Land, Law and History: Actors, Networks and Land Reform in Solomon Islands Joseph Daniel Foukona November 2017 An informal market house at Jackson Ridge, Honiara, 2013 A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The Australian National University ©Joseph Daniel Foukona, 2017 All Rights Reserved i STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY The work presented in this thesis is, to the best of my knowledge, my own original work, except where acknowledged in the text. Joseph Daniel Foukona ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, the Australian National University ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this thesis would not have been possible without the tremendous assistance of various individuals. I owe an immense debt of gratitude to my supervisory panel, Associate Professor Chris Ballard, Professor Daniel Fitzpatrick and Dr. Rebecca Monson. They not only provided guidance and feedback on my PhD but also treated me as a colleague and were instrumental in connecting me to other scholars in their professional and personal networks within and beyond the ANU community. I thank Chris for readily accepting to supervise me from the inception to the completion of this thesis; for his continuous guidance as well as personal and academic support before and during my PhD candidature; for his willingness to discuss my drafts; and for his advices and criticism. I am also grateful for his humane understanding of my personal struggles and problems. Chris has not just been a supervisor, but a mentor, colleague and friend – someone that I have learnt a lot from in my personal and professional development, I wholeheartedly thank him. I thank Daniel and Rebecca for accepting to be supervisors on my panel. I had discussions with Daniel and Rebecca about doing a PhD at ANU and both encouraged me to apply for a scholarship. I am thankful for their continuous discussions, guidance and robust critiques of my draft chapters. Both Daniel and Rebecca are not only supervisors but also mentors, and colleagues who helped me to develop a research interest in law and development. I have benefitted a lot from working under their supervision, and so I thank them sincerely. I would also like to extend a word of gratitude to Kylie Moloney from the Pacific Manuscript Bureau at ANU for her assistance in finding and supplying archival materials iii relevant to my research, and facilitating the access of archival materials from other places within Australia and abroad; to the ANU staff from Menzies, Chiefly and Hancock libraries for helping me find primary and secondary materials from the various library collections - their guidance and assistance made it much easier for me to find the relevant materials that I need for my research; to the library staff in the ANU special collection that facilitated inter- library loans and scanning of materials that were not available at the ANU libraries - I thank you all. The National Library of Australia allowed me to peruse materials in their collection, while the Auckland University Library hosted me for two weeks and gave me access to their Western Pacific High Commission collections. The University of Melbourne Archives scanned materials from Peter Brett’s collection and emailed them to me. The Department of Special Collections, Bodleian Library University of Oxford scanned papers from Frederick Richard K. Kitto collection and emailed them to me. The Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress in Washington D.C allowed access and scanning of Sir Frederick Beaumont Phillips documents in the Margaret Mead papers. I also undertook archival research at Solomon Islands National Archives for three weeks, where the staff assisted me in finding colonial files for useful nuggets of information. Staff from these various institutions assisted my research in important ways, and for that I say thank you! My other thanks go to the following Scholars who showed a keen interest in my research and offered helpful advice and suggestions: Dr. John Cox, Dr. Robin Hide, Dr. Jim Fingleton, Mr. James Batley; Dr. Majorie Sullivan; and Dr. Ian Heath. I extend my thank you also to: Dr. Matthew Allen and Dr. Sinclair Dinnen, whom I always met along the corridors of Coombs to share my ideas, and who showed a keen interest in discussing points of interest, gave advice, commented on some of my chapter drafts and directed me to valuable sources. iv I thank Dr. David Lawrence for reading a draft of chapter 3 and Dr. Ian Scales for reading a draft of chapter 4. I have benefited from their feedback. Special thanks are also due to Mr. Nicholas Mortimer and Dr. Katerina Teaiwa for their hospitality and continuous support by providing transport during the first two years of my PhD when I was on crutches; to Dr. Siobhan McDonnell and Lawrence who kindly helped to smooth my transition from a tropical climate to cold Canberra. Siobhan is not only a friend but a colleague whose continuous assistance and challenging discussions have been invaluable in so many ways, so I thank her. I also express my appreciation to the Australian Government for providing me with a scholarship to do a PhD at ANU. The School of Culture, History and Language (CHL) at ANU also awarded a research grant which was vital for undertaking fieldwork in Solomon Islands and photocopying or scanning of archival materials from the Solomon Islands National Archives and elsewhere. My deepest thanks to Jo Bushby, who was instrumental in making sure I was on top of my milestones as well as providing guidance and help with administrative issues. Thank you also to Karina Pelling who assisted me with the cartography work. I am very grateful to Brigid Ballard for kindly accepting to edit my draft thesis and spending many hours reading through it to ensure clarity and that it is a better read. During my fieldwork in Solomon Islands, many people gave their time and talked with me at relatively short notice. In Honiara thanks are due to Hon. John Nano, Genesis Kofana (national land consultant at the Prime Minister’s Office), Waeta Ben (former Minister of Lands and Law Reform Commissioner), Philip Kanairara at the Law Reform Office, Pamela Wild, Stanley Waleanisia (PS Ministry of Lands), Donald Kudu (former PS Ministry of Lands); Alan McNeil (Technical Adviser, Ministry of Lands); Francis Orodani (former Minister of Lands). Others that I have had email conversations with were Tony Hughes, Peter v Larmour, Jeffrey Moore and David Ruthven (former officers, Ministry of Lands in the 1970s); and Lenore Hamilton. I thank all of these people for their time and understanding. My thanks also go to the following: Ernest Enori and people from Wanderer for welcoming me to their village and assisting me with my fieldwork; Fr. James Angisia and Fr. John Adai for hosting and providing accommodation at Buma Catholic station; Jimmy Kutu from Asaimana for providing transport and assisting with setting up interviews with people from Baunani area; and landowners from Honiara for taking time to meet with me and discuss land issues in and around Honiara. I have been fortunate to benefit from many ‘tok stori’ conversations over the years with Paul Roughan and Dr. Philip Tagini. Both have shown not only an interest in my work but also shared their invaluable knowledge and experiences on land issues in Solomon Islands. I am grateful to share my PhD learning experience at various stages with friends Nicholas Halter, Dario Di Rosa, Jenny Homerang, Bruma Rios, Michelle Rooney, George Carter, Luke Forau, Jack Maebuta, Lincy Pendeverana, Greg Nimbtik, and Terence Wood. I thank my parents late Ben Luciano Foukona and Antonia Angisifonu for being part of my life and education journey, family members and friends from Solomons and elsewhere for their continuous encouragement and prayers which kept me grounded and motivated to complete the thesis. To my dear wife Lucya I thank you for your continuous support, understanding, patience and all round soundness. To my daughter Aurelia who was born mid- way through my PhD candidature, you have brought joy, smiles and inspiration to this scholarly journey – I am so grateful to have you! Finally, though so many people have been part of my PhD journey, I remain solely responsible for any errors contained in this thesis. vi ABSTRACT From the onset of the colonial era, land reform in Solomon Islands has focused on changing customary landholding arrangements so as to improve productivity and stimulate economic growth. Most land in Melanesia remains under customary tenure, which is broadly communal by nature and cannot be alienated without profound social disruption. Customary land, social relations, livelihoods, power structures, knowledge, identity and place are all inter-related in Melanesian life-worlds. This complexity is still poorly understood by those promoting the view that customary land hinders development, and needs to be reformed in order to establish secure property rights and enhance productivity. Land reform has been on the Solomon Islands development agenda for more than a century. Its implementation has always focused on enacting land laws to facilitate the transition of customary land to private property rights regimes. This is founded on a development model based on economic premises that remain largely unchanged since the colonial period. This thesis draws on Actor Network Theory (ANT) as a frame to extend the analysis of land reform in Solomon Islands over a long historical trajectory. Using ANT as a frame in this thesis draws particular attention to the roles and networks of key actors in land reform. Land reform has often been reduced to questions of land registration and land recording. But in Solomon Islands, as elsewhere in Melanesia, the explicit focus in land reform narratives is on ‘unlocking the potential of land held under customary tenure’, because it is assumed that land is ‘locked up’ under custom.