Political Reviews

Micronesia in Review: Issues and Events, 1 July 2016 to 30 June 2017 michael lujan bevacqua, elizabeth ua ceallaigh bowman, monica c labriola, clement yow mulalap

Polynesia in Review: Issues and Events, 1 July 2016 to 30 June 2017 peter clegg, lorenz gonschor, margaret mutu, chris nobbs, ‘umi perkins, steven ratuva, forrest wade young

The Contemporary Pacic, Volume 30, Number 1, 125–213 © 2018 by University of Hawai‘i Press

125 Polynesia in Review: Issues and Events, 1 July 2016 to 30 June 2017

Reviews of American Sāmoa, Cook associate members since 2006, was Islands, Niue, Sāmoa, Tokelau, upgraded to full membership in the Tuvalu, and Wallis and Futuna organization (pir, 10 Sept 2016). are not included in this issue. While appearing at first glance a gesture of appreciation toward the French Polynesia two large French overseas possessions The year under review was again by their independent Pacific neighbors, relatively calm, without major politi- full membership for French Polyne- cal upheavals. Backed by a surpris- sia—as for New Caledonia—was in ingly stable majority in the Assembly fact highly controversial, both within of French Polynesia for his Tapura the country and among the larger Huiraatira party, President Édouard Pacific community. The government of Fritch continued leading the coun- French Polynesia and especially Presi- try with an essentially conservative dent Fritch, who was present in Pohn- political agenda, not aiming at major pei, surely expressed their satisfaction institutional or policy changes. On the and joy to have at last reached formal regional level, the country gained the equality with the neighbor countries, controversial distinction of becoming as did the president of New Caledo- a full member of the Pacific Islands nia’s government, Philippe Germain. Forum (pif). National elections in But, just like the Kanak pro-inde- France brought some fresh air into the pendence parties in New Caledonia, local political scene, giving Fritch’s Papeete’s pro-independence opposi- camp the opportunity to measure tion strongly opposed full member- its popular support, while the pro- ship and had in fact lobbied against independence opposition was able to it as much as possible (rnz, 11 Sept place its first-ever representative in 2016). Opposition leader and former the French National Assembly. At the French Polynesia President Oscar same time, the massive reconfiguration Temaru, head of the pro-independence of the political scene in Paris during Tavini Huiraatira party and the larger those elections has the potential to opposition coalition Union pour induce changes in the local configura- la Démocratie (upld), had always tions in Papeete over the coming years. warned that premature membership The first consequential political before having reached either indepen- event affecting the territory dur- dence or full self-government could ing the review period happened far jeopardize or at least slow down the away on Pohnpei in the Federated decolonization process, since it weak- State of Micronesia, where the pif ens the position of the Island states annual meeting took place from 8 to to put pressure on France in order 10 September 2016, and the status of to accelerate that process, making French Polynesia and New Caledonia, it more attractive to local leaders to

156 political reviews • polynesia 157 insist on complete decolonization as a non-Western powers (rnz, 14 Sept precondition for full pif membership. 2016; otr, 18 Sept 2016). Indeed, the acceptance of the two Armed with pif membership as territories as full members clearly evidence of tacit regional approval contradicts the self-definition of the of the country’s current relationship Pacific Islands Forum as consisting with France, in early October 2016 of “independent and self-governing Fritch attended the meeting of the states” (pif Secretariat 2017). This United Nations’ Special Commit- makes sense, since in only partially tee on Decolonization in New York self-governing territories such as to lobby for the removal of French French Polynesia, the colonial metrop- Polynesia from the United Nations olis—France, in this case—continues list of Non-Self-Governing Territories to have decisive influence. And it must (nsgts), to which it had been re-added be recalled that the pif was founded in in 2013. Fritch, the first-ever pro- 1971 specifically to create an organi- French local political leader to attend zation run by Island leaders in which such a meeting, argued that since colonial powers (specifically France, pro-French parties held the majority in with its extremely reactionary colonial the local assembly, decolonization was policies at the time) had no possibil- not desired by the local people, and ity to interfere (Fry 2015, 3–4). Since furthermore, that acceptance into the according to the organic law of French Pacific Islands Forum demonstrated Polynesia foreign affairs is an area of that such a process was unnecessary responsibility of the French national (pir, 4 Oct 2016). government and not of the semiauton- But this turned out to be a futile omous country government, the latter undertaking. Without checkbook- cannot make its own decisions in this wielding regional hegemons like Aus- field without prior approval from tralia and New Zealand in the room, a Paris. Hence, decolonization experts body run entirely by nonaligned coun- warned that membership for French tries of the Global South like the UN Polynesia and New Caledonia would Decolonization Committee was not be tantamount to a Trojan horse for easily impressed by Fritch’s efforts. France to enter the Pacific Islands Furthermore, the pro-French party Forum (otr, 19 Sept 2016). Tahoeraa Huiraatira of former Presi- It was also suspected that Australia dent Gaston Flosse, the third force in and New Zealand, whose geopo- the local assembly, from which Fritch’s litical interests appear to align ever movement had split in 2015, publicly more closely with those of France, disavowed Fritch’s New York mission were exerting pressure on the smaller and denied his authority to speak for island states to accept this de facto all “autonomist” (ie, anti-indepen- membership of France, in order to dence) locals (ti, 3 Oct 2016). Unlike obtain a further ally to support their the Pacific Islands Forum, the United neocolonial regional hegemony in the Nations would not bend its rules on Pacific Islands Forum and to contain decolonization. And as these rules the ramifications of Fiji’s alternative stand, only a UN-supervised referen- partnerships with China and other dum of self-determination, resulting in 158 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018) either independence, free association, als” and requested UN authorities to or full integration (ie, becoming an monitor the impact of French nuclear administrative unit of metropolitan testing on the territory’s environ- France in this case) would lead to ment and its people’s health (United a removal from the list. In the end, Nations 2016). Moetai Brotherson, Tavini Huiraati- Meanwhile, back home, the ghosts ra’s representative at the Decoloniza- of the past were catching up with tion Committee meeting, provided President Fritch, reminding everyone more convincing counterpoints at the that, despite his efforts to style himself meeting, highlighting the fact that the as a new, rational, and forward-look- country’s “relisting on the UN list ing leader in local politics, he was far in 2013 gave France bad reasons to from a blank slate, as in late Septem- want us in the Forum, but at the same ber he was sentenced to repay 6.5 time gave our Pacific brothers a noble million cfp francs in salaries that he motivation to welcome us in” (otr, 7 had received for a “fictional employ- Oct 2016). ment” in the presidential office under Based on a draft prepared by Flosse between 1996 and 2004, part the Decolonization Committee, the of a large scheme of illegal funding UN General Assembly unanimously of Tahoeraa (Pacnews, 1 Oct 2016). adopted Resolution 71-120 on the (One hundred cfp francs is approxi- question of French Polynesia on 6 mately us$1.00.) Flosse himself and December 2016. While taking note of several others were sentenced to pay pif membership for the territory, the back an overall sum of 243 million resolution once more chastised France cfp francs to the public treasury (ti, for refusing to cooperate and submit 22 Sept 2016). information on the territory—this was But apparently this type of behavior the third year in a row that French was not confined to the recent past, Polynesia was the only nsgt for which as in mid-October, Flosse and Assem- the administrative power refused to bly Speaker Marcel Tuihani, Fritch’s submit any information, in violation successor as Flosse’s lieutenant party of its obligation to do so under article leader, were detained for questioning 73e of the UN charter. As in the year about a current suspected “fictional before, the UN General Assembly employment” of four Tahoeraa party urged France to work with both the members at the assembly’s secre- territory and appropriate UN bodies tariat, at a combined annual salary to educate the people on their right of of over 36 million cfp francs (pir, self-determination and to implement it 15 Oct 2016). Just a few days earlier, without delay. In addition, this year’s Flosse and his partner Pascale Haiti resolution contained much stronger had been sentenced to pay a fine of 3 language in support of the country’s million cfp francs for stealing expen- economic and ecological rights, under- sive silverware from the presidential lining “the permanent sovereignty of palace after Flosse’s removal from the the people of French Polynesia over presidency due to the confirmation their natural resources, including of another corruption conviction on marine resources and undersea miner- appeal in 2014 (rnzi, 12 Oct 2013). political reviews • polynesia 159

While corruption remains rampant include Flosse’s “pharaonic” tourism in local politics, the overall economic development project named Mahana situation is not improving either. Beach, continued by Fritch but still French subsidies to the local govern- in little more than its planning stage; ment and other monetary transfers a Chinese-run aquaculture farm in from Paris remain the lifeline of the the lagoon of Hao atoll that is under country. In August 2016, French High construction (ti, 21 June 2017); and, Commissioner René Bidal announced more recently, plans to reopen phos- the possible increase of annual grants phate mining on Makatea, where from Paris to the country government such mining operations existed until to 10.8 billion cfp francs, based on an the 1960s, and possibly on other obligation to compensate French Poly- Tuamotu islands as well (ti, 30 Nov nesia for three decades of nuclear test- 2016). More eccentric is a project by ing from the 1960s to the 1990s (ti, Seasteading Institute, a libertarian 31 Aug 2016). But this figure does not think tank in California, to build a cover various other monetary transfers city of floating islands within French to the territory, for instance, spending Polynesia’s exclusive economic zone as by the French state in areas of respon- a prototype for the envisioned future sibility not delegated to the country creation of such modules on the high government, as well as state subsidies seas beyond the control of any gov- to the municipalities. Altogether, ernment—a project that also received money directed to the territory from President Fritch’s support (ti, 5 Jan Paris one way or another amounts to a 2017). total of far over one billion US dollars On a more practical level, French ­annually. Polynesia also worked on the further As long as France is willing to pay diversification of its foreign relations, these sums, there is a semblance of mainly in order to open up new tourist economic prosperity, but it is certainly markets. In November, the country far from a desirable form of economy. government announced a new French A dynamic private sector providing Polynesia liaison office in St Peters- economic growth has been virtually burg, Russia, which opened in early absent for a long time. As Fritch’s 2017, to advertise more efficiently minister for economic recovery, Teva to the growing upper-class Russian Rohfritsch, succinctly stated, “The tourist market (pir, 14 Nov 2016; whole challenge is to get from an tpm, 24 Feb 2017), while a similar economy of public monetary transfers Canadian office was being built in to an economy of growth” (ti, 10 Oct Papeete (ti, 29 Nov 2016). Not only 2016). are ­significant numbers of Canadi- In order to create such growth, ans ­visiting Tahiti, but there is also Fritch and his predecessors Flosse, a growing Tahitian diaspora in the Temaru, and Tong Sang have all francophone part of Canada. tried to attract investment in various More controversial are the Fritch development schemes, but it appears government’s projects to implement none of them has yet yielded signifi- neoliberal “reforms” aimed at reduc- cant revenue for the country. These ing social security systems and ser- 160 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018) vices, which have never been as well life of French painter Paul Gauguin, organized as in metropolitan France. with most scenes filmed on location Since the gap between rich and poor in Tahiti (ti, 3 Jan 2017). Ironically, has already been widening dramati- while Gauguin’s legacy in Tahiti was cally over the last few years, such celebrated in cinematography, the measures are sure to provoke major Gauguin Museum, a major tourist protests by trade unions and possible attraction, definitively closed in early social unrest (tpm, 28 Oct 2016). 2017—a move beyond comprehen- At the same time, the widening of sion in terms of tourism development social inequalities inevitably leads to strategy (tpm, 16 June 2017). further deterioration of social values.­ Back to politics, the simmering During the review period, various­ issue of Marquesan secession received criminal court cases took place new impetus during the review period, involving domestic violence, includ- as apparently the mayors of all six ing pedophile abuse and other sexual municipalities in the archipelago have aggressions. As if all of this was not now agreed to lobby Paris to sepa- enough, Islamic extremism was being rate their archipelago from the rest of imported from France into the local French Polynesia to become its own Nuutania prison, where a Polynesian French overseas entity. Both Fritch inmate who had become an adherent and Temaru, in a rare display of unity, of jihadist Islam in a jail in France denounced the proposal, as had Flosse repeatedly attacked his cellmates and in the past (rnzi, 30 Nov 2016). guards and had to be put into solitary While this issue will probably confinement (ti, 1 Sept 2016). remain in a standoff for years to come, On a more positive note, toward the upcoming French presidential and the end of the year Walt Disney Cor- parliamentary elections started having poration announced that its Polyne- major repercussions on local politics sian-themed, animated juvenile film after the beginning of the New Year. Moana would be dubbed entirely in Receiving ever-lower ratings, incum- Tahitian, including all song texts, and bent François Hollande decided not to the Tahitian version of the film would run again for the French presidency, be released in local theaters in early and since both his Socialist party and 2017. While the small target audience the center-right Gaullist Republicans would not make this commercially presented weak candidates, a lot of viable for Disney, the corporation attention began to be paid to Marine intended to make a positive contribu- Le Pen of the far-right National Front, tion to cultural preservation in the who was considered to be within Pacific, part of a campaign to improve reach of the presidency. its image among indigenous commu- In New Caledonia the National nities that have often accused Disney Front has always been supported by and other Hollywood firms of exploit- the most reactionary faction of French ing their culture without giving any- settlers and accordingly opposes any thing back (ti, 24 Oct 2016). Around steps toward decolonization there. It the same time, a French film studio has similarly opposed decolonization was producing a movie about the in French Polynesia, where the party political reviews • polynesia 161 has no significant support base, mainly April and 6 May, the results reflected for reasons of French national pres- the local endorsements, with Le Pen tige. But in February 2017, to boost scoring 33 percent in the first round, her support in French Polynesia for and a record 42 percent in the second the upcoming elections, Le Pen made round (much higher figures than in a surprising turn by announcing that France), while Fillon, who placed only if elected she would initiate a process third in France, came in first in French leading to a self-determination refer- Polynesia with 35 percent. The upstart endum after ten to fifteen years, with Emmanuel Macron, who surprisingly a preferred final status of free associa- scored first place on the national level tion in which France would only be in France, was far behind in French responsible for foreign affairs, defense, Polynesia, since he lacked the sup- currency, and judiciary, while irre- port of a major local political party. versibly devolving all other fields of In the runoff against Le Pen, Macron governance to the country government received Tapura’s support, as well as (Polynésie Première, 11 Feb 2017). that of several splinter groups, and Le Pen’s new platform in favor of free locally won with 58 percent, but association happened to be identi- this was still far behind his landslide cal with that of Flosse’s Tahoeraa ­victory figures on the French national Huiraatira party, and indeed Tahoeraa level (ti, 23 April, 7 May 2017). became the official local partner in Le Of more importance for local Pen’s presidential campaign (ti, 27 politics were the French national March 2017; tpm, 7 April 2017). assembly elections that followed on Meanwhile, Fritch’s Tapura, which 3 and 17 June, even though participa- had taken over Tahoeraa’s former tion rates turned out to be similarly position as the Republicans’ local low. The three deputy seats that partner, logically backed the latter’s represent French Polynesia in France’s candidate, François Fillon. Temaru’s lower ­legislative chamber were hotly Tavini-upld, on the other hand, did contested by the three major politi- not endorse any presidential candi- cal ­parties. Boosted by Le Pen’s high date, but Temaru himself announced scores in the previous month, Flosse his candidacy for French president, felt overly confident of winning back not actually hoping to win the vote all three seats (which in fact ­Tahoeraa but rather in order to get access to had won in 2012, but two of the campaign time in the French national deputies had followed Fritch’s 2015 media to advocate for the decoloniza- split and joined Tapura). tion of his country. But in the end, he In the first constituency—compris- was unable to gather the necessary ing the city of Papeete and its eastern five hundred signatures of elected suburbs, as well as Moorea and the officials in at least thirty different Tuamotu and Marquesas archipela- French administrative districts (rnzi, gos—Tapura incumbent Maina Sage 2 March 2017). led the vote in the first round and While less than half of registered successfully defended her seat in the voters participated in the presidential runoff against Tahoeraa candidate elections, held in two rounds on 22 Moana Greig. Former Senator Rich- 162 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018) ard Tuheiava of Tavini-upld did not did not merely commandeer a par- make it to the runoff, because he had liamentary majority of convenience competition from Tauhiti Nena, a but could actually mobilize signifi- former leading upld member who cant electoral support. Flosse’s rump had recently split off and formed his ­Tahoeraa, on the other hand, expe- own party named Tau Hoturau. In rienced not more than a momentary the second constituency (rural Tahiti blip with Le Pen’s high scores—partly and Austral Islands), Tahoeraa loyal- explainable through upld’s boycott of ist incumbent Jonas Tahuaitu did the presidential elections—but in fact not run for reelection, and Tapura’s has once more sunk to a historic low Nicole Sanquer beat the new Tahoeraa point of political power. In between candidate, Teura Iriti, in both rounds, the two election rounds, Flosse’s loss solidly ­taking over Tahoeraa’s last of power continued, since Assembly stronghold for Fritch’s camp. upld’s Speaker Marcel Tuihani Jr (Flosse’s Tina Cross only scored third in the lieutenant and possible successor after first round, while an independent can- Fritch’s desertion), decided to join didate, Tepuaraurii Teriitahi, gained his father, Tahoeraa treasurer Marcel a surprisingly high score and thus Tuihani Sr, in quitting the party to played a role similar to that of Nena become a nonpartisan, making Taho- in the first constituency. eraa lose its last significant political But it was the third constituency— officeholder (ti, 6 June 2017). including the large cities of Faaa and Tavini-upld, on the other hand, Punaauia on Tahiti as well as the was able to profit from the power Leeward Islands—that delivered the struggle between Tapura and Tahoeraa biggest surprise. Tapura incumbent and gain entry to the French national Jean-Paul Tuaiva, damaged by corrup- legislature, an important step in its tion accusations, had declined to run long-term strategy of pushing for again, and his successor as Fritch- the country’s decolonization. While affiliated candidate, Patrick Howell, Temaru had made a blunder with led the vote in the first round with his unsuccessful bid for the French a solid 33 percent. But the second- presidency, he was smart enough to highest score was not Tahoeraa’s keep himself in the distance for the Vincent Dubois, but rather Moetai legislative elections and give Brother- Brotherson of Tavini-upld, and since son a chance to gain a public profile as Dubois decided to endorse Brotherson a possible successor at the helm of the for the runoff, the latter won against pro-independence movement. Unlike Howell and thus became the first local the idealistic but not always practi- pro-independence politician to sit in cally inclined Temaru, Brotherson is the National Assembly (dt, 5 June, 19 a realist intellectual characterized by June 2017). both high moral integrity—one of the An analysis of the election results few local politicians never accused of points to the beginning of a new cycle corruption—and political acumen. On in the ever-revolving local political the very day of his election, Brother- landscape. For Fritch’s Tapura, the son announced supporting a bill in elections proved that the new party the National Assembly that would political reviews • polynesia 163 prohibit all politicians convicted of agreement remains to be negotiated corruption from running for office, (pir, 19 March 2016). Brotherson, a measure that would be particularly on the other hand, found it refreshing useful in French Polynesia. Wearing that Macron had denounced former a floral shirt, sandals, and shorts or French colonial policies as “crimes pareu (wrap kilt) while his National against humanity” during the presi- Assembly colleagues were all dressed dential campaign and saw it as a pos- up in suits and ties, Brotherson imme- sible indication that, unlike Hollande, diately gained French national media the new president might be willing to attention as someone proudly repre- collaborate with the United Nations senting his Polynesian identity in Paris on the territory’s decolonization (ti, (ti, 17 June, 20 June 2017). 17 June 2017). It remains to be seen whether Perhaps the most positive measure Brotherson and his two Tapura col- undertaken by the Hollande govern- leagues Sage and Sanquer will be ment toward the end of its term was able to work constructively with the the amendment to the so-called Morin government of France’s new President Law of 2010 that regulates compen- Macron, whose new party En Marche sation of nuclear test victims, passed also swept the legislative elections on by the National Assembly in Febru- the national level. While Sage and ary (tntv, 9 Feb 2017). Promised by Sanquer joined the national caucus President Hollande during his visit to Les Constructifs (the Constructive the territory a year prior, the amend- Ones) that gathers the remnants of ment deletes a clause in the original the Republicans and other center-right law that had the effect of rendering parties that survived En Marche’s most compensation claims technically sweep, Brotherson and several other “negligible,” so that of the thousands pro-independence deputies from other of irradiation victims, only seven had French overseas regions joined the been awarded compensation under French Communist Party in its new the terms of the law—a fact that the caucus, Gauche Démocrate et Répub- two largest test victims associations, licaine (Democratic and Republican Moruroa e Tatou (MeT) and Associa- Left). Sage and Sanquer, together with tion 193, had repeatedly denounced President Fritch, are pushing for the (ti, 21 July, 14 Oct 2016). Based on continuation of negotiations with the amendment, the Paris Council of Macron’s government toward the so- State, France’s highest court of appeal, called Papeete Accord, which should ruled on 28 June that all rejected give the country slightly more control cases had to be reexamined and that over domestic affairs and guarantee hitherto a causal relationship between further financial aid but is far from nuclear irradiation and certain types adequate compared to its alleged of cancer must be presumed, unless it counterpart, the Nouméa Accord in has been specifically proven that the New Caledonia (Gonschor 2017, cancer in question had another cause 141–142). Shortly before leaving (ti, 3 July 2017). office, Hollande and Fritch had signed While the amendment is good news a preliminary accord, but a final for the victims of nuclear testing, the 164 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018) test victims lost two of their most in Lyon for several decades, as well ardent advocates during the review as being a cofounder of MeT, Bari- period. On 25 December 2016, John llot had come to Tahiti during one of Taroanui Doom passed away at Temaru’s earlier terms as president age eighty. Besides having been the to serve as the country government’s cofounder and main coordinator of official delegate in charge of the legacy MeT, the country’s oldest nuclear test of nuclear testing and as liaison with victims association, Doom had been the victims associations. In between active in the Evangelical Church of Temaru’s multiple short terms in French Polynesia, the country’s larg- office, when local pro-French par- est denomination, which under his ties were in power and Barillot lost influence became actively opposed his government job, he had usually to nuclear testing and supportive of worked for the Protestant Church decolonization, changing its name to and MeT instead. After being fired Maohi Protestant Church in 2004. once more by Flosse in 2013, Barillot As a lay synod member and church was rehired by the Fritch government administrator, Doom had furthermore in August 2016 (ti, 26 March 2017; worked at the Pacific Conference of tntv, 25 March 2017). Churches and later represented the The country also lost an iconic Pacific churches at the secretariat of figure in local journalism, Alex W Du the World Council of Churches in Prel, who died on 14 March at the age Geneva. In those positions, Doom was of seventy-three. Also known as an instrumental in organizing a global author of short stories, Du Prel started network of solidarity in opposition Tahiti Pacifique Magazine (tpm) in to nuclear testing and in support of 1991. A remarkable one-man opera- its victims. Furthermore, as an excel- tion run out of a small home office off lent orator in Tahitian, Doom was the grid on rural Moorea Island, Du also a founding and lifelong member Prel’s magazine became feared by the of the Tahitian Academy and thus political class for its unwavering inves- played an important part in codify- tigative journalism, often providing ing and modernizing the country’s the initial evidence used in corruption principal indigenous language (ti, 26 trials, and generally giving insights in Dec 2017). Shortly before his passing, social and political issues not offered Doom had succeeded in publishing his by other media (ti, 14 March 2017; memoirs, providing insights into much tpm, 24 March 2017). of the social, political, and cultural life Several long-serving politicians of the territory over the second half of also passed away during the review the twentieth century (Doom 2016). period, including Roger Doom (John’s One of John Doom’s principal brother), who had been mayor of partners in organizing Moruroa e West Taiarapu for most of his life Tatou, French nuclear weapons expert as well as territorial assembly mem- and peace activist Bruno Barillot, ber (ti, 16 Sept 2016); his colleague passed away on 25 March 2017, aged Sylve Perry, long-serving mayor of the seventy-six. Having run a documen- neighboring East Taiarapu munici- tary center on French nuclear arms pality and also a former assembly political reviews • polynesia 165 member (ti, 26 Aug 2016); Joseph news. Honolulu. http://pidp.eastwestcenter Ah-Scha, assembly member from the .org/pireport Marquesas Islands (ti, 25 Jan 2017); Polynésie Première (French Polynesia and Pori Chan, delegate mayor of program of Outre-mer Première, the Kaukura Atoll in the Tuamotus (ti, French government television network for 1 May 2017). Finally, the country overseas departments and collectivities) also mourned two important cultural http:// http://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/ figures, local music producer Alphonse polynesie Vanfau (ti, 28 June 2016) and Wilfrid rnz, Radio New Zealand. Wellington. Pinai Lucas, one of the promoters of Daily radio and Internet news. the Tahitian cultural renaissance dur- http://www.radionz.co.nz ing the end of last century (ti, 31 Jan rnzi, Radio New Zealand International. 2017). Daily radio and Internet news. Wellington. lorenz gonschor http://www.rnzi.com ti, Tahiti Infos. Weekday daily newspaper and Internet news. Tahiti. References http://www.tahiti-infos.com dt, La Depêche de Tahiti. Daily. Tahiti. tntv, Tahiti Nui Television (the country http://www.ladepeche.pf government’s television network) Doom, John Taroanui. 2016. A he‘e noa http://tntv.pf i te tau: Mémoires d’une vie partagée. tpm, Tahiti-Pacifique Magazine. Papeete: Editions Haere Po No Tahiti. ­Fortnightly. Tahiti. Fry, Greg. 2015. Recapturing the Spirit of http://www.tahiti-pacifique.com 1971: Towards a New Regional Political United Nations. 2016. Question of Settlement in the Pacific. ssgm Discussion French Polynesia. Resolution adopted Paper 2015/3. Canberra: State, Society & by the ­General Assembly on 6 Decem- Governance in Melanesia, The Australian ber. UN General Assembly, 71st ses- National University. http://ssgm.bellschool sion. a/res/71/120. http://www.un.org/ .anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/publications/ en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/ attachments/2015-12/DP-2015-3-Fry RES/71/120 [accessed 12 Aug 2017] -ONLINE_0.pdf [accessed 15 Sept 2017] Gonschor, Lorenz. 2017. Polynesia in Review: Issues and Events, 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016: French Polynesia. The Con- Hawai‘i temporary Pacific 29 (1): 134–144. The year under review in Hawai‘i saw otr, Overseas Territories Review. Blog. the traditional Hawaiian voyaging http://overseasreview.blogspot.com canoe Hōkūle‘a and its accompanying Pacnews, Pacific Islands News Association. vessel Hikianalia return to O‘ahu on Daily Internet news. Suva. 17 June 2017 after a three-year, forty- http://pina.com.fj thousand-mile, worldwide ­voyage pif Secretariat. 2017. About Us: Our Staff. dubbed “Mālama Honua” (Care for http://www.forumsec.org/pages.cfm/about the Earth). The voyage circumnavi- -us/executive/ [accessed 17 Aug 2017] gated the Earth using only traditional pir, Pacific Islands Report. Daily Internet Polynesian navigation techniques, 166 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018) reaching 150 ports in twenty-three noted by the New York Times, which countries and territories (pvs 2017). called him an “innovator and a histo- Captain Ka‘iulani Murphy stated, rian on four strings”; “Mr. Kamae was “We really are sailing in their (the one of the most influential Hawaiian ancestors’) wake . . . we had to relearn musicians of the second half of the what our ancestors had mastered” 20th century, at once an innovator and (Civil Beat 2017). Originally trained a diligent steward of folkloric customs. by Satawal’s Mau Piailug, Polynesian He is best remembered as a founder of Voyaging Society President Nainoa the group the Sons of Hawaii, which Thompson noted that traditional made a handful of widely emulated Pacific Islanders “figured it out—how albums in the 1960s and ’70s that set to live well on these islands . . . that the terms for the revivalist movement is the challenge of the time for planet known as the Hawaiian renaissance” earth and all of humanity.” Thomp- (Chinen 2017). Cruz was a longtime son used the attention on Hōkūle‘a’s member of the popular music group return to urge Hawai‘i to become a Ka‘au Crater Boys, and his younger leader on sustainability (Caron 2017). brother, Guy Cruz, also a noted singer, Just as Hōkūle‘a was returning died just a few days after him (Kake- from her voyage, Hawai‘i Governor sako and Berger 2016). David Ige affirmed the state’s com- Politically, Hawai‘i was at the mitment to the Paris Climate Accords, forefront of opposition to newly signing two bills aimed at reducing elected US President Donald Trump’s greenhouse gases in a manner consis- Muslim travel ban, which sought to tent with the Paris agreement. This prohibit travel to the United States was one of Hawai‘i’s perceived acts from seven predominantly Muslim of defiance toward President Donald countries. After Hawai‘i Attorney Trump, who pulled the United States General Douglas Chin filed a motion out of the accords. One news outlet challenging the ban, US District Judge reported: “Mr. Ige, a Democrat in his Derrick Kahala Watson ruled on 15 first term as governor, said in remarks March 2017 that “the Government’s before the signing: ‘We are the testing narrowly defined list [of types of fam- grounds—as an island state, we are ily members allowed to travel] finds especially aware of the limits of our no support in the careful language natural environment’” (Bromwich of the Supreme Court or even in the 2017). immigration statutes on which the Hawai‘i lost celebrated musicians Government relies” (State of Hawai‘i Palani Vaughan, Eddie Kamae, and 2017). Trump-appointed Attorney Ernie Cruz Jr during the period under General Jeff Sessions stated publically review. Vaughan was a well-known his disbelief that “a judge sitting on scholar of King David Kalākaua (who an island in the Pacific” could deter a reigned 1874–1891) and in the 1970s decision of the US president ­(Savage and 1980s he revived interest in the 2017). As a result of his decision, monarch’s period with a four-album Watson received threatening messages series devoted to Kalākaua (khon2 and was put under twenty-four-hour 2016). Kamae’s passing was even protection by the US Marshall Service, political reviews • polynesia 167 which protects federal judicial officials The 2001 case was cited in the (Silva 2017). high-profile pca case Philippines v On 7 July 2017, Judge Watson China regarding the South China ruled against Hawai‘i’s challenge to Sea, and the citing of the 2001 case the revised ban, claiming that only the lends support to the emerging dis- US Supreme Court had the authority course of Hawai‘i as an independent to rule on the case (Somin 2017a), state (Hawaii Kingdom blog 2016). but a week later he issued an injunc- ­Federico Lenzerini, professor of inter- tion against key parts of the travel national law at the University of Siena, ban executive order (Somin 2017b). Italy, is the counsel for the Hawaiian At issue was the definition of “close Kingdom and Dr David Keanu Sai is relatives,” and whether grandparents the kingdom’s agent. Lance Larsen met the qualification for exemptions is represented by attorney Dexter to the travel ban. In his 14 July ruling, Ka‘iama. Professor Francesco Fran- Watson held that grandparents were cioni of the European University Insti- “the epitome” of close relatives. tute in Florence, Italy, is the appoint- In some quarters, it is thought that ing authority, tasked with forming the the fate of Native Hawaiians’ claims International Commission of Inquiry to political sovereignty lies in the for the case. According to the Hawai- international arena. To this purpose, ian Kingdom blog (2017): “The pca proceedings were initiated in the accepted the case as a dispute between Permanent Court of Arbitration (pca) a state and a private party, and in The Hague, Netherlands, for the acknowledged the Hawaiian Kingdom case Larsen v Hawaiian Kingdom. as a non-Contracting Power under This continuation of the Larsen case Article 47 of the 1907 Hague Con- is in the form of a fact-finding Inter- vention for the Pacific Settlement of national Commission of Inquiry. The International Disputes.” initial case stems from 2001. The In the realm of cultural politics, underlying basis of the case is the advocates and opponents of the continued existence of Hawai‘i as an Thirty Meter Telescope (tmt) on independent state. This is based on Mauna Kea, Hawai‘i Island, experi- the fact that Hawai‘i was annexed enced both victories and setbacks as to the United States in 1898, alleg- the courts stalled construction. As edly, through a Joint Resolution of Hawaii News Now pointed out, the Congress, rather than a treaty. As a Mauna Kea movement “has spread unilateral and domestic action, the far beyond the slopes of Mauna Kea. resolution, it is argued, cannot be used Rallies are now springing up around to acquire foreign territory. The new Hawaii, the mainland and around the International Inquiry lends credence world . . . from Oregon to Kentucky, to this argument, and the fact-finding New Mexico, North Dakota, Georgia format does not require the partici- and Massachusetts. There are even pation of the United States, a factor pictures and rallies from Korea, New that had led to the inconclusive result Zealand, England and Germany” of the original Larsen case in 2001 (Gutierrez 2015). Meanwhile, two (Hawaiian Kingdom blog 2015). prominent Hawaiian leaders, includ- 168 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018) ing Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee sibly by a future administration) Peter Apo, claimed to represent a (Blair 2016). “silent majority” of Kanaka ‘Ōiwi In what has become an annual (Native Hawaiians) who support tmt observance, Hawaiians celebrated ­(Richardson 2017). The telescope the Hawaiian Kingdom holiday Lā issue also affected the island of Maui Ho‘iho‘i Ea, Hawaiian Restoration as opponents of a solar telescope there Day, which commemorates the return ­unsuccessfully attempted to block of Hawaiian independence from access to the summit of Haleakalā Britain after a five-month takeover in (Hawaii News Now 2017). 1843. The 2016 observance was held Underlying many of these struggles in downtown Honolulu at Thomas was the question of the political status Square—named for Admiral Rich- of Native Hawaiians. Still mourning­ ard Thomas, who restored Hawai- the passing of movement leader Dr ian sovereignty—before the City and Kekuni Blaisdell in early 2016, the County of Honolulu closed the park Hawaiian sovereignty movement for renovations and transfer to the evaluated its prospects immediately Department of Enterprise Services. after the election of Donald Trump. Renovations will include installing a On 10 November 2016, a Community statue of King Kamehameha III, who Forum on the Future of the Hawai- famously proclaimed on 31 July 1843, ian Nation was held in Honolulu to “Ua mau ke ea o ka ‘āina i ka pono” ­discuss the prospects for Hawaiian (The sovereignty of the land is perpet- self-governance. The forum took the uated in righteousness), which became form of a debate between support- the motto of the Hawaiian Kingdom ers of recognition by the US federal and later the state motto. government and advocates of indepen- Electorally, the Democratic Party dence, and it became quite heated as continued and further entrenched federal ­recognition supporters accused its dominance of the Hawai‘i politi- others of personal attacks over the cal scene. Some credit (others blame) previous few years. The federal the pro-rail, pro-Democrat Pacific recognition position was represented Resources Partnership (prp)—which by attorney Mililani Trask as well as describes itself as “the backbone of Michelle Kauhane and Robin Dan- Hawaii’s construction industry,” and ner, both formerly of the Council as representing “the Hawaii Regional for Native Hawaiian Advancement. Council of Carpenters . . . and over Independence supporters, represented 240 diverse contractors”—for this by Mauna Kea activist Kaho‘okahi dominance (prp [2017]). The group Kanuha, Dr Kala­ ­maoka‘āina Niheu, established a SuperPAC (Political and Dr Kū Kaha­kalau, questioned Action Committee), which allows for whether federal recognition was at all the bundling of campaign donations of feasible under President Trump, given much larger amounts than previously that it was to be achieved by execu- allowed. In December 2016, Pacific tive order. Robin Danner responded Resources Partnership was fined for that the path had been created and failing to disclose its campaign spend- remained open for recognition (osten- ing (Pang 2016). The results of the political reviews • polynesia 169

2016 elections had only three Repub- town Honolulu. A special session of licans victorious in Hawai‘i’s seventy- the Hawai‘i State Legislature was set six-member legislature. Similarly, for 14 August to discuss rail funding Democrats Brian Schatz (US Senate) (Hawaii Independent 2017a). Propos- and Mazie Hirono (US House) won 70 als floated earlier in the year included percent and 68 percent, respectively, of raising the hotel room tax from 9.25 Hawai‘i votes. In the presidential race, percent to 12 percent for ten years and 61 percent of Hawai‘i voters chose diverting some of the neighbor islands’ Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton share of that tax, even though the rail over Republican Donald Trump, who system will only benefit the south and received 29 percent of Hawai‘i votes west shores of O‘ahu (Dayton 2017). (State of Hawai‘i 2016). Due to the bellicose rhetoric of In a close but stunning upset, Keli‘i President Trump and North Korean Akina defeated long-standing trustee leader Kim Jong-un, Hawai‘i civil of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs authorities crafted plans in prepara- (oha) Haunani Apoliona. While tion for a nuclear strike from North Akina’s campaign slogan was “Uniting Korea, including at one point even Hawai‘i,” many viewed his candidacy renovating Cold War–era bun- as divisive, as he opposes both full kers (later determined to be useless independence and US federal govern- [Morales 2017]; see also Hauser ment recognition of Native Hawaiians. 2017). The Hawaii Independent news Akina is director of the Grassroot website ran an editorial critiquing this Institute, which in late 2015 had suc- response: “President Trump recently cessfully prevented the certification of responded to North Korean aggression the results of an election for delegates by boasting that the Kim regime didn’t to a constitutional convention seeking have weapons that could reach the federal recognition. On the Grassroot U.S. mainland. After the Democratic Institute’s appeal of lower court deci- People’s Republic of Korea failed to sions allowing the delegate election launch a missile on April 15, the ‘Day to proceed, the US Supreme Court of the Sun,’ the LA Times and Wash- enjoined the counting of the ballots ington Post repeated Trump’s retort, (Hawai‘i Free Press 2015). Another reassuring Americans that North candidate nearly succeeded in ­ousting Korea could not reach the U.S. main- the former chair of oha; longtime land and, in so doing, crassly implied sovereignty activist Mililani Trask was that threatened strikes on Hawai‘i narrowly defeated by then-chairperson were of no concern. The reaction Robert Lindsey for the Hawai‘i Island here in Hawai‘i has been [not unlike] seat on the nine-member oha board that of a battered spouse: Hawai‘i of trustees. state representatives have convened a Debate continued over the half- panel to reactivate Cold War nuclear completed, beleaguered us$10 billion shelters. One that was listed as being rail project on the island of O‘ahu. capable of housing 14,000 was not Additional funding was needed for the a bunker at all, but a parking struc- controversial project connecting the ture. Rather than addressing the real “second city” of Kapolei with down- problem—U.S. militarism in Hawai‘i, 170 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018) which puts us all in harm’s way—our Hawaiians. The 1850 Kuleana Act ‘leaders’ seek the protection of their provided a means for maka‘āinana battering spouse (protection that (commoners) to divide out these rights consists, at present, of a very unreli- and gain a fee-simple title to the lands able missile defense system)” (Hawaii under their cultivation. Zuckerberg Independent 2017b). dropped his claims after protest and Hawai‘i experienced both popula- media scrutiny. According to Julia tion and economic growth in 2016. Carrie Wong of London’s Guardian Hawai‘i’s population increased very newspaper, the “Facebook ceo wrote slightly to 1.43 million, and the state’s that he did not understand [the] his- gross domestic product (gdp) rose tory of [the] ‘quiet title’ process, which to $83 billion in 2016, up from $80 many native Hawaiians consider a billion in 2015. The per-capita gdp tool to dispossess them of ‘sacred’ rose from $56,554 in 2015 to $58,742 lands” (Wong 2017). in 2016 (dbet 2016). Much of this Homelessness (called “houseless- growth was tourism and construction- ness” by some [see, eg, Terrell 2016]) driven. Though hotels (accommoda- continued to be a problem as the tion) and construction each repre- median house price on O‘ahu hit sented only $4 billion of the gdp, $795,000 in mid-2017, an all-time they were some of the largest single high (Segal 2017). A recent study sectors and suggest a fairly diverse found that Native Hawaiians are economy. Development continued in disproportionately represented in the the Kaka‘ako region of Honolulu, state’s homeless population (hud with construction and plans for more 2017). Plans to address the issue than twenty high-rise residential tow- included a “pu‘uhonua” (refuge) ers. Although stretching back decades, development in Kahauiki, near the plans for workforce housing were Daniel K Inouye International Airport. mainly supplanted by luxury condo Some of the economic changes are development, with single units sell- related to the long-term transition ing near, or in many cases, over $1 from sugar to a diversified, tourism- million, and as high as $36 million and construction-driven economy. (Bruner 2016). Hawai‘i’s very last sugar plantation, On Kaua‘i, Facebook founder and at Pu‘unēnē in Central Maui, closed Chief Executive Officer (ceo) Mark at the end of 2016. Sugar was first Zuckerberg drew the ire of Native produced commercially in the Hawai- Hawaiians when he filed multiple ian Kingdom in 1835 and became the “quiet title” claims against hundreds dominant industry for nearly a century of Hawaiian landowners whose own- and a half before beginning a slow ership claims stretch back to the origin decline. According to Robert Osgood of private property rights in 1850. of the Hawai‘i Agricultural Research During the period of the privatiza- Center, “Hawaii produced over a mil- tion of land in Hawai‘i (1840–1855), lion tons of sugar per year for over 50 kuleana (usually translated as “native years. At one time that was 20 percent tenant rights”) constituted both a right of all the sugar that was consumed to, and responsibility over, land for in the United States” (Honolulu political reviews • polynesia 171

Star-Advertiser 2016a). The planta- she deserves it. I feel bad for her tion’s owner, Alexander & Baldwin (a because she should have her own so-called “Big Five” company, part of space. But I just can’t afford it. I have a small group of economically domi- to say no to my kids all of the time” nant firms in Hawai‘i), plans to use its (Yu 2016). lands for diversified agriculture. ‘umi perkins On 15 July 2016, the Public Utility Commission voted to reject a pro- posed deal in which Florida-based References NextEra Energy would have pur- All websites accessed 11 September 2017. chased Hawaiian Electric Industries (hei) for $4.3 billion (Honolulu Blair, Chad. 2016. Native Hawaiians Star-Advertiser 2016b). hei provides Don’t Know What to Expect from Trump. Civil Beat, Nov. http://www.civilbeat electricity to 95 percent of Hawai‘i 17 .org/2016/11/native-hawaiians-dont-know residents through its subsidiaries -what-to-expect-from-trump/ Hawaiian Electric Company, Maui Electric Company, and Hawaiian Elec- Bromwich, Jonah Engel. 2017. Defying tric Light Company on Hawai‘i Island; Trump, Hawaii Becomes First State to Pass it also owns American Savings Bank. Law Committing to Paris Climate Accord. New York Times, 7 June. https://www hei, along with the State of Hawai‘i, .nytimes.com/2017/06/07/climate/hawaii set a goal of reaching 100 percent -climate-paris-trump.html?mcubz=1 renewable energy by 2045. Hawai‘i’s high cost of living drew Bruner, Raisa. 2016. This $36 Million Penthouse Would Be the Most Expensive attention in 2016. In April 2014, the Condo Ever Sold in Hawaii. Business Hawai‘i State Legislature passed a Insider, 14 April. http://www bill that would gradually raise the .businessinsider.com/36-million-penthouse minimum wage from $7.75 in 2015 -is-hawaiis-priciest-2016-4 to $10.10 by 2018 (Hawaii News Caron, Will. . Nainoa Thompson Now 2014). The March 2016 issue 2017 Urges Hawaii to Become a Leader of Hawaii Business featured a story on Sustainability, Stewardship. The comparing how three people who Hawaii Independent, video, 7 June. each made significantly less than the http://hawaiiindependent.net/story/ average annual income of $51,000 video-nainoa-thompson-urges-hawaii-to (according to the 2010 census) were -become-a-leader-on-sustainability-ste coping, using different strategies and Chinen, Nate. 2017. Eddie Kamae, an making daily sacrifices in order to Innovator and a Historian on Four Strings, make ends meet. One mother who Dies at 89. The New York Times, 24 Jan. lives with her parents on Hawai‘i https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/24/ Island described the kinds of sacri- arts/music/eddie-kamae-dead-hawaiian fices that many families are making: -musician.html?mcubz=1 “They want to see a movie. Or go to Civil Beat. 2017. We Had to Relearn What ­McDonald’s. Once in a while we’ll Our Ancestors Had Mastered. 17 June. go bowling, but that’s a luxury. My http://www.civilbeat.org/2017/06/hokulea daughter now wants her own room. -returns-to-hawaiian-waters-after-around She’s a freshman in high school, and -the-world-voyage/ 172 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018)

Dayton, Kevin. 2017. Lawmakers Hawaii News Now. 2014. Hawaii ­Tentatively Agree on Proposal to Raise Minimum Wage Increase Signed into Law. Hotel Tax for Rail, Education. Honolulu http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/ ­Star-Advertiser, 28 April. http://www 25601037/hawaii-raises-minimum-wage .staradvertiser.com/2017/04/28/breaking -to-1010-per-hour -news/lawmakers-last-minute-proposal ———. 2017. 6 Arrested in Protests over -would-raise-hotel-tax-for-rail/ Construction of Telescope atop Haleakala. dbet, Department of Business, Economic 1 Aug. http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/ Development and Tourism. 2016. State of story/36022915/officials-gear-up-for Hawai‘i Data Book 2016. http://dbedt -potential-protests-ahead-of-telescope .hawaii.gov/economic/databook/db2016/ -construction-atop-haleakala Genegabus, Jason. 2017. Hokule‘a Nears Hawaiian Kingdom blog. 2015. the End of Its Worldwide Voyage. Hono- ­International Arbitration: Larsen vs. lulu Star-Advertiser, 28 May. http://www Hawaiian Kingdom (1999–2001). 20 Nov. .staradvertiser.com/2017/05/28/features/ https://hawaiiankingdom.org/blog/ hokulea-nears-the-end-of-its-worldwide international-arbitration-larsen-vs -voyage/ -hawaiian-kingdom-1999-2001/ Gutierrez, Ben. 2015. Protest against ———. 2016. South China Sea Tribunal Thirty Meter Telescope Spreading World­ References Larsen v. Hawaiian Kingdom. wide. Hawaii News Now, 8 April. 14 July. https://hawaiiankingdom.org/ http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/ blog/south-china-seas-tribunal-references 28757745/protest-against-thirty-meter -larsen-v-hawaiian-kingdom/ -telescope-spreading-worldwide ———. 2017. Hawaiian Kingdom Hauser, Christine. 2017. Hawaii Wants Legal Team Complete. 22 Aug. to Be Prepared for a Nuclear Attack by hawaiiankingdom.org/blog/hawaiian North Korea. New York Times, 25 July. -kingdom-legal-team-complete/ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/ Honolulu Star-Advertiser. 2016a. End of us/hawaii-nuclear-korea-north.html an Era: Hawaii’s Last Sugar Mill Wraps up ?mcubz=1 Final Harvest. 12 Dec. http://www Hawai‘i Free Press. 2015. Supreme Court .staradvertiser.com/2016/12/12/business/ Justice Hands Down Injunction Against business-breaking/end-of-an-era-hawaiis Nai Aupuni. 27 Nov. http://hawaiifreepress -last-sugar-mill-wraps-up-final-harvest/ .com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/ID/16382/ ———. 2016b. NextEra Ends Merger Supreme-Court-Justice-Hands-Down Deal, Will Pay Hawaiian Electric $95 -Injunction-Against-Nai-Aupuni.aspx ­Million. 18 July. http://www.staradvertiser Hawaii Independent. 2017a. Public Brief- .com/2016/07/18/business/business ing on Rail Funding Set for August 14. -breaking/nextera-ends-merger-deal-will 10 Aug. http://hawaiiindependent.net/ -pay-hawaiian-electric-95m-break-up-fee/ story/public-briefing-on-rail-funding-set hud, US Department of Housing and -for-august-14 Urban Development. 2017. Housing Needs ———. 2017b. Rather than Keep Us Safe, of Native Hawaiians: A Report from the U.S. Militarism Puts Hawai‘i in the Assessment of American Indian, Alaska ­Crosshairs. Editorial, 1 June. http:// Native, and Native Hawaiian Housing hawaiiindependent.net/story/rather-than Needs. May. Available from https://www -keep-us-safe-u.s.-militarism-puts-hawaii .huduser.gov/portal/publications/housing -in-the-crosshairs -needs-native-hawaiians.html political reviews • polynesia 173 khon2. 2016. Hawaiian Renaissance Houses Hit Record $795,000 in June. Musician Palani Vaughan Dies at 72. Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 6 July. http:// 9 Dec. http://khon2.com/2016/12/09/ www.staradvertiser.com/2017/07/06/ hawaiian-renaissance-musician-palani business/business-breaking/oahu-single -vaughan-dies-at-72/ -family-houses-hit-record-795000-in-june/ Kakesako, Gregg K, and John Berger. Silva, Cristina. 2017. Trump Travel Ban: 2016. Hawaii Musician Guy Cruz Dies. Hawaii Judge Now Needs 24-Hour Protec- Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 23 Sept. tion after Receiving Threats. Newsweek, http://www.staradvertiser.com/2016/09/ 24 March. http://www.newsweek.com/ 23/breaking-news/hawaii-musician-guy trump-travel-ban-hawaii-judge-now-needs -cruz-dies/ -24-hour-protection-after-receiving-573920 Morales, Manolo. 2017. Emergency Somin, Ilya. 2017a. Federal Judge Officials Explain Why Fallout Shelters Issues Strange Ruling Denying Hawaii’s Impractical for Missile Attacks. khon2, ­Challenge to Administration’s Implemen- 6 July. http://khon2.com/2017/07/06/ tation of Trump’s Travel Ban Executive emergency-officials-explain-why-fallout order. The Washington Post, 7 July. -shelters-impractical-for-missile-attacks/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/ volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/07/07/federal Pang, Gordon Y K. 2016. A Super pac -judge-issues-strange-ruling-denying Will Be Fined for Failure to Report Its -hawaiis-challenge-to-administrations Spending during the Campaign. Honolulu -implementation-of-trumps-travel-ban Star-Advertiser, 19 Dec. https://www -executive-order/?utm_term= .pressreader.com/usa/honolulu-star .a2a25e7e71f9 -advertiser/20161219/281509340834334 ———. 2017b. Federal Judge Rules pvs, Polynesian Voyaging Society. 2017. against Trump Administration’s Imple- Press Room and Outreach Tools: Mālama mentation of Supreme Court Travel Ban Honua Worldwide Voyage Fact Sheet. Ruling. The Washington Post, 14 July. https://drive.google.com/file/d/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/ 0BwB6gTJso7ZmekVOdFR3TGptWGs/ volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/07/14/federal view [accessed 25 Sept 2017] -judge-rules-against-trump-administrations prp, Pacific Resources Partnership. [2017] -implementation-of-supreme-court-travel https://www.prp-hawaii.com/about-prp/ -ban-ruling/?utm_term=.b1978e081273 Richardson, Mahealani. 2017. 2 Promi- State of Hawai‘i. 2016. General Election: nent Native Hawaiians Speak Out in Favor Final Summary Report. 8 Nov. http://files of tmt. Hawaii News Now, 9 Aug. .hawaii.gov/elections/files/results/2016/ http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/ general/histatewide.pdf 36103320/2-prominent-native-hawaiians ———. 2017. atg News Release: Federal -say-theyre-part-of-silent-majority-in Court Rules in Favor of Travel Ban Plain- -favor-of-tmt tiffs. 13 July. http://governor.hawaii.gov/ Savage, Charlie. 2017. Jeff Sessions newsroom/latest-news/atg-news-release Dismisses Hawaii as “An Island in the -federal-court-rules-in-favor-of-travel Pacific.” The New York Times, 20 April. -ban-plaintiffs/ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/20/us/ Terrell, Jessica. 2016. More Than 200 politics/jeff-sessions-judge-hawaii-pacific People Live In This Matriarchal, Self-­ -island.html?mcubz=1 Governed Homeless Camp. Huffing­ton Segal, Dave. 2017. Oahu Single-Family Post, updated 31 Jan. http://www 174 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018)

.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hawaii-the Another kapa haka exponent, orator,­ -harbor-homeless-camp_us musician, and gifted saxophonist, _564bca7de4b08cda348b6914 the Reverend Te Napi Tūtewehiwehi Wong, Julia Carrie. 2017. Mark Zucker- Waaka, passed away in November. He berg Drops Lawsuits to Force Hundreds of was Tainui and Ngāti Pikiao and was Hawaiians to Sell Him Land. The Guard- well known for his charismatic charm ian, 27 Jan. https://www.theguardian and his ability to send crowds into fits .com/us-news/2017/jan/27/mark of laughter (Māori Television 2016b). -zuckerberg-drops-hawaii-land-lawsuits Within a fortnight, his relation Mita Yu, LiAnne. 2016. Living Paycheck to Mohi of Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Paycheck in Paradise. Hawaii Business, Rangi, Ngāti Rangiwewehi, and Ngāti March. http://www.hawaiibusiness.com/ Tūwharetoa also left us. As an expo- living-paycheck-to-paycheck-in-paradise/ nent of the art of mau rākau (Māori weaponry), he had set up programs to train young men, including thou- sands who were at risk, in traditional Māori Issues weaponry skills (Makiha 2016). It was a year of some highs, which The loss of Awanuiārangi Black at included a number of Māori athletes the age of forty-eight soon after was competing in the Olympic Games keenly felt. A leader of Ngāi Te Rangi, and their medal haul, as well as two Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Pukenga, and important victories in the courts. Ngāti Raukawa ki Ōtaki, he served But the battle for justice, equity, and on a number of bodies including the recognition of Māori rights continued National Iwi Chairs Forum, the Bay of unabated in the face of increasingly Plenty Regional Council, and Te Taura harsh socioeconomic conditions and Whiri i Te Reo (the Māori Language an uncaring government. Before we Commission). He also led the cam- consider a selection of these successes paign for formal commemorations and struggles, we pause to consider of the British invasion of Tauranga some of the many Māori leaders we Moana in the 1860s (Cairns and lost over the past year. others 2016). A fortnight later, singer Ngāpō Wehi of Ngāi Tūhoe, Bunny Te Kōkiri Miha Waahi Wal- ­Whakatōhea, Ngāpuhi, Te Whānau ters (Ngāi Te Rangi) passed away. He a Apanui, and Ngāti Kahu—kapa recorded a number of hits in the 1970s haka exponent, composer, choreog- (Māori Television 2016a). rapher, and teacher—passed away In January 2017, it was Ngāpuhi’s in July 2016. He and his late wife Iwi Puihi (Percy) Tīpene, founding Pīmia had been involved in kapa member and chairperson of Waka Kai haka (traditional Māori performing Ora (Māori Organics Aotearoa). Percy arts) for more than fifty years. They had extensive knowledge of primary earned respect and recognition as industries, having been a government two of the great leaders of the art, auditor, advisor, and technician. He leading their kapa haka teams to win combined this experience with a deep prestigious national competitions six knowledge of tikanga (Māori law) to times (Haami 2013, 7; Mane 2016a). establish the world’s first indigenous political reviews • polynesia 175 organic verification system, Hua about the pollution of the Manukau Parakore (Hutchings and others 2012; ­Harbour in Auckland and the Waikato Organics ­Aotearoa New Zealand River, as well as her fight to stop New 2017). We also lost Tama Nikora in Zealand Steel digging up her ances- January. Tama was a former chair- tors’ bones from iron sands on the man of the Tūhoe Waikaremoana west coast, that eventually brought Trust Board and their spokesperson a halt to the abuse and despoliation. throughout the Urewera inquiry in This claim also saw Māori responsibil- the Waitangi Tribunal. He strongly ity for the well-being of the natural criticized and opposed both the Tūhoe environment recognized in legislation. settlement and the Central North Ngāneko had to seek support from the Island settlement, which extinguished United Nations in her endless battles the claims that he had fought so against the Pākehā (European) igno- hard for (Te Kani Williams [Tūhoe], rance and greed that had wrought so pers comm, 14 July 2017). Tainui’s much damage to her ancestral seas Tokoroa Pompey passed away in and lands. That resulted in the first of February. Another gifted saxophonist,­ the now three reports of UN rappor- as well as a singer, ­comedian, and teurs who were invited to investigate all-around entertainer, he was a the state of human rights of Māori, member of several of the Māori all of which have condemned the New showbands that toured ­nationally Zealand government’s treatment of and internationally in the 1960s and Māori (Daes 1988; Stavenhagen 2006; 1970s. He was a strong supporter of Anaya 2011). We bade each of these Tainui’s Kīngitanga movement and leaders and many others farewell over acted as spokesperson for both the the past year as they commenced their queen, Dame Te Atairangikaahu, and journey to join their ancestors. her son, King Tūheitia (Gardiner- We were excited to see the number Hoskins 2014). In May, it was lawyer of Māori who competed in Rio in John Te Manihera Chadwick (Ngāti the Olympic Games in August and Tūwharetoa and Ngāti Kahungunu), the Paralympic Games in Septem- the founder of the New Zealand ber. Māori Television listed fifty- Māori Law Society. He mentored four Māori athletes, coaches, and generations of young Māori lawyers, an official, with forty-nine of them saw each of the three partners in his representing New Zealand (Mane Rotorua legal firm become judges, 2016b). Forty-six took part in the and made huge contributions to the Olympics and made up one-quarter community, especially young people of the New Zealand team. Four took (Adlam 2017). Then, in June, we lost part in the Paralympics. Our canoer one of the most outstanding and for- extraordinaire, Lisa Carrington (Te midable advocates for the recognition Aitanga a Mahaki, Ngāti Porou) led of Māori authority and power in the the New Zealand Olympic team medal environmental arena: Dame Ngāneko haul with a gold and a bronze. Our Minhinnick of Ngāti Te Ata, Waiohua, sevens rugby women, ten of whom are and Waikato-Tainui. It was Ngāneko’s Māori (in a team of fifteen) won silver. claim to the Waitangi Tribunal Australia, who had Amy Turner of 176 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018)

Tainui on their team, beat our team to But an increasing number of Māori the gold. But it was the medal haul of leaders have continued to speak out our Paralympians that was outstand- and, in recent years, have been joined ing: Cameron Leslie (Ngāpuhi) won by some Pākehā leaders (Husband a gold in swimming; Emma Foy (also 2016). In September, in a move that Ngāpuhi) won a silver and a bronze reflected the growing realization that in cycling; and Holly Robinson (Ngāi the issue can no longer be ignored, the Tahu) won a silver in javelin. Human Rights Commission launched Back home, the ongoing issues its “That’s Us” campaign as New that continued to gnaw at Māori and Zealand’s first anti-racism campaign. sap our energy included ever-present It called on New Zealanders to share racism, homelessness, and the abuse their stories of racism, intolerance, of Māori children in state institutions. and hatred, and then published a On top of these, Māori continued to large number of them on its website try to protect ourselves from legisla- (NZ Human Rights Commission tive moves to remove even more of 2017). Complementing that was the our rights, including the divisive treaty June/July edition of the long-running claims settlement process; the rewrit- Mana magazine, which focused on ing of the Māori Land Act; the imple- racism and ran under the title “New mentation of the Marine and Coastal Zealand’s Shameful Secret” (Hayden Area Act, which is the largest ever 2016). The issue included in-depth confiscation of Māori land; and the articles on institutional racism—in refusal to recognize Māori ownership the health care system, in the justice of fresh water—all of which demon- system, in prisons, and in state welfare strates the New Zealand government’s institutions. Each piece drew on well- ongoing lack of compliance with the known research and painted horrific United Nations Declaration on the pictures of the realities of each of these Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The rest sectors. They highlighted the govern- of this review will consider how Māori ment’s callous and uncaring refusal to tried to address each of these issues address the problems in any meaning- over the past year. This includes not- ful way. In June, the Human Rights ing a few positive highlights. Commission reported having reached For many years now, academics more than three million people with and a number of Māori profession- its “That’s Us” campaign and that als have been drawing attention to it was launching the second stage the damage caused to Māori by the of its campaign, “Give Nothing to systemic racism that pervades both Racism,” aimed at stopping interper- government and nongovernment sonal ­racism. The campaign is being institutions (McIntosh and Mulhol- fronted by the 2017 New Zealander land 2011). Denial of the existence of the Year, Taika Waititi (Te Whānau of racism is problematic, with some a Apanui), the award-winning film Pākehā (Europeans), fearing the loss director, actor, and comedian, whose of White privilege, characteristically best-known achievements to date are seeking to silence individuals who his films Boy and Hunt for the Wilder- raise the issue (Abel and Mutu 2011). people (tvnz 2017b). political reviews • polynesia 177

Difficulties faced in trying to over, the brutality of colonization and eradicate racism stem at least in part the racism that underpins it has never from what leading constitutional ended. The plight of Māori children in expert Moana Jackson has labeled a state welfare institutions has high- “deliberate misremembering” of the lighted most starkly the immeasurable country’s brutal history of British­ harm that has been done by succes- colonization (2016). Although the sive governments’ refusal to inter- Waitangi Tribunal has been report- vene and stop the racist behavior of ing in detail over the past thirty-five those entrusted with the care of those years on the atrocities committed, this children. New Zealand is one of the history is still not taught in almost all few commonwealth countries not to of the country’s schools. For several have had a public inquiry into child years now, Māori in the areas invaded abuse in state institutions. The report by the British in the 1860s have been of the Confidential Listening and holding commemorations. Initially, the Assistance Service sounded the alarm government refused to contribute or about abuse dating back to the 1950s participate. In 2014, two high school (Henwood 2015). Having listened students mounted a petition calling for to the accounts of more than 1,100 a national day to commemorate the survivors, Judge Caroline Henwood, British invasions. In October 2016, the chairwoman of the service, wrote, “I government announced that starting in was deeply shocked by the stories and 2017, 28 October would be the “New by the overall level of violence and Zealand Wars” commemoration day. abuse that New Zealanders were will- A more accurate description would ing to inflict on children. . . . The most be the “Sovereignty Wars” to reflect shocking thing was that most of this the fact that they were wars to take was preventable. If people had been power, lives, and land from Māori. doing their jobs properly and if proper The misnaming of the day raised ques- systems had been in place, much of tions about whether it signals that the this abuse could have been avoided government would persist in trying to with better oversight” (2015, 12). silence hapū (grouping of extended Stories reminiscent of the treatment families) and iwi (nation) knowledge of Native American and First Nations of the injustice, cruelty, and brutality children in the residential schools of of the invasions. As Jackson noted: “If the United States and Canada and a commemoration merely expresses the stolen generations in Australia regret for the painful wrong of wars are now being heard in New Zealand without having the courage to address (Smith 2009, 29; Newshub 2017). [the constitutional and political power Henwood approached National Iwi structures it imposed] through a Chairs Forum desperately seeking process of constitutional transforma- support for the victims of the state tion, it is not a commemoration at all. welfare institutions, most of whom It will simply be a deceit, rather like a are Māori. While the service is bound burglar regretting the wrong but keep- by confidentiality not to divulge the ing the spoils” (Jackson 2016). details of the abuse, iwi leaders knew While the Sovereignty Wars may be about it and supported Henwood. So 178 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018) too did the Human Rights Commis- to non-Māori. The tribunal’s recom- sion and a number of prominent New mendations included creation of a new Zealanders who sent an open letter to Māori-specific strategic framework, the government calling for an indepen- the development of targets to reduce dent inquiry (Johnston 2017). Hen- Māori reoffending rates in partner- wood also drew up “A Covenant for ship with Māori, and the Crown’s Our Nation’s Children,” a statement establishment of a dedicated budget to that commits to protecting children appropriately resource these actions. from violence, abuse, and neglect and Homelessness also continues to to providing them with a proper stan- have a disproportionate impact on dard of living. It also promises to sup- Māori. Last year’s burgeoning home- port their emotional and mental well- less figures have continued to escalate being, provide them with education, to the point that they are higher than and take children’s views into account at any other time in recent memory (Henwood 2016). The National Iwi (Twyford, Davidson, and Fox 2016, Chairs’ Forum signed the covenant in 2). In many cases, those affected are August, but the government refused working families. No longer is the to endorse it and has continued to problem evident only in Auckland and refuse to hold an inquiry into abuse of the bigger cities; it is also on the rise children in state institutions. in Rotorua, Tauranga, Hamilton, and Many Māori children who were Kaitāia as the homeless travel farther state wards end up in prison in later afield trying to find relief. Although life as a result of the abuse. In April, the government ignored calls for an the Waitangi Tribunal released its inquiry into homelessness, Labour, report on disproportionate reoffend- the Greens, and the Māori Party ing rates (Waitangi Tribunal 2017). conducted a cross-party inquiry. Their Māori have an imprisonment rate that report, published in October, made is more than three times that of the twenty recommendations, ­including general population. We consistently increasing rather than decreasing make up over 50 percent of the prison the state housing stock and making population, and Māori women make Housing New Zealand a public service up over 60 percent of the female instead of a state-owned enterprise prison population. For many, incar- charged with paying a dividend to ceration has become normalized. the government and tax on its income The tribunal noted that the dispar- (Twyford, Davidson, and Fox 2016, ity between Māori and non-Māori 12–16). reoffending rates is long-standing and The fundamentally flawed treaty substantial. High Māori reoffending claims settlement process has contin- rates contribute to the dispropor- ued to visit almost unbearable pain tionate imprisonment of Māori. The on communities as it tears them apart. tribunal found the Crown, through the Arguments within Ngāpuhi—the Department of Corrections, to be in country’s largest iwi with more than breach of its treaty obligations by fail- 120 hapū and over three hundred ing to prioritize the reduction of the claims—have highlighted the short- high rate of Māori reoffending relative comings of the process. The divisions political reviews • polynesia 179 it has caused there have been drawing and their claims, causing an inevitable media attention for several years now. backlash. It is therefore unsurprising The government has told them that that the Waitangi Tribunal continues all Ngāpuhi claims must be bundled to receive applications about injustices together under one settlement, even being perpetrated in the settlements though elsewhere in the country hapū but, in keeping with previous deci- have succeeded in having their claims sions, almost all have been declined settled individually. This is the gov- hearings. In the past year, these ernment’s “large natural grouping” included Ngāti Mihiroa against the policy. It is a key part of the treaty Heretaunga Tamatea Deed of Settle- claims settlement policy, whose aim is ment (Haimona 2017) and Whanga­ to extinguish as many claims as possi- nui iwi against the Taurewa Forest ble within each legislated settlement in Deed of Settlement (Reilly 2017b). In order to remove hard-won legal rights. some rare cases, claimants have the This includes the compulsory return financial resources to seek judicial to Māori of certain types of lands reviews of tribunal decisions. One, through orders made by the Waitangi from Āraukūkū hapū—whose claims Tribunal. Coupled with the govern- were extinguished in the Ngāruahine ment-imposed cap on the overall size settlement after the tribunal refused to of the combined settlements, the inevi- hear them—has been unsuccessful in table result is that almost all claims both the High Court and the Court of are being extinguished without being Appeal (Watson 2016). addressed, and, of the few that are In contrast, two others, Ngāti Kahu addressed, none have been addressed and Te Aitanga a Māhaki, have been fully (Mutu 2017b). Painfully aware successful in the High Court and the of these restrictions and injustices, Court of Appeal, setting an important claimants still fight for the return precedent (Kapa-Kingi 2016). Both of at least some of what was stolen. had to apply repeatedly to be heard by Deciding who is mandated to negoti- the tribunal. They were only granted ate these settlements has been fraught hearings after Te Aitanga a Māhaki with difficulty for almost every iwi successfully challenged the tribunal’s (Mutu 2017b). The reason is simple: refusal to hear them in the Supreme It was not the imposed “large natural Court in 2011 (Supreme Court of groupings” that had their lands stolen, New Zealand 2011). But the Waitangi lives taken, and rights removed—it Tribunal has been under threat for was whānau (extended families) and many years now. The threat is that hapū in the thousands of Māori papa if they made the orders sought by Te kāinga (homelands) throughout the Aitanga a Māhaki and Ngāti Kahu country. So each whānau and hapū to return certain Crown land, the will inevitably fight to make sure that government would abolish the tribu- their claim is addressed. By imposing nal (Hamer 2004, 7)—a very serious a “large natural grouping” structure breach of the rule of law. So neither over the settlements process, the gov- applicant was granted the orders to ernment is attempting to socially engi- which they were legally entitled. Both neer the demise of whānau and hapū successfully appealed to the High 180 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018)

Court. On appeal in the Court of treaty claims settlement process fully Appeal, the court issued directions and finally extinguishes all histori- in December that the tribunal had to cal claims in a geographical area, this make a decision rather than continu- decision recognizes that there is a ing to defer to the government’s treaty further means of redress through the claims settlement policy. The Crown courts in certain circumstances. did not appeal the decision, and so Stung by both these court decisions, both iwi are now back before the the government has flooded the media Waitangi Tribunal waiting yet again with pro-settlement propaganda as it for a hearing. continues to drive through as many An even more groundbreaking prec- settlements as it can. Settlements edent came out of the Supreme Court legislated in the past year included in February. The Wakatū Incorpora- Te Atiawa, Taranaki Iwi, Ngāruahine, tion and kaumātua (elder) Rore Pat Rangitāne o Manawatū, and Whanga­ Stafford of Nelson, having been denied nui River (Office of Treaty Settle- the right to have their claim negoti- ments 2017). But the government has ated and settled separately, filed for struggled to overcome the attention urgency in the tribunal. Like so many also being paid to the anger of those others, they failed to get a hearing. being divided and disenfranchised In 2010, they filed proceedings in the by the settlement process. A major High Court claiming that the Crown research project being undertaken owed fiduciary duties to the Māori with claimants and negotiators is customary owners of land in Nelson, beginning to identify the extent of the dating back to 1839. The land had devastation that treaty claims settle- been given over on the basis that one- ments are causing (McDowell 2016; tenth—some 15,100 acres—would Mutu and others 2017). Examples of be reserved for the original Māori the government’s dishonesty, includ- owners; however, the terms of the ing probable fraud, in negotiations are arrangement had not been met and the being reported across the country, as land was never fully allocated. Despite are examples of its stand over tactics the government having extinguished in dictating what settlements will be; all the claims made to the Waitangi its divide-and-rule tactics and the Tribunal for Te Tau Ihu (the top of the damage this has wrought among and South Island) in the 2014 settlement, a between whānau, hapū, and iwi; its majority of the Supreme Court found use of manipulation and then bully- that a fiduciary duty existed and that ing and duress against claimants who it had been breached. It found that refuse to comply; and its refusal to Mr Stafford, as a descendant of some address almost all of the claims before of the original owners, is entitled to legislatively extinguishing them (Mutu pursue remedies in the High Court 2017b). Claimants and negotiators (Reilly 2017a). The decision is signifi- are clear that, contrary to government cant for its recognition of enforceable assertions, none of the settlements are fiduciary duties in relation to nine- full and final and they will be revis- teenth-century land transactions. Even ited. In August 2016, National Iwi though the government asserts that the Chairs Forum warned the government political reviews • polynesia 181 that all its settlements would unravel water bottling companies and farmers after it reneged on the loathed 1992 who irrigate their lands for their use of fisheries settlement in order to ban the resource. When some of the bot- fishing in Ngāti Kurī’s Te Rangitāhua tling companies illegally tapped into territory with its proposed Kermadec Māori-owned springs, efforts to stop Ocean Sanctuary (Mutu 2017a, 149). them were not always successful, and The proposal has not been progressed. several of those cases are still being A beleaguered minister of Māori heard in the Waitangi Tribunal. Ngāti development continued to battle Tama ki te Waipounamu’s case was an Māori resistance to the rewriting of exception. As guardians of the sacred the Māori Land Act 1993 (Mutu Waikoropūpū springs in Golden Bay, 2017a, 149–150). In June, when it whose waters are some of the clear- became obvious that the opposition est in the world, Ngāti Tama took the was making it an election issue, he Tasman District Council to the High dropped it, undertaking to revisit Court to stop them illegally authoriz- it if he was returned to the govern- ing a bottling company to take their ment after the election. There is also water. Their win and the government’s little comment about more than three undertaking to consider a water hundred applications reportedly made protection order for the springs are to the High Court for recognition of positive steps for Ngāti Tama (tvnz extremely restricted Māori customary 2017). title and use rights provided for in the margaret mutu Marine and Coastal Area Act. The act confiscates Māori ownership of our foreshores and seabed and sets a high References bar for Māori to meet in order to gain any recognition. Rather than submit- Abel, Sue, and Margaret Mutu. 2011. ting to the act, at least one iwi, Ngāti There’s Racism and Then There’s ­Racism: Margaret Mutu and the Immigration Kahu, has required the government to Debate. The New ­Zealand Journal meet the same bar in order to prove of Media Studies 12 (2). http:// it has any rights to these lands within ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/ Ngāti Kahu’s territories. The govern- DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid ment failed to meet the tests and as =FL9435525 [accessed 14 July 2017] such has been found to have no rights Adlam, Geoff. 2017. John Te Manihera or title in Ngāti Kahu’s foreshore and Chadwick mnzm, 1945–2017. New Zea- seabed (Te Rūnanga-ā-Iwi o Ngāti land Law Society. http://www.lawsociety Kahu 2017). .org.nz/news-and-communications/people The government is also sidestepping -in-the-law/obituaries/obituaries-list/john the matter of the ownership of fresh- -te-manihera-chadwick-mnzm,-1945-2017 water, having refused to carry out its [accessed 13 July 2017] promise to the Supreme Court in 2013 Anaya, James. 2011. The Situation of to address the issue of Māori rights Maori People in New Zealand. Report of and interests in freshwater. However, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of there is mounting pressure from the indigenous peoples, James Anaya. Geneva: rest of the population to charge fresh- United Nations Human Rights Council. 182 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018)

Available at http://unsr.jamesanaya.org/ Affairs. https://www.dia.govt.nz/Final country-reports/the-situation-of-maori -Report-of-the-Confidential-Listening-and -people-in-new-zealand-2011 [accessed -Assistance-Service [accessed 21 July 2017] 13 July 2017] ———. 2016. A Covenant for Our Cairns, Puawai, Paora Tibble, Te Here­ Nation’s Children. Wellington: Henwood kiekie Herewini, and Jason Ake. 2016. Trust. http://www.henwoodtrust.org Awanuiārangi Black 1968–2016 (Ngāi Te .nz/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/ Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Pūkenga, ACovenantForOurNationsChildren_en Ngāti Raukawa ki Ōtaki). Museum of .pdf [accessed 21 July 2017] New Zealand blog, 3 Dec. http://blog Husband, Dale. 2016. Andrew Judd: An .tepapa.govt.nz/2016/12/03/awanuiarangi Upbringing Too White by Far. e-Tangata, -black-1968-2016-ngai-te-rangi-ngati 15 May. https://e-tangata.co.nz/news/ -ranginui-ngati-pukenga-ngati-raukawa andrew-judd-an-upbringing-too-white -ki-otaki/ [accessed 13 July 2017] -by-far [accessed 13 July 17] Daes, Erica-Irene A. 1988. Confidential Hutchings, Jessica, Percy Tipene, Gretta Report by Professor Erica-Irene A. Daes, Carney, Angeline Greensill, Ounamu Skel- Chairman-Rapporteur of the United ton, and Mahinarangi Baker. 2012. Hua Nations Working Group on Indigenous Parakore. mai Journal 1 (2): 131–145. Populations, on Visit to New Zealand, 2–7 http://www.journal.mai.ac.nz/sites/default/ January, 1988. Athens: E A Daes. files/Pages%20131%20-%20145.pdf Gardiner-Hoskins, Piata. 2014. Toko [accessed 13 July 2017] ­Pompey: A Māori Entertainer. Video, Jackson, Moana. 2016. Facing the Truth 28 min. Waka Huia, Television New about the Wars. e-Tangata, 18 Sept. ­Zealand, 11 March. https://www.youtube https://e-tangata.co.nz/news/moana .com/watch?v=vTwoURp61Kc [accessed -jackson-facing-the-truth-about-the 13 July 2017] -wars [accessed 21 July 2017] Haami, Bradford. 2013. Ka Mau Te Wehi: Johnston, Martin. 2017. Prominent Kiwis Taking Haka to the World; Bub & Nen’s Call for Independent Inquiry into Claims Story. Auckland: Ngāpō and Pīmia Wehi of Abuse of Children in State Care. Whānau Trust. New Zealand Herald, 13 Feb. http://www Haimona, Kahu. 2017. Waitangi Tribunal .nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c Procedure – Urgent Inquiries – Declined – _id=1&objectid=11799369 [accessed Ngāti Mihiroa Taonga. mlr May: 1–2. 21 July 2017] Hamer, Paul. 2004. A Quarter-Century Kapa-Kingi, Eru. 2016. Judicial Review of the Waitangi Tribunal. In The Wai­ – Waitangi Tribunal Must Recommend tangi Tribunal, edited by Janine Haywood Return of Land or Clearance – Attorney- and Nicola R Wheen, 3–14. Wellington: General v Haronga. mlr Dec: 1–3. Bridget Williams Books. Makiha, Kelly. 2016. “Beautiful Man” Hayden, Leonie, editor. 2016. New Zea- Mita Mohi Dies. New Zealand Herald, land’s Shameful Secret. Mana: The Māori 20 Nov. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/ Perspective 139 (June/July). news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid =11751835 [accessed 13 July 2017] Henwood, Carolyn. 2015. Some Memories Never Fade: Final Report of the Confi- Mane, Aroha. 2016a. Legendary Kapa dential Listening and Assistance Service. Haka Exponent Ngapo Wehi Passes Away. ­Wellington: Department of Internal Māori Television, 31 July. http://www political reviews • polynesia 183

.maoritelevision.com/news/regional/ Portrait of a Sovereign Nation. Wellington: legendary-kapa-haka-exponent-ngapo Huia. -wehi-passes-away [accessed 13 Jul 2017] Newshub. 2017. The Hui: Four Former ———. 2016b. Māori Athletes Competing Wards of the State Share Their Horrific at the Rio Olympics 2016. Māori Televi- Stories of Abuse. 9 April. http://www sion, 6 Aug. http://www.maoritelevision .newshub.co.nz/home/shows/2017/04/ .com/news/sport/maori-athletes-competing four-former-wards-of-the-sate-share-their -rio-olympics-2016 [accessed 13 July -horrific-stories-of-abuse.html [accessed 2017] 21 July 2017] Māori Television. 2016a. Iconic Māori NZ Human Rights Commission. 2017. Singer Bunny Walters Passes Away. Online That’s Us. Anti-racism campaign. News–Rereātea, 14 Dec. http://www http://www.thatsus.co.nz/stories .maoritelevision.com/news/national/iconic [accessed 14 July 17] -maori-singer-bunny-walters-passes-away Office of Treaty Settlements. . Year- [accessed 13 July 2017] 2016 to-Date Progress Report, 1 July 2016–31 ———. 2016b. Revered Māori Leader March 2017. https://www.govt.nz/assets/ Napi Waaka Passes Away. Online News– Documents/OTS/Quarterly-report-to-31 Rereātea, 10 Nov. http://www -Mar-2017.pdf [accessed 25 July 2017] .maoritelevision.com/news/national/ revered-maori-leader-napi-waaka-passes Organics Aotearoa New Zealand. 2017. -away [accessed 13 July 2017] Tribute to Percy Tipene. Organics Aotea­ roa New Zealand Newsletter, 23 Feb. McDowell, Tiopira. 2016. “Screaming http://www.oanz.org/news/32/24/Tribute from the Shadows”: Māori Views on -to-Percy-Tipene.html [accessed 13 July the Treaty Claims Settlement Process. 2017] Te Pouhere Kōrero: Māori History, Māori People 8:26–47. Reilly, Martha. 2017a. Fiduciary Duty – Crown Owed Fiduciary Duties to Owners McIntosh, Tracey, and Malcolm Mulhol- of Nelson Tenths Reserves – Proprietors of land, editors. 2012. Māori and Social Wakatū v Attorney-General. mlr March: Issues. Wellington: Huia Publishers. 1–8. mlr, Māori Law Review: A Monthly ———. 2017b. Waitangi Tribunal Proce- Review of Law Affecting Māori. dure – Urgent Inquiries – Declined – The Mutu, Margaret. 2017a. Polynesia in Taurewa Forest Deed of Settlement Claim. Review: Issues and Events, 1 July 2015 mlr April: 1–2. to June : Māori Issues. The Con- 30 2016 Smith, Andrea. 2009. Indigenous Peoples temporary Pacific 29 (1): 144–154. and Boarding Schools: A Comparative ———. 2017b. Unconscionable Fraud? Study. e/c.19/2009/crp.1, 26 January. The Role of Whiteness and Race in the New York: United Nations Permanent Treaty Claims Settlement Process in New Forum on Indigenous Issues. http://www Zealand. Paper presented at the Race, .un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/E Whiteness and Indigeneity International _C_19_2009_crp1.pdf [accessed 14 Sept Conference, Queensland, Australia. 6 June. 2017] Mutu, Margaret, Lloyd Pōpata, Te Kani Stavenhagen, Rodolfo. 2006. Report of Williams, Anahera Herbert-Graves, Rere­ the Special Rapporteur on the ­Situation moana Rēnata, JudyAnne Cooze, Zarrah of Human Rights and Fundamental Free- Pineaha, and others. 2017. Ngāti Kahu: doms of Indigenous People: Mission to 184 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018)

New Zealand. e/cn.4/2006/78/Add.3, 13 Urgently Upheld – Tūrāhui – Court of March. Geneva: United Nations Human Appeal. mlr Dec: 1–6. Rights Commission. Supreme Court of New Zealand. 2011. Haronga v Waitangi Tribunal and ­others. Media release, 19 May. http://www Norfolk Island .courtsofnz.govt.nz/cases/alan-parekura In the time since the passage of the -torohina-haronga-v-waitangi-tribunal Norfolk Island Legislation Amend- -and-others-1/@@images/fileMediaNotes ment Act 2015 in the Australian Par- [accessed 22 July 2017] liament, Norfolk Island has endured Te Rūnanga-ā-Iwi o Ngāti Kahu. 2017. the most tumultuous years since its Letter to Attorney-General, 1 June. Avail- settlement by the hms Bounty descen- able from Te Rūnanga-ā-Iwi o Ngāti Kahu. dants from Pitcairn Island in 1856. tvnz. 2017a. Te Waikoropupū Springs to That act abolished the limited form of Receive Highest Possible Environmental self-government enjoyed by Norfolk Protection. Te Karere, 4 June. https://www Islanders since 1979 as enshrined in .youtube.com/watch?v=wNK7vIx-TGw the Norfolk Island Act 1979, removed [accessed 22 July 2017] any acknowledgment of the special ———. 2017b. Watch: “You don’t have position of the Pitcairners in regard to be a full-on racist, just being a tiny bit to their homeland on Norfolk Island, racist is enough”—Taika Waititi Joined and determined that governmental by Famous Kiwis in Speaking Out against arrangements henceforth would be Bigotry. 14 June. https://www.tvnz.co.nz/ based on a New South Wales (Austra- one-news/new-zealand/watch-you-dont lia) “regional council” model. These -have-full-racist-just-being-tiny-bit-enough moves were made against the express -taika-waititi-joined-famous-kiwis-in -speaking-against-bigotry [accessed wishes of the great majority of Nor- 22 Sept 2017] folk Islanders and island residents as expressed in a referendum and were Twyford, Phil, Mārama Davison, and described by internationally recog- Mārama Fox. 2016. Ending Homeless- nized human rights lawyer Geoffrey ness in New Zealand: Final Report of the Cross-Party Inquiry on Homelessness. Robertson qc as “a heavy-handed act 10 Oct. Wellington: Parliament. https:// of regression” (Robertson 2016). d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/nzlabour/ These legislative actions precipi- pages/4725/attachments/original/ tated the formation of the grassroots 1476053092/CPHI_report_final.pdf organization Norfolk Island People for ?1476053092 [accessed 21 July 2017] Democracy (nipd); a petition to the Waitangi Tribunal. 2017. Tū Mai Te United Nations by the nipd together Rangi: Report on the Crown and Dispro- with the Norfolk Island Council of portionate Reoffending Rates, Wai 2540. Elders (coe) for the Island to be listed Wellington: Waitangi Tribunal. Available as a non-self-governing territory under at https://www.waitangitribunal.govt.nz/ the aegis of the United Nations; and news/disproportionate-reoffending-rate/ the occupation of the “Tent Embassy” [accessed 22 July 2017] in the grounds of the Old Military Watson, James. 2016. Judicial Review – Barracks in Kingston, Norfolk’s Refusal of Waitangi Tribunal to Inquire historic precinct and administrative political reviews • polynesia 185 center. Complaints against the conduct Norfolk Islanders have no democratic of the Norfolk Island administrator representation in New South Wales. (appointed by the Australian govern- The Norfolk Island administrator ment) became widespread. An account remains overseer of the island in rela- of these and other events of 2015–16 tion to commonwealth (ie, Australian has been given in the pages of this federal) matters. journal (Gonschor 2017). A series of In July 2016, Australian Senator contemporary articles published in Fiona Nash was appointed minister the local media outlets the Norfolk for local government and territories Islander and Norfolk Online News is and became responsible for Norfolk also available in book form (Nobbs Island affairs. In the following month, 2017). Norfolk Island received a fact-finding The year under review has con- visit from an all-party group of parlia- tinued to see a high level of political mentarians from the United Kingdom activity both on and off the island, (UK) House of Commons. Following initiated by the coe and the nipd their visit, the parliamentarians read a on the one hand and the Austra- public statement into the record of the lian government on the other. The British House of Commons, reporting Australian government’s plans were that “the Administrator of Norfolk implemented on Norfolk Island on 1 Island . . . has lost the confidence of July 2016. In the lead-up to that day, the overwhelming majority of the elections for a new Norfolk Island people of Norfolk Island. The cur- Regional Council (nirc) were held on rent situation is untenable and cannot 28 May 2016. For this election and go on. It is damaging the lives of the contrary to previous Island practice, people of Norfolk Island as well as the residents who were not Australian reputation of Australia” (Kawczynski, citizens (including, in particular, New Sherriff, and Rosindell 2017). Zealanders and British) were disen- Minister Nash made her first visit franchised. The nirc comprises five to the island on 16–17 September councilors elected for a term of four 2016. Major issues discussed with the years and from whom one member is new council included the provision of chosen as mayor, with that position to electricity services and the role of solar be held for one year (now amended to power; waste management; connection two years). At the council’s inaugural to the Hawaiki submarine telecom- meeting of 6 July 2016, Ms Robin munications cable system; a waiver on Adams—a former member and min- repayment of the commonwealth loan ister in the disbanded Norfolk Island for the resealing of the airport runway Legislative Assembly—was elected carried out in 2006; and possible com- mayor. In a period of continuing tran- monwealth financial assistance grants. sition to new arrangements, the nirc’s The focus on telecommunica- activities are regulated under the New tions was precipitated both by the South Wales Local Government Act impending rollout of the Australian 1993, in addition to various Com- national open-access broadband data monwealth Acts and Norfolk Island network (the nbn) and the breaking Acts still applicable to Norfolk Island. of ground for the installation of a 186 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018) new undersea fiber optic cable link- administration of the island; and to ing Australia and New Zealand with find common ground for a more dem- the West Coast of the United States. ocratic way forward” (Magri 2016). This cable, being installed by a New The delegation met with more than Zealand consortium called Hawaiki thirty commonwealth members of Cable, is proposed to include spurs Parliament and advisors from across that will connect Hawai‘i, American the political spectrum. The parliamen- Sāmoa, Tonga, Fiji, and New Caledo- tarians they talked to knew very little nia in the network. The route will pass about Norfolk Island but expressed within ninety kilometers of Norfolk genuine distress at that situation when Island, and an option existed to con- its realities were explained. Leader nect Norfolk Island into the system of the delegation Chris Magri com- or alternatively to install a connector mented: “No one was able to provide in the cable for future connection as a us with a rational explanation which lower cost option—estimated at a$2.5 supported the abolition of our Parlia- million (us$2 million). ment” (Magri 2016). While “We are In October 2016, Norfolk Island not going back” appeared to be the received a visit from controversial mantra emanating from the Austra- Australian Senator Pauline Hanson. lian government, the nipd delegation Many on Norfolk lauded Hanson’s left with some optimism as to future visit as possibly representing the first ­possibilities. from a current Australian politician On 11–12 December 2016, Minis- who was prepared to engage directly ter Nash revisited the island to meet with and listen to Islanders across the with the nirc and representatives spectrum of opinion, and who, having of other organizations including the undertaken at a public meeting to do coe and nipd, as well as with groups certain things on her return to Aus- from the business community. Nash’s tralia, actually did them (eg, Hanson meetings with the nirc addressed 2016). As the UK delegation before topics previously canvassed, albeit her had done, Senator Hanson called with a stronger focus on the island’s for the removal of Norfolk Island telecommunications future. The Administrator Gary Hardgrave on island’s appeals for a connector to the account of his conduct on the island Hawaiki cable and for a waiver on (see Gonschor 2016 regarding com- repaying the 2006 loan for the airport plaints about Administrator Hard- runway reseal were rejected by the grave). commonwealth, although the issue of An nipd delegation made a visit to guaranteed annual financial support Canberra in late November 2016, its for the Island’s tourism industry (pre- declared purpose being to “progress viously provided by the Norfolk Island the rights of the Norfolk Island People Government) remains under discus- for an Act of Self-Determination; to sion at the time of this writing. explain the practical ‘on the ground’ The Island was thrown into further problems the Norfolk Island people turmoil by the announcement on 16 face as a direct result of Canberra’s December by Air New Zealand that newly imposed ‘remote control’ it would be withdrawing air services political reviews • polynesia 187 from Auckland to Norfolk Island as appointed Norfolk Island adminis- of May 2017. However, a New Year’s trator following the completion of announcement by the company Nor- Hardgrave’s term. folk Island Airlines indicated that they At the grassroots level, the nipd’s would be stepping into the breach. Centre for Democracy in the Burnt These flights have commenced, but at Pine shopping precinct continues the time of writing the future of this to promote the cause of self-deter- initiative remains uncertain. mination locally. Members of the Meanwhile, in London on 22 Norfolk Island community had on November, coe President Albert 27 April 2016 commenced a peaceful Buffett and technical advisor André occupation of the area surrounding Nobbs, accompanied by the UK par- the despoiled Legislative Assembly liamentarians who had visited Nor- building in the Old Military Barracks folk Island, delivered a petition to 10 compound. The “Tent Embassy,” as Downing Street calling for an act of it has become known, has provided a self-determination for Norfolk Island focus for protest banners, meetings, under the requirements of the United and explanations to tourists, against Nations Charter (coe 2016; Vollmer the actions taken by the Australian 2016). This petition was tabled in government (see Gonschor 2017). The the House of Commons the follow- Tent Embassy has been continuously ing day. This visit to London also saw occupied from its inception up to the the launch of the United Kingdom–­ time of this writing. The nirc has in Norfolk Island All-Party Parliamen- the past twelve months been actively tary Group. The coe delegation from engaged in developing its forward Norfolk Island was back in London plans, including those involved with in March 2017 for further consulta- long-term strategy, operations, and tions and a meeting with the United workforce. Nations high commissioner for human The Australian government has rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, before continued to invest monies in ­Norfolk continuing to New York for additional Island over the course of the year consultations. The coe also wrote to in review. These investments have Australian Prime Minister Malcolm included expenditures on Island Turnbull, inviting him to support an infrastructure, including the Central act of self-determination for Norfolk School, health services, the pier at Island through a UN-mediated process Cascades, and the extension of the (coe 2017). This act of self-determi- nbn, together with the provision of nation remains the core demand for wider access to social services (Nash the coe and the nipd, who envisage a 2016b). The infrastructure investments choice among the options of integra- may well become substantial assets for tion with Australia, self-government Norfolk Island in the future. However, in free association with Australia, and they have not been received without independence. question or controversy. Claims have At the end of March 2017, Eric been made that investments have been Hutchinson, a former Liberal Party more in line with what the Australian politician from Tasmania, was government thought Norfolk Island 188 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018) should have than what Islanders con- current issue is how this island of sidered appropriate for the island; that two thousand citizens can finance the Island’s hospital has been down- its needs as a regional council, given graded to a non-procedural service that previous abilities to raise general (without anesthesia and unable to revenues (from a goods and services carry out operations); and that some tax, customs duties, a gaming author- investments have been poorly planned ity, and philately, among other things) and wasted money. This set of issues have been abolished. The imposition has been actively discussed in local of land rating by the commonwealth media (eg, Nobbs 2016b). (Commonwealth of Australia 2016) is Minister Nash has claimed that the likely to have a devastating effect on overall investment of the Australian many Norfolk Islanders, who are land government in Norfolk Island will be rich and cash poor, holding land as a around a$143 million (us$112 mil- part of their heritage and tradition and lion) over four years (Nash 2016a). not merely as a commercially fungible However, the figure has never been asset. A nascent anti–land rates move- itemized and appears grossly inflated. ment has recently formed on the island It is claimed on the island that the cost to protest this development. of implementation of the panoply of Other issues that the island is hav- commonwealth and state laws and ing to come to terms with include the regulations now imposed on Nor- Australian government’s proposals folk Island should not be held to the for new commercial development of Island’s account; that the assets of the the island’s World Heritage site, the Norfolk Island community taken over Kingston and Arthur’s Vale Historic by the commonwealth have not been Area; the creation of a marine reserve appropriately compensated; and that around Norfolk Island; and exten- the economic and social losses from sions to the boundaries of the Norfolk the Australian intervention must also Island National Park. The new nirc be brought to account (Nobbs 2016a). functional arrangements also pose Norfolk Island continues to face problems that remain to be resolved. major economic, social and cultural, Over the last two years, ­Norfolk environmental, and organizational Island has been subject to very issues. Reliable funding to support substantial changes on two differ- forward planning for tourism, as well ent fronts: (1) the removal of self- as a waiver on the debt for the run- government; and (2) economic issues way reseal, are among the economic relating to how and to what extent the issues of importance. Other looming island can pay its way in the world. issues include rising costs for busi- ­Robert Ellicott, the Australian min- nesses as the Island adjusts to Austra- ister responsible for Norfolk Island lian national employment standards, when limited self-government was minimum wages, superannuation granted to the Island in 1979, man- legislation, and regulatory compliance. aged to discriminate between the two. Business confidence on the island is But the joint standing committee that currently at rock bottom. in 2014 reported on Norfolk Island to Perhaps the most contentious the Australian Parliament, as well as political reviews • polynesia 189 the legislators who imposed the Nor- to Norfolk Island, with the proclama- folk Island Legislation Amendment tion that “citizens on Norfolk Island Act 2015, merely conflated them. will have the same rights and responsi- ­Academic reflection suggests that this bilities as those in other parts of Aus- imposition was done with inadequate tralia” (Fletcher 2016). This approach consideration of its consequences centralizes power and imposes on (Wettenhall 2017). Norfolk Island the overwhelming As far as I can determine, the Aus- panoply of legislation from common- tralian Government has never given an wealth and state—and their concomi- adequate explanation for the removal tant bureaucratic processes—whether of self-government (see also Magri appropriate or not. In some cases this 2016). To independent observation, it is backed up with a social security sys- appears fundamentally as a regressive tem for those seriously disadvantaged, neocolonialist act (Robertson 2016). but any policy adjustments relevant Both nationally and internationally, to Norfolk Island must emerge from the nipd and the coe continue to seek underneath this imposed approach. the means to express Norfolk Island- Major decisions about the island are ers’ right to make a reasoned choice as made by a legislature 1,900 kilometers to their appropriate relationship with away and on behalf of a community Australia. with little or no influence on those The economic and social issues decisions or electoral outcomes. The discussed here draw attention to the Norfolk Island economy and society general problem faced by all Pacific now have no defense against unre- Islands—namely, the difficulty of strained immigration to the island, achieving infrastructure investment depredations wrought by privatiza- and balancing their budgets over the tion of public service monopolies, the longer term. Notably, this is not a imposition of debilitating levels of problem that metropolitan countries land rates, and the increases in fees themselves have been able to avoid. and charges as a result of new regula- All Pacific Islands have required and tory requirements. This absorptive continue to require subventions of approach also entails deep wounds one sort or another from metropolitan to Norfolk Islanders who now ques- powers (compare Hezel 2012). The tion the good faith of the Australian key question thus becomes: What are government. the assumptions of the metropolitan An alternative “island develop- powers that underlie their provision mental” approach would recognize of assistance to small, isolated islands? that small, relatively isolated islands This is at base a political (ie, ideologi- have particular needs with regard to cal) issue. One might take what could economic security and sustainability be called a “colonialist” or “absorp- within environmental limits. It is an tive” approach to this issue, or alter- approach that chooses policies that natively, an “island developmental” emphasize response flexibility rather one. than rigidity, that balance precaution The Australian Government has against economic growth, and that chosen to take an absorptive approach acknowledge the importance of lived 190 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018) experience in the specific island con- Islander 51 (34), 22 Oct; reprinted in text (Nobbs 2015). Nobbs 2017. The experiences of Norfolk Island Hezel, Francis X, sj. 2012. Pacific Island in 2016–17 provide an important case Nations: How Viable Are Their Econo- study for the entire Pacific region on mies? Pacific Islands Policy Report 7. the dangers to Island societies’ genuine Honolulu: East-West Center. interests that can arise from the imple- Kawczynski, Daniel, Paula Sherriff, and mentation of metropolitan neocolonial Andrew Rosindell. 2017. A Statement by and neoliberal policies. U.K. Members of Parliament Regarding the Situation on Norfolk Island. House of chris nobbs Commons, London, 25 Oct; reprinted in Nobbs 2017. The current Norfolk Island admin- istrator declined an invitation to Magri, Chris. 2016. nipd Visits Canberra: Could This Be the Turning Point? discuss the Australian government’s The Norfolk Islander 51 (41), 10 Dec. ­perspective on these matters for this http://www.norfolkonlinenews.com/nipd review. [accessed 12 Sept 2017] Nash, Senator Fiona, 2016a. From the References Desk of Minister Nash. The Norfolk Islander 51 (35), 29 Oct. coe, Norfolk Island Council of Elders. ———. 2016b. Partnerships Are the Way 2016. Presentation of Norfolk Island to Take NI Forward. The Norfolk Islander Petition to Number 10 Downing Street, 51 (33), 15 Oct. Letter to Rt Hon Theresa May, UK Prime Minister, 22 Nov. Nobbs, Chris. 2015. Norfolk Island: Thoughts for the Future. Self-published ——— 2017. Letter to Prime Minister 40-page book, available from Hon Malcolm Turnbull mp, 3 March. www.createspace.com/7345681 Published in The Norfolk Islander 51 (50), ———. a. Norfolk Island: Counting 4 March. 2016 the Losses from the Australian Govern- Commonwealth of Australia. 2016. ment Intervention. The Norfolk Islander ­Norfolk Island Applied Laws Ordinance 51 (39), 26 Nov; reprinted in Nobbs 2017. 2016. Amendment of Local Government ———. 2016b. Norfolk Island: New Act 1993 (NSW): Chapter 15, Part 2, Minister, Old Spin? The Norfolk Islander ­Section 513A. 5 May. 51 (36), 5 Nov; reprinted in Nobbs 2017; Fletcher, Hon Paul. 2016. Ministerial sec- reprinted in Nobbs 2017. ond reading speech, Territories Legislation ———. 2017. Australia’s Assault on Amendment Bill 2016, Australian Parlia- ­Norfolk Island 2015–16: Despatches from ment, Canberra, 28 June. the Frontline. Self-published 176-page Gonschor, Lorenz. 2017. Polynesia in book, available from The Trading Post, Review: Issues and Events, 1 July 2015 to Norfolk Island (http://www.tradingpost 30 June 2016: Norfolk Island. The Con- .nlk.nf/product-category/books/), and temporary Pacific 29 (1): 154–165. from www.createspace.com/7212642. Hanson, Senator Pauline. 2016. Letter to Robertson, Geoffrey. 2016. The Recolo- Prime Minister Hon Malcolm Turnbull nisation of Norfolk Island Is a Heavy- mp, 19 Oct. Published in The Norfolk Handed Act of Regression. The Guardian, political reviews • polynesia 191

23 April. https://www.theguardian.com/ be secured. Also considered in this commentisfree/2016/apr/23/australia review are implications for Pitcairn -recolonisation-norfolk-islands-self of “Brexit” (the United Kingdom’s -governance-bounty [accessed 12 Sept decision to leave the European Union 2017] [EU]); problems of smuggling between Vollmer, Tim. 2016. Norfolk Islanders Pitcairn and French Polynesia; and Take Fight for Self-Governance to UK Pitcairn’s mayoral elections. Parliament. Tasmanian Times, 16 Nov. The sustainability and security http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/ of Pitcairn have been long-standing pr-article/norfolk-islanders-take-fight concerns not only for the Islanders but -for-self-governance-to-uk-parliament/ also for the UK government. Over the [accessed 12 Sept 2017] past year there has been a concerted Wettenhall, Roger. 2017. Norfolk Island effort on the part of both groups to as Region: A Pacific Puzzle. Australian discuss what the future might hold for Journal of Public Administration (forth- Pitcairn, and what initiatives could be coming). undertaken to secure its future as a permanent settlement. However, the fundamentals underlying this process are extremely difficult. Pitcairn relies Pitcairn almost entirely on budgetary support The islands of Pitcairn, Henderson, from the United Kingdom—totaling Ducie, and Oeno (commonly known £3.48 million in 2016–17 and £3.01 as Pitcairn) make up a single terri- million in 2017–18 (£1.00 = us$1.31). tory, the last remaining United King- The per capita spending is £73,000 dom Overseas Territory in the Pacific (dfid 2017, 2, 14). Over 60 percent Ocean. As of March 2017, Pitcairn, of the funds go toward supporting the only inhabited island of the group, government and civil society activi- had a total resident population of ties, and 20 percent for other social forty-one—a near historically low infrastructure and services (dfid figure. The entire population lives in nd). The amount of money spent on the lone settlement of Adamstown. Pitcairn is not usually considered The only way of accessing the island a big issue in the United Kingdom, is by sea, but due to the difficult ter- although in January the Daily Express rain, ships must moor offshore, with tabloid published an article criticiz- longboats operating between the ing UK financial support of Pitcairn ships and the landing at Bounty Bay. ­(Culbertson 2017). Due to its relative isolation, its small Pitcairn does have a few domestic and aging population, and the high revenue streams, such as tourism, craft level of subsidy provided by the UK sales, and the production and sale government, there are concerns over of honey, but these are limited. The the future viability of the settlement. highest revenues derive from pas- Therefore, during the period under senger fares and landing fees, totaling review (1 July 2016–30 June 2017), nz$295,000 in 2016–17 (nz$1.00 there was significant focus on the = us$.72). Other sources of revenue ways in which Pitcairn’s future could that were successful in the past are 192 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018) now struggling. For the 2016–17 fiscal An important opportunity for year, for example, the sale of stamps the sharing of views about Pitcairn’s and commemorative coins recorded future came with the visit of two a loss of nz$4,500 (dfid 2017, 9). officials from the Overseas Territories Thus, as a report from the UK Depart- Department (otd) of the UK Foreign ment for International Development and Commonwealth Office (fco) (dfid) suggested that Pitcairn’s reli- from 23 to 26 February, marking the ance on financial aid “will not change first visit from the otd in almost two in the medium term” (dfid 2017, 3), years. The otd officials participated dfid has ruled out ending financial in a range of meetings including with aid for the time being, suggesting that the mayor, deputy mayor, and the “public services would collapse and Island Council. Discussions covered a the islanders would return to basic range of issues such as repopulation, subsistence or leave the island” (dfid capacity constraints, the shipping ser- 2017, 12). vice, and the effect of child safety mea- A second, associated concern sures (Hebb 2017; pic 2017c, 1–2). relates to the aging population and the The otd officials noted that the visit declining number of Islanders who are marked “the beginning of an on-going economically active. For example, the conversation so as to develop closer minutes of the Pitcairn Island Council ties with Pitcairn” (pic 2017c, 2). meeting of 21 November 2016 noted In conjunction with these discus- “that the island’s aging population sions, a number of initiatives were also has resulted in fewer and fewer locals undertaken or continued in an attempt being fit enough to traverse some of to improve Pitcairn’s future. First, the existing tracks and to safely guide with regard to the repopulation plan, tourists” (pic 2016, 2). Of the total several new applications for residency resident population, as of March were approved, although as of March 2017 there were 26 Islanders in paid 2017 none of the successful applicants employment, with only 8 of this group had moved to the island (dfid 2017, under fifty years of age. Also, only 4 6). Second, the tourism industry was women of childbearing age live on the more heavily promoted with new island. As dfid stated (2017, 15), “By marketing agents placed in the United 2025, based on current projections States and Europe, as well as with and assuming there are no children Pitcairn’s participation in international on the island, the population could cruise ship events in Miami. Third, reduce to 33, with 18 over 65.” As the long-delayed Alternate Harbour things stand, it looks unlikely that Project was completed in March. This there will be a meaningful increase in included the building of a jetty at the population, so the United King- Tedside, on the northwestern side of dom made it clear that there has to the island, and improving the condi- be a “frank discussion of the viability tion of the road leading to it. It was of the island” (dfid 2017, 6). Such hoped that, now that these projects discussions certainly became more were completed, tenders would be able pronounced during the period under to more easily transport cruise ship review. passengers to the island. ­During 2016, political reviews • polynesia 193

656 passengers landed on Pitcairn European Union, suggested “that from cruise ships, yachts, and other Councillors trust the [Brexit] process, vessels (dfid 2017, 9). However, these trust in hmg (Her Majesty’s Govern- successes were relatively modest in ment), trust in our Ministers, [and] scale and thus had minimal impact on take a positive and optimistic view” the underlying problems facing the (pic 2017b, 1). island. Despite these assurances, the Further, there were several other overall lack of clarity provided by the factors that made it difficult for UK government over the Brexit talks, Pitcairn to plot a clear path ahead. coupled with the indecisive outcome Perhaps the most important of these of the June 2017 UK general election, factors was Brexit. Pitcairn is an further muddied the waters and seem Overseas Country and Territory (oct) poised to complicate Pitcairn’s efforts of the European Union. octs are not to strengthen its economy and social part of the European Union and thus structures. This was illustrated with are not directly subject to EU law, but the British pound’s decline in value they do have associate status and thus against the New Zealand dollar, the receive various forms of assistance operating currency of Pitcairn. The from Brussels. Under the European pound fell by 28 percent after the Development Fund (edf) Pitcairn Brexit vote, meaning a shortfall in receives some financial assistance— budgetary support. As a consequence, equivalent to just under 10 percent the United Kingdom released some of the support the United Kingdom additional funding in December to provides. During the year, edf 10 cover the unexpected deficit (dfid focused on developing the island’s 2017, 8). Another problem highlighted tourism industry, while discussions by Brexit was the possibility that the were held on how funds from edf 11 crucial trade route between Pitcairn should be spent. At the Pitcairn Island and French Polynesia might become Council on 1 February, the importance more difficult. Indeed, there were of EU aid was made clear: “[It has] already real tensions around the route helped create a platform to facilitate because of the significant amount of our developing tourism industry, to smuggling of goods from Pitcairn to improve our environmental protec- the nearby island of Mangareva. It tion, [and] to increase our sustain- was noted that the French Polynesian ability” (pic 2017a, 3). There were authorities “requested” a stop to the thus understandable concerns that the smuggling of alcohol and cigarettes United Kingdom’s departure from the on Claymore II (the cargo-passenger European Union would put this sup- vessel servicing Pitcairn), and Pitcairn port at risk. was reminded that their use of Manga- Some assurances over funding were reva was “a privilege and not a right” given at the UK–Overseas Territories (pic 2017d, 3). New measures were Joint Ministerial Council in November enacted to deal with the problem—for (fco 2016, 2), and Councilor Leslie instance, all exports from Pitcairn now Jacques, who helps oversee relations require an Export Declaration Form— with the United Kingdom and the but the governor remained concerned 194 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018) and warned smuggling “posed a risk Sir Alan Duncan (UK Government to the very future of Pitcairn” (pic 2016). The protected area prohibits all 2017e, 3). fishing save for some sustainable local Another issue constraining Pit- fishing by Pitcairn residents. Then, cairn’s development and that was on 9 November, the Island’s mayoral discussed during the year was the ­election took place, with Shawn Chris- community’s ongoing progress in tian beating former Deputy Mayor adopting and embedding child safety Simon Young. Voting is compulsory measures—a legacy of past and more on ­Pitcairn. recent cases of child sexual abuse. The year under review witnessed ­Several child safety workshops were a great deal of work around improv- held, and a formal “reconciliation” ing the viability and sustainability of process began. There was debate over ­Pitcairn. Important measures were how this should be planned. Pitcairn’s taken in relation to promoting tour- Family and Community Advisor (fca) ism, working toward the island’s suggested two options: that a state- repopulation, and ensuring that EU ment admitting past actions and harm funds were secured for the future. Also done be developed and signed by those significant was the visit by the fco who had been convicted, or profes- officials. However, Pitcairn’s future sional support be sought to work with as a viable settlement was now being the entire Island community. The sec- debated more than ever, including ond option was favored (pic 2017a, by Pitcairners themselves. It is clear 4–5). As a result of these efforts, the that the United Kingdom will not governor stated that he “believed withdraw its funding, but the small Pitcairn is now seen as a vanguard of and aging population is an almost progress,” and he hoped “the Visitor’s impossible trend to reverse. In addi- Notice that is currently being distrib- tion, Pitcairn was buffeted by other uted to all visiting vessels, could be concerns—particularly Brexit and the discontinued” (pic 2017e, 2). The smuggling of goods to French Polyne- Islanders of course welcomed these sia—which placed the island further sentiments, but the issue is one that on the back foot. continues to affect Pitcairn, including peter clegg in relation to its repopulation plan. There were two other events of note during the period under review. First, References on 15 September 2016, Pitcairn’s Culbertson, Alix. 2017. REVEALED: Tiny entire Exclusive Economic Zone was Pacific Island with Just 42 People Gets officially declared a marine protected £18 MILLION in UK Foreign Aid. The area—the second largest contiguous Daily Express, 17 Jan. http://www.express and undisputed marine protected area .co.uk/news/world/754846/Pitcairn in the world after the zone around -Islands-Pacific-42-people-18million-UK the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. -Foreign-Aid [accessed 8 July 2017] The announcement came at the “Our dfid, Department for International Ocean Conference” held in Washing- Development. nd. Development Tracker: ton dc and attended by fco Minister Pitcairn Islands. https://devtracker.dfid political reviews • polynesia 195

.gov.uk/countries/PN [accessed 6 July Meeting held at the Public Hall. 30 March. 2017] http://www.government.pn/minutes/ APPROVED%20Public%20Meeting ———. 2017. Pitcairn Financial Aid %20Minutes%2030th%20March 2017–18 Business Case. March. %202017.pdf [accessed 6 July 2017] fco, Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Pitcairn Miscellany. 2016. Introducing: 2016. UK–Overseas Territories Joint The World’s Largest . . . The Pitcairn Ministerial Council 2016 Communiqué. ­Miscellany 59 (9 [Sept]): 3. 3 Nov. https://www.gov.uk/government/ uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/ UK Government Website. 2016. Minister file/565228/Overseas_Territories_Joint Duncan’s Our Ocean Conference speech. _Ministerial_Council_2016_Communique 15 Sept. https://www.gov.uk/government/ .pdf [accessed 5 July 2017] speeches/minister-duncans-our-ocean -conference-speech--2 [accessed 6 July Hebb, Nicola.2017. A Visit from London. 2017] The Pitcairn Miscellany 60 (2 [Feb]): 4. pic, Pitcairn Island Council. 2016. ­Minutes of the Council Meeting held at the Public Hall. 21 Nov. http://www Rapa Nui .government.pn/minutes/Approved %20Council%20Meeting%20Minutes During the review period, Rapa Nui %2021st%20Nov%202016.pdf indigenous politics were principally [accessed 6 July 2017] political ecological in scope; they ———. 2017a. Minutes of the Council involved struggles to control cultural Meeting held at the Public Hall. 1 Feb. and material resources and ances- http://www.government.pn/minutes/ tral territory and to regulate island Approved%20Council%20Meeting population growth. This review %20Minutes%20Feb%201st%202017 highlights four major contests: the .pdf [accessed 6 July 2017] struggle for the self-determination of ———. 2017b. Minutes of the Council Rapa Nui patrimony; the continued Meeting held at the Public Hall. 13 Feb. fight of the Hito/Hitorangi family to http://www.government.pn/minutes/ regain their ancestral land from the APPROVED%20Minutes%2013FEB2017 Hotel Hangaroa Eco Village and Spa; .pdf [accessed 6 July 2017] political organization to establish a ———. 2017c. Minutes of the Council law to restrict Chilean and interna- Meeting held at the Public Hall. 24 Feb. tional migration to the island; and the http://www.government.pn/minutes/ battle to resist state and transnational APPROVED%20minutes%2024th forces seeking to develop the ocean %20Feb%202017.pdf [accessed 6 July surrounding the island into a marine 2017] park. ———. 2017d. Minutes of the Council The political reclamation and Meeting held at the Public Hall. 29 March. occupation in March 2015 of the http://www.government.pn/minutes/ “sacred places” (vahi tapu) that state APPROVED%20Council%20minutes and transnational forces had devel- %2029th%20March%202017.pdf oped into the “Rapa Nui National [accessed 6 July 2017] Park” (Parque Nacional Rapa Nui) ———. 2017e. Minutes of the Public for global tourism (Young 2016a, 196 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018)

240–243) had become embroiled tion to the Rapa Nui people during in complex state strategies of crimi- September 2017, following a year of nalization of Rapa Nui leaders by co-administration (Análisis Informa- August 2015 (Young 2017, 173–175) tivo, 26 Aug 2016). The transfer and but stabilized in favor of Rapa Nui strength of Ma‘u Henua administra- movements for self-determination as tion was a result of complex negotia- the review period began. In July and tions. conaf representatives tried to August 2016, the foundations of the “severely restrict” the participation of co-administration of the park were the Rapa Nui people in the co-admin- established: on the second of July, the istration and did not specify a transfer Rapa Nui–determined organization date in its initial draft of an agree- Ma‘u Henua was officially created; ment; however, Honui leaders success- and on the second of August the board fully challenged the draft by quoting a of directors was elected by the Rapa speech of Chilean President Michelle Nui people (Análisis Informativo, 26 Bachelet that agreed to a transfer Aug 2016). Ma‘u Henua represents during an island visit in April 2016 itself as an “indigenous community” ­(UCVmedios, 25 Aug 2016). In an in partnership with the Chilean state official plenary meeting on 19 January National Forestry Corporation (Cor- 2017 at the Chilean National Library poración Nacional Forestal, conaf) in Santiago, Chile, between Ma‘u to administer the park; it reports Henua, codepia, conaf, and other ultimately not only to conaf but to state representatives, evidence was the Rapa Nui–determined organiza- presented that the transition was thus tion Honui, which is an assembly far successful; revenues collected from of representatives of the recognized tourism under the Ma‘u Henua admin- thirty-six indigenous “extended fami- istration of the park had on average lies/clans” (hua‘ai) that constitute the doubled and exceeded expenditures, Rapa Nui people (Parque Nacional and the number of protected “sacred Rapa Nui, 2017). In a self-determined sites” (vahi tapu) had increased from election, 792 of 1,004 registered five to twenty-five. While at times Rapa Nui voters elected the following there was disagreement between repre- board of directors of Ma‘u Henua: sentatives of Ma‘u Henua and those of Camilo Rapu (President), Tavake conaf, the transfer of administration Hurtado Atan (Vice President), Pepe was seen to be progressing toward the Tuki Hito (Secretary), and Petero Hey agreed-on goal of a complete transfer Icka (Treasurer) (UCVmedios, 25 Aug of power in September 2017 (Prensa 2016). Anakena Manutomatoma, one Rapa Nui, 26 Jan 2017). of the Rapa Nui representatives on the In contrast to the progress on self- Chilean government–organized Com- determination of Rapa Nui patrimony, mission for the Development of Easter in October 2016 the Hito/Hitorangi Island (codepia), which supported family—who had been seminal in the the creation of Ma‘u Henua, noted 2010–2011 struggles of the Rapa Nui that the partnership is understood to people to reclaim lands developed by be temporary; the full agreement calls the Chilean state and private inter- for a complete transfer of administra- ests that culminated in state violence political reviews • polynesia 197 against the Rapa Nui people (Young ern the island in terms of the 1966 2012)—reasserted conflict with the legislation known as “Easter Island Hangaroa Eco Village and Spa. Large Law” (Ley Pascua) (Stanton 2000, banners placed in front of the hotel 143–144). While Ley Pascua estab- have long obstructed the ocean views lished civil rights for the Rapa Nui of the guests with statements critiqu- people for the first time in a history ing the hotel. But on 6 October 2016, with the Chilean state dating to 1888, Hito/Hitorangi family members and can thus be interpreted as pro- intensified protest by constructing an gressive (Delsing 2009, 158–163), it occupation camp in front of the hotel is also intelligible as the beginning of with a cooking area, sleeping tents, the state settler colonial project for the and benches, punctuated by a mass island. Indeed, it was only after Ley of Rapa Nui national flags (Biobio, Pascua that a significant portion of the 7 Oct 2016). A government order was island became populated by Chileans established the next day to evict the who administered the island in terms family, but instead an agreement was of state-determined bureaucratic later signed between family members institutions on a day-to-day basis and the government of Chile to create (Gomez 2010, 63–64). While in 1950 a discussion table to address solutions there were only 29 non–Rapa Nui to the conflict (El Ciudadano, 20 Oct out of 753 on the island (Makihara 2016). At the beginning of the new 1999, 335), between 1960 and 1981 year, the occupation camp remained, the population increased from 1,134 with large signs reading “Hotel to 2,335 and the number of Chilean Pirata” (Pirate Hotel), and “Hotel settlers increased from 125 to 725 built on stolen land” placed in front (Stanton 2003, 114). Over the twenty- of the hotel (Opal Press, 7 Jan 2017). year period of 1992–2012, there was No new resolution has subsequently an 86 percent increase in population been publicized. on the island (iwgia 2012, 19). In a One of the benchmarks of settler 2012 article in the New York Times colonialism is demographic. While (6 Oct 2012), then Mayor Luz Zasso colonialism may involve settlers, until Paoa stated that the 3,000 Chilean they begin to outnumber the indig- settlers living on the island at that time enous or other colonized peoples, outnumbered the 2,800 Rapa Nui settler colonialism is conceived as a people (Romero 2012). possibility but is not official; a “settler The initial passage of legislation in colonial situation” is defined as one the Chilean House of Representatives in which settler colonial people have to regulate increased settlement on become a “majority of the popula- the island in April 2017 in terms of tion” (Veracini 2010, 5). The threat the formulation of a “residential law” of Rapa Nui minoritization emerged (Ley de Residencia) (Gobernación during the second half of the twenti- Isla de Pascua, 3 May 2017), and eth century and the early twenty-first subsequently approved by the Chilean century. Chilean settlement began in Senate in 2 August 2017 (Gobernación the late 1960s as part of a Chilean Isla de Pascua, 4 Aug 2017), reflects administration that began to gov- over a decade of local organizing on 198 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018) the island. On the heels of a state truth 2017). Rapa Nui Municipal Council- commission that led to proposals for man Mai Teao conceived the law as reconciliation with all indigenous peo- good for the Rapa Nui “material and ples, including extensive recommenda- immaterial culture” as well as for “the tions for Rapa Nui (Gobierno de Chile people” (Sandoval 2017). In meetings 2008), community-based statutes for with Chilean senators, codepia rep- “Special Administration for Easter resentative Anakena Manutomatoma Island” dating to 2002 and revised in also expressed support of the law as 2005 as well as thereafter repeatedly “positive” for both the Rapa Nui called for regulation of migration to people and other residents of the the island (Gonschor 2007, 241–242). island (Gobernación Isla de Pascua, The women’s political organization 4 Aug 2017). In personal communica- Makenu Re‘o Rapa Nui, formed in tions with me (Aug 2017), Erity Teave, 2009, has been particularly ­forceful who is vice president of Parlamento in mobilizing for migration ­control Rapa Nui, said she was impressed (Christ 2012, 42–43), as other politi- with the “overwhelming” support for cal organizations like Parlamento a law that she conceives as addressing Rapa Nui have centered action on self- cultural, environmental, infrastruc- determination of Island government tural, and social problems that require and lands (Young 2016b, 268–269), “urgency.” marine resources (Young 2017, The politics over President Bach- 177–178), and patrimony (Teave and elet’s announcement of a marine park Cloud 2014). Ley de Residencia is conservation project in collabora- anticipated to be officially signed into tion with Pew Charitable Trusts on law by President Bachelet on 9 Sep- 5 October 2016 at the internationally tember 2017 on island (Biobio, 4 Aug attended “Our Ocean” conference in 2017), coinciding with the symbolic Valparaíso—which met with pub- date of the signing of the “Agreement lic rejection by Rapa Nui leaders of of Wills” (Acuerdo de Voluntades) of codepia and the National Council 9 September 1888, which commenced for Indigenous Development (conadi) Chilean colonial history in Rapa Nui as noted in last year’s review (Young (Teave and Cloud 2014, 406–408). 2017, 177–178)—continued through- Chilean Undersecretary of Regional out this period. Potential resolutions Development Ricardo Cifuentes sup- that seemed to emerge in May 2017, ported the legislation and emphasized however, became complicated again that it is critical for a “different devel- by June. Rapa Nui Mayor Petero opment strategy” for the Island based Edmunds announced publicly in late in “environmental sustainability” May that, after numerous consulta- (El Correo Del Moai, 18 May 2017). tions, the Rapa Nui people rejected Island Governor Carolina Hotu Hey the initial marine park proposal, distinguished the law as responding to emphasizing that in the context of “environmental problems” recognized their recent struggle to dismantle the by President Bachelet and as “very administration of their patrimony good news for the whole community” under a Chilean national park, they (Gobernación Isla de Pascua, 4 Aug were “adverse” to creating “a park political reviews • polynesia 199 in the sea” (El Mostrador, 30 May UN Secretariat of the Pacific Regional 2017). Environment Programme (sprep). Confusingly, alternative communi- After Pantu Tepano brilliantly cations were consequently expressed led a Rapa Nui musical and dance by state and Pew representatives at the ensemble—who opened the event with high-level United Nations Ocean Con- songs that accompanied musicians ference on the implementation of UN and dancers from Aotearoa, Hawai‘i, 2030 Sustainability Goal 14, which I Marquesas, and Tahiti along with a personally attended from the 5th to performance from a Fijian ensemble the 9th of June 2017 in New York in front of large installations of tapa City. Three broadly distinct groups of from Tonga and Fiji—a representative Rapa Nui people also participated in of Pew Charitable Trusts introduced the conference: codepia representa- the event to an audience of approxi- tives Anakena Manutomatoma and mately three hundred attendees of Poky Tane Haoa, who were among the UN conference. Isauro Torres, the the Rapa Nui leaders who challenged director of the environment and ocean the marine park proposal of the state affairs within the Ministry of Foreign following its announcement; mem- of Affairs of Chile and former Chilean bers of Te Mau o te Vaikava o Rapa ambassador to New Zealand, was the Nui, the organization that had sup- first official speaker of a group that ported the construction of the marine included UN General Assembly Presi- park, which Rafael “Rinko” Tuki, the dent Peter Thomson from Fiji. After Rapa Nui representative of conadi, Minister Torres greeted the audience proposed had been paid by Pew to in the languages of Rapa Nui, Cook organize island support for the marine Islands Māori, Māori, and Spanish, park outside the channels estab- he discussed some of his own connec- lished under codepia and conadi tions to Rapa Nui and Aotearoa and (El Ciudadano, 3 Oct 2015); and a some of the projected plans of the music and dance troupe led by Ernesto Chilean state regarding the protection “Pantu” Tepano. Though representing of the ocean. In conclusion, he stated, different political positions, the cohort “Concerned, Chile is, for the protec- of approximately a dozen Rapa Nui tion of the ocean for Rapa Nui and for proudly expressed solidarity as they all of our insular territories. Chile has stood together for photos behind the become, is promoting actively, marine Rei Miro flag of the Rapa Nui nation protected areas. We are pleased to during the reception for an official announce that just a week ago we are side event of the conference entitled moving forward to have one million “Siu I Moana: Reaching Across the square kilometers as protected marine Ocean.” The event and reception areas and we have to include, obvi- party of the conference was held 6 ously, Rapa Nui. We will start consul- June 2017 and sponsored by the Pew tation very soon on Easter Island.” Charitable Trusts and the Founda- Minister Torres’s proposal that tion Bertarelli in conjunction with the the projected Chilean marine park governments of Chile and Italy, the development would “have to include, Ocean Sanctuary Alliance, and the ­obviously, Rapa Nui” was not con- 200 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018) ceived as obvious by leaders of Parla- of protest against the marine park mento Rapa Nui who were engaged ­(Biobio, 27 July 2017). in the Ocean Conference at a distance. conadi Representative Rafael Erity Teave submitted a statement Tuki, whose efforts were seminal of intervention to the conference throughout resistance to the marine that reiterated a Parlamento Rapa park proposal, conceives the ongoing Nui ­letter sent to Chilean Minister proposed state strategies for reported of Foreign Affairs Heraldo Muñoz marine conservation as deceitful on 7 December 2016. The statement “manipulation” for the promotion of emphasized that Parlamento Rapa global development projects—such as Nui rejected coordination with Pew. a newly announced submarine optic The letter (a copy of which Teave cable project to connect Chile with sent to me for my files) promoted China—and for meeting international conservation under the “framework agreements on climate change in of self-determination” that consti- which marine parks are “internation- tutes the Rapa Nui people with “legal ally traded as green bonus areas” powers” to “govern and define the to offset environmental destruction guidelines for their social, cultural elsewhere (El Ciudadano, 8 June and economic development” and 2017). His critical insight accords ­emphatically rejected coordination with a growing awareness of “blue- with Pew. Instead of the development washing” as an emerging concern in of a Marine Protected Area (mpa), Pacific Islands scholarship (Lyons and the letter proposed a marine area Tengan 2015, 564). Chamorro scholar conserved as “an area of multiple use and poet Craig Santos Perez indicates according to our ancestral regulation that, beyond the expressed purpose of and without foreign intervention.”­ conserving marine life that interests While the Chilean Ministry of Envi- environmentalists, marine parks are ronment began to publicly announce often part of new economic strate- new community consultations on gies of “blue growth” that service the island for an alternative kind eco-luxury tourism and an assortment of conservation plan for a marine of industries and geopolitical agen- area of “multiple use” on its web- das (2014a, 2014b). States are noted site (Ministerio del Medio Ambiente as accumulating capital as they sell 2017), and in Chilean news media access permits for “green” use of the (La Tercera, 2 June 2017) consistent marine parks, giving access not only with the intervention of Parlamento to tourism companies and actors but Rapa Nui, apparently counterforces also to large grant–based research of the Chilean government promoted a projects. Moreover, the United States June 2017 announcement of President­ is noted as having used these designa- Bachelet that expressed continued tions to enable military use of marine interest in the construction of a marine parks in Northern Guam, the Cayos park (Periodico 26, 1 June 2017). Cochinos Islands of Honduras, and in As the review period closed, Honui the ­Chagos Archipelago of the Indian ­organized another public march Ocean (Perez 2014a, 2014b). political reviews • polynesia 201

While the concepts of blue growth dollars (Jie 2017). Current maps of and blue-washing are relatively new, the proposed cable route pass through they are intelligible extensions of Rapa Nui (New China tv 2017). As the late twentieth-century rise of the Chilean state continues to pursue a an “ecological phase” of capitalism revised Trans-Pacific Partnership (tpp) (Escobar 1996, 54) associated with free-trade agreement (Muñoz 2017), it World Bank “green neoliberalism” is certainly plausible that a Rapa Nui (Goldman 2001, 500). Green neolib- marine park could indeed be used to eralism reformulates the relationships blue-wash the cable and other mega- of nature and society within a prob- projects of interest to Chile. lematic of “global survival” in which Political control and manipulation “the global ecosystem” is privileged of ecological variables that a people rather than “the sustainability of local depend on for life and social change cultures and realities” (Escobar 1996, combine in an approach known as 51). Local flora, fauna, and peoples “environmentality” (Agrawal 2005), become transformed into “reservoirs which has emerged in the twenty-first of value” for the future sustainability century as a powerful tool for gov- of global rather than local projects ernmental regulation of societies and (Escobar 1996, 57). As forms of subjectivities. Public policies and prac- storage of neoliberal “warehousing” tices of environmentality not only are strategies (Lloyd and Wolfe 2015, 8), implemented to govern existing envi- marine parks and other green strate- ronments of a people but anticipate gies become part of a spectrum of new territories that state and other “conditionalities” for securing “large forces often try to preemptively secure capital loans and investments” for for particular interests (­Massumi global mega-projects (Goldman 2001, 2009). In terms of the indigenous 517–518). Mystifying concepts like politics of “refusal,” state-imagined­ the global itself reappear from such futures and their developmental vantages as deflated “networks or projects are often confronted with spheres” of social interaction where suspicion and scrutinized for strategies much of the earth’s crowd of actors of “further dispossession” (Simpson encounter a “lack of space” and 2016, 440). While the United Nations limited opportunity for “placement” has provided evidence that Marine (Latour 2009, 144). The submarine Protected Areas are useful global optic cable project mentioned by strategies for conserving the marine Representative Tuki would involve a resources of the world (undp 2017), public-private partnership between its “capacity building” programs serve the Chilean state–based Subtel com- not necessarily local peoples of the munications company and the Chinese Pacific Islands but, more often, global private firm Huawei; it is reportedly elites (West 2016, 63–86). In orga- designed to “increase trade, scien- nizing refusal of a marine park with tific and cultural exchanges between possible links to future global forces the two countries,” and initial cost of transpacific cable routes and other estimates range up to us$650 million projects that would emerge in a tpp- 202 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018) centered Chilean political economy, Análisis Informativo. Daily Internet news, Rapa Nui demonstrate increasing con- Santiago, Chile. http://www.anin.cl sciousness of the politics of environ- Aylwin, José, Hernando Silva, and Nancy mentality on the island. Interestingly, Yáñez. 2016. Chile. In Indigenous World their organization of Ma‘u Henua 2016, edited by Diana Vinding and Cæcile and the Ley de Residencia shows that Mikkelsen, 207–215. Copenhagen: iwgia. the Rapa Nui people are also able Biobio. Daily Internet news, Santiago, to utilize environmentality to their Chile. http://www.biobiochile.cl own advantage. By regaining some, Christ, Karly Gempp. . Hakarongo and potentially full, control of their 2012 Mai! Rapanui Women and Decolonisation patrimony and its associated territory, for Development. MA thesis, Development as well as securing public policy to Studies, Victoria University of Wellington. limit migration, Rapa Nui leaders are beginning to regulate political ecologi- Delsing, Maria Riet. 2009. Articulating Rapa Nui: Polynesian Cultural Politics cal variables that are crucial for their in a Latin American Nation-State. PhD movement toward self-determination. ­dissertation, University of California–Santa For political theorist Jacques Rancière, Cruz. the political is provocatively less about the creation of a constitution as it is El Ciudadano. Daily Internet news. San- tiago, Chile. http://www.elciudadano.cl/ the “composition” of a new “topog- raphy of the common” (2010, 213). El Correo Del Moai. Spanish-language While the achievement of a self-deter- newspaper and Internet news, published mined constitution perhaps remains in Rapa Nui. http://www.elcorreodelmoai for a relatively distant future, Ley .com de Residencia and Ma‘u Henua are El Mostrador. Daily. Santiago, Chile. valuable instruments of a new political http://www.elmostrador.cl economic topography that the Rapa Escobar, Arturo. 1996. Constructing Nui people can apply to compose Nature: Elements for a Poststructuralist themselves amid the ever more pre- Political Ecology. In Liberation Ecologies: carious global spheres of blue-washing Environment, Development, Social Move- optic-cable imaginaries and other ments, edited by Richard Peet and Michael tpp projects that Chile has generally Watts, 46–68. London: Routledge. kept “secret” from the “indigenous Gobernación Isla de Pascua. Easter Island peoples” of the country as well as the gubernatorial announcements. http://www “general public” (Aylwin, Silva, and .gobernacionisladepascua.gov.cl/ Yáñez 2016, 214). Gobierno de Chile. 2008. Informe de forrest wade young la Comisión Verdad Histórica y Nuevo Trato con los Pueblos Indígenas. Santiago: ­Gobierno de Chile. References Goldman, Michael. 2001. Constructing an Environmental State: Eco-Governmentality Agrawal, Arun. 2005. Environmentality: and Other Transnational Practices of a Community, Intimate Government, and “Green” World Bank. Social Problems the Making of Environmental Subjects in ( ): . Kumaon, India. Current Anthropology 48 4 499–523 46 (2): 161–191. Gomez, Rodrigo. 2010. Rapanui and political reviews • polynesia 203

Chile, a Debate on Self-Determination: A Muñoz, Heraldo. 2017. Trade After the Notional and Legal Basis for the Politi- Trans-Pacific Partnership. New York cal Decolonisation of Easter Island. MA Times, 4 Aug. https://www.nytimes.com/ ­thesis, Victoria University of Wellington. 2017/04/03/opinion/trade-after-the-trans -pacific-partnership.html [accessed Gonschor, Lorenz. 2007. Polynesia in 10 Aug 2017] Review: Issues and Events 1 July 2005 to 30 June 2006: Rapa Nui. The Contempo- New China tv. 2017. China and Chile rary Pacific 19 (1): 240–247. Could Be Joined Together by Underwater Fiber Optic Cable. Two-minute video, iwgia, International Work Group for published June. https://www.youtube Indigenous Affairs. 2012. The Human 7 Rights of the Rapa Nui People on Easter .com/watch?v=U2fVXwm38Vc [accessed Aug ] Island. iwgia Report 15. Copenhagen: 13 2017 iwgia. Opal Press. Internet news for Chile and Jie, Han. 2017. China, Chile Mulling First Latin America. Santiago, Chile. Undersea Fiber Optic Cable Linking Asia, http://prensaopal.cl Latin America. cgtn (China Global Televi- Parque Nacional Rapa Nui. Internet news sion Network), 8 June. https://news.cgtn concerning the Rapa Nui National Park. .com/news/3d41444f7749444e/share_p Mataveri, Rapa Nui. http://www .html [accessed 14 Aug 2017] .parquenacionalrapanui.cl La Tercera. Daily Internet news. Santiago, Perez, Craig Santos. 2014a. Blue-Washing Chile. http://latercera.com the Colonization and Militarization of Our Latour, Bruno. 2009. Spheres and Ocean. The Hawaii Independent, 26 June. ­Networks: Two Ways to Reinterpret http://hawaiiindependent.net/story/blue Globalization. Harvard Design Magazine -washing-the-colonization-and 30:138–144. -militarization-of-our-ocean [accessed 10 July 2017] Lloyd, David, and Patrick Wolfe. 2015. Settler Colonial Logics and the Neoliberal _____. 2014b. Private Islands, Super- Regime. Settler Colonial Studies 6 (2): Yachts and Marine Protected Areas. 109–118. The Hawaii Independent, 17 Oct. http:// hawaiiindependent.net/story/private Lyons, Paul, and Ty P Kāwika Tengan. -islands-super-yachts-and-marine 2015. Introduction: Pacific Currents. -protected-areas [accessed 10 July 2017] American Quarterly 67 (3): 545–574. Periodico 26. Daily Internet news. Makihara, Miki. 1999. Bilingualism, Las Tunas Province, Cuba. http://www Social Change, and the Politics of Ethnic- .periodico26.cu/index.php/en ity on Rapanui (Easter Island), Chile. PhD ­dissertation, Yale University. Prensa Rapa Nui. Online magazine and blog, based in Rapa Nui. http:// Massumi, Brian. 2009. National Enterprise prensarapanui.blogspot.com Emergency: Steps Toward an Ecology of Powers. Theory, Culture & Society 26 (6): Rancière, Jacques. 2010. Dissensus: 153–185. On Politics and Aesthetics. London: Con- tinuum International Publishing Group. Ministerio del Medio Ambiente. 2017. Consulta a los Pueblos Indígenas. Romero, Simon. 2012. Slow-Burning http://consultaindigena.mma.gob.cl/area Challenge to Chile on Easter Island. -marina-protegida-para-rapa-nui/ New York Times, 6 Oct. http://www [accessed 13 Aug 2017] .nytimes.com/2012/10/07/world/americas/ 204 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018) slow-burning-rebellion-against-chile-on Papua New Guinea. New York: Columbia -easter-island.html [accessed 12 July 2017] University Press. Sandoval, Camila. 2017. Cámara aprueba Young, Forrest Wade. 2012. Polynesia in proyecto que regula la residencia y la Review: Issues and Events, 1 July 2011 to permanencia en Rapa Nui. Municipalidad 30 June 2010: Rapa Nui. The Contempo- de Rapa Nui. http://www.rapanui.net/ rary Pacific 24 (1): 190–201. camara-aprueba-proyecto-que-regula-la -residencia-y-la-permanencia-en-rapa-nui _____. 2016a. Polynesia in Review: Issues and Events, July to June : .html [accessed 7 Aug 2017] 1 2014 30 2015 Rapa Nui. The Contemporary Pacific 28 Simpson, Audra. 2016. Whither Settler (1): 237–244. Colonialism? Settler Colonial Studies 6 (4): 438–445. _____. 2016b.Rapa Nui/Easter Island. In Pacific Ways: Government and Stanton, Max E. 2000. I’m Not a Chileno! Politics in the Pacific Islands, edited by Rapa Nui Identity. In We are a People: ­Stephen Levine, 255–274. Second edition. Narrative and Multiplicity in Constructing ­Wellington: Victoria University Press. Ethnic Identity, edited by Paul ­Spickard and W Jeffrey Burroughs, 142–150. _____. 2017. Polynesia in Review: Issues ­Philadelphia: Temple University Press. and Events, 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016: Rapa Nui. The Contemporary Pacific 29 _____. 2003. Economics and Tourism (1): 173–181. Development on Easter Island. In Pacific Island Tourism, edited by David Harrison, 110–124. New York: Cognizant Commu- nication Corporation. Tonga Teave, Erity, and Leslie Cloud. 2014. Rapa Nui National Park, Cultural World Heri- Since the 2010 constitutional review tage: The Struggle of the Rapa Nui People and subsequent elections in 2010 for their Ancestral Territory and Heritage, and 2014, the Kingdom of Tonga’s for Environmental Protection, and for forays into the world of democracy Cultural Integrity. In World Heritage Sites have been fraught with multiple chal- and Indigenous Peoples’ Rights, edited lenges. This is to be expected from a by Stefan Disko and Helen Tugendhat, nascent democracy journeying through 403–422. Copenhagen: iwgia. a transitional phase, toward a new UCVmedios. Daily Internet news. Corpo­ political culture based on popular ración de Televisión de la Pontificia electoral choice and away from the ­Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. age-old hereditary system of rule www.ucvmedios.cl that has been at the cornerstone of undp, United Nations Development Pro- Tonga’s sociopolitical power structure gramme. 2017. Sea, My Life: Protecting since 1875, when the first constitu- Oceans, Sustaining our Future. New York: tion was devised. Between June 2016 undp. and the end of August 2017, the Veracini, Lorenzo. 2010. Settler Colonial- government of ‘Akilisi Pōhiva—the ism: A Theoretical Overview. New York: first elected commoner prime minis- Palgrave Macmillan. ter—went through a series of crises West, Paige. 2016. Dispossession and the leading to a failed parliamentary vote Environment: Rhetoric and Inequality in of no confidence in February 2017. political reviews • polynesia 205

The continuing crises culminated in Majesty’s Armed Forces (hmaf) car- a constitutional coup of sorts by the ried out exercises with other defense king, who intervened at the behest of partners such as New Zealand, the the opposition noble parliamentar- United States, China, and France. In ians and invoked his power to dissolve the first week of July 2016, hmaf Parliament on 24 August 2017. Ironi- and its defense partners performed cally, although it was the target of the extensive exercises meant to boost parliamentary dissolution, Pōhiva’s the hmaf’s response capacity to government had to continue in a emergencies such as natural disasters. caretaker capacity until 16 November The chief of the Royal New Zealand when new elections were scheduled to Navy was also in Tonga around the take place. same time for bilateral defense talks to Both 2016 and 2017 were rocky strengthen close military ties between years for the new government of the two countries (nzdf 2016). Pōhiva, a longtime pro-democracy On the political front, the by-­ activist whose commoner-led govern- election to fill the parliamentary seat ment came to power after the 2014 left vacant by former Minister for general elections. It was not smooth Education ‘Etuate Lavulavu (who sailing for the government’s attempts had been found guilty of bribery) for reform. Among these attempts took place on 14 July 2016. Interest- were proposals for changes in the ingly, the seat was secured by ‘Akosita structure and operations of the gov- ­Lavulavu, the wife of ‘Etuate Lavu- ernment’s public service, which has lavu, who outpolled three other candi- been generally considered inefficient dates (Tonga Ministry of Information in the past. As part of the reform, and Communications 2016). the Tonga Remuneration Author- Forging international relations was ity reviewed and proposed changes important for Tonga’s young democ- to the salary structure in mid-2016. racy. Thus, on 28 July, Prime Minister In response to this, the Tonga Public Pōhiva visited New Zealand at the Service Association presented petitions invitation of John Key, his New Zea- opposing the reforms on the grounds land counterpart. Bilateral discussions that they had “overlooked employees’ between the ministers revolved around concerns” (Matangi Tonga 2016). New Zealand’s role in Tonga’s devel- Unlike previous practice, the new opment, trade, and seasonal workers, structure was based on performance, among other issues. Accompanying rather than on an automatic salary Pōhiva was a group including Minister increase every year. This can be seen for Public Enterprises Poasi Tei; Minis- as part of a recent wave of neoliberal ter for Revenue and Customs Tevita reform in civil service in the Pacific, Lavemaau; Lord Vaea Tongatapu, and as also seen in countries like Fiji. who is the nobles’ number 1 represen- Tonga’s regional and interna- tative for Tongatapu; Chief Secretary tional engagement had been growing, and Secretary to Cabinet Dr Palenitina as shown in the deployment of its Langa‘oi; and Secretary for Foreign military forces in Afghanistan. As an Affairs Va‘inga Tone (tnews 2016). expanding, active military force, His Tonga’s international links 206 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018) expanded further after establishing seven noble representatives—Lord diplomatic relations with Poland on Tu‘ilakepa (who tabled the motion), 31 August through a joint commu- Lord Tu‘iha‘angana, Lord Fusitu‘a, niqué in New York between Tonga’s Lord Tu‘i‘afitu, Lord Tu‘iha‘ateiho, UN representative, Mahe‘uli‘uli Lord Nuku, and Lord Vaea—and Tupouniua, and Poland’s UN repre- three people’s representatives—Samiu sentative, Boguslaw Winid. Poland Vaipulu, Vili Hingano, and Fe‘ao has previously established diplomatic Vakata (rnz 2017c). During the vote relations with Pacific island states on 27 February, Pōhiva’s government such as Nauru, Kiribati, the ­Federated survived with fourteen votes compared States of Micronesia, and Tuvalu to ten votes against him. Minister (Radio Poland 2016). This estimable for Finance ‘Aisake Eke abstained. event was followed two weeks later Lord Ma‘afu, who was a member of by another scandal. On 14 September, Pōhiva’s government, was the only Minister for Internal Affairs Sosefo member of the nobility who voted Vakata resigned after allegations that against the motion (rnz 2017d). he threw a glass of wine at the act- The motion was in response to ing deputy director of the women’s what its supporters referred to as division of the Ministry of Internal “poor governance, nepotism and Affairs, Tupou‘ahau Fakakovikaetau, favoritism” (Parliament of Tonga accusing her of insubordination 2017). Most of the examples provided (Latu 2016). were related to appointments to senior The latter half of 2016 was a mixed government positions—including the bag of moments of pride for Tonga, appointment of Pōhiva’s son as an coupled with scandalous happenings advisor (although he was not on gov- that proved to be challenging for the ernment payroll)—that were deemed government. Despite these, Pōhiva and in breach of either existing regulations his government survived the attempts or public ethics. The prime minister’s to undermine their credibility. The first opponents also criticized his political half of 2017, however, proved to be stand supporting West Papuan inde- full of history-making events. pendence, arguing that it was going After three years in power, Pōhiva’s to anger Indonesia and thus damage government came under increas- and undermine Tonga’s international ing pressure from Parliament due to image (rnz 2017c). what critics saw as its questionable It appeared that the anti-Pōhiva decisions. Under the amended 2010 group tried to dig up almost every constitution, a vote of no confidence conceivable decision and activity by can only be carried out eighteen the government and then construct months after a general election, and scandals around them as a means of before the last six months prior to the justifying their complaints. Beneath next general election. On 2 February the surface was the deeper, long- 2017, the Speaker of the legislative running tension between the nobles assembly, Lord Tu‘ivakanō, received and the pro-democracy groups of the notice of a no-confidence motion which Pōhiva has been the leader. In signed by ten members. This included June 2012, Pōhiva and his group had political reviews • polynesia 207 tabled a vote of no confidence against international standards. The deci- then Prime Minister Lord Tu‘ivakanō sion not to hold the Pacific Games and his government, and this time sent shock waves around the Pacific around it was Pōhiva’s turn to be as the Pacific Games Council (pgc) on the receiving end of the tit-for-tat then had to make emergency deci- war (Royal Oceania Institute 2017). sions, subsequently calling for expres- Despite the electoral reform and the sions of interests from other countries elections, this political dichotomy at short notice. Guam, Sāmoa, and and related contestation for power French Polynesia responded by putting will continue to be a major factor in forward bids. ­shaping Tonga’s political terrain. While the World Bank report Amid the political wrangling, provided a convenient justification to February 2017 was a sad month for forego hosting the games, another sig- Tonga after the beloved queen mother nificant factor in the decision was the passed away in Auckland at the age of volatile relationship between Pōhiva ninety. Her body was flown home for and the chief executive officer (ceo) the traditional ceremonies and burial and chair of the Tonga Organizing on 1 March (New Zealand Herald Committee (toc), former Prime Min- 2017; rnz 2017e). In March there ister Lord Dr Feleti Sevele—a politi- was a major reshuffle of the cabinet, cal adversary of Pōhiva’s since the which was approved by the king on destructive riots of November 2006. 9 March (pir 2017). The reshuffle Pōhiva consistently argued that Sevele followed the forced resignation of and his government were to be blamed Minister of Finance ‘Aisake Eke and for the riots because of their delay in was also an attempt by Pōhiva to making a decisive stand on the con- strengthen his support within Parlia- stitutional reform, and Sevele accused ment and bring about coherence and Pōhiva of attempting to instigate a discipline in his cabinet. coup. This long-running animosity On 15 May 2017, the government may have influenced Pōhiva’s decision announced that it was withdrawing to remove Sevele from the position of its decision to host the 2019 Pacific ceo of toc in May 2016. The pgc Games. The reason provided was that, declared this move “null and void,” given the state of the economy, the however, as the power to hire and fire government was not in a position to Sevele rested with the toc or the pgc fund the games, and thus the previ- itself (pir 2016). ous government’s successful bid to The desire by the government to host the games was a “costly mistake” terminate its hosting obligations was (Stuff NZ 2017). The government not surprising. On 11 October 2016, based its decision on a World Bank Pōhiva declared in Parliament that report that cautioned that Tonga’s he doubted the country’s ability to financial woes would be exacerbated host the games in 2019 (rnz 2016). if it hosted the games (Chakraborty A number of reasons were suggested 2017). Held every four years, the mul- to support this assertion. First, there tisport event requires the host country was doubt about whether the upgrade to develop its sports infrastructure to of Teufaiva Stadium and the con- 208 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018) struction of new sporting facilities at free trade agreement on 14 June by Tonga High School would be ready members of the Pacific Island Forum, by May 2017 as scheduled. Second, excluding Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the government considered the annual and Vanuatu (which later changed grant of us$460,000 requested by its mind), all of which have refrained the toc as excessive and the ceo’s from committing themselves to the salary as unjustifiably high. Another agreement (Matangi Tonga 2017b). reason given by the government was The agreement has been consistently that they had not found any land on pushed by Australia and New Zealand which to build an eighteen-hole golf and there are worries about the fact course for the games. A piece of land that it does not guarantee any long- was finally found in January 2017 at term benefits for small Pacific Island Siumafua‘uta, Popua, but the irony economies. At the same time, there is was that, although Tonga was no also anxiety about possible negative ­longer hosting the Pacific Games, impacts on the fragile economies of the golf course was still being built. the small island states. In addition to concerns about the One of the celebrated events in course’s archaeological and environ- June 2017 was the completion of the mental impact, attempts by Parliament new Tongan government office build- to ask the government to provide the ing, St George Palace at Pangai Si‘i budget and other technical details in the Central Business District. The about the golf course consistently building—which will house the prime failed. Another controversial project minister’s office, ministry of foreign associated with the golf course was a affairs, ministry of finance, ministry­ of canal that was also built in the Popua national planning, and other gov- area under the supervision of the ernment departments—was funded prime minister for beautification pur- through Chinese aid to Tonga. The poses (Latu 2017; Fonua 2017a). handover certificate was signed on Recognition of Tonga’s role in 22 June by the Deputy Prime Minister regional networking was manifested in Sovaleni and China’s new ambassador the opening of the first Pacific Centre to Tonga, Wang Baodong (Matangi for Renewable Energy and Energy Tonga 2017c). Efficiency in Nuku‘alofa on 26 April. Another significant event was the The event was attended by a number visit to Tonga by New Zealand Prime of Pacific leaders. Deputy Prime Min- Minister Bill English from June 15 ister Siaosi Sovaleni stated, “This cen- to 17 to inspect NZ aid projects in tre of excellence will provide valuable Tongatapu, as well as to have meet- support to Pacific Island countries and ings with the king, prime minister, territories towards progressing their and other ministers. Pōhiva praised respective priorities and commitments New Zealand’s support for democracy for achieving sustainable energy” in Tonga and expressed his desire to (Matangi Tonga 2017a). carry out more democratic reforms One of the most regionally talked- in Tonga (Fonua 2017b). Pōhiva’s about events in Tonga for the year to comments were later questioned in date was the signing of the pacer-Plus Parliament by an opposition member political reviews • polynesia 209 who argued that such statements were DONE by Us at Nuku‘alofa this irresponsible and were to be kept Twenty Fourth day of August in the locally and not publicized internation- Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and ally, especially to a foreign leader. Seventeen and in this the Sixth Year On 25 July 2017, the Tongan of Our Reign. Tupou VI” (Govern- Supreme Court dismissed an appli- ment of Tonga 2017). cation for the judicial review of the Clause 38 of the amended 2010 firing of the general manager of the constitution still gives the king con- Tonga Broadcasting Commission siderable interventionist powers: (tbc) (rnz, 2017b). In May, the “The King may convoke the Legisla- prime minister had terminated Nanise tive Assembly at any time and may Fifita’s contract at the tbc, accusing dissolve it at his pleasure and com- the organization of being an “enemy mand that new representatives of the of government,” although her posi- nobles and people be elected to enter tion was eligible for renewal when the assembly” (Government of Tonga her contract came to an end. Chief 2010). This provision on the king’s Justice Owen Paulsen made it clear power is reiterated in clause 77(2) that Fifita’s reappointment needed the on elections: “It shall be lawful for approval of the minister for public the King, at his pleasure, to dissolve enterprise, but this was never done. the Legislative Assembly at any time The most dramatic event in Tonga and command that new elections be in the period under review and held” (Government of Tonga 2010). perhaps since the November 2006 However, clause 38 also states that riots was the sudden and unexpected “it shall not be lawful for the King- dissolution of Parliament by the king dom to remain without a meeting of on 24 August 2017. The instrument the Assembly for a longer period than of dissolution of Parliament by the one year,” thus the suggestion that king was detailed in a gazette on the elections be held no later than 25 August, although it took effect 16 November. from 5pm on 24 August. It declared: The only constitutionally legal way “WE, TUPOU VI, BY THE GRACE of removing the government—the OF GOD, OF TONGA, KING: real target of the dissolution—was ­HAVING CONSIDERED Advice to dissolve Parliament. Ironically, the from the Lord Speaker of the Leg- cabinet under Pōhiva was to continue islative Assembly, and ­HAVING ruling until the next election on 16 REGARD to Clauses 38 and 77(2) November. This was the only option of The Act of Constitution of Tonga available since there is no constitu- (Cap. 2) DO lawfully dissolve the tional provision for the appointment Legislative Assembly with effect from of a new prime minister in the case Thursday 24 August 2017 at 1700 of such dissolution. Pōhiva referred hours and DO ­Command that new to the situation as a “failed coup” Representatives of the Nobles and because, although he was the target of People be elected to enter the Legisla- the dissolution, they could not com- tive Assembly at Elections to be held pletely remove him and his govern- no later than 16 November 2017. ment (Morrah 2017). 210 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018)

The king’s action followed a pre- legislative assembly and the Speaker sentation to him by the Speaker of the feels spending time on these peti- legislative assembly, Lord Tu‘ivakanō, tions would be a waste of time and and was based on eight grievances resources; (7) that cabinet had delib- read out on the tbc radio service on erately misled the legislative assembly the evening of 28 August, which were regarding the hosting of the 2019 then translated and sent to me by Pacific Games and, after the legislation Lopeti Senituli, former director of the was passed authorizing the collection pro-democracy movement and politi- of the foreign exchange levy tax in cal advisor to former Prime Minister order to fund it, continued to collect Sevele. The grievances were (1) that this tax despite canceling the games; a bill (draft legislation) had been and (8) that cabinet had recently submitted to the office of the Speaker approved a 5 percent salary increase that seeks to amend the constitution for all ministers in response to a recent so as to revoke His Majesty’s right of increase in income tax, yet the tax assent to legislations approved by the increase applies to the whole country legislative assembly before it could especially all the civil servants and become law; (2) that the intent of the people in private enterprises (Lopeti bill is in keeping with the cabinet’s Senituli, pers comm, 29 Aug 2017). earlier plans to bypass His Majesty’s When the board members of the prerogative to sign treaties and con- Public Service Association (psa) visited ventions entrenched in clause 39 of the Pōhiva on 26 August, they were given Constitution when they tried to sign a positive message of encouragement and ratify cedaw without His Maj- to continue with the good work, even esty’s prior approval; (3) that cabinet if there was no Parliament or cabi- had also become party to pacer-Plus net. Pōhiva told them that he was “at without His Majesty’s prior approval; peace” and conveyed his love for the (4) that another bill had also been people of Tonga. In what may appear submitted to the office of the Speaker to be a subtle rebuke of the Tongan that seeks to amend the constitution monarch, psa Secretary General Mele so as to remove His Majesty in privy ‘Amanaki declared, “In God we put council’s right to appoint crucial posi- our trust in Him as He is the King of tions such as the police commissioner Tonga (my emphasis) and the Uni- and the attorney general; (5) that Hon verse” (‘Amanaki 2017). Prime Minister Pōhiva had intervened The intervention by the king may and prevented the legislative assem- have deeper implications on Tonga’s bly from sanctioning former cabinet embryonic democracy because of fear minister ‘Etuate Lavulavu for abuse that Parliament may remain subservi- of office on the understanding that ent to the whims of the monarch. The he would punish him instead. It later question is, will these reasons used became apparent that he did not pun- to justify the dissolution survive legal ish Lavulavu as promised; (6) that challenges if Pōhiva seeks injunc- several petitions have been submitted tion and judicial review of the king’s to the office of the Speaker that seek proclamation? Some political and legal to impeach various members of the commentators on Tonga do not think political reviews • polynesia 211 so (‘Amanaki 2017). However, in a Fonua, Pesi. 2017a. Tonga pm Shocks statement two days later, Pōhiva said Media by Saying Chinese Will Take Over that he respected the king’s decision Country “in a Few Years.” Pacific Islands and was not going to mount a court Report, 14 May. http://www.pireport.org/ challenge. Although he initially stated articles/2017/05/14/tonga-pm-shocks -media-saying-chinese-will-take-over that he was going to stand in the next -country-few-years election, he later reversed this stand saying that he will still think about it ———. 2017b. Tonga’s pm Thanks NZ (rnz 2017a). for Supporting Drive for Democracy. The period under review has been Pacific Islands Report, 18 June. http:// tremendously transformative for www.pireport.org/articles/2017/06/18/ tongas-pm-thanks-nz-supporting-drive the kingdom because its newly con- -democracy structed democratic institutions and norms were under immense pressure. Government of Tonga. 2010. Constitution The age-old contestation between the of the Kingdom of Tonga. Nuku‘alofa: privileged nobles and the common- Government of Tonga. ers cannot be discounted, despite the ———. 2017. Instrument of Dissolution. newly amended constitution and the Tonga Government Gazette Supplement recent democratic elections. Democ- Extraordinary, No. 14 of 2017. 25 Aug. racy has the potential to be deployed Nuku‘alofa: Attorney General’s Office, as leverage by self-elected, feudalistic Government of Tonga. ­Available for nobles who are out to use consti- ­download at https://crownlaw.gov.to/ tutional means to reclaim their lost cms/images/LEGISLATION/GAZETTES/ / - /GazetteSupplement privileges and power. The year 2017 2017 2017 0026 ExtraordinaryNo. of .pdf will go down in Tongan history as the 14 2017 first attempt at constitutional coup Latu, Kalino. 2016. King Dismisses making. In Fiji, the military intervenes Tonga’s Minister of Internal Affairs. in civilian politics to serve a particular Kaniva Tonga, 15 Sept. http://kanivatonga political agenda and, in Tonga, the .nz/2016/09/king-dismisses-tongas king does the job just as effectively. -minister-of-internal-affairs/ steven ratuva ———. 2017. pm Pōhiva Denies Claims Government Destroys Popua Historical­ Site. Kaniva Tonga, 14 June. http:// kanivatonga.nz/2017/06/pm-pohiva References -denies-claims-government-destroys All websites accessed 12 September 2017. -popua-historical-site/ ‘Amanaki, Mele. 2017. Press statement by Matangi Tonga. 2016. psa Calls on pm Public Service Association, 26 Aug. to Defer New Salary Structure. 30 June. http://matangitonga.to/2016/06/30/psa Chakraborty, Amlan. . Tonga With- 2017 -calls-pm-defer-new-salary-structure draws from Hosting 2019 Pacific Games over Cost. Reuters, 15 May. https://www ———. 2017a. First Pacific Centre for .reuters.com/article/us-games-pacific Renewable Energy Opens in Tonga. -tonga/tonga-withdraws-from-hosting 27 April. http://matangitonga.to/2017/ -2019-pacific-games-over-costs 04/27/first-pacific-centre-renewable -idUSKCN18C0K8 -energy-opens-tonga 212 the contemporary pacific • 30:1 (2018)

———. 2017b. pacer Plus Signing on ———. 2017a. Pohiva Hints He May 14 June. 23 May. http://matangitonga.to/ Not Stand in Upcoming Tonga Elections. 2017/05/23/pacer-plus-signing-14-june 31 Aug. http://www.radionz.co.nz/ international/pacific-news/338379/ ———. 2017c. St George Palace Handed Pōhiva-hints-he-may-not-stand-in Over to Tongan Government. 23 June. -upcoming-tonga-elections http://matangitonga.to/2017/06/23/st -george-palace-handed-over-tonga-govt ———. 2017b. Review of Tongan Broad- casting Head’s Sacking Is Dismissed. Morrah, Michael. 2017. Tonga’s Prime Minister Blames Ousting on “Failed 25 July. http://www.radionz.co.nz/ international/pacific-news/ /review Coup.” Newshub, 27 Aug. http://www 335792 -of-tongan-broadcasting-head-s-sacking .newshub.co.nz/home/world/2017/08/ tonga-s-prime-minister-blames-ousting -is-dismissed -on-a-failed-coup.html ———. 2017c. Tonga pm No Confidence nzdf, New Zealand Defence Force. 2016. Motion Tabled in Parliament. 21 Feb. nzdf Personnel Lead Outreach Activities http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/ in Tongan Schools. 21 July. http://www pacific-news/324989/tonga-pm-no .nzdf.mil.nz/news/media-releases/2016/ -confidence-motion-tabled-in 20160721-nzdfploaits.htm -parliament New Zealand Herald. 2017. Tongan ———. 2017d. Tonga’s Pohiva Survives Queen Mother Dies Aged 90. 20 Feb. No Confidence Vote. 27 Feb. http://www http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article .radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/ .cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11803918 325452/tonga’s-pohiva-survives-no -confidence-vote pir, Pacific Islands Report. 2016. Defying Tonga pm, Pacific Games Council ———. 2017e. Tonga’s Queen Mother Reinstates Organizing Committee ceo. Laid to Rest. 1 March. http://www 31 May. http://www.pireport.org/articles/ .radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/ 2016/05/31/defying-tonga-pm-pacific 325587/tonga’s-queen-mother-laid-to-rest -games-council-reinstates-organizing Radio Poland. 2016. Poland Establishes -committee-ceo Diplomatic Relations with Kingdom of ———. 2017. Reshuffled Cabinet Tonga. 31 Aug. http://www.thenews.pl/1/ Approved by Tonga’s King Tupou VI. 10/Artykul/268817,Poland-establishes 9 March. http://www.pireport.org/articles/ -diplomatic-relations-with-Kingdom-of 2017/03/09/reshuffled-cabinet-approved -Tonga -tongas-king-tupou-vi Royal Oceania Institute. 2017. Back- Parliament of Tonga. 2017. Parliament grounder on the Kingdom of Tonga Vote Receives Motion for a Vote of No Confi- of No Confidence—20 February 2017. dence. 22 Feb. http://www.parliament.gov 15 June. https://royaloceaniainstitute .to/media-centre/latest-news/latest-news .org/2017/06/15/backgrounder-on-the -in-english/556-parliament-receives -kingdom-of-tonga-vote-of-no-confidence -motion-for-a-vote-of-no-confidence -20-february-2017/ rnz, Radio NZ. 2016. Tonga’s pm Cast Stuff NZ. 2017. Tonga Withdraws from Doubt on 2019 Prep. 12 Oct. http://www Hosting Pacific Games over Cost. 16 May. .radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/ http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/ 315458/tonga’s-pm-cast-doubt-on-2019 92662731/Tonga-withdraws-from-hosting -pac-games-prep -2019-Pacific-Games-over-costs political reviews • polynesia 213 tnews. 2016. The Hon Prime Minister’s Tonga Ministry of Information and Com- First Official Visit to NZ. 26 July. http:// munications. 2016. ‘Akosita Lavulavu www.tnews.co.nz/foreign-affairs/the-hon Sworn In as New mp. 15 Aug. http://www -prime-ministers-first-official-visit-to .mic.gov.to/news-today/press-releases/6216 -new-zealand/ -akosita-lavulavu-sworn-in-as-new-mp