Nicholas Halter | The University of the South Pacific (original) (raw)

Books by Nicholas Halter

Research paper thumbnail of Suva Stories: A History of the Capital of Fiji

ANU Press, 2022

Suva Stories explores a fascinating tapestry of histories in one of the Pacific’s oldest and most... more Suva Stories explores a fascinating tapestry of histories in one of the Pacific’s oldest and most culturally diverse urban centres, the capital of Fiji. Charting the trajectory of Suva from indigenous village to colonial hub to contemporary Pacific metropolis, it draws on a rich colonial archive and moving personal memoirs that bear witness to their time. The diverse contributions in this volume form a complex mosaic of urban lives and histories that contribute fresh insights into historical and ongoing debates about race, place and belonging. Suva Stories is a valuable companion to those seeking to engage with the city’s pasts and present, and will prompt new conversations about history and memory in Fiji.

Research paper thumbnail of Australian Travellers in the South Seas

ANU Press, 2021

This book offers a wide-ranging survey of Australian engagement with the Pacific Islands in the l... more This book offers a wide-ranging survey of Australian engagement with the Pacific Islands in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Through over 100 hitherto largely unexplored accounts of travel, the author explores how representations of the Pacific Islands in letters, diaries, reminiscences, books, newspapers and magazines contributed to popular ideas of the Pacific Islands in Australia. It offers a range of valuable insights into continuities and changes in Australian regional perspectives, showing that ordinary Australians were more closely connected to the Pacific Islands than has previously been acknowledged. Addressing the theme of travel as a historical, literary and imaginative process, this cultural history probes issues of nation and empire, race and science, commerce and tourism by focusing on significant episodes and encounters in history. This is a foundational text for future studies of Australia’s relations with the Pacific, and histories of travel generally.

Papers by Nicholas Halter

Research paper thumbnail of Epidemics in Fiji's history: Stories of Power, Resistance and Contradiction

The Journal of Pacific Studies, 2023

This paper is a historical review of known epidemics that have afflicted Fijians since European c... more This paper is a historical review of known epidemics that have afflicted Fijians since European contact in the late 1700s, with particular attention to the devastations caused by the measles epidemic of 1875 and the influenza pandemic in 1918. The impact of these outbreaks is documented in numerous archival sources, including government records, the 'Proceedings of the Council of Chiefs, the Colonial Secretary's Office (CSO) files, the Fiji Times, and a report of the Royal Commission to investigate 'the decrease of the native population' (1896). The paper argues that despite changing historical contexts and epidemiological circumstances, official responses to disease in Fiji were underscored by assumptions of European superiority and power that ignored how non-Europeans viewed Western medicine with suspicion and colonial rules as contradictory.

Research paper thumbnail of Boosting the Frontier: Australian Settler Colonialism in the Pacific 1860s–1900s

Australian Historical Studies, 2022

Australia, itself a union of settler colonies, also gave birth to speculative land and settlement... more Australia, itself a union of settler colonies, also gave birth to speculative land and settlement schemes for colonists to migrate to the nearby Pacific Islands and become sugar or copra planters, throughout the period from the 1860s to the early 1900s. The number that migrated to these proposed settler colonies was small, notwithstanding the boosting, promotional rhetoric that accompanied the schemes. Two of these schemes, in the late 1860s and the early 1900s, bookend the era of sub-empire propaganda and imperial jousting that saw hundreds of Australian settlers sail to Fiji and Vanuatu. Both were ‘company’ schemes, speculative ventures, born out of the nineteenth-century capitalist fervour characteristic of Melbourne and Sydney. A comparison of the two ventures and the boosting literature that supported them reveals the ambiguous promises that were made to settlers and the local challenges that were overlooked in the popular Australian imagination of the region.

Research paper thumbnail of Vunilagi Book Club: Lessons learnt from a grassroots initiative in an informal settlement in Fiji

Small States & Territories, 2020

Vunilagi Book Club is a recent example of innovative female leadership to promote literacy and ed... more Vunilagi Book Club is a recent example of innovative female leadership to promote literacy and education in an informal settlement in Fiji. Informal or "squatter" settlements in the capital of Fiji have existed for over 50 years and received significant (albeit intermittent) attention from foreign donors and the national government; yet, the underlying causes of poverty and disadvantage remain. This paper examines the case of a small-scale literacy community initiative with a qualitative approach based on close observation and participation in the group's activities since its inception. These lessons learnt suggest that women are key agents of change in the community and that informal grassroots reading classes have the potential for improving the education of children in informal settlements. Closer study of the social relations and constraints within informal settlements suggests that solutions to the challenges of inequality and access to education must originate from within informal settlement communities.

Research paper thumbnail of Teaching and Technology at the University of the South Pacific

Journal of Pacific History, 2020

Online learning and teaching have remained at the periphery of discussions about teaching Pacific... more Online learning and teaching have remained at the periphery of discussions about teaching Pacific history, and universities were unprepared for the shift to online spaces forced by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic this year. It is timely for those teaching Pacific courses online to consider the lessons learnt from the University of the South Pacific History Department, which has been teaching online for the past four years. Experiments with collaborative content curation have highlighted the challenges associated with adapting new forms of technology in a Pacific regional context and the possibilities for regional collaboration and cooperation.

Research paper thumbnail of Tourists fraternising in Fiji in the 1930s

Journal of Tourism History, 2020

Attempts to prevent tourists from fraternising with the natives in Suva marks the decade of the 1... more Attempts to prevent tourists from fraternising with the natives in Suva marks the decade of the 1930s as one of significant change for Fijian society. The accounts of cruise ship visitors to Fiji document the delicate race relations in the capital of the British colony and the efforts of the European authorities to maintain control. This article considers the ways in which tourists and residents reinforced and disrupted the established colonial order.

Research paper thumbnail of Ambivalent Mobilities in the Pacific: “Savagery” and “Civilization” in the Australian Interwar Imaginary

Transfers, Feb 2017

Australian travel writing of the interwar period expanded with the growth of tourism in the Pacif... more Australian travel writing of the interwar period expanded with the growth of tourism in the Pacific Islands and the development of publishing and literacy at home. Th is article focuses on how the Australian middlebrow imagination was shaped by the diverse travel accounts of Australian tourists, adventurers, executives, scientists, officials, and missionaries writing at this time. Many of their texts borrowed and blended multiple discourses, simultaneously promoting the islands as educational and exotic, and appealing to an Australian middlebrow readership. In this article I argue that not only was travel writing middlebrow in its content and style, but the islands themselves were a particularly middlebrow setting. Th is is evident in representations of the islander “savage” in the region of Melanesia, a prevalent theme in Australian travelogues. I argue that this middlebrow literature was characterized by ambivalent and often contradictory ideas about the civilized “self” and the savage “other.”

Research paper thumbnail of Searching for the Land of the Golden CocoaNut: Australian Travel Writing about Commercial Enterprise in the Pacific Islands

Journal of Pacific History, Dec 2016

Pacific Island trade and commerce was a prominent theme in travel writing produced within Austral... more Pacific Island trade and commerce was a prominent theme in travel writing produced within Australia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This reflected the long history of European commercial exchange between the Australian continent and the Pacific Islands, and a European literary legacy that idealised the region’s economic potential. This article explores popular perceptions of commercial enterprise in the Pacific Islands as expressed in travel writing, focusing on authors with a significant connection, by birth or affiliation, to either the Australian colonies or the Australian nation. The formation of a distinctively ‘Australian’ vision of the Pacific that evolved since European exploration is traced. The voice that took shape in literary form in the Australian colonies during the late 19th century contributed to a national narrative in the early 20th century that imagined the Pacific Islands as a region for Australian investment, profit and colonial enterprise.

Key words: travel writing, commerce, trade, colonialism, Australia

Research paper thumbnail of Kuchuwa Community Project: Indigenous Youth Responses to Water and Waste Management in the Federated States of Micronesia

The Micronesian and Australian Friends Association (MAFA) was awarded the PACE-Net Plus seed fund... more The Micronesian and Australian Friends Association (MAFA) was awarded the PACE-Net Plus seed funding in 2015 to establish a pilot program to record indigenous youth responses to water and waste management and enhance community resilience to climate change in the village of Kuchuwa, in Chuuk Lagoon. This project focused on the impacts of climate change at a grassroots level in a relatively understudied region in the Pacific, with an inclusive approach that incorporated traditional community practices and knowledge and encouraged youth innovation and leadership. This project consisted of a youth-led needs assessment and gap analysis in Kuchuwa in January 2016, followed by a local workshop designed to mobilise youth and community leaders to build their capacity to understand and respond to climate change.

This project achieved two successful outcomes: it assisted the Kuchuwa community to develop water and waste management plans which are based on indigenous strategies and local community participation; and it documented the current water and waste priorities of communities in the Chuuk lagoon, with suggestions for future solutions and collaborations which could strengthen community resilience. In terms of impact, this project was an important means of demonstrating the neglected potential for capacity building amongst local communities affected by climate change by bringing together indigenous Micronesian knowledge and Western frameworks and technologies. By applying this community-focused approach in other contexts, this project could be a powerful vehicle for inspiring and empowering local youth within other Micronesian villages and communities, and helping them to develop their own toolkits for climate action.

Research paper thumbnail of Introduction: Micronesia in Focus

Tamkang Journal of International Affairs, Oct 2015

This special issue is titled “Micronesia in Focus” to highlight the continuing engagement by Micr... more This special issue is titled “Micronesia in Focus” to highlight the continuing engagement by Micronesians with the outside world on their own terms. The three articles which make up this special issue arose from a research symposium held at the Australian National University (ANU) in April 2014 which sought to encourage discussions of contemporary and historical issues which placed Micronesia firmly at centre stage, rather than the periphery. Their authors highlight the benefits of interdisciplinary scholarship and collaborations which examine international relations from a Micronesian point of view. Micronesia’s strategic location between the global superpowers of the PRC and the US, and its position close to valuable sea-bed and maritime resources, has contributed to its rising importance on the world stage. What makes this special issue distinct from other studies of recent developments in international relations is that its authors focus on Micronesia’s response to the political changes in the Pacific, and thus demonstrate a more complex web of networks, agreements and alliances between Micronesia and its neighbours.

Research paper thumbnail of 'To See With Their Own Eyes': Australian Travel Writing on the Pacific Islands c.1880-1941

From the 1880s onwards, the Pacific Islands became increasingly accessible to the average Austral... more From the 1880s onwards, the Pacific Islands became increasingly accessible to the average Australian with improvements in transportation and the growth of trade and business, Christian outreach, and colonial administration in the region. Economic prosperity and social mobility in Australia facilitated their movement abroad, and the development of publishing and literacy encouraged the circulation of texts which generated excitement about travel and exotic foreign destinations. The varied experiences and impressions of Australians travelling to, and through, the Pacific Islands filled diaries, letters, books, magazines, memoirs and travelogues, many of which found a receptive Australian audience. This thesis explores this corpus of Australian travel writing on the Pacific Islands from c.1880 to 1941. In doing so, it examines how representations of the Pacific Islands within travel accounts reflected, and contributed to, Australian knowledge of the region.

By contextualising these sources and their authors, this thesis explores the nuances and complexities of the individual Australian travel experience, whilst also situating them within the broader corpus of Australian travel literature. It discusses several themes which were prevalent in Australian travel writing of this period: the experience of seaboard travel and tourism, commerce and profit, romantic and utopian ideals, gender roles, ideas of nation and empire, theories of race and science, and notions of the ‘savage’ and ‘civilised.’ It explores how individual Australians negotiated these concepts whilst abroad in the Pacific Islands, and how their encounters and their texts highlight a diverse set of reactions, at times confirming, challenging or rejecting previous assumptions and expectations.

This historical study of a previously neglected body of literature deepens our understanding of the historical engagement and exchange between Australians and Pacific Islanders. This was a relationship that reached beyond the political and economic interests of a select few – it permeated popular literature and public debate. Though European stereotypes of the Pacific Islands persisted well into the twentieth century, travel writing was crucial in familiarising and informing Australians about their close neighbours. These accounts also show that this engagement was not one-sided. The Pacific Islands played an important role in shaping the growth of the Australian nation too, and Australian travel writers recorded much about themselves as they did the exotic ‘other’ when placed in unfamiliar surroundings. Travel writing can provide a more nuanced view of Australian travellers and readers, and a more detailed understanding of how they imagined the ‘South Seas.’

Research paper thumbnail of The Australian Catholic Church and the Public Sphere: World Youth Day 2008

Journal of Religious History, Jun 2013

World Youth Day 2008 was the largest public religious gathering in Australian history, which prou... more World Youth Day 2008 was the largest public religious gathering in Australian history, which proudly celebrated Catholicism in the streets of Sydney. This article argues that the organization and outcomes of World Youth Day 2008 were significantly shaped by the perceptions of Catholic Church leaders and officials who were determined to present the Catholic Church as a powerful opponent of the trend toward secularization. The organizers of World Youth Day 2008 achieved significant success in overcoming the legacy of sectarianism, the fears of secularization, the problems of internal division and scandal, and distrust and suspicion in the media prior to the event. The event showed that the Catholic Church was very capable of negotiating the Australian public sphere, and successfully marketed an energized and inclusive brand of Catholicism to the broader public.

Book Chapters by Nicholas Halter

Research paper thumbnail of Indigenous Youth Responses to Water and Waste Management in Kuchuwa, Federated States of Micronesia

Islands of Hope: Indigenous Resource Management in a Changing Pacific, 2023

The global debate about climate change and its impacts has brought renewed attention to the uniqu... more The global debate about climate change and its impacts has brought renewed attention to the unique challenges the Pacific Islands face, but in so doing, the experience of local communities and actors has often been overlooked in favour of developing national and regional strategies. In response, an international research collaboration led by the Micronesian & Australian Friends Association (MAFA) initiated a project in 2016 that focused on the impacts of climate change at a grassroots level in a relatively understudied region of the Pacific. Specifically, it focused on climate change adaptation in the Micronesian village of Kuchuwa, with the aim of recording Indigenous youth responses to water and waste management. Lessons learned from this project show that an inclusive approach is needed that incorporates traditional community practices and knowledge and encourages youth innovation and leadership.

Research paper thumbnail of Australian travel writing and notions of savagery in Melanesia

Routledge Handbook on Tourism and Small Island States in the Pacific, 2023

The types of tourists that have visited the Pacific Islands since the late nineteenth century hav... more The types of tourists that have visited the Pacific Islands since the late nineteenth century have changed over time, yet these destinations have been portrayed as static and unchanging, imagined to be in a primordial and savage state. This chapter explores representations of savagery in the Melanesian region, with a particular focus on three Australian travellers: Beatrice Grimshaw, who visited Fiji in the 1900s; Jack McLaren, who visited the Solomon Islands in the 1920s; and Colin Simpson, who visited Vanuatu in the 1950s. It explores how representations of the Melanesian savage changed over time, from a figure employed in colonial narratives to encourage settlement and economic development, to a marketing tool for the tourism and publishing industries. Their accounts also show that tourists could not always reconcile the generalized stereotypes with the reality they encountered during their travels. It is argued that a historical approach to Pacific tourism is needed to understand the colonial roots of travel in the Pacific and the ways in which history continues to shape the contemporary tourism industry.

Research paper thumbnail of Archives and Community Memory in the Pacific

The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean, 2023

Dynamic and proactive archives are crucial for safeguarding and growing community memory and know... more Dynamic and proactive archives are crucial for safeguarding and growing community memory and knowledge. Despite this, South Pacific Island archives are plagued by stark challenges which hinder their role. Principally, it is an issue of trust. The echoes and expectations of a not-too distant colonial past have isolated archives from the communities they are supposed to serve. This is made worse by traditional archival practice, which has a narrow focus, and with characteristics and requirements that prevent Pacific archives from connecting with their communities. These dated archive practices concentrate on ‘control’ of archival holdings with less consideration for the ‘accessibility’ of these holdings to the general public. This is driven by assumptions that may be relevant in Europe and societies where the written record has a long history, but which do not fit the realities of the island nations of the South Pacific and other countries that are former colonies, where oral tradition has a more dominant role. Using the developments at the National Archives of Fiji from 2012 to 2019 as a case study, this chapter will examine the challenges to Pacific Island archives, reveal how acknowledging cultural norms is key for Pacific archives to build trust and establish relevance in the community, and demonstrate how connecting with community is critical to overcoming the obstacles which prevent archives from serving their communities as desired.

Research paper thumbnail of Engaging with living histories

Teaching and Learning with Technology, 2020

Buadromo, R., Chand, S., Halter, N., Taufaga, A. (2020). ‘Engaging with Living Histories’ in Teac... more Buadromo, R., Chand, S., Halter, N., Taufaga, A. (2020). ‘Engaging with Living Histories’ in Teaching and Learning with Technology: pushing boundaries and breaking down walls, Som Naidu and Sharishna Narayan (eds.), The University of the South Pacific, Suva, 33-48.

Research paper thumbnail of The Boy From Labasa

Bearing Witness, Essays in Honour of Brij V. Lal, 2017

A reflective contribution to the festschrift dedicated to Brij V. Lal

Research paper thumbnail of “Cannibals and Convicts”: Australian Travel Writing About New Caledonia

The Palgrave Handbook of Prison Tourism, 2017

New Caledonia’s close proximity to Australia and its status as a French penal colony meant the is... more New Caledonia’s close proximity to Australia and its status as a French penal colony meant the island group was highly visible to the Australian public during the second half of the nineteenth century. An analysis of Australian travel writing on New Caledonia from c.1880 to 1941 shows that Australians were preoccupied with New Caledonia’s convicts and penal institutions at the expense of its tropical characteristics, long after the last prison was closed in 1922. In many cases these prisoners overshadowed the local inhabitants, with tourists even ascribing them “cannibal” behaviours. This chapter explores Australians’ fascinations with New Caledonia’s prisons in light of broader Australian concerns in the Pacific, particularly in contesting French colonial rule in New Caledonia and the New Hebrides.

Teaching Documents by Nicholas Halter

Research paper thumbnail of Collaborative content curation and Pacific history teaching

This project is a collaborative effort with students of the University of the South Pacific to do... more This project is a collaborative effort with students of the University of the South Pacific to document some of the historical sites of Fiji. The Fijian History mobile app can be downloaded free from the Google Play Store for Android Devices at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=usp.fijianhistory&hl=en_US

Research paper thumbnail of Suva Stories: A History of the Capital of Fiji

ANU Press, 2022

Suva Stories explores a fascinating tapestry of histories in one of the Pacific’s oldest and most... more Suva Stories explores a fascinating tapestry of histories in one of the Pacific’s oldest and most culturally diverse urban centres, the capital of Fiji. Charting the trajectory of Suva from indigenous village to colonial hub to contemporary Pacific metropolis, it draws on a rich colonial archive and moving personal memoirs that bear witness to their time. The diverse contributions in this volume form a complex mosaic of urban lives and histories that contribute fresh insights into historical and ongoing debates about race, place and belonging. Suva Stories is a valuable companion to those seeking to engage with the city’s pasts and present, and will prompt new conversations about history and memory in Fiji.

Research paper thumbnail of Australian Travellers in the South Seas

ANU Press, 2021

This book offers a wide-ranging survey of Australian engagement with the Pacific Islands in the l... more This book offers a wide-ranging survey of Australian engagement with the Pacific Islands in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Through over 100 hitherto largely unexplored accounts of travel, the author explores how representations of the Pacific Islands in letters, diaries, reminiscences, books, newspapers and magazines contributed to popular ideas of the Pacific Islands in Australia. It offers a range of valuable insights into continuities and changes in Australian regional perspectives, showing that ordinary Australians were more closely connected to the Pacific Islands than has previously been acknowledged. Addressing the theme of travel as a historical, literary and imaginative process, this cultural history probes issues of nation and empire, race and science, commerce and tourism by focusing on significant episodes and encounters in history. This is a foundational text for future studies of Australia’s relations with the Pacific, and histories of travel generally.

Research paper thumbnail of Epidemics in Fiji's history: Stories of Power, Resistance and Contradiction

The Journal of Pacific Studies, 2023

This paper is a historical review of known epidemics that have afflicted Fijians since European c... more This paper is a historical review of known epidemics that have afflicted Fijians since European contact in the late 1700s, with particular attention to the devastations caused by the measles epidemic of 1875 and the influenza pandemic in 1918. The impact of these outbreaks is documented in numerous archival sources, including government records, the 'Proceedings of the Council of Chiefs, the Colonial Secretary's Office (CSO) files, the Fiji Times, and a report of the Royal Commission to investigate 'the decrease of the native population' (1896). The paper argues that despite changing historical contexts and epidemiological circumstances, official responses to disease in Fiji were underscored by assumptions of European superiority and power that ignored how non-Europeans viewed Western medicine with suspicion and colonial rules as contradictory.

Research paper thumbnail of Boosting the Frontier: Australian Settler Colonialism in the Pacific 1860s–1900s

Australian Historical Studies, 2022

Australia, itself a union of settler colonies, also gave birth to speculative land and settlement... more Australia, itself a union of settler colonies, also gave birth to speculative land and settlement schemes for colonists to migrate to the nearby Pacific Islands and become sugar or copra planters, throughout the period from the 1860s to the early 1900s. The number that migrated to these proposed settler colonies was small, notwithstanding the boosting, promotional rhetoric that accompanied the schemes. Two of these schemes, in the late 1860s and the early 1900s, bookend the era of sub-empire propaganda and imperial jousting that saw hundreds of Australian settlers sail to Fiji and Vanuatu. Both were ‘company’ schemes, speculative ventures, born out of the nineteenth-century capitalist fervour characteristic of Melbourne and Sydney. A comparison of the two ventures and the boosting literature that supported them reveals the ambiguous promises that were made to settlers and the local challenges that were overlooked in the popular Australian imagination of the region.

Research paper thumbnail of Vunilagi Book Club: Lessons learnt from a grassroots initiative in an informal settlement in Fiji

Small States & Territories, 2020

Vunilagi Book Club is a recent example of innovative female leadership to promote literacy and ed... more Vunilagi Book Club is a recent example of innovative female leadership to promote literacy and education in an informal settlement in Fiji. Informal or "squatter" settlements in the capital of Fiji have existed for over 50 years and received significant (albeit intermittent) attention from foreign donors and the national government; yet, the underlying causes of poverty and disadvantage remain. This paper examines the case of a small-scale literacy community initiative with a qualitative approach based on close observation and participation in the group's activities since its inception. These lessons learnt suggest that women are key agents of change in the community and that informal grassroots reading classes have the potential for improving the education of children in informal settlements. Closer study of the social relations and constraints within informal settlements suggests that solutions to the challenges of inequality and access to education must originate from within informal settlement communities.

Research paper thumbnail of Teaching and Technology at the University of the South Pacific

Journal of Pacific History, 2020

Online learning and teaching have remained at the periphery of discussions about teaching Pacific... more Online learning and teaching have remained at the periphery of discussions about teaching Pacific history, and universities were unprepared for the shift to online spaces forced by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic this year. It is timely for those teaching Pacific courses online to consider the lessons learnt from the University of the South Pacific History Department, which has been teaching online for the past four years. Experiments with collaborative content curation have highlighted the challenges associated with adapting new forms of technology in a Pacific regional context and the possibilities for regional collaboration and cooperation.

Research paper thumbnail of Tourists fraternising in Fiji in the 1930s

Journal of Tourism History, 2020

Attempts to prevent tourists from fraternising with the natives in Suva marks the decade of the 1... more Attempts to prevent tourists from fraternising with the natives in Suva marks the decade of the 1930s as one of significant change for Fijian society. The accounts of cruise ship visitors to Fiji document the delicate race relations in the capital of the British colony and the efforts of the European authorities to maintain control. This article considers the ways in which tourists and residents reinforced and disrupted the established colonial order.

Research paper thumbnail of Ambivalent Mobilities in the Pacific: “Savagery” and “Civilization” in the Australian Interwar Imaginary

Transfers, Feb 2017

Australian travel writing of the interwar period expanded with the growth of tourism in the Pacif... more Australian travel writing of the interwar period expanded with the growth of tourism in the Pacific Islands and the development of publishing and literacy at home. Th is article focuses on how the Australian middlebrow imagination was shaped by the diverse travel accounts of Australian tourists, adventurers, executives, scientists, officials, and missionaries writing at this time. Many of their texts borrowed and blended multiple discourses, simultaneously promoting the islands as educational and exotic, and appealing to an Australian middlebrow readership. In this article I argue that not only was travel writing middlebrow in its content and style, but the islands themselves were a particularly middlebrow setting. Th is is evident in representations of the islander “savage” in the region of Melanesia, a prevalent theme in Australian travelogues. I argue that this middlebrow literature was characterized by ambivalent and often contradictory ideas about the civilized “self” and the savage “other.”

Research paper thumbnail of Searching for the Land of the Golden CocoaNut: Australian Travel Writing about Commercial Enterprise in the Pacific Islands

Journal of Pacific History, Dec 2016

Pacific Island trade and commerce was a prominent theme in travel writing produced within Austral... more Pacific Island trade and commerce was a prominent theme in travel writing produced within Australia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This reflected the long history of European commercial exchange between the Australian continent and the Pacific Islands, and a European literary legacy that idealised the region’s economic potential. This article explores popular perceptions of commercial enterprise in the Pacific Islands as expressed in travel writing, focusing on authors with a significant connection, by birth or affiliation, to either the Australian colonies or the Australian nation. The formation of a distinctively ‘Australian’ vision of the Pacific that evolved since European exploration is traced. The voice that took shape in literary form in the Australian colonies during the late 19th century contributed to a national narrative in the early 20th century that imagined the Pacific Islands as a region for Australian investment, profit and colonial enterprise.

Key words: travel writing, commerce, trade, colonialism, Australia

Research paper thumbnail of Kuchuwa Community Project: Indigenous Youth Responses to Water and Waste Management in the Federated States of Micronesia

The Micronesian and Australian Friends Association (MAFA) was awarded the PACE-Net Plus seed fund... more The Micronesian and Australian Friends Association (MAFA) was awarded the PACE-Net Plus seed funding in 2015 to establish a pilot program to record indigenous youth responses to water and waste management and enhance community resilience to climate change in the village of Kuchuwa, in Chuuk Lagoon. This project focused on the impacts of climate change at a grassroots level in a relatively understudied region in the Pacific, with an inclusive approach that incorporated traditional community practices and knowledge and encouraged youth innovation and leadership. This project consisted of a youth-led needs assessment and gap analysis in Kuchuwa in January 2016, followed by a local workshop designed to mobilise youth and community leaders to build their capacity to understand and respond to climate change.

This project achieved two successful outcomes: it assisted the Kuchuwa community to develop water and waste management plans which are based on indigenous strategies and local community participation; and it documented the current water and waste priorities of communities in the Chuuk lagoon, with suggestions for future solutions and collaborations which could strengthen community resilience. In terms of impact, this project was an important means of demonstrating the neglected potential for capacity building amongst local communities affected by climate change by bringing together indigenous Micronesian knowledge and Western frameworks and technologies. By applying this community-focused approach in other contexts, this project could be a powerful vehicle for inspiring and empowering local youth within other Micronesian villages and communities, and helping them to develop their own toolkits for climate action.

Research paper thumbnail of Introduction: Micronesia in Focus

Tamkang Journal of International Affairs, Oct 2015

This special issue is titled “Micronesia in Focus” to highlight the continuing engagement by Micr... more This special issue is titled “Micronesia in Focus” to highlight the continuing engagement by Micronesians with the outside world on their own terms. The three articles which make up this special issue arose from a research symposium held at the Australian National University (ANU) in April 2014 which sought to encourage discussions of contemporary and historical issues which placed Micronesia firmly at centre stage, rather than the periphery. Their authors highlight the benefits of interdisciplinary scholarship and collaborations which examine international relations from a Micronesian point of view. Micronesia’s strategic location between the global superpowers of the PRC and the US, and its position close to valuable sea-bed and maritime resources, has contributed to its rising importance on the world stage. What makes this special issue distinct from other studies of recent developments in international relations is that its authors focus on Micronesia’s response to the political changes in the Pacific, and thus demonstrate a more complex web of networks, agreements and alliances between Micronesia and its neighbours.

Research paper thumbnail of 'To See With Their Own Eyes': Australian Travel Writing on the Pacific Islands c.1880-1941

From the 1880s onwards, the Pacific Islands became increasingly accessible to the average Austral... more From the 1880s onwards, the Pacific Islands became increasingly accessible to the average Australian with improvements in transportation and the growth of trade and business, Christian outreach, and colonial administration in the region. Economic prosperity and social mobility in Australia facilitated their movement abroad, and the development of publishing and literacy encouraged the circulation of texts which generated excitement about travel and exotic foreign destinations. The varied experiences and impressions of Australians travelling to, and through, the Pacific Islands filled diaries, letters, books, magazines, memoirs and travelogues, many of which found a receptive Australian audience. This thesis explores this corpus of Australian travel writing on the Pacific Islands from c.1880 to 1941. In doing so, it examines how representations of the Pacific Islands within travel accounts reflected, and contributed to, Australian knowledge of the region.

By contextualising these sources and their authors, this thesis explores the nuances and complexities of the individual Australian travel experience, whilst also situating them within the broader corpus of Australian travel literature. It discusses several themes which were prevalent in Australian travel writing of this period: the experience of seaboard travel and tourism, commerce and profit, romantic and utopian ideals, gender roles, ideas of nation and empire, theories of race and science, and notions of the ‘savage’ and ‘civilised.’ It explores how individual Australians negotiated these concepts whilst abroad in the Pacific Islands, and how their encounters and their texts highlight a diverse set of reactions, at times confirming, challenging or rejecting previous assumptions and expectations.

This historical study of a previously neglected body of literature deepens our understanding of the historical engagement and exchange between Australians and Pacific Islanders. This was a relationship that reached beyond the political and economic interests of a select few – it permeated popular literature and public debate. Though European stereotypes of the Pacific Islands persisted well into the twentieth century, travel writing was crucial in familiarising and informing Australians about their close neighbours. These accounts also show that this engagement was not one-sided. The Pacific Islands played an important role in shaping the growth of the Australian nation too, and Australian travel writers recorded much about themselves as they did the exotic ‘other’ when placed in unfamiliar surroundings. Travel writing can provide a more nuanced view of Australian travellers and readers, and a more detailed understanding of how they imagined the ‘South Seas.’

Research paper thumbnail of The Australian Catholic Church and the Public Sphere: World Youth Day 2008

Journal of Religious History, Jun 2013

World Youth Day 2008 was the largest public religious gathering in Australian history, which prou... more World Youth Day 2008 was the largest public religious gathering in Australian history, which proudly celebrated Catholicism in the streets of Sydney. This article argues that the organization and outcomes of World Youth Day 2008 were significantly shaped by the perceptions of Catholic Church leaders and officials who were determined to present the Catholic Church as a powerful opponent of the trend toward secularization. The organizers of World Youth Day 2008 achieved significant success in overcoming the legacy of sectarianism, the fears of secularization, the problems of internal division and scandal, and distrust and suspicion in the media prior to the event. The event showed that the Catholic Church was very capable of negotiating the Australian public sphere, and successfully marketed an energized and inclusive brand of Catholicism to the broader public.

Research paper thumbnail of Indigenous Youth Responses to Water and Waste Management in Kuchuwa, Federated States of Micronesia

Islands of Hope: Indigenous Resource Management in a Changing Pacific, 2023

The global debate about climate change and its impacts has brought renewed attention to the uniqu... more The global debate about climate change and its impacts has brought renewed attention to the unique challenges the Pacific Islands face, but in so doing, the experience of local communities and actors has often been overlooked in favour of developing national and regional strategies. In response, an international research collaboration led by the Micronesian & Australian Friends Association (MAFA) initiated a project in 2016 that focused on the impacts of climate change at a grassroots level in a relatively understudied region of the Pacific. Specifically, it focused on climate change adaptation in the Micronesian village of Kuchuwa, with the aim of recording Indigenous youth responses to water and waste management. Lessons learned from this project show that an inclusive approach is needed that incorporates traditional community practices and knowledge and encourages youth innovation and leadership.

Research paper thumbnail of Australian travel writing and notions of savagery in Melanesia

Routledge Handbook on Tourism and Small Island States in the Pacific, 2023

The types of tourists that have visited the Pacific Islands since the late nineteenth century hav... more The types of tourists that have visited the Pacific Islands since the late nineteenth century have changed over time, yet these destinations have been portrayed as static and unchanging, imagined to be in a primordial and savage state. This chapter explores representations of savagery in the Melanesian region, with a particular focus on three Australian travellers: Beatrice Grimshaw, who visited Fiji in the 1900s; Jack McLaren, who visited the Solomon Islands in the 1920s; and Colin Simpson, who visited Vanuatu in the 1950s. It explores how representations of the Melanesian savage changed over time, from a figure employed in colonial narratives to encourage settlement and economic development, to a marketing tool for the tourism and publishing industries. Their accounts also show that tourists could not always reconcile the generalized stereotypes with the reality they encountered during their travels. It is argued that a historical approach to Pacific tourism is needed to understand the colonial roots of travel in the Pacific and the ways in which history continues to shape the contemporary tourism industry.

Research paper thumbnail of Archives and Community Memory in the Pacific

The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean, 2023

Dynamic and proactive archives are crucial for safeguarding and growing community memory and know... more Dynamic and proactive archives are crucial for safeguarding and growing community memory and knowledge. Despite this, South Pacific Island archives are plagued by stark challenges which hinder their role. Principally, it is an issue of trust. The echoes and expectations of a not-too distant colonial past have isolated archives from the communities they are supposed to serve. This is made worse by traditional archival practice, which has a narrow focus, and with characteristics and requirements that prevent Pacific archives from connecting with their communities. These dated archive practices concentrate on ‘control’ of archival holdings with less consideration for the ‘accessibility’ of these holdings to the general public. This is driven by assumptions that may be relevant in Europe and societies where the written record has a long history, but which do not fit the realities of the island nations of the South Pacific and other countries that are former colonies, where oral tradition has a more dominant role. Using the developments at the National Archives of Fiji from 2012 to 2019 as a case study, this chapter will examine the challenges to Pacific Island archives, reveal how acknowledging cultural norms is key for Pacific archives to build trust and establish relevance in the community, and demonstrate how connecting with community is critical to overcoming the obstacles which prevent archives from serving their communities as desired.

Research paper thumbnail of Engaging with living histories

Teaching and Learning with Technology, 2020

Buadromo, R., Chand, S., Halter, N., Taufaga, A. (2020). ‘Engaging with Living Histories’ in Teac... more Buadromo, R., Chand, S., Halter, N., Taufaga, A. (2020). ‘Engaging with Living Histories’ in Teaching and Learning with Technology: pushing boundaries and breaking down walls, Som Naidu and Sharishna Narayan (eds.), The University of the South Pacific, Suva, 33-48.

Research paper thumbnail of The Boy From Labasa

Bearing Witness, Essays in Honour of Brij V. Lal, 2017

A reflective contribution to the festschrift dedicated to Brij V. Lal

Research paper thumbnail of “Cannibals and Convicts”: Australian Travel Writing About New Caledonia

The Palgrave Handbook of Prison Tourism, 2017

New Caledonia’s close proximity to Australia and its status as a French penal colony meant the is... more New Caledonia’s close proximity to Australia and its status as a French penal colony meant the island group was highly visible to the Australian public during the second half of the nineteenth century. An analysis of Australian travel writing on New Caledonia from c.1880 to 1941 shows that Australians were preoccupied with New Caledonia’s convicts and penal institutions at the expense of its tropical characteristics, long after the last prison was closed in 1922. In many cases these prisoners overshadowed the local inhabitants, with tourists even ascribing them “cannibal” behaviours. This chapter explores Australians’ fascinations with New Caledonia’s prisons in light of broader Australian concerns in the Pacific, particularly in contesting French colonial rule in New Caledonia and the New Hebrides.

Research paper thumbnail of Collaborative content curation and Pacific history teaching

This project is a collaborative effort with students of the University of the South Pacific to do... more This project is a collaborative effort with students of the University of the South Pacific to document some of the historical sites of Fiji. The Fijian History mobile app can be downloaded free from the Google Play Store for Android Devices at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=usp.fijianhistory&hl=en_US

Research paper thumbnail of Evaluating the use of a collaborative content curation tool to support online assessments

ETH Learning and Teaching Journal, 2020

The University of the South Pacific (USP) is one of three regional education institutions in the ... more The University of the South Pacific (USP) is one of three regional education institutions in the world. The History Department which is based in Fiji represents one of the few disciplines at USP which delivers its undergraduate programme fully online. Together with the Centre for Flexible Learning (CFL), the History staff have been evaluating the effectiveness of online teaching and experimenting with technologies and tools to overcome teaching and learning challenges. This paper discusses an experimental mobile app which was created by third year History students at USP in 2018 to document local historical sites in the Suva area. It considers the challenges and opportunities created by online learning in the uniquely regional environment of the South Pacific. It further explores how technology can enable more practical and relevant applications and assssments of History content curation to better prepare students for future careers.

Research paper thumbnail of Australian tourists fraternising in Fiji in the 1930s

A series of government correspondences in 1936 and 1937 reveal officials in Fiji were responding ... more A series of government correspondences in 1936 and 1937 reveal officials in Fiji were responding to concerns that Australian tourists were “fraternising unduly with the natives”. This paper explores this particular incident in the broader context of burgeoning Australian tourism in Fiji, drawing on records in the National Archives of Fiji, the Pacific Islands Monthly, and tourist publications by the Fiji Visitors Bureau. The travel accounts written by Australians may only offer momentary glimpses of Fijian society, but they also reveal much about Australian sensibilities and prejudices in the interwar period.

Research paper thumbnail of Negotiating representations of the ‘savage’ – Australian travellers to the Solomon Islands and New Hebrides between the wars

By the 1930s, increasing numbers of Australians were attracted to the Pacific Islands by steamshi... more By the 1930s, increasing numbers of Australians were attracted to the Pacific Islands by steamship companies marketing exotic tourist destinations or stopovers on the way to Europe and the Americas. Travel was more luxurious, more frequent, more affordable, and Australian interests in the Pacific Islands (in trade, business and tourism) were well established. The growth of the Australian publishing industry since the 1900s assisted Australian readers in learning about the Pacific Islands, via travel magazines, travelogues, and guidebooks. The popular writings of Louis Becke and Beatrice Grimshaw portrayed the Pacific as simultaneously safe and dangerous, comfortable and challenging, known and unknown.

The major steamship routes through Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti and Hawaii left the islands of Melanesia relatively neglected by the common tourist. This is in spite of their close proximity to Australia and regular steamship routes offered by Burns Philp Company. In this paper I will explore Australian travel writing about the Solomon Islands and the New Hebrides during the 1920s and 30s. These isolated, rugged and purportedly savage islands attracted readers seeking adventure and mystery distinct from the overly familiar accounts of Polynesia. Yet they were also fertile locations for missionary endeavours and scientific research, and the Islanders were convenient subjects to test Australian racial theories about the progress and civilisation of primitive man. I argue that the Australian middlebrow imagination was shaped by a body of travel literature about these islands generated by tourists, adventurers, scientists and missionaries that borrowed and blended multiple discourses.

Research paper thumbnail of ‘Degrees of savagery’ in Australian representations of the Pacific Islands

Scholars have written at length on the dominance of the discourse of 'the savage' and the persist... more Scholars have written at length on the dominance of the discourse of 'the savage' and the persistence of racial science and evolutionary theory in European accounts of the Pacific Islands since the eighteenth century. The savage Islander has been a recurring theme in accounts of the Pacific Islands, often reduced to a formulaic stereotype typified by cannibalistic practices, bestiality, primordiality and infantilism. Although Australian travellers frequently reaffirmed the stereotypes, an analysis of travel writing from the 1880s to 1941 highlights a more diverse range of perceptions by travellers who adapted, or departed from, the standard picture of savagery. By examining the historical relationship of Australia's engagement with the Pacific Islands, I argue that Australians perceived degrees of savagery within the region. These categories were more specific and localised than the prevailing belief in the Polynesian/Melanesian racial divide. In this paper I will explore the nuanced and diverse Australian perceptions of the savage in the Pacific Islands.

Research paper thumbnail of Australian Travel to Fiji and the Indo-Fijian (1880-1941)

Situated on the margins of Melanesia and Polynesia, and at the crossroads of sea routes through t... more Situated on the margins of Melanesia and Polynesia, and at the crossroads of sea routes through the Pacific, Fiji was a British colony with significant Australian investment and interests. Studies of European travel literature have often focused on the fascination with cannibalism, and in Fiji, once known as the Cannibal Islands, the potential for a cannibal encounter was frequently anticipated by travellers. In fact, the cannibal or ex-cannibal in Fiji dominated the tourist gaze at the expense of other elements of Fijian society. In my research I examine Australian perceptions of Fiji as a whole, including the landscape and people, but for this presentation I will explore why Indians drew little, if any, comment from Australian travellers, and why Australian descriptions of Indians in Fiji were overwhelmingly negative.

Research paper thumbnail of Convicts, Cannibals and the Condominium: Australian Travel Writing about the New Hebrides and New Caledonia

Australian travel to the Pacific Islands was frequent and sustained between 1880 and 1941. Steams... more Australian travel to the Pacific Islands was frequent and sustained between 1880 and 1941. Steamships connected Australia with the Pacific and fostered trade and tourism. Australians frequently travelled to the Islands for business and pleasure and recorded their experiences in diaries and letters, often to be published later in newspapers, magazines and books. Although Fiji, Tahiti, Hawaii and New Guinea were most frequently visited, French influence in the New Hebrides and New Caledonia turned the Australian public gaze towards these islands. Australians were concerned about British apathy towards the shared administration of the New Hebrides, and the escape of French convicts from New Caledonia to the Queensland coast. This reflected wider political concerns about Australia’s role in the Pacific region, and the potential threat of foreign colonising powers. In this paper I will examine the expectations and impressions of Australians when they visited the New Hebrides and New Caledonia, and explore how these texts reflect public attitudes towards French and Australian imperialism in the Pacific.

Research paper thumbnail of Pacific Potential - Perceptions of the Pacific Islands in Australian Travel Writing 1880-1941

From the 1880s onwards, the Pacific Islands became increasingly accessible to the average Austral... more From the 1880s onwards, the Pacific Islands became increasingly accessible to the average Australian, with improvements in transportation and the growth of trade and business, Christianity, and colonial administration in the region. In my PhD research, I examine the varied experiences and impressions of Australian travellers in the Pacific recorded in published and unpublished accounts, many of which found a receptive Australian audience. In doing so, I explore how Australian travel writing sustains and/or contradicts dominant themes and stereotypes of the Pacific Islands in earlier European literature. In this paper I will examine how the Pacific Islands were portrayed as sources of natural abundance and potential wealth in Australian travel writing, with particular reference to the Burns Philp and Walkabout travel magazines.