KASTOM, PROPERTY AND IDEOLOGY LAND TRANSFORMATIONS IN MELANESIA KASTOM, PROPERTY AND IDEOLOGY LAND TRANSFORMATIONS IN MELANESIA EDITED BY SIOBHAN MCDONNELL, MATTHEW G. ALLEN AND COLIN FILER STATE, SOCIETY AND GOVERNANCE IN MELANESIA SERIES Published by ANU Press The Australian National University Acton ACT 2601, Australia Email: [email protected] This title is also available online at press.anu.edu.au National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Title: Kastom, property and ideology : land transformations in Melanesia / Siobhan McDonnell (editor); Matthew G. Allen (editor); Colin Filer (editor). ISBN: 9781760461058 (paperback) 9781760461065 (ebook) Series: State, society and governance in Melanesia. Subjects: Land use, Urban--Melanesia. Land tenure--Melanesia. Land reform--Melanesia--Political aspects. Religion and culture--Melanesia. Melanesia--Religious life and customs. Melanesia--Social life and customs. Other Creators/Contributors: McDonnell, Siobhan, editor. Allen, Matthew G., editor. Filer, Colin, editor. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Cover design and layout by ANU Press. Cover photograph by Michelle Nayahamui Rooney. This edition © 2017 ANU Press Contents Tables . vii Figures . ix Contributors . xi Foreword . xiii 1 . Powers of Exclusion in Melanesia . 1 Colin Filer, Siobhan McDonnell and Matthew G . Allen 2 . Urban Melanesia: The Challenges of Managing Land, Modernity and Tradition . 57 Sarah Mecartney and John Connell 3 . Urban Land in Solomon Islands: Powers of Exclusion and Counter‑Exclusion . 85 Joseph D . Foukona and Matthew G . Allen 4 . ‘There’s Nothing Better than Land’: A Migrant Group’s Strategies for Accessing Informal Settlement Land in Port Moresby . 111 Michelle Nayahamui Rooney 5 . Informal Land Markets in Papua New Guinea . 145 Gina Koczberski, Georgina Numbasa, Emmanuel Germis and George N . Curry 6 . The Formation of a Land Grab Policy Network in Papua New Guinea . 169 Colin Filer 7 . Oil Palm Development and Large‑Scale Land Acquisitions in Papua New Guinea . 205 Jennifer Gabriel, Paul N . Nelson, Colin Filer and Michael Wood 8 . The Political Ramifications of Papua New Guinea’s Commission of Inquiry . 251 Colin Filer with John Numapo 9 . Urban Land Grabbing by Political Elites: Exploring the Political Economy of Land and the Challenges of Regulation . 283 Siobhan McDonnell 10 . Making the Invisible Seen: Putting Women’s Rights on Vanuatu’s Land Reform Agenda . 305 Anna Naupa 11 . From Colonial Intrusions to ‘Intimate Exclusions’: Contesting Legal Title and ‘Chiefly Title’ to Land in Epi, Vanuatu . 327 Rachel E . Smith 12 . Landownership as Exclusion . 357 Victoria Stead 13 . The Politics of Property: Gender, Land and Political Authority in Solomon Islands . 383 Rebecca Monson 14 . Afterword: Land Transformations and Exclusion across Regions . .405 Philip Hirsch Tables Table 4.1 Weekly rental costs for two- and three-bedroom houses in different suburbs of Port Moresby (in PNG kina, at constant 2010 prices), 1985–2010. .114 Table 4.2 Sale prices for two- and three-bedroom houses in different suburbs of Port Moresby (in PNG kina, at constant 2010 prices), 1985–2010 ...................115 Table 4.3 Sale prices of investment-style properties (in PNG kina, at constant 2010 prices), 1985–2010. .115 Table 5.1 Wewak settlement characteristics ...................152 Table 5.2 Cooter’s concept of property law in PNG .............158 Table 7.1 Summary of the process intended by government (since approximately 2003) for large-scale agricultural developments in Papua New Guinea, and the variations that have occurred ..................................208 Table 7.2 Proposed oil palm projects associated with special agricultural and business leases in Papua New Guinea .......211 Table 7.3 Developers of proposed oil palm projects associated with special agricultural and business leases in Papua New Guinea ...214 Table 8.1 Agro-forestry projects whose leases were recommended for revocation in June 2013 but were not listed for revocation in July 2014. 267 Table 10.1 Timeline for gender advocacy efforts, 2006–13 ........315 vii Figures Figure 4.1 Map of Port Moresby, 2013, showing location of ATS settlement ..................................113 Figure 4.2 Google Earth image of ATS settlement, 2013, with cadastral overlay ................................120 Figure 4.3 Cemetery of customary landowners on Portion 698, with Maso Henao’s grave in the centre of the picture ........125 Figure 5.1 Location of study sites ...........................150 Figure 6.1 Format of notices advertising the grant of special agricultural and business leases in the National Gazette .......175 Figure 7.1 Volume of raw log exports from areas covered by FCAs granted to developers of agro-forestry projects, 2007–2015 ...217 Figure 7.2 Location of SABLs and potential logging concessions in Ijivitari District, Oro Province .......................224 Figure 7.3 Location of SABLs and potential logging concessions in part of Pomio District, East New Britain Province ........232 Figure 7.4 Division of the Sigite-Mukus project area into six blocks, with the location of Bairaman, Lau and Mauna council wards in Block 2 ........................................236 Figure 7.5 Forest cleared for cultivation of oil palm in Portion 196C, February 2015 .......................239 Figure 9.1 Leases on Efate Island as at 2015 ...................286 Figure 9.2 Lease titles allocated to staff over state land leased near Independence Park, including two houses ............295 ix KASTOM, PropertY AND IDEOLOGY Figure 9.3 Lease titles allocated to staff over parkland, existing Nasara areas and cultural sites adjacent to Seaside show ground ................................296 Figure 9.4 Lease title issued by Minister Steven Kalsakau to his son Periaso Kalsakau. .296 Figure 11.1 Map of Vanuatu, showing the location of Lamen Bay ...329 Figure 11.2 Registered land and ‘native reserves’ on Epi Island .....338 Figure 11.3 Two major land dispute boundaries, Lamen Bay, c. 2012. 341 Figure 11.4 Model of land boundaries according to tribunal judgement ...............................349 x Contributors Matthew G. Allen is a Fellow in the State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Program at The Australian National University. John Connell is Professor of Human Geography in the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney. George N. Curry is Professor of Geography in the Department of Planning and Geography at Curtin University. Colin Filer is an Associate Professor in the Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University. Joseph D. Foukona is a Lecturer in the School of Law at the University of the South Pacific and a PhD candidate at The Australian National University. Jennifer Gabriel is a Research Fellow in The Cairns Institute at James Cook University. Emmanuel Germis is a socio-economic researcher at the Papua New Guinea Oil Palm Research Association in Kimbe. Philip Hirsch is Professor of Human Geography in the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney. Gina Koczberski is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Planning and Geography at Curtin University. Siobhan McDonnell is a Research Fellow in the National Centre for Indigenous Studies and the State Society and Governance in Melanesia Program at The Australian National University. xi KASTOM, PropertY AND IDEOLOGY Sarah Mecartney was formerly the Pacific Programme Manager of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), and is currently an independent consultant specialising in urban development, investment and policy. Rebecca Monson is a Lecturer in the College of Law at The Australian National University. Anna Naupa was formerly a Senior Program Manager in AusAID’s Vanuatu Land Program, and is currently a policy adviser in the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat. Paul N. Nelson is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Studies at James Cook University. John Numapo was formerly the Chief Magistrate of Papua New Guinea, and is currently the Chief Magistrate of Solomon Islands. Georgina Numbasa is a Lecturer in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Geography at the University of Papua New Guinea. Michelle Nayahamui Rooney is a Research Fellow in the Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University. Rachel E. Smith is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at Stanford University. Victoria Stead is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin University. Michael Wood is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology, Archaeology and Sociology at James Cook University. xii Foreword Access to land remains central to the livelihoods of Melanesians. I welcome this important volume and the contribution that it makes to the discussion of land issues in the Melanesian region. The movement for independence in various Melanesian countries was galvanised by the demand to return alienated land to the indigenous populations. The constitutions of Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands reflect this aspiration by retaining customary control over most land. In Vanuatu, for example, the Constitution has specifically maintained the jurisdiction of customary institutions over land. Since Independence, however,