Speeches. http://www.aph.gov.au/en/ ———. 2016. Norfolk Island: Par- Parliamentary%20Business/Bills%20 ticipation at International and Regional Legislation/Bills%20Search%20Results/ Political, Sporting and Cultural Activities, Result/Second%20Reading%20Speeches Independent of Australia. Paper included ?BillId=r5440 [accessed 29 Sept 2016] as Appendix E in Norfolk Island 2016: Government of New South Wales. 2016. 58–63. Norfolk Island Administration Bill 2016. The Australian. Daily. . http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/bills/ http://www.theaustralian.com.au 03372811-2928-4d9d-8ec1-74e8d14aaf70 [accessed 10 Sept 2016] Australian Electoral Commission. 2016. Norfolk Island Electors. http://www.aec The Guardian. Daily. London. .gov.au/Enrolling_to_vote/Special http://www.theguardian.com _Category/Norfolk_Island_electors.htm Irving, Helen. 2013. Autonomies of Scale: [accessed 2 July 2016] Precarious Self-Government on Norfolk Avakov, Alexander V. 2016. Quality Island. In Practising Self-Government: of Life, Balance of Power, and Nuclear A Comparative Study of Autonomous Weapons: A Statistical Yearbook for Regions, edited by Yash Ghai and Sophia Statesmen and Citizens. Volume 9. Woodman, 200–227. Cambridge, uk: New York: Algora Publishing. Cambridge University Press. Buffett, David, and Lisle Snell. 2015. Lowe, Vaughan, and Christopher Ward. Norfolk Island’s Remonstrance: Norfolk 2016. In the Matter of the Status of Island’s Legislative Assembly and the Right Norfolk Island as a Non-Self-Governing to Self-Government. The Parliamentarian Territory. Joint Opinion, 6 May. Available 97 (2): 102–105. on Norfolk Island People for Democracy political reviews • polynesia 165 website: ­http://www.norfolkschoice.com/ Norfolk Island Government Gazette. loweandwardopinion.pdf [accessed 23 Sept Weekly. Norfolk Island. Published as an 2016] appendix in The Norfolk Islander. Newshub. Daily Internet news. Auckland. Norfolk Island Legislative Assembly. 2015. http://www.newshub.co.nz Historical Information. http://www .norfolkisland.gov.nf/legislativeassembly/ New Zealand Herald. Daily. Auckland. legislativeassembly.html [accessed 12 Sept http://www.nzherald.co.nz 2016] , Norfolk Islands People for Democ- nipd Norfolk Island Regional Council. 2016. racy. 2015. Your Future, Your Choice. Norfolk Island Community Strategic Plan, -page brochure, June. Available on 8 2016–2026: Our Plan for the Future. ­Norfolk Island People for Democracy web- Document on file with the author, received site http://www.norfolkschoice.com/ from Mayor Robin Adams. wp-content/uploads/2015/06/NIPD.pdf [accessed 23 Sept 2016] The Norfolk Islander. Weekly. Norfolk Island. http://www.norfolkislander.com ———. 2016. The United Nations and Decolonization. Press release, 17 June. O’Collins, Maev. 2002. An Uneasy Rela- http://www.norfolkschoice.com/wp tionship: Norfolk Island and the Common- -content/uploads/2015/06/17_06_2016 wealth of Australia. Canberra: Pandanus -NIPD-Press-Release.pdf [accessed Books. 23 Sept 2016] rnz, Radio New Zealand. Daily radio Nobbs, Andre. 2016. Norfolk Island and Internet news. Wellington. Social, Economic and Governance Over- http://www.radionz.co.nz view: Situation Report as at 8th June Rhiannon, Lee. 2016. Australian Greens 2016. Document on file with the author, statement on Norfolk Island. 27 May. received from Andre Nobbs, former chief ­http://lee-rhiannon.greensmps.org.au/ minister of Norfolk Island and technical content/blog/australian-greens-statement adviser to the Norfolk Island Council of -norfolk-island [accessed 3 Sept 2016] Elders. sbs, Special Broadcasting Service. Daily Nobbs, Christopher. 2016a. Examples television, radio, and Internet news. of Colonialist Conduct by the Australian http://www.sbs.com.au Government in Relation to Norfolk Island. Paper included as Appendix D in Norfolk smh, Sydney Morning Herald. Daily. ­Sydney. http://www.smh.com.au Island 2016: 43–57. Stanhope, Jon, and Roger Wettenhall. ———. 2016b. Norfolk Island 1979– 2015. We’re Not Listening to Norfolk 2015: Success or Failure. The Norfolk Islanders as Their Democracy Is Quietly Islander 51 (24 and 25), 13 and 20 Stolen. The Canberra Times, March. August. 2 Welsh, Alistair. 2015. Cocos Malay Norfolk Island/Norf’k Ailen. 2016. Peti- Language since Integration with Austra- tion to the United Nations Special Com- lia. Shima: The International Journal of mittee on Decolonization/P’tishan fe giw Research into Island Cultures 9 (1): 53–86. udu de Yuunaited Nieshan Spesh’l K’miti fe Diikohlenaisieshan. April. Available on Wettenhall, Roger. 2015. The Lands that Norfolk Island People for Democracy web- Democracy Forgot: Ignoring the Rights of site: http://www.norfolkschoice.com/ Norfolk, Christmas and Cocos Islanders. thepetition.pdf [accessed 23 Sept 2016] The Canberra Times, 27 Nov. 166 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017)

low single figures. Once young people Pitcairn move abroad—usually to New Zea- The islands of Pitcairn, Henderson, land—to advance their education, they Ducie, and Oeno (commonly known rarely return. In addition, with only as Pitcairn) make up a single terri- a handful of women being of child- tory, the last remaining United King- bearing age, the birthrate is not high dom Overseas Territory (ukot) in enough to sustain population ­levels the . Pitcairn, the only (UK Department for International inhabited island of the group, had a Development 2015). So apart from a total resident population of thirty- rising number of births, there are two nine—a historically low figure—at the other options for increasing the popu- start of 2016. The entire population lation: the return of former residents lives in the lone settlement, Adams­ and their families, and new immi- town. The only way of accessing the grants coming to the island. In order island is by sea, but because of the to help facilitate these, the Pitcairn difficult terrain, ships must moor Island Council (pic) in 2013 agreed offshore, with longboats operating to a repopulation plan to stabilize the between the ships and Bounty Bay. population at around fifty. Due to its isolation, its small and In the face of the extremely limited aging population, and the high level initial interest on the part of diasporic of subsidy that is given by the UK Islanders and new immigrants in set- government, there are concerns over tling in Pitcairn, the pic undertook the future viability of the settlement. a review, which was completed in Therefore, during the period under November 2015. A key part of this review there was significant focus on was a redesigned and more user- strengthening its repopulation strategy, friendly website, including a new improving the island’s infrastructure, promotional film, which was intended encouraging more tourist arrivals, to allow those interested in migrating and working closely with the Euro- to Pitcairn to begin the application pean Union (EU) on several projects. process more easily and in a more However, much of the good work was informed way (Pitcairn Miscellany undermined by reignited concerns over 2015a; pic 2015c). In addition, new child safety and the decision of the procedures were approved for immi- to withdraw from the grants applying for council land. European Union. All of these issues, After the changes were made, a small which are closely interlinked, are con- number of applications were received, sidered in this review. although none had resulted in any A fundamental challenge for Pit- new arrivals by the end of the period cairn is its very small and declining under review. population, which is also aging. Fewer The reasons for the lack of success than thirty people are economically can be seen in a survey of the Pitcairn active, and a majority of these are over diaspora (Solomon and Burnett 2014). fifty years old. Most starkly for the It found that the vast majority of those future, the number of residents in the living elsewhere are reluctant to return twenty-to-thirty age group is in the because of concerns over child safety political reviews • polynesia 167 and a belief that “on-island social economy of Pitcairn must offer more norms do not conform to acceptable opportunities for potential immigrants international norms” (Solomon and and investors. For many years Pitcairn Burnett 2014, 41). These concerns was able to pay its own way; the sale apply to other potential immigrants of stamps and later the registration too. They relate back to the late 1990s fees from the “.pn” Internet domain when serious allegations of systematic name were significant revenue earners. sexual abuse of children were made Recently, however, income from these against a large proportion of the adult sources has fallen, while expenditures male population. Ultimately eight men have increased considerably, particu- were convicted, including a recently larly in regard to shipping, telecom- serving mayor. Significant efforts munications, and medical services (in have been made, including during the part because of the aging population). period under review, to strengthen Further, funding is required for the child safeguarding. For example, the provision of part-time public-sector “Child Matters” training, a child-­ employment. The result is that domes- protection studies program provided tic revenue represents only 5 percent by a New Zealand company, was of the Pitcairn government’s finances. rolled out (pic 2015a). To make up the shortfall, the UK However, much of the good work government has provided budgetary around child safety was undermined aid to the island since 2004. For the when in March 2016 former Mayor 2015–2016 fiscal year, this totaled Michael Warren was found guilty £2.91 million (us$4.34 million) (UK of downloading scores of hardcore Department for International Develop- child-abuse images and films (Marks ment 2015). 2016). In response, a further initia- In order to create a wider pool of tive was taken in May 2016 when the job opportunities and to reduce reli- pic agreed to work with the Internet ance on budgetary aid from London, Watch Foundation in a scheme funded a number of initiatives are ongoing. by the UK Foreign and Common- ­Perhaps the most significant is the wealth Office (fco). The foundation building of a jetty at Tedside, on the will provide a reporting portal for northwestern side of the island, and child-abuse imagery (pic 2016b). Not- the upgrading of the road linking withstanding, there remain concerns ­Tedside to Adamstown. It is hoped over the safety of children in Pitcairn, that once the jetty is completed, and thus the UK government retains a tenders will be able to more eas- travel advisory for the island, stating ily transport cruise ship passengers that any visits or settlements involv- to the island, and so the number of ing children under sixteen years of cruise ship visitors will increase (at age must be authorized by the Pitcairn present about 800 to 1,000 passen- Island Office in New Zealand (UK gers set foot on the island each year). Government Website 2016). This in turn should have a benefit for In tandem with the (so far unsuc- on-island tourist industries, such as cessful) attempts to attract new set- guesthouses and sales of crafts and tlers, the pic also recognizes that the curios. However, progress on the jetty 168 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) and road projects during the year was community to remain on the islands slow because of poor weather and sea and attracting new residents” (Blue conditions (Pitcairn Miscellany 2015b, Ventures 2013, 11). 2016b). In the latter half of 2015, the UK A related initiative was the government, in tandem with several approval by the pic in October 2015 nongovernmental organizations, dis- of the 2015–2019 Sustainable Tour- cussed how tracking and surveillance ism Development Master Plan (pic in the reserve would be undertaken 2015b). The objective of the plan is (pic 2015c). Then, in March 2016, the to “capitalise on the first details were revealed ( News unique points of difference, its Bounty 2016). An ocean drone had begun heritage, its endemic flora and fauna, work the previous month identifying its endemic birds, its pristine marine illegal fishing in the reserve. The data environment, its prehistoric history, that are collected will be sent back to and its natural beauty” (Government a satellite watch room based in the of Pitcairn Islands 2016). More partic- Harwell Science and Innovation Cam- ularly, the intention is to increase rev- pus in Oxfordshire. Any unauthor- enues from tourism, including higher ized trawlers will then be prosecuted. landing fees, and to boost employment Funding is being provided by the UK opportunities in the sector. government, the Swiss Bertarelli Foun- Another development that may dation, and the Pew Charitable Trusts. enhance Pitcairn’s economy was the The wider work around how the March 2015 announcement of the UK reserve could contribute to Pitcairn’s government’s intention to create the economy was much less advanced, largest continuous marine reserve in however. the world, covering 834,000 square Although the UK government kilometers. The seas around Pitcairn provides financial support to cover are believed to be home to more than much of Pitcairn’s budget, the Euro- 1,200 species of fish, marine mam- pean Union is also an important mals, and birds, some of which are source of assistance. For example, the unique to the region. The area also Tedside harbor project is funded by supports the world’s deepest and best- Brussels under the Ninth European developed coral reef. A report pro- Development Fund (edf). Several duced for the Foreign and Common- other initiatives were either completed wealth Office by the Pew Charitable or planned during the year. In July Trusts, pic, and National Geographic 2015, the Pacific Territories Initia- Society suggests that the reserve could tive for Regional Management of build a sustainable economic future the Environment (integre) project for Pitcairn’s resident population, to prevent erosion at St Paul’s Point based on increased tourism and permit (on the far eastern tip of the island) fees and other maintenance grants. and Ailihau (on the southern coast) The report also claims that “creating was concluded, with assistance from work and jobs in conservation tour- several workers from French Polynesia ism could play a key role in helping (Pitcairn Miscellany 2015c). Much of encourage young adults within the the steep areas were protected with political reviews • polynesia 169 mats before plants were added. In the education, and innovation. In addi- first evaluation undertaken, the work tion, several summits were held on at St Paul’s had brought some success, the margins of the main gathering, but at Ailihau the results were more including trilateral meetings with the mixed (Pitcairn Miscellany 2015c). A European Union, the member states, further integre-sponsored initiative and the Overseas Territories, and took place in the following spring, regional trilaterals with the European when a team of experts visited Pit- Union, French Polynesia, New Cale­ cairn, providing advice on soil fertil- donia, Wallis and Futuna, and Pitcairn ity, fisheries, and waste management in attendance. (Pitcairn Miscellany 2016a). However, these meetings took In addition, a public meeting was place in the shadow of the impend- held on 14 December 2015 to discuss ing vote in the United Kingdom on future funding proposals to be sup- whether the country should “Remain” ported by the European Union. At the or “Leave” the European Union. meeting, upcoming projects under the Due to the important level of sup- Tenth edf were discussed, primarily port that Pitcairn and other United focused around upgrading infrastruc- Kingdom Overseas Territories receive ture to enhance the tourist experience from Brussels, there was concern over (Pitcairn Miscellany 2015d). Included what might happen if the UK voted to in the edf-10 proposal is a purpose- leave the EU. As a consequence, the built vessel, designed to deliver pas- Political Council of the United King- sengers from ship to shore and back; dom ­Overseas Territories ­Association the surfacing of several key roads; the (ukota), at its annual meeting in installation of new road signs; and November 2015, mandated the asso- the construction of a new community ciation to commission a report on the center, museum, and general store. relationship between the ukots and These projects are considered key to the EU. The overall aim of the report promoting the tourism sector and the was not to force the ukots onto the economy of Pitcairn more generally. campaign agenda (thus Gibraltar, To confirm the importance of the whose government was in favor of the Pitcairn–European Union link, repre- UK remaining in the EU and whose sentatives from Pitcairn attended the population was eligible to vote, was Overseas Countries and Territories excluded from the report), but to (oct)–EU Forum in Brussels between demonstrate the value of the EU to 23 and 26 February. This is a meet- the ukots. ing that is held annually involving the Part I of the report, which consid- twenty-four octs, their metropolitan ered the benefits to the ukots of EU powers (United Kingdom, Denmark, support, concluded that the relation- France, and the Netherlands), and ship is very positive to the ukots in the European Commission. A range terms of economic and environmental of issues was discussed, including cooperation, development assis- climate change, sustainable energy, the tance, and policy dialogue. Further, implementation of edf-11 program- they now have a “stronger and more ming, and the promotion of research, independent voice” in the EU, which 170 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) has enhanced policy outcomes (Clegg they will most likely be completed. 2016, 17). Thus it is vital for Pitcairn, with the On 23 June 2016, the UK voted to support and commitment of the UK, leave the EU, with 52 percent support- to conclude the necessary financing ing that choice and 48 percent voting negotiations in the near future. to remain. The result was unexpected, A final issue to consider is the and as a consequence the UK gov- political system and its subtext in Pit- ernment does not yet have a clear cairn, in particular the role of women. plan in place to negotiate the coun- The Pitcairn Island Council consists try’s withdrawal, nor is there a clear of a mayor, deputy mayor, and five sense of how any future relationship councillors. In addition, there are between the UK and the EU might be three nonvoting, ex-officio members: organized. The outcome will likely the governor, the deputy governor, and also have a significant impact on Pit- the administrator. In practice, only the cairn and the other ukots. Pitcairn’s administrator will normally attend pic relationship with the EU is dependent meetings. The administrator reports on the UK (via part IV of the Treaty directly to the governor, and the gov- on the Functioning of the European ernor may direct the administrator to Union), and when the UK leaves, take certain actions. The mayor, who Pitcairn’s support from Brussels will acts as chairman, is elected by popu- most likely end unless some special lar vote for a three-year term, while arrangement is worked out that pro- the other members are elected for vides Pitcairn with continued access to two-year terms. There are no politi- the European Development Fund. cal parties. In order to vote, persons So for Pitcairn—which is already must be eighteen years of age or older struggling to survive and sees EU and have been resident on Pitcairn funding as crucial for its future for between one and three years. The sustainability and development—the qualification period is determined by process of “Brexit” is extremely con- the particular status of the individual. cerning. Only time will tell how the Anyone able to vote may also stand undertaking of UK withdrawal from for election, so long as he or she has the EU will conclude, but in the short not been sentenced to imprisonment run ­Pitcairn must secure the EU fund- for three months or more in the previ- ing that it has been promised. As long ous five years. as the UK remains an EU member and This last provision has been par- does not renege on its funding com- ticularly important for the representa- mitments, Pitcairn will benefit from tion of women in the political process. EU support. Therefore, the disburse- Historically, the pic was dominated ment of funds—under both edf-10 by men, but since the child sex-abuse and edf-11 and the regional funding cases, women have taken a greater envelope—should be agreed on as role, and it was no different in the pic soon as possible, and once committed elections held on 9 November 2015. the monies should be secured so that Voters cast their ballots for a deputy the planned projects can proceed. Even mayor and five pic members, with if these projects run beyond 2020, women filling five of the six posi- political reviews • polynesia 171 tions, including Deputy Mayor Brenda ence was seen in either the size of the Christian (Pitcairn Miscellany 2015a). population or the functioning of the It is very difficult to definitely prove economy, but at least the foundation that the greater role for women on stones are being laid for a potentially the pic has influenced the nature of brighter future. However, much of public policy, but there are indications this good work was undermined by to suggest that efforts to improve child two developments. The first was the safeguarding have been strengthened. March 2016 conviction of former Furthermore, other changes are being Mayor Michael Warren for download- enacted, including the agreement that ing hardcore child-abuse images and the Convention on the Elimination of films. This was a very unfortunate All Forms of Discrimination against reminder of Pitcairn’s recent dark past. Women (cedaw) should be extended The second was the June 2016 deci- to Pitcairn (pic 2016a; see also Lee, sion of the UK to leave the EU. In the this issue). So because of the particular medium term, this may well result in circumstances that have surrounded the ending of a vital source of funding, Pitcairn over the last decade and putting at risk Pitcairn’s future plans a half, the role of women in local for economic development. There is politics has become more important. no certainty that the UK government Even though in most cases there has will cover the shortfall. So despite all been continuity in the political agenda the initiatives and projects that were around the major issue of securing pushed through by the pic during the the long-term viability of Pitcairn, year under review, it has ended on a there has been some greater focus and pessimistic note. commitment with regard to enhanc- peter clegg ing the rights of women and trying to strengthen child-safeguarding measures. It should also be noted References there has been a strong push by the bbc News. 2016. Drone to Police ­Massive UK ­government to make progress on UK Marine Reserve. 11 March. ­http:// these issues. www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology The past year in Pitcairn has been -35783564 [accessed 16 July 2016] a case of one of two steps forward and one—or even possibly two—steps Blue Ventures. 2013. The Potential ­Tourism Impact of Creating the World’s back. On the positive side, there is a Largest Marine Reserve in the Pitcairn clear recognition that, unless some- Islands. A report prepared by the Pew thing is done to attract new settlers Charitable Trusts, the National Geo- and to develop the economy, the long graphic Society, and the Pitcairn Island history of Pitcairn with a permanent Council for sub­mission to the UK Foreign resident population may well end. and Commonwealth Office, May. ­ Thus, significant efforts were made http://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/legacy/ to reenergize the repopulation strat- uploadedfiles/peg/publications/report/ egy and enhance key aspects of the potentialtourismimpactofpitcairnmarine economy, particularly the island’s reservepdf.pdf [accessed 24 Aug 2016] infrastructure. Little tangible differ- Clegg, Peter. 2016. The United Kingdom 172 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017)

Overseas Territories and the European http://www.government.pn/minutes/ Union: Benefits and Prospects. Part I: EU Approved%20Council%20Meeting%20 Benefits to the United Kingdom Overseas Minutes%20April%2027th%202016.pdf Territories. A report produced for ukota, [accessed 13 July 2016] June. http://ukota.org/manage/wp-content/ uploads/UKOTA-Final-Report-on-Benefits ———. 2016b. Minutes of Meeting held in The Square Public Hall. May. -of-EU-to-UKOTs.pdf [accessed 15 July – 11 http://www.government.pn/minutes/ 2016] Approved%20Council%20Meeting%20 Government of Pitcairn Islands. 2016. Minutes%20May%2011th%202016.pdf ­Pitcairn Islands Strategic Development [accessed 13 July 2016] Plan, 2014–2018. http://www.government .pn/policies/SDP%202014-2018%20- Pitcairn Miscellany. 2015a. 2015/2016 %20Amended%2011-05-2016.pdf Government of Pitcairn. The Pitcairn [accessed 2 July 2016] ­Miscellany 58 (11 [Nov]): 2. Marks, Kathy. 2016. Pitcairn in “Last ———. 2015b. Alternative Harbour Chance Saloon” after Child Abuse Images ­Project. The Pitcairn Miscellany 58 Case. The Guardian, 11 March. http:// (10 [Oct]): 11. www.theguardian.com/world/ /mar/ 2016 ———. 2015c. Conservation Works. /pitcairn-child-abuse-images-mayor 11 The Pitcairn Miscellany 58 (10 [Oct]): 4. [12 March 2016] ———. 2015d. EDF-10 Workshop. pic, Pitcairn Island Council. 2015a. Min- The Pitcairn Miscellany 58 (12 [Dec]): 2. utes of Meeting held in The Square–Public Hall. 24 Sept. http://www.government.pn/ ———. 2015e. Integre Project. The minutes/Approved%20Council%20 ­Pitcairn Miscellany 58 (8 [Aug]): 4. Minutes%2024th%20Sept%202015.pdf [accessed 13 July 2016] ———. 2016a. Dirt, Fins and Rubbish. The Pitcairn Miscellany 59 (5 [May]): 9. ———. 2015b. Minutes of Meeting held in The Square–Public Hall. 21 Oct. http:// ———. 2016b. The Landing at Water Val- www.government.pn/minutes/Approved% ley. The Pitcairn Miscellany 59 (2 [Feb]): 3. 20Council%20Minutes%20Oct%2021st Solomon, Rob, and Kirsty Burnett. 2014. % .pdf [accessed July ] 202015 13 2016 Pitcairn Island Economic Review: Final ———. 2015c. Minutes of Meeting held Report. January. http://www.government in The Square–Public Hall. 18 Nov. .pn/Pitcairn%20Islands%20Economic http://www.government.pn/minutes/ %20Report%20-%20Final%20Report.pdf Approved%20Public%20Meeting%20 [accessed 14 July 2016] Notes%20Nov%2018th%202015.pdf UK Department for International Develop- [accessed 13 July 2016] ment. 2015. Pitcairn Aid Budget 2015/16: ———. 2015d. Minutes of Meeting held Business Case and Summary, 204259. in The Square–Public Hall. 16 Dec. April. Available at https://devtracker.dfid http://www.government.pn/minutes/ .gov.uk/projects/GB-1-204259/documents Approved%20Council%20Meeting%20 [accessed 9 July 2016] Minutes%20Dec%2016th%202015.pdf UK Government Website. 2016. Foreign [accessed 13 July 2016] Travel Advice: Pitcairn. 9 Aug. https:// ———. 2016a. Minutes of Meeting held www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/pitcairn in The Square–Public Hall. 27 April. -island [accessed 24 Aug 2016] political reviews • polynesia 173

ally “sacred places” (vahi tapu) that Rapa Nui must be protected by “customary law” During the review period, Rapa Nui (derecho consuetudinario) as a taina national leaders affirmed movement henua—that is, an “island” (henua) toward self-determination in the con- of “siblings/relatives” (taina) (Teave, text of local, state, and global biopo- pers comm, 12 Aug 2016). The world- litical forces that threaten the sustain- famous statues at the center of able future of the , vahi tapu are considered by Rapa Nui territory, and resources. Engaging the people to be “spiritual tombstones” spirit of Angata, the first Rapa Nui that “protect the land and the blood woman to valiantly challenge such matrix to which each clan belongs” forces as they articulated in 1914 (M Hitorangi 2013); as Mama Piru, (McCall 1997, 117), many political a Parlamento Rapa Nui member, has voices and actions for social justice stressed during the conflict, the moai by leading contemporary Rapa Nui “talk” with the Rapa Nui people who women are highlighted in this review, are the “children of their children” including Lolita Tuki, Erity Teave, (ec, 25 Sept 2015). Thus, what is at Elisa Riroroko, Anakena Manu- stake is not only the “moral economy” tomatoma, Mama Piru (Piru Hucke for governing cultural heritage but Atan), and Marisol Hito. also the epistemological and ontologi- Conflict over the March 2015 cal foundations of Rapa Nui being reclamation of “ancestral lands” and becoming as a nation and people (kāiŋa tupuna) and “ancestral valu- (Young 2016c). What the state and ables” (hauha‘a tupuna)—which the global forces desire to administer as a state had developed into a national Chilean “lawscape” (Philippopoulos- park (El Parque Nacional Rapa Nui) Mihalopoulos 2015, 38–106), that in the 1930s without consulting the is, a place that spatializes people, Rapa Nui people—had temporarily resources, and territories in terms of been resolved in April 2015 through Chilean law, Rapa Nui national lead- an agreement between Rapa Nui ers want to protect as a genealogical national leaders and Chilean state “relationscape” (Manning 2009) that government representatives (Young connects Rapa Nui present and future 2016a), but the conflict resumed by “extended families” (hua‘ai) to their June 2015. Erity Teave, vice president ancestral spiritual ecology and living of Parlamento Rapa Nui and president cultural heritage. of Honui (two grassroots political A 4 June 2015 letter to Chilean organizations engaging movements President Michelle Bachelet signed by for Rapa Nui self-determination Erity Teave and Leviante Araki, presi- entangled in the conflict), explained dent of Parlamento Rapa Nui, reports that the dispute centers around that conflict resumed as incommensurable understandings and began to “intimidate” Rapa Nui at the experiences of the island: for Rapa vahi tapu they were protecting while Nui people, the sites that the state managing everyday tourism access. By and global actors recognize as part 10 August 2015, the Chilean National of a “park for ­recreation” are actu- Institute of Human Rights noted that 174 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) dialogue between the state and Rapa violent conflicts (Young 2016b, 267), Nui leaders had finally broken down insightfully supported Araki’s critical (indh 2016). Following public radio perspective in asking during the cur- announcements requesting that tour- rent conflict, “Who prosecutes conaf, ists provide “voluntary contributions” which took over the management of to gain access to Rapa Nui ancestral our resources, without consulting territories beginning 15 August (ec, anybody?” (Biobio, 28 Aug 2015). 16 Aug 2015), President Araki and The challenges by President Araki and Mario Tuki (a Parlamento Rapa Nui Marisol Hito foreground not only a member and former representative of critical question in biopolitical legal the Chilean government-organized theory (what is the “Law of law”? Commission for the Development [Zartaloudis 2010, 1]) but also a ques- of [codeipa]), were tion that makes practical sense, given arrested at the entrance to the Orongo that the state’s own recent truth com- ceremonial village on 15 August as mission acknowledged that the current they began collecting entrance fees configuration of the island primar- from tourists. The National Forest ily into a national park and a small Corporation of (conaf), funded reserve of land for the people reflects by the Chilean Ministry of Agriculture a history of unjust state disposses- that manages the park, not noting the sion. The commission recognized that, fees were voluntary, declared the acts for decades, the state held Rapa Nui “illegal,” and state officials called for people against their will under military the closure of the office of Parlamento laws, behind barbed wire, without Rapa Nui to restore “public order” rights of citizenship—in violation of (Parque Nacional Rapa Nui, 15 Aug the 1888 Agreement of Wills that 2015). In response to the arrests, would have established a political President Araki publically emphasized relationship between Chile and Rapa that they were simply “protecting” the Nui that recognized the chiefly titles Rapa Nui “sacred sites” and “ances- of Rapa Nui leaders for governing all tral property” (ec, 17 Aug 2015). island territory (Gobierno de Chile Contextualizing Chilean admin- 2008, 261–263). Araki’s and Hito’s istration of vahi tapu as failing the critiques draw attention to history that Rapa Nui people while accumulating suggests that the “Law” of Chilean profits for the state and associated law is based in what Walter Benjamin corporations, President Araki refused would consider “lawmaking” and to recognize the authority of Chilean “law-preserving” violence, not social government organizations like conaf justice (1986, 284). The military laws and codeipa in Rapa Nui (ec, 17 that constituted the dispossessed place Aug 2015), insisting that “this is not of the Rapa Nui people on the island Chile, this is Rapa Nui” (ec, 20 Aug in violation of the 1888 Agreement of 2015). Marisol Hito, a leader of her Wills can be understood as extended family’s struggle to reclaim ancestral through the enactment of further land from the corporate five-star Chilean laws that preserve the origi- ­Hangaroa Eco-Village and Spa devel- nal spatial violence by managing the opment at the heart of the 2010–2011 island as primarily a national park for political reviews • polynesia 175 tourism rather than as the sacred place returning to Rapa Nui on 29 August), of its indigenous people. he said that guards “verbally On the same day of the criminal- tortured” him in the jail cell (Biobio, ization of Rapa Nui leaders, the local 28 Aug 2015). Reminiscent of Chilean state prosecutor, Raul Ochoa, called government treatment of the indige- for the collection of materials related nous Mapuche people under its highly to crimes from the office of Parla- criticized anti-terrorism law (Richards mento Rapa Nui and the closure of 2013, 212), during criminal process- that institution pending investigation. ing in which Riroroko was assisted Parlamento Rapa Nui women, led by only by a court-appointed attorney, Elisa Riroroko, refused to provide the state Prosecutor Raul Ochoa accused police any materials because the police him and other Rapa Nui people of lacked a court order (ec, 16 Aug being “terrorists” and compared 2015), and they closed the office on them to the “Nazis of the Hitler era.” their own terms, according to the state Riroroko’s arrest was upheld, as the (Gobernacion Isla de Pascua, 17 Aug court considered him “a threat to the 2015). Following the failed police state and a danger to the community” search and seizure of the office, crimi- (ec, 1 Oct 2015). As Riroroko has nalization continued. President Araki documented asthma problems and a was again arrested—this time for heart condition and was denied access entering ancestral territory in viola- to his medicine during processing, he tion of the conditions of release for his maintains the state forces jeopardized first arrest (ec, 28 Aug 2015). Island his life (prn, 1 Sept 2015). Riroroko’s judge Maria Fernanda Cornejo further daughter Elisa, arrested on 26 August mandated that Rapa Nui elder Matias in Rapa Nui, was formally processed Riroroko and his daughter Elisa be on 30 August and held under house held in police custody for 120 days for arrest and, like her father, forbid- crimes related to resistance to the Par- den to leave the island. The charges lamento Rapa Nui office searches and prevented her from attending the seizure. Riroroko, seventy-two years 30th Session of the Commission on old, was arrested 26 August at the Human Rights of the United Nations airport of Santiago, Chile, preventing in Geneva, Switzerland, where she had his participation in a National Con- intended to speak on the plight of the gressional hearing on human rights Rapa Nui nation (ec, 1 Oct 2015). conflicts in Rapa Nui. He testified to Rapa Nui leaders responded with media that he experienced abuse while local, regional, and international detained by the police and during political organization. On 28 August, juridical processing. Initially held in a Rapa Nui people organized a pro- small, cold room at the Arturo Merino test at the office of the governor. Benitez airport without any chair to Rafael “Rinko” Tuki, a Parlamento sit on and stripped of all belongings, Rapa Nui member as well as leading Riroroko asserted that he was denied representative of Rapa Nui within access to his personal attorney. On the state-­organized development transfer to the Santiago Uno prison institution for the indigenous peoples (where he stayed for three days until of Chile (conadi), denounced the 176 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) criminalization and raid of Parlamento In a context in which Marta Hotus Rapa Nui in a ­letter submitted to the had been questionably replaced as governor. In addition to calling for island governor by Carolina Hotus the release of Matias and Elisa Riro- in September by Chilean President roko, he reproached the government Bachelet (Biobio, 10 Sept 2015), on 25 for colonial treatment and systematic October 2015 conflict intensified as violation of Rapa Nui rights to self- the state government conducted a vote determination for over a century (prn, on the island concerning the future 1 Sept 2015). He followed local con- administration of the Parque Nacional demnation of Chile with a visit with Rapa Nui. The ballot included one government leaders of the Embassy primary question (whether or not the of Bolivia that led to a meeting with voter agreed with co-administration of Bolivia’s indigenous president, Evo the national park) and sub-questions Morales, during the World People’s about which entity should organize, Conference on Climate Change held oversee, and manage the co-adminis- in Bolivia on 12 October; he requested tration (Gobernacion Isla de Pascua, help from Bolivia for Rapa Nui’s 23 Oct 2015). The results of the decolonization under UN principles of vote were released the following day, international law (Qué Pasa, 23 Oct with 86.6 percent of voters favor- 2015). Erity Teave helped coordinate ing co-administration and with lists international legal representation of enumerating variable answers to the the Rapa Nui people with the Indian sub-questions (Parque Nacional Rapa Law Resource Center (ilrc) of Wash- Nui, 26 Oct 2015). Aaron Cavieres, ington dc, which led to the filing of a conaf executive director, character- request for precautionary measures at ized the day of voting as exhibiting the Inter-American Court of Human “a very participatory and transparent Rights (iachr) of the Organization process,” in which the majority of the of American States—the second filing votes of the Rapa Nui people demon- in five years (Young 2016b, 266). strated support of “co-administration” Attorney Robert Coulter, ilrc execu- of the park (La Tercera, 26 Oct 2015). tive director, described “the arrests Hans Peter Orellana, the Chilean and detention of prominent Rapa Nui minister of social development, also leaders” as “repressive measures” that applauded the process, emphasizing “violate the human rights of all people that “there were no acts of violence,” of Rapa Nui by interfering with their that all “was normal,” and that the access to their sacred sites and the government acted in “the utmost good burial places of their ancestors” (ilrc, faith” (ec, 27 Oct 2015). 28 Aug 2015). On 18 September, What the Chilean government nor- Santi Hitorangi, a leading member of malized, many observers would likely Parlamento Rapa Nui at the United find deeply problematic. During the Nations, voiced his call for interna- island-based voting at the local school, tional support of the right of Rapa Rapa Nui national leaders (including Nui people to self-determination at those with positions in the offices of the meeting of the UN Human Rights Chilean government administering Council in Geneva (S Hitorangi 2015). the island like Rinko Tuki as well political reviews • polynesia 177 as codeipa representative Anakena 5 October the state’s desire to build Manutomatoma) staged a rally beside one of the world’s largest marine the school at Atamu Tekena plaza conservation parks around Rapa Nui, urging the Rapa Nui people to abstain during the “Our Ocean” conference in from voting. Chilean police inter- Valparaiso attended by US Secretary vened to silence the megaphones of of State John Kerry and entrepre- Rapa Nui leaders, and independent neur Richard Branson. The proposed observers feared bloodshed (ec, 27 marine park would encompass nearly Oct 2015). Rapa Nui leaders present 244,000 square miles and offer sanctu- in the rally included not only staunch ary for marine life, free of commercial nationalist leaders like President fishing. Its development is organized Araki, Mama Piru, and elder Lolita in partnership with Pew Charitable Tuki, but also former state-appointed Trusts pending consultation with the Governor Marta Hotus (prn, 27 Oct indigenous Rapa Nui people (Vaughn 2015). Representative Manutomatoma 2015). Rinko Tuki criticized the pro- highlighted that the number of voters posal, saying it was “not born from who cast a ballot (294 out of a pos- the initiative of Rapa Nui people, but sible 2,005) was clearly a sign that the is a packaged proposal from a foreign process did not reflect “the decision ngo [nongovermental organization]” of the people.” She emphasized the that is part of broader “colonial” people had overwhelmingly demanded projects on the island like the national a postponement of the voting because park (ec, 3 Oct 2015). Anakena the questions had been imposed by the Manutomatoma concordantly orga- state. She further reported that during nized fellow codeipa representatives actual consultations with the Rapa to submit a letter of protest to the Nui people over the preceding months, government (prn, 6 Oct 2015). The representatives of 23 of the 36 Rapa Indian Law Resource Center also Nui hua‘ai (extended families/clans) supported Rapa Nui concerns, given did not approve of co-administration that the proposed marine conservation at all; they wanted full administration park would further “restrict access to in the hands of the Rapa Nui people the resources Rapa Nui are dependent consistent with the signed agree- upon and further diminish their abil- ment of April 2015. Rinko Tuki also ity to pass along cultural traditions” vehemently rejected the voting results (ilrc, 28 Jan 2016). Historically, it is and insisted that conaf and the state noteworthy that it was at the height of do not “have the authority to define the 2010–2011 conflicts in Rapa Nui the future of the overall management that the Chilean government initiated of our ancestral territory” (ec, 27 Oct inquiry into a marine park around 2015). Rapa Nui on 23 February 2011 As the Chilean government was (National Geographic 2011). Is it securing the continued territorializa- mere coincidence that the state sought tion of vahi tapu as resources of a control of the marine environment of national park, it expanded its ambi- Rapa Nui during the height of the two tions into the ocean when Chilean greatest island conflicts in the decade, President Bachelet announced on or is this part of a broader governmen- 178 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) tal strategy? Internationally, conserva- bill was running out (Biobio, 8 July tion projects are certainly known to 2016). be part of global and state strategies The review period closes amid to displace indigenous peoples from heightened international monitoring coveted territories and resources and politico-legal organization among (Dowie 2009), a strategy Chile is Rapa Nui people. The aggressive documented as applying against its Chilean government strategies docu- indigenous Mapuche people (Richards mented during the period—criminaliz- 2009, 71–74). Such projects are seen ing Rapa Nui political leaders in ways as tools for transforming indigenous that obstructed their participation peoples into “environmental subjects” in human rights assemblies; replace- who become “accomplices” of global ment of an island governor who was and state development goals (Agrawal sometimes sympathetic to Rapa Nui 2005, 214–217), thus obstructing their movements toward self-determination; movement toward becoming self- and dispossession of Rapa Nui pro- determining subjects in control of their tection of their vahi tapu as well as own resources and territories. attempted expansion of Chilean and While the government “consulta- global power over Rapa Nui marine tion” regarding Parque National Rapa resources—gained the attention of Nui was considered a failure by the the UN Office of the High Commis- Rapa Nui people, a consultation on sioner of Human Rights (ohchr). 24 January 2016 regarding the regula- UN Special Rapporteur for Indigenous tion of migration and residency on the Peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, in a island was broadly considered success- letter to the ohchr (Tauli-Corpuz ful. It is calculated that 1,411 votes 2016), challenged the criminalization were registered and that 97 percent of Rapa Nui leaders and the treatment voted in favor of regulating residency. of their cultural heritage and natural codeipa representatives strongly sup- resources in terms of articles 7, 11, 12, ported the results and initiated formal 25, 26, and 31 of the UN Declaration processes to urge the state legislature of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to enact the bill in March (prn, 1 Feb (undrip) as well as International 2016). During a late April 2016 visit Labour Organization (ilo) Conven- to Rapa Nui (a rare trip for state dig- tion 169 articles 6, 7, 14, and 15. nitaries), Chilean President ­Bachelet During her visit to the island, affirmed her support of a bill that Chilean President Bachelet began to would limit both Chilean and foreign respond in ways that suggest the state visits, establish penalties for violation, could be willing to consider a differ- and increase monitoring of environ- ent relationship with Rapa Nui, but mental impacts of tourism and other analysis of her public statements also development projects (La Tercera, 30 suggests further questions. In an April April 2016). However, as the period 2016 speech, she acknowledged that under review ended, the bill had not “this island is the heritage of the Rapa been formally legislated and Chilean Nui people,” yet she qualified that Senator Francisco Chahuán expressed statement, adding: “but at the same concern that the time to implement the time [the island is] national and world political reviews • polynesia 179 heritage” and therefore “the responsi- those of the violent Chilean lawscape. bility of all from wherever we come” In a June 2016 letter to UN Special (La Tercera, 30 April 2016). And in Rapporteur Tauli-Corpuz, Erity Teave public forums, President Bachelet emphasized that the Rapa Nui people has emphasized that the government pursue their human rights for self- is working with conaf to develop a determination in terms of UN General process to transfer administration of Assembly Resolutions 1514 and 1541, Parque Nacional Rapa Nui to an insti- article 73e of the UN Charter, and tution managed by Honui, but only in undrip. ­According to undrip article conjunction with codeipa (El Correo 31 (noted by UN Special Rapporteur Del Moai, 1 May 2016). Tauli-Corpuz above), “Indigenous While it is encouraging to see the peoples have the right to maintain, president foreground the island as control, protect and develop their first and foremost Rapa Nui cultural cultural heritage” and states are sup- heritage, her qualification that vahi posed to “recognize and protect the tapu are at the same time global and exercise of these rights.” It does not Chilean national heritage articulates say that states can qualify and dampen with long-standing critiques of such these rights through institutions heritage management plans as part like codepia­ and broader agents of of a broader “technology of govern- ­regulatory ­communities. ment” that undermines indigenous Rapa Nui demands for rights to national identity formation (Smith self-determination are consistent with 2004, 10–13). Similarly, the form other cases successfully supported by of park transfer suggested is also the iachr, like that of the indigenous problematic given that in emphasiz- Awas Tigni of Nicaragua, whom the ing co-administration by a Rapa Nui Indian Law Center also helped repre- organization with codeipa—a state sent (Coulter 2015), and the Rapa Nui institution—the state proposes a people are currently working toward “network created by the state” that testing these rights in a legal case being can be seen as producing a “regula- developed for the iachr. In other tory community” (Argawal 2005, words, Rapa Nui national ­leaders 92–94). Rather than enabling self- continue to affirm their desire for determination of resources, a regula- “building a home in the space between tory community replaces governance justice and law” (Povinelli 2011, 14) by a people themselves with gover- in terms of their relationscape, rather nance distributed within a network than within the regulatory community of bureaucratic institutions and the state wants authorized. agencies determined by the state and forrest wade young other actors. As stressed in a letter to President Bachelet, Honui wants Rapa Nui to exercise their “inalienable right References to self-determination of our natural Agrawal, Arjun. 2005. Environmental- and cultural resources according to ity: Technologies of Government and the law” (prn, 3 June 2016). The legal Making of Subjects. Durham, nc: Duke instruments Honui appeals to are not University Press. 180 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017)

Benjamin, Walter. 1986. Critique of Vio- indh, Instituto Nacional De Derecho lence. In Reflections: Essays, Aphorisms, Humanos. 2016. Informe Misión de Autobiographical Writings, edited by Peter Observación Rapa Nui Septiembre de Demetz, 277–300. New York: Schocken 2015. [Observation Mission Report, Rapa Books. Nui, September 2015.] Approved by the Board of the National Institute of Human Biobio. Daily Internet news, Santiago, Chile. http://www.biobiochile.cl Rights during Extraordinary ­Session 309, 28 June. http://bibliotecadigital.indh.cl/ Coulter, Robert T. 2015. The Situation of bitstream/handle/123456789/959/Informe the Indigenous People of Rapa Nui and -2015.pdf?sequence=1 [accessed 29 Aug International Law: Reflections on Indig- 2016] enous Peoples and the Ethics of Remedia- tion. Santa Clara Journal of International La Tercera. Daily Internet news. Santiago, Law 13 (1): 293–306. Chile. http://latercera.com/ Dowie, Mark. 2009. Conservation Refu- Manning, Erin. 2009. Relationscapes: gees: The Hundred-Year Conflict between Movement, Art, Philosophy. Cambridge, Global Conservation and Native Peoples. ma: mit Press. Cambridge, ma: mit Press. McCall, Grant. 1997. Riro, Rapu, and ec, El Ciudadano. Daily Internet news. Rapanui: Refoundations in Easter Island Santiago, Chile. http://www.elciudadano Colonial History. Rapa Nui Journal 11 (3): .cl/ 112–122. El Correo Del Moai. Spanish-language National Geographic. 2011. Flagship newspaper and Internet news, published Expedition to Easter Island and Salas y in Rapa Nui. Gomez Island. Press release, 23 Feb. Gobernacion Isla de Pascua. Easter Island http://press.nationalgeographic.com/2011/ gubernatorial announcements. http://www 02/23/flagship-expedition-to-easter-island .gobernacionisladepascua.gov.cl/ -and-salas-y-gomez-island/ [accessed 5 Jan 2016] Gobierno de Chile. 2008. Informe de la Comisión Verdad Histórica y Nuevo Parque Nacional Rapa Nui. Internet Trato de los Pueblos Indígenas. Santiago: news concerning the Rapa Nui National ­Gobierno de Chile. Park. Mataveri, Rapa Nui. http://www .parquenacionalrapanui.cl/ Hitorangi, Mati. 2013. The Unknown Truth Behind the . IC Magazine Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos, Andreas. [Center for World Indigenous Studies, 2015. Spatial Justice: Body, Lawscape, Olympia, wa], 25 July. https:// Atmosphere. New York: Routledge. intercontinentalcry.org/the-unkown-truth Povinelli, Elizabeth. 2011. The Gover- -behind-the-moais/ [accessed 1 Sept 2015] nance of the Prior. Interventions 13 (1): Hitorangi, Santi. 2015. Santi Hitorangi 13–30. unhrc. Three-minute statement to the UN prn, Prensa Rapa Nui. Online magazine Human Rights Council, Geneva. Published and blog, based in Rapa Nui. http:// by Indian Law Resource Center, Sept. 18 prensarapanui.blogspot.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS _ObMXAPbo [accessed 29 Aug 2016] Qué Pasa. Internet news. Santiago, Chile. http://www.quepasa.cl/ ilrc, Indian Law Resource Center. Helena, Montana, and Washington dc. Richards, Patricia. 2013. Race and the http://indianlaw.org Chilean Miracle: Neoliberalism, Democ- political reviews • polynesia 181 racy, and Indigenous Rights. Pittsburgh: after it came to power as a result of University of Pittsburgh Press. the 2014 election, the second under Smith, Laurajane. 2004. Archaeological the amended 2010 constitution. For Theory and the Politics of Cultural Heri- a reform-oriented government with tage. New York: Routledge. minimal experience yet loaded with ambition and high expectations from Tauli-Corpuz, Victoria Lucia. 2016. Mandato del Relatora Especial sobre los the people, the stark reality of trans- derechos de los pueblos indígenas. al chl forming and modernizing a society 1/2016. United Nations Office of the High steeped in conservative traditional Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, values, under the patronage of a mon- 15 Jan. arch and a class of nopili (nobles), was Vaughn, Adam. 2015. Chile to Create One a major challenge. Despite some of the of World’s Largest Marine Parks around institutional and symbolic reforms of Easter Island. The Guardian, 5 Oct. the previous decade, some of the social http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ issues of the previous era remained 2015/oct/05/chile-creates-one-of-worlds and frustrated plans for changes. One -largest-marine-parks-around-easter-island such issue was that of women’s par- [accessed 23 Jan 2016] ticipation in politics, which is the main Young, Forrest Wade. 2016a. Polynesia in focus of this review. Review: Issues and Events, 1 July 2014 to Although some progressive changes 30 June 2015: Rapa Nui. The Contempo- were made in the 2010 amended con- rary Pacific 28:281–293. stitution, remnants of the traditional ______. 2016b. Rapa Nui/Easter Island. patriarchal political culture persisted. In Pacific Ways: Government and Politics For instance, no woman was elected in the Pacific Islands, edited by Stephen to Parliament in the 2010 and 2014 Levine, 257–273. Second edition. Welling- elections. This may appear ironic ton: University of Victoria Press. because under the cultural practice ______. 2016c. Unsettling the Moral of vahu, women are traditionally Economy of Tourism on Chile’s Easter accorded a unique social status within Island. In Political Ecology of Tourism: the kinship system, sometimes higher Communities, Power, and the Environ- than men. (This is very similar to the ment, edited by Mary Mostafanezhad, Fijian practice of vasu, whereby one’s Roger Norum, Eric J Shelton, and Anna maternal link is considered special and Thompson-Carr, 134–150. New York: sometimes more prestigious than one’s Routledge. paternal inheritance.) However, politi- Zartaloudis, Thanos. 2010. Giorgio cal power has always been a male Agamben: Power, Law, and the Use enterprise, and before July 2016, when of Criticism. New York: Routledge. the first woman was elected to Parlia- ment, males made up 100 percent of elected people’s representatives and 100 percent of nobles representa- Tonga tives—a record that placed Tonga at The new government of ‘Akilisi Pōhiva the lowest rung of the parliamentary was tested to the limit by a number of gender diversity scale in the Pacific. political, economic, and policy issues The election of Ms ‘Akosita Lavu- 182 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) lavu after a by-election in July 2016 provided an alternative policy prism followed successes by a number of from that of previous prime ministers women in the local elections a couple who, except for Dr Feleti Sevele, were of weeks earlier, a testimony to the largely drawn from the monarchical or intensification of campaigns by local the nopili class. civil society organizations, regional The proposed ratification of cedaw organizations, and international agen- was against the backdrop of the cies for greater awareness of women’s periodic review of the state of human role in politics. Nevertheless, the path rights in Tonga by the UN Human to gender consciousness and empow- Rights Council’s Universal Periodic erment in Tonga has been fraught Review Working Group, completed in with challenges as forces of progress January 2013, which was critical of and conservatism continue to clash the status of human rights in Tonga over what is appropriate for Tongan (UN ohchr 2013b). When quizzed society. about gender inequality during an The tension between competing ohchr meeting in Geneva, Lord Vaea, cultural and political discourses about the minister for internal affairs at the gender was starkly manifested when time, responded by pointing out the the prime minister proudly told Parlia- number of women employees in public ment that his cabinet had agreed to and private institutions and prosecu- ratify the Convention on the Elimina- tion of perpetrators of family violence. tion of all Forms of Discrimination However, a number of countries were Against Women (cedaw) on 9 March very critical of Tonga for not ratify- 2015 (see article by Helen Lee, this ing cedaw (Fonua 2013). ohchr issue) and that Minister for Internal members recommended that concerted Affairs Fe‘ao Vakata, whose port- efforts be made to speed up gender folio included women’s issues, had equality and domestic violence laws informed the United Nations in New and that ratification of cedaw should York about the ratification. What was be a priority (UN ohchr 2013a). meant to be a celebrated event turned Because of concerns regarding what sour as a clash between supporters the ohchr saw as slow progress in and opponents of cedaw erupted ensuring basic freedoms in Tonga, the immediately after the announcement. country became the first in the Pacific Pōhiva’s initiative was not surpris- to undergo a second review; some of ing because he had been engaged the recommendations from that review in regional and international social included provision of landownership activism as leader of the Tongan by women, protection from domestic pro-democracy movement. Through violence, better police training, and this, he was actively involved in issues abolishing both the death penalty and related to the nuclear-free Pacific, corporal punishment. decolonization, human rights, and For a number of years, there has gender equality, among others. In been a concerted campaign against many ways, these involvements further family violence and for greater gender broadened his political and ideologi- equality by civil society organizations cal understanding of democracy and such as the Tonga National Centre for political reviews • polynesia 183

Women and Children, the Women and us don’t be selfish, women are under Children’s Crisis Centre, and Ma‘a men—just be content where you are. Fafine Mo e Famili. The coordinator They all know it is unfair. When they of the Ma‘a Fafine Mo e Famili, Betty say there is no need to address the Blake, campaigned for firmer action to gaps. . . . I feel disgusted—absolutely promote women’s rights as well as to disgusted” (Fonua 2015b). Arguably, address some of the cultural impedi- one could say that these two positions ments that undermine these rights; represent the wide ideological gap in she urged the government to “look gender perceptions between tradition- into women’s rights, our legislation alists and progressives nationwide. and that government look into the Given the contending positions, new Family Bill that we are putting the challenge therefore was how to in” (rnz 2013). Even the Ministry for ensure that the public understood Internal Affairs, led by Chief Execu- what cedaw was all about and how tive Officer Lopeti Senituli, a former to make it more relevant to Tongan social and political rights activist, culture. One of the sticking points effectively carried out consultation for was whether ratifying cedaw would the ratification of cedaw and passage mean changing relevant laws in Tonga. of the Family Protection Act 2013, There were also reservations about which among other things aimed to certain articles in the convention that “prevent domestic violence and eco- were interpreted as culturally insen- nomic abuse between family members sitive. In fact, in 2013, the Tonga and others in a domestic relationship” government under Prime Minister and “facilitate and maximise the Sevele had refused to ratify the con- safety and protection of persons who vention because of these reservations, experience or fear domestic violence” especially articles 2 and 16 (discussed (Government of Tonga 2013, 12). in more detail below), which, in a In a roundtable organized as part of 17 March 2015 letter to the editor of the cedaw consultation on 12 Feb- Matangi Tonga, Sevele argued were ruary 2015, differences over cedaw “in direct conflict with: a) some of the began to emerge. While women civil main provisions of our constitution society organizations and government and laws; b) some of our traditional departments such as the Ministry customs and traditions; and c) some of Internal Affairs and Ministry of of our basic Christian doctrines.” In Health advocated for ratification, the same letter Sevele added, “The church leaders were vehemently cedaw Convention is one from which opposed. During the exchanges, one our beloved country with our unique of the faifekai (church ministers) Constitution and ‘Tukufakaholo’ shouted, “You women should know should keep well away” (Sevele 2015). your place!” The head of the Talitha This is quite an interesting position for Project, which engaged in the develop- someone so well educated. ment of young women, expressed her Opposition to the ratification was dismay by retorting, “They (faifekai) procedural, political, and cultural. It are using the bible to say the male is was pointed out by government legal the head of the family and they say to experts that ratification of any inter- 184 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) national convention was to be carried anti-Christian document. Three days out by His Majesty in Council, not the later, a group of around five hundred prime minister, the cabinet, or Parlia- people, organized by the churches, ment. The parliamentary opposition marched to the Palace Office and pre- used the opportunity to score points sented a petition with about 15,000 against the struggling Pōhiva govern- signatures. The placards carried ment. And outside Parliament, church slogans such as “cedaw is a Secret leaders were mobilizing their largely Agent of Satan,” “cedaw = 666! Christian flock against what they saw Evil!”, “cedaw go to hell!” and one as a fundamentally immoral and cul- demanded, “‘Akilisi and your cabinet turally insensitive cedaw. to step down!” (Matangi Tonga 2015). Interestingly, this debate came on The most contentious parts of the eve of the twentieth anniversary cedaw were articles 2 and 16. Sec- of the Beijing Declaration and Plat- tion (f) of article 2 suggests that states form for Action, which was the main should “take all appropriate measures, focus of the 59th Session of the UN including legislation, to modify or Commission on the Status of Women abolish existing laws, regulations, held 9–20 March 2015 in New York. customs and practices which consti- Tonga’s delegate to the Beijing confer- tute discrimination against women.” ence was Queen Halaevalu Mata‘aho, This is reinforced by section (g), which the queen mother. This high-profile urges states “to repeal all national representation may have been politi- penal provisions which constitute cally and culturally symbolic, but it discrimination against women.” These did not translate into transformation provisions were seen as demanding on the ground. changes in domestic laws and the In Tonga’s Parliament, debate was constitution, a move that was felt to fierce as Pōhiva was quizzed about his be potentially antagonistic to tradition intent and about whether the United and stability. There was a feeling that Nations recognized Tonga’s reserva- it was not proper to change local laws tions over some articles in cedaw. just to fulfill the demands of a “for- The prime minister finally succumbed eign” declaration. to pressure and declared that the gov- The interpretation of article 16, ernment was prepared to withdraw the especially sections (b) and (h), was ratification by suggesting that “we will even more controversial. Section write a letter” to the United Nations (b) talks of women and men having (Fonua 2015a). Pōhiva was reminded “the same right freely to choose a by another parliamentarian that once spouse and enter into marriage only a country signs a convention, it is not with their free and full consent” and possible to withdraw. section (h) seeks to ensure “the same Tonga was the only Pacific country rights for both spouses in respect of where there were large-scale anti- the ownership, acquisition, manage- cedaw public protests. On 19 May ment, administration, enjoyment and 2015, the Catholic Women’s League disposition of property, whether free marched to Parliament to show its of charge or for a valuable consider- opposition to what it saw as an ation.” Section (b) was interpreted by political reviews • polynesia 185 critics as an endorsement of same-sex the years, Christianity has helped to marriage and even marriage with shape the moral and ethical prism animals, while section (h) was seen as through which Tongans see issues a threat to the patriarchal system of such as gender and human rights and domination relating to titles and land- it has often been used as justification ownership, threatening the very core for patriarchal dominance. cedaw is of Tongan political masculinity. seen as anti-Christian because of its The debates during bowl ses- demand for gender equality, which sions and in the public domain were is assumed to be against the biblical quite robust and manifested a deep teaching of subservience of women. ideological division within the largely cedaw was also interpreted as anti- conservative society. Debates on social thetical to constitutionally enshrined media including blogs involved both cultural practices such as male-based local and diasporic Tongans taking landownership, an important anchor sides in very passionate and often of monarchic stability and power. personalized ways. Some denounced With the failure to ratify cedaw, cedaw as anti-culture and anti- Tonga was back to square one in religion as well as a slur on Tongan terms of formal recognition of gen- identity. cedaw supporters saw the der equality. However, despite this, convention as liberating for women changes have been noticeable at from the patriarchal hegemony of another level. Tongan women have traditional Tongan society. been appointed to important govern- On 15 June, following the protests ment and professional positions. For against cedaw and responding to instance, in the Ministry of Finance public pressure, the king asked the and National Planning, although the government to annul the ratifica- minister and the chief executive officer tion. The official statement by His are both men, the four deputy secre- Majesty in Privy Council was: “We taries (who provide technical and pro- remit to Our Ministers forthwith to fessional support in the areas of bud- proceed as may be necessary to annul geting, project and aid management, the ­Kingdom of Tonga’s signature or policy and planning, and treasury) are ratification of the cedaw Treaty” ­ all women. Other ministries, such as (tonganz.net 2015). the Ministry of Internal Affairs, are In a way, the debates on cedaw headed by women, and the number of disprove a dominant myth about Ton- women scholars and professionals has gan society being ideologically homog- grown exponentially over the years. enous. There are contending views However, there was still concern about culture and identity that have over the lack of women’s participa- shaped the political and cultural con- tion in local and national politics tours of the country in both manifest in Tonga. To this end, a number of and latent ways. Tonga’s transforma- workshops and public campaigns were tion has been shaped by a number of carried out by civil society organiza- interrelated and interdependent forces tions and the Ministry of Internal including Christianity, the monarchy, Affairs. In April 2016, New Zealand and traditional cultural values. Over mp Jenny Salesa, who is of Tongan 186 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) heritage, held a meeting in Nuku‘alofa eight government primary schools that for women interested in standing for ­competed (Matangi Tonga 2016a). local ­government or parliamentary On 16 June 2016, Tonga’s Ministry elections. Salesa told the more than of Women’s Affairs and the Australian fifty women who attended that “there Department of Foreign Affairs and had never been any female representa- Trade organized “a one-day National tion at local government level” and Women’s Forum to discuss the work that even the three current women done on a new National Policy on members of Tonga’s Parliament were Gender and Development (npgd) appointed, not elected. She empha- 2014–18, while mapping out a way sized that “one of the biggest obstacles forward to achieve its aims” (Matangi for Tongan women was themselves.” Tonga 2016b). The main focuses of To illustrate her point, Salesa outlined the policy were family and social what she heard on Radio Tonga after issues; unequal access to employment the 2014 elections: “I’d say about and productive assets; unequal politi- 90 percent of the callers that were cal representation and participation calling in to the radio station said in decision-making; different vulner- along these lines: women’s place is in ability, roles, and capacity to respond the home, women shouldn’t be heads to disasters and environmental and of department, women shouldn’t climate change not properly acknowl- be in parliament, women shouldn’t edged by national strategies; vulner- make decisions including in business able women; and the weak enabling or in parliament. But these 90 per- environment for gender mainstream- cent were phone calls from women” ing. The original policy, launched in (rnz 2016b). December 2002, proclaimed that by The Ministry of Internal Affairs 2025, “all men, women, children and also organized workshops to encour- the families in Tonga should achieve age women to stand for the June 2016 equal access to economic, social, town and district officer elections. political and religious opportunities The ministry’s chief executive officer, and benefits” (Ministry for Informa- Ana Bing Fonua, stated that they were tion and Communications 2014). The looking at options and examples from June 2016 workshop was attended around the region, including Sāmoa’s by representatives of government affirmative action steps toward departments (including the Women’s promoting women’s participation in Division of the Ministry of Internal politics (rnz 2016a). Affairs, Tonga Police, and the Minis- The Women and Children Crisis try of Finance) as well as representa- Centre carried out a number of activi- tives from civil society organizations ties to promote gender equality as well such as the Tonga National Centre as a campaign against family violence. for Women and Children, Women For instance, in May 2016, it hosted and Children Crisis Center, and Girl a chant competition with the theme Guides (Matangi Tonga 2016b). of “Peaceful and Happy Family,” These campaigns seem to have which was won by Lapaha Govern- worked wonders as, for the first time, ment Primary School, out of a total of two women were elected to local political reviews • polynesia 187 government positions on 29 June Women. 1979. Adopted by the UN Gen- 2016. Sisifa Fili became the first-ever eral Assembly, 18 Dec. http://www.un.org/ female district officer of ‘Eua Motu‘a womenwatch/daw/cedaw/ [accessed district, and Vika Kaufusi was elected 21 Sept 2016] as town officer for Haveluloto. Four Fonua, Mary Lyn. 2013. Tonga’s Progress other women collected enough votes on Human Rights Questioned by UN to secure second place, which enabled Working Group. Matangi Tonga, 6 Feb, them to be eligible for positions as updated 9 Sept. http://matangitonga.to/ acting district officer for Hihifo Dis- 2013/02/06/-progress-human-rights trict (Vava‘u) and town officers for -questioned-un-working-group [accessed 21 Sept 2016] Ha‘alalo, Ha‘atafu, and Matamaka, all in Tongatapu. A record 18 women ———. 2015a. Concerns over Ratifica- stood as candidates in the local elec- tion of cedaw. Matangi Tonga, 16 March, tions, including 11 in Tongatapu, 5 in updated 20 March. http://matangitonga .to/ / / /concerns-over-tongas Vava‘u, 1 in Ha‘apai, and 1 in ‘Eua. 2015 03 16 -ratification-cedaw [accessed 21 Sept On 14 July 2016, Akosita Lavulavu 2016] became the first Tongan woman ever to be elected into Parliament after a ———. 2015b. Tonga Ready to Sign by-election in Vava‘u. The seat had cedaw and Move Forward. Matangi Tonga, Feb, updated May. http:// been vacated by her husband, Etuate 23 11 matangitonga.to/2015/02/23/tonga-ready Lavulavu, former minister for tour- -sign-cedaw-and-move-forward [accessed ism, after he was convicted of bribery 21 Sept 2016] charges at the beginning of the year. Ms Lavulavu was the director of the Government of Tonga. 2013. Family Pro- tection Act . http://www.crownlaw ‘Unuaki ‘o Tonga Royal Institute, a 2013 .gov.to/cms/images/LEGISLATION/ tertiary education provider. PRINCIPAL/2013/2013-0018/ Despite the blanket opposition to FamilyProtectionAct2013_1.pdf [accessed cedaw, political consciousness among 21 Sept 2016]Matangi Tonga. 2015. the people can be inspired in other Church Leaders Take Petition to Palace. ways. Grassroots mobilization has the 22 May; updated 25 May. http:// potential to transform society from matangitonga.to/2015/05/22/church beneath the conservative hegemonic -leaders-take-petition-palace [accessed institutions such as the Church, the 21 Sept 2016] monarchy, and Parliament. During ———. 2016a. gps Lapaha Wins Chant the year under review, Tonga has for Happy Families. 17 June. http:// shown that this is not only theoreti- matangitonga.to/2016/06/17/gps-lapaha cally conceivable but also empirically -wins-chant-happy-families [accessed workable. 22 Sept 2016] steven ratuva ———. 2016b. Women’s Forum Meets on Gender Policy Development. 16 June; updated 29 June. http://matangitonga.to/ 2016/06/16/womens-forum-meets-gender References -policy-development [accessed 22 Sept 2016] cedaw, Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Ministry of Information and Communica- 188 the contemporary pacific • 29:1 (2017) tions. 2014. Launching of Revised Gender Sevele, Feleti. 2015. Lord Sevele: The and Development Policy. Keynote address ­Government I Led Opposed cedaw. by Minister for Internal Affairs, 28 May. Matangi Tonga, 17 March; updated http://www.mic.gov.to/news-today/press 15 July. http://matangitonga.to/2015/03/ -releases/4962-ministers-remarks-on-the 17/lord-sevele-government-i-led-opposed -official-launching-of-revised-national -cedaw [accessed 22 Sept 2016] -policy-on-gender-and-development-a tonganz.net. . Tupou VI Has Declared -strategic-development-plan [accessed 2015 Tonga Government’s Decision to Ratify 22 Sept 2016] cedaw Unconstitutional. 30 June. http:// rnz, Radio New Zealand. 2013. Tonga www.tonganz.net/home/tupou-vi-has Women Urge Government to Work on -declared-tonga-governments-decision-to Gender Equality. 4 Feb. http://www -ratify-cedaw-unconstitutional/ [accessed .radionz.co.nz/international/pacific 22 Sept 2016] -news/209982/tonga-women-urge -government-to-work-on-gender-equality UN ohchr, United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. [accessed 21 Sept 2016] 2013a. Report of the Working Group on ———. 2016a. Tonga to Explore Parlia- the Universal Periodic Review: Tonga. mentary Quotas for Women. 2 May. 21 May. http://www.refworld.org/docid/ http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/ 51a496454.html [accessed 21 Sept 2016] pacific-news/302783/tonga-to-explore -parliamentary-quotas-for-women ———. 2013b. Universal Periodic Review: [accessed 22 Sept 2016] Media Brief, 21 Jan. http://www.ohchr.org/ EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/Highlights21 ———. 2016b. Tongan Women Encour- January2013pm.aspx [accessed 21 Sept aged to Enter Politics. 18 April. http:// 2016] www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific -news/301753/tongan-women-encouraged -to-enter-politics [accessed 21 Sept 2016]