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| Indigenous Affairs no.1/2000 |
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| The Pacific |
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Editorial
For the past years IWGIA has focussed on indigenous peoples’ issues in the Pacific, and within the framework of its Danida funded South-South Communication Programme, a number of activities have been undertaken. In 1998, a Seminar attended by researchers with experience from various parts of Oceania was organised in Copenhagen, and a special issue of Indigenous Affairs (No.1, 1998) was published. During the following months, several networking trips to island states and territories of the Pacific were undertaken. During these trips, information was gathered, old contacts were strengthened and new ones established, one result being that a more formal collaboration with the Pacific Concern Resource Centre (PCRC) in Fiji was initiated.
The Nuclear Free and
Independent Pacific movement
PCRC is the secretariat of the major regional NGO network in the Pacific Islands, the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific movement (NFIP). IWGIA therefore supported PCRC’s work in preparing the 8th Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Conference and convening delegates for this triennial gathering of the NFIP movement. The movement links over 100 non-government and community organisations around the Pacific islands and Pacific rim. These organisations include indigenous peoples organisations, church, women’s and environmental groups, independence movements and other community groups from over 30 countries around the region.
The Conference took place in September 1999, in Tahiti, Te Ao Maohi (French Polynesia). IWGIA’s chairperson, Georg Henriksen, board member Birgitte Feiring and staff member Diana Vinding joined over 100 international participants, together with representatives of local NGOs, trade unions and political parties from the Maohi people of the islands.
A second joint effort is this thematic edition of Indigenous Affairs in which IWGIA and PCRC have gathered together a number of voices from the Pacific, highlighting Pacific concerns about decolonisation, sustainable human development, human rights, environmental issues and demilitarisation.
The eradication of colonialism
A major strand of the NFIP Conference was the struggle of indigenous and colonised peoples in the Pacific. The United Nations’ Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism between 1990 and 2000 is nearing its end, yet there are many Pacific peoples still seeking to assert their right to self-determination and political independence. Of the countries remaining on the list of non-self-governing territories with the United Nations Decolonisation Committee, there are still a number of Pacific island territories: Guam, Kanaky (New Caledonia), East Timor, American Samoa, Tokelau and Pitcairn. There are also many Pacific countries that have been removed from the list by their administering powers, or are seeking the right to self-determination: Te Ao Maohi (French Polynesia), West Papua (Irian Jaya), Bougainville, Ka Pae’aina (Hawai’i) and Rapa Nui (Easter Island).
It is therefore most disturbing that the mandate of the Decolonisation Committee is being questioned. There is even a growing view within the UN system that decolonisation is no longer an issue and that the end of the decade should also be the basis of the abolishment of the Decolonisation Committee. In this edition of Indigenous Affairs we reproduce Dr. Carlyle Corbin’s keynote speech to the NFIP conference ‘What future the United Nations’ Decolonisation Process?’ Dr. Carlyle Corbin draws on 20 years of experience in representing a government of a non-self-governing territory, namely the US Virgin Islands. In his article he describes how and why the United Nations’ role in decolonisation has changed over the years, but gives at the same time some valuable recommendations as to how the Committee could once more become efficient and pro-active.
We also present information on the state of struggles by indigenous and colonised peoples in the Pacific.
Oscar Temaru, a leading figure in the Maohi independence movement in Te Ao Maohi (French Polynesia) describes the options facing his country in the post-nuclear era. After thirty years of French nuclear testing at Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls and more than 150 years of French colonialism, the indigenous Maohi people of the five archipelagos of ‘French’ Polynesia are trying to rebuild their links to the rest of Polynesia.
In Kanaky (New Caledonia), the future of decolonisation has also changed dramatically with the signing of the Noumea Accord in May 1998. This new agreement between the indigenous Kanak independence movement, anti-independence settlers and the French government sets out a 15-year transition to independence. The election of a new government in May 1999 and new citizenship and voting rights have created a model for a transitional system from colony to new nation in the Pacific. The Kanak movement has entered the new government in New Caledonia, and is debating whether this transition process, based on French law, will achieve its final goal of political independence.
In East Timor, 25 years of continued resistance against Indonesian occupation appear at last to have born fruits, and independence is now within reach. Torben Retbøll, who has followed East Timor and its struggle for independence from the very start, presents a chronological outline of events since January 1999, and tries to explain why things turned out the way they did.
Following the 30 August referendum on East Timor, the future of West Papua, the easternmost area of Indonesia’s far-flung empire, has been raised before the international community. For many years, the indigenous peoples of West Papua - known by Indonesians as the province of Irian Jaya - have been concerned about the exploitation of the country’s natural resources. The Amungme, Dani and Nengone peoples near the Freeport gold and copper mine in the Grasberg Mountains have long protested against the social and environmental consequences of mining, forestry and transmigration projects. John Otto Ondawame, a representative of the Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM) - the Free Papua Movement - presents the renewed hopes of the West Papuan people, most clearly shown with the raising of the Morning Star flag in December 1999.
Other challenges
The challenges for indigenous peoples in independent Pacific island nations are just as significant. Seeking to maintain control of their natural resources has become a major issue. There are already scary examples in the past of how small islands like Nauru and Ocean Island/Banaba were literally devastated and made unfit for living because they were used as cheap sources of fertiliser (phosphate). As Katerina Teaiwa so vividly describes it in her article on Ocean Island: ‘The island of Banaba travelled across the seas and fed the hungry settlers on other native lands.’ Thus, a total of 20 million tons of that island were carried away and the Banabans forced to resettle on a small Fijian island, Rabi. As Katerina Teaiwa puts it: ‘They paid the price of other peoples’ development.’
Today, in an era of globalisation, indigenous peoples are up against other destructive forces. As explained by Fata Koroseta To’o structural adjustment and reform programmes imposed by international institutions like the IMF and the World Bank are uprooting activities and relationships from local origins and cultures. Corporate interests from North America, Europe and Asia, seek to tap the natural wealth of the Pacific region.
The vast ocean expanses of the liquid continent hold enormous reserves of seabed minerals and marines resources. Fisheries provide a vital resource for the peoples of the Pacific - for sustainable development through coastal fishing, often conducted by women, and also through the revenues raised when Asian and American fishing fleets come to trawl the tuna resources of the South Pacific. Sandra Tarte, a Fiji Islander who lectures at the University of the South Pacific (USP), details attempts by the peoples of the Pacific to manage and protect their fisheries resources.
Our last article is the presentation given by Ms Corazon Fabros at the NFIP Conference on ‘The new arms race in Asia and the Pacific’. Taking the example of the Philippines as a point of departure it points to a number of recent developments that support the assertion that there is a new arms race going on. While Ms Fabros essentially focuses on the role of the US and France, the impact of the on-going diplomatic competition between China and Taiwan should not be ignored. By using their economic aid to gain support from Pacific Island members of the United Nations they provide the US with a major excuse for its arms build up, and thus also contribute to the brewing Cold War atmosphere.
Most detrimental developments experienced in the Pacific originate in the West. Yet, the international community in general seems unconcerned. As stated by Losena Tubanavau-Salabula of the PCRC in her presentation to the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Small Island Developing States in September 1999, the spirit of Barbados has evaporated in the donor countries and little has been achieved within the Barbados Programme of Action. The new millennium thus presents many challenges – not only to the indigenous peoples of the Pacific islands. It also challenges the Western world’s solidarity and willingness to support the small island states of the Pacific and their struggle for decolonisation, sustainable development and demilitarisation.
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