Regis Stella’s pioneering publication (Imagining the Other, 2007) urges us to approach the complex question of racial perceptions and discriminations in contemporary Melanesia. Although his study focussed on PNG, many of his remarks echo similar situations in other parts of the Pacific, especially in Melanesia. He highlighted the persistence of a colonial mentality in PNG urban daily life that find parts of its sources in anthropological and popular literature emanating from foreign scholars and juridical constructions. These have disappeared (at least many of them) since the independence of some Pacific Islands Nations, but they have left profound traces amongst Pacific Islanders and foreigners alike. For example, in large cities like Port Moresby, the existence of profound geographical divides, inherited from the colonial time, could be seen as a form of an index of racism, separating foreigners, mostly expats, from nationals. These boundaries have a colonial history and reflect racial segregation. However, it remains necessary to establish whether such geographical concentrations continue to have a racist stance, or if they simply reflect the rather usual “expat” behaviour. Similarly, exotic representations nourish a general feeling of fear. This is perhaps the most complex phenomenon to analyse and explain. In Moresby, PNGeans and foreigners alike take extreme precautions in their movements, travel and at home. The “barbwire syndrome” is nourished by experience, word to mouth, Media, but also by a racist mentality. Fear could be understood to be another index of racism. Moreover, in PNG and other Pacific Island Nations, legal discriminations are still operating decades after independence. For example, double standard salaries in public and private sectors create an official form of discrimination between nationals and foreigners, fuelling yet other forms of racism. Investigating racism in PNG, Melanesia and the Pacific Islands at large also requires an analysis of the various stereotypes persisting among the expats (such as Caucasians v. Asians, for example) in postcolonial cities, as well as those that are reflected within various Pacific Islands groups in popular representations ('maunten' v. 'nambis', 'red skins' v. local /black, etc). We invite participants to submit papers that analyse forms of post-independence racism in the Pacific. We are particularly interested in those that also discuss methodological and theoretical issues that help to understand the diverse indexes and forms of racist attitudes, feelings and divides.
Paper submissions are closed
