pacific islands autobiography: personal history and diplomacy in …347562/uq347562... · 2019. 10....

Clive Moore, “Pacific Islands Autobiography: Personal History and Diplo-

macy in the Solomon Islands,’” Journal of Historical Biography 10 (Au-

tumn 2011): 1-33, www.ufv.ca/jhb. © Journal of Historical Biography

2011. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons 3.0 License

Pacific Islands Autobiography:

Personal History

and Diplomacy in the Solomon

Islands

Clive Moore

URING 2007 AND 2008, I edited the autobiography of Sir Peter

Kenilorea, Solomon Islands’ first prime minister and leading

statesman. His final public position was as Speaker of the National

Parliament for ten years, 2000-2010.1 The book was produced to co-

incide with the thirtieth anniversary of Independence on 7 July 1978.

Autobiography is a relatively new literary form in the Pacific Islands,

but in other ways what the islands have produced is typical of the

genre internationally. Most Pacific autobiographies have been written

by male political or Christian leaders, and proceed chronologically.

There are two differences between Pacific biographies and those pro-

duced elsewhere. The first relates to the role of editors: most Pacific

autobiographies have been heavily edited, usually by male non-

Pacific Islander academics. These collaborations make Pacific auto-

biography different. These area specialists see it as their duty to assist

the autobiographers—prominent citizens of newly independent Pa-

D

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2 JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY

cific nations—to get their messages across to the widest possible

public, particularly other Pacific Islanders.

The two most influential Pacific historians and political scien-

tists have been Jim Davidson and Ron Crocombe. Jim Davidson, the

first Professor of Pacific History at Australian National University,

made a point of developing island-centred, rather than empire-

centred, Pacific history. Ron Crocombe was Director of the Institute

of Pacific Studies at the University of the South Pacific, a multi-

campus, multi-nation university centred at Suva, Fiji. Crocombe pub-

lished histories of all Pacific nations, and encouraged autobiography

as well. Pacific historians have accepted and expanded this David-

son-Crocombe approach over the last fifty years, an essential part of

which has been to assist Pacific Islanders in writing histories. The

Kenilorea autobiography is part of this tradition. Reviewers have ap-

preciated Tell It As It Is as an important piece of Pacific autobio-

graphical writing and history.2 However, none have dealt with the

editing process which accompanied the final product, nor have they

understood the complexities of dealing with a significant leader,

without doubt the most important statesman of the nation. The litera-

ture on contemporary autobiographical writing does not dwell on the

role of editors, which has been so crucial in the Pacific. This article

uses the autobiography of Sir Peter Kenilorea to dissect the editing

process and throw light on autobiography as a way of knowing Pa-

cific history.

The second distinctive aspect of autobiography in the Pacific

islands relates to the many Pacific cultures and the relationship

within them of cultural forms. While no one would argue that Pacific

cultures have remained unchanged since first contact with the outside

world, most Islanders today positively avow at least some aspects of

indigenous culture in fluid negotiation with Christianity, capitalist

economics, or parliamentary politics. In the Solomon Islands, where

literacy levels are still low, dance, songs, and oral history remain

strong cultural forms. Personal mana (an impersonal force or quality)

also remains strong. Kenilorea’s mana as the first prime minister, a

long-serving public servant and statesman, places him high in the na-

PACIFIC ISLANDS AUTOBIOGRAPHY 3

tional esteem. Tell It As It Is will be regarded locally as history, not

just as autobiography.

The Kenilorea autobiography is not unique, but it is rare. No other

indigenous Pacific head of government has ever written such a sub-

stantial autobiography, although several inaugural prime ministers

have published biographic works.3 Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, prime

minister of Fiji (1970–1992) and president of the Republic of Fiji

(1993–2000) published a memoir in 1997, which was “ghosted” un-

acknowledged by Sir Robert Saunders.4 Sitiveni Rabuka, Fijian coup

leader and prime minister (1987–1999) told his story to Eddie Dean

and Stan Ritova.5 At the time of Papua New Guinea’s independence,

Sir Michael Somare, who was prime minister during 1975-1980,

1982-1985, and 2007-2011, wrote an autobiography of his early

years.6 Walter Lini, Vanuatu’s founding prime minister, also wrote

an early biography.7 Two Papua New Guinea governors-general, Sir

Ignatius Kilage and Sir Paulius Matane, have published autobiogra-

phies, and others heads of governments have published speeches and

other writings.8 The closest equivalent to Sir Peter’s book is probably

a memoir by Sir Tom Davis, prime minister of the Cook Islands be-

tween 1978 and 1987 (with a break of a few months in 1983), and

later high commissioner to New Zealand.9 Several other Pacific poli-

ticians have published their speeches, journalism, and other writ-

ings.10

Sir Peter Kenilorea’s autobiography also sits within the small

number of biographies and autobiographies written by and about

Solomon Islanders. Many Solomon Islands politicians and leaders

have talked about writing autobiographies, but few have actually

done so. Three biographies have been written, two by missionary

George Carter, one a booklet on Ranongga Island missionary David

Voeta, and another more substantial one on Reverend Belshazzar


Gina. Guadalcanal academic Tarcisius Tara Kabutaulaka wrote a fine

book on his grandfather Dominiko Alebua.11

Sir Frederick Osifelo

appears to be the only one who has written an autobiography un-

aided; or at least there is no acknowledgement of an editor. All other

autobiographies have been written with the assistance of academic

editors. Dr. Gideon Zoleveke wrote with the help of political scientist

John Chick. Anthropologist Roger Keesing assisted 'Elota and Jona-

than Fifiì from Kwaio in Malaita, and Noel Fatnowna, an Australian

Solomon Islander, to write autobiographies. Historian Judith Bennett

and Khyla Russell assisted Sir Lloyd Maepeza Gina in the same way,

and anthropologist Ben Burt has similarly helped Samuel Alasaà and

Michael Kwaìoloa to write autobiographies.12

All have added to the

meagre biographical literature from Solomon Islands, but Sir Peter’s

contribution is unique, because he is the father of the modern nation,

and because he prepared the draft himself. I knew how much work

had been involved when Bennett and Russell laboriously taped inter-

views with Sir Lloyd Maepeza Gina and turned them into a book.

The same occurred when Keesing pieced together and edited self-

recorded tapes by Noel Fatnowna in the 1980s. Kenilorea was differ-

ent: he taught himself to type, and produced the most substantial and

genuinely self-authored book ever written by a Pacific Islands head

of government or state.

Even so, the editorial process was arduous, and editing the

autobiography of a Pacific statesman is an unusual exercise, involv-

ing what is now called life writing, but also social, political, and, in

this case, religious history. Biography and autobiography is popular

with readers because it reveals much about the individual, or at least

as much as they wish to reveal. The literature suggests that readers

appreciate not just the facts about a life, but the revelations of the

truth as viewed by an individual. Autobiography is retrospective, and

its fascination is that the mind does not record experiences with com-

plete objectivity. What we read is the manner in which an individual

with an interesting life wants to be remembered for posterity.13

In Tell It As It Is, the editor is clearly part of the process, and

brings skills to the project beyond what would be expected of an


anonymous professional editor. The Kenilorea project was gener-

ously sponsored by the government of Taiwan, which meant that in-

ternational diplomacy was involved. I also found that diplomacy was

needed in the relationship between writer and editor. In the process, I

got to know Sir Peter and his family, and was able to use my own

thirty-five-year knowledge of Solomon Islands. It is a confronting

experience for a historian to take the position of editor of a political

autobiography—at the same time a powerful and powerless position.

The reader expects the author to speak freely, and an editor has to re-

spect his or her autonomy. The editing process made me think about

my long relationship with Solomon Islands and with leading political

figures there, and about how a historian deals with playing an ancil-

lary role when high level knowledge is needed, but there is little

space for choice or control. I also saw the project as part of the

Davidson-Crocombe style that has shaped Pacific history.

This article will endeavour to grapple with the complex proc-

ess of editing, and, through the discussion of the biographical proc-

ess, to help readers understand something of the Solomon Islands,

forty years of the political process, and also the life of the father of

the nation. It will first sketch the life of Sir Peter Kenilorea, then deal

with issues central to biographical and autobiographical writing, be-

fore ending with analysis of three issues: his role in achieving inde-

pendence for Solomon Islands; his role in the Rara cyclone rehabili-

tation pledge from the French government in 1986, which lost him

his prime ministership; and the place of Christianity in Sir Peter’s life

and decision-making.

There have been three distinct phases in the life of Peter

Kenilorea.

Kenirorea Kauòna Keninaraiso’ona

Kenirorea Kauòna Keninaraisoòna was born 19 May 1943 in the

ÀreÀre district on Malaita Island, part of the British Solomon Is-

lands Protectorate declared in 1893. His father, Ezra Toi`mae Ara-

haimou, a South Sea Evangelical Mission pastor, was the son of


Mairaro and Isihaà, from To`roni descent group in east ÀreÀre,

Malaita. His mother was Esther Hoirao, of the nearby Wauruha de-

scent group. This all sounds complex enough, but needs unpacking,

to begin to give some idea of the different world in which Sir Peter

grew up. ÀreÀre is a large isolated southern language area on

Malaita where there are still no roads of any consequence. Malaita is

actually two islands, cut through by narrow Maramasike Passage.

The Kenilorea village, Rara, sits on this divide, sharing maritime and

land resources. The name ÀreÀre roughly translates as “our soci-

ety.” ÀreÀre is the second-largest language group in the Solomon

Islands, exceeded only by the Kwaraàe of central Malaita. Kenirorea

was the seventh child and the third son in the family, which gives an

impression of the large size of Malaitan families in this period. His

three names mean “the girls love to play with” (Kenirorea); “a dan-

gerous hook” (Kauòna); and “the girls cry after him” (Kenina-

raisoòna). Today, at sixty-eight years old, he smiles at his names,

and says that he never lived up to them, happily married to Margaret

Rachel Kwanairara since 1971, with eight children, seven surviving.

Later, he dropped use of two of his names, and changed Kenirorea to

Kenilorea, a spelling in line with modern ÀreÀre usage.

Peter Kenilorea

From his school days onward, Kenirorea Kauòna Keninaraisoòna

has been known as Peter Kenilorea, with an official birthday on 13

September 1943. Like many Solomon Islanders of the same era, he

never knew the exact date of his birth. The September day is the date

he first arrived at King George VI School, Auki, where he was edu-

cated from 1956 to 1963, leaving with a Cambridge School Certifi-

cate at the end of Form IV. This is also deceptively straightforward.

He was taken from his village to school by the district government

when he knew no English and was illiterate, then subjected to an ac-

celerated education through the primary and secondary system. He

completed seven years of primary school education in three years and

four months, and five years of high school in four years. It was all a


matter of luck, and, if he had not been selected, he would have re-

mained a villager, dependant on subsistence crops, and possibly still

illiterate. King George VI School was a central government experi-

ment to accelerate education in the protectorate, and was positioned

at Auki, the district headquarters on Malaita, as a partial sop to

Malaitans who had protested long and hard during the nationalist

Maasina Rule years (1944-1952) to gain a larger say in their own

governance and development.14

In 1963, he received a Commonwealth Colombo Plan Schol-

arship, which enabled him to attend Wesley College in 1963-1964,

Wanganui Boys College in 1965, and then Ardmore Teachers’ Col-

lege, at Papakura, south of Auckland, all in New Zealand. He gradu-

ated from Ardmore with a diploma, and returned to Honiara in 1968

to teach at King George VI School, at that time still the only govern-

ment high school in the islands. In 1971, he moved to the public ser-

vice as part of the localization process, and became an assistant sec-

retary, then secretary, in the department of finance, before accepting

a posting as district officer on Isabel Island. He requested a transfer

to the South Malaita district in late 1972, but was sent to North

Malaita instead, which undoubtedly cost him election to the Legisla-

tive Council when he stood for the ÀreÀre Seat. During 1973-1974,

he was based in Honiara as urban senior lands officer responsible for

all urban land in the country, before he transferred to the position of

deputy secretary to the cabinet and secretary to the chief minister. In

1975, he was appointed district commissioner for the Eastern district.

While a school teacher, Kenilorea began to develop political

interests, and became president of the Civil Servants’ Association, an

organization that provided the basis for the later Solomon Islands

United Party (SIUP) he helped found. He also made an important

submission to the Osifelo Constitutional Review Committee in 1974-

1975. His first ventures into national politics were when he failed to

gain the Honiara seat in 1970, and in 1973 when he failed to gain the

ÀreÀre seat, his home electorate. Three years later, unopposed, he

won the East ÀreÀre seat, which he held until his resignation from

Parliament in 1991.


Kenilorea was a keen sportsman in his youth. Intensely Chris-

tian, he is a lay preacher in the South Sea Evangelical Church and a

fervent family man.

Rt. Hon. Dr. Sir Peter Kenilorea, K.B.E., P.C., Doctor of the

University, Honoris Causa University of Queensland

In 1976, Peter Kenilorea became the second chief minister of the

Solomon Islands, and the first prime minister at independence on 7

July 1978. Kenilorea was prime minister until August 1980, returning

again from October 1984 until he resigned in December 1986 after he

lost the confidence of his cabinet due to his handling of French relief

funds. He continued as deputy prime minister from 1987 to 1989, and

also served as foreign minister for seven years of this period.

In 1991, he resigned from Parliament to take up a three-year

appointment as director of the South Pacific Forum Fisheries

Agency, a regional diplomatic position based in Honiara. He then

took a year off before becoming ombudsman for five years from

1996, and was intimately involved in negotiating the peace process

during the political crisis years, 1998 to 2003. He became speaker of

the National Parliament in 2000, and served two terms until Septem-

ber 2010.

Sir Peter was awarded the Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee

Medal in 1977, conferred a member of the Privy Council in 1979,

and knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1982. He received the Solo-

mon Islands Independence Medal in 1978, and, ten years later, was

awarded the 10th

Solomon Islands Independence Anniversary Medal.

In 1994, he was awarded the World War II 50th

Anniversary Medal in

his capacity as a resident diplomat. In 1984, he was awarded a Cer-

tificate for an International Leader of Distinction by the State of Ha-

wai`i, USA, and in 1985 was decorated by the Republic of China

with the highest award for any foreign citizen, “The Order of Bril-

liant Star with Grand Cordon.” In 2008, he was awarded an honorary

doctorate by the University of Queensland to note his contribution to


his nation and the region, and as recognition of the thirtieth anniver-

sary of Solomon Islands independence.

This is the complex character to whom I became editor.

Editing a Solomon Islands Autobiography

My own connections with Solomon Islands go back to 1976.15

In

2005, when I received a Cross of Solomon Islands, Sir Peter was the

acting governor-general who made the award. At the time, as I al-

ways do when speaking with any of the older generation of politi-

cians, I asked him to consider writing an autobiography, and offered

my assistance. I left it at that, never thinking that a manuscript would

emerge. As I said in the Editor’s Preface to the book, I was first in-

troduced to Sir Peter in 1976 by my friend John Maetia Kaliuae, and

had met him on one other occasion when he was strolling down by

Auki market on Malaita, but, beyond that, he was a Big Man (the

Melanesian phrase that signifies a significant leader) and well out of

my usual orbit.

I received an indirect approach from another friend, one of Sir

Peter’s distant nephews, who had been badgering him for years to

write his autobiography. He asked if I would help. I said yes, but was

wary of being a ghost editor. The Australian tertiary system for rank-

ing academics counts editing for very little in publication statistics, a

serious anomaly, but I certainly wanted to have my work recognised.

I said that I would be honoured to write Sir Peter’s biography, and

explained my reticence to provide invisible large-scale support for an

autobiography. Then, in 2006, Sir Peter wrote to me that he was well

advanced on writing his autobiography, and asked me to help him. I

was excited at the prospect, and immediately accepted, relieved that

the main work would already have been done.

Sir Peter is the great survivor of Solomon Islands politics and

the nation’s elder statesman. He is an old-school national leader who

survived only on his salary, rare in modern Solomon Islands politics.

He guided the birth of the nation, but says that he was an unwilling

politician and entered politics out of a sense of duty as a member of


the new educated elite. Since he resigned from Parliament in 1991 he

has held a string of influential positions and has been constant in

holding the nation to the letter of the National Constitution. With the

help of the Public Solicitor’s office, he has mounted many important

private court cases against the government when it has abused its au-

thority under the Constitution. How could I refuse? As an historian of

the Solomon Islands since the mid-1970s, it was the sort of prize I

had always wanted, and it might also encourage other leaders to fol-

low his steps. I was relieved to hear that a manuscript was on the

way, and foolishly imagined myself tidying it up to ready it for pub-

lication.

The timing was fortuitous. Between January and March 2007,

I decided to take some of my annual and long service leave in the

Solomon Islands, which gave me time to begin to edit the first draft

of Sir Peter’s autobiography. I had arranged to stay with a friend,

Gideon Sukumana, up at Skyline, a Honiara suburb on the way to the

American Second World War memorial. I arranged the loan of a

small office desk, then, equipped with my trusty laptop, was ready

for action. Sir Peter provided his manuscript on disk, and, in his usual

polite, almost self-deprecating style, asked for my opinion. He ex-

plained how he had accomplished the task. He is an old-fashioned

public servant and politician who never learned to type because he

always had a secretary. He had borrowed a second-hand laptop,

taught himself to type, and began writing. Two hundred and twenty

thousand words later, the torrent was still pouring out; it had become

his obsession. I said that I would get back to him, which I did about

three weeks later.

I prefer to work on paper, not directly on a computer, but, with

limited facilities, I had no choice. My University of Queensland col-

leagues always taunt me about my research time spent constantly sit-

ting under palm trees by the sandy beaches in the Pacific: I suspect

their vision comes from watching the musical South Pacific as chil-

dren. The idyllic picture is far from reality. One never sits under palm

trees, for fear of falling coconuts, and Honiara is always hot and

sticky with humidity. It is a rambunctious town that one grows to like


over decades, and life is a struggle for many low-income earners. The

Skyline house was comfortable, but poorly insulated, and no breezes

stirred in my room, so I sweltered and sweated, day and night, with-

out a fan. Water was plentiful, from the sky, but not the pipes. Honi-

ara has a long-term problem with reticulated water distribution, par-

ticularly in hilly suburbs like Skyline. The house was often without

water for up to twenty-four hours. I became adept at collecting rain

water as it poured off the roof, and bought a new big water storage

container to supplement existing storage.

Daily life begins early in the Solomons, and once the children

of the house were off to school and the bread-winner went to work,

all by eight o’clock, I was ready to work until about eleven when, in

the heat of the day, I would walk down the hill to the main town area,

and catch a bus or taxi to Point Cruz, the centre of town, to pick up a

newspaper and supplies, perhaps stopping at the Main market on the

return trip. Meanwhile, George, the house boy and companion to

Gideon, guarded the house, smoked, and supervised the constant

stream of visitors, who always arrive unannounced at Solomon Is-

landers’ homes, feeding them with rice and tinned fish and a few

green vegetables.

I worked my way through the manuscript, and reported back

that there was a book lurking within, but there was far too much repe-

tition in the text, and around sixty thousand words would have to be

edited out, particularly as the final chapters were still to be written. I

explained to Sir Peter the difficulties in finding a publisher, and the

cost and limited market potential of such a book. I suggested that we

explore the University of the South Pacific as a possible publisher.

The deadline that we had in mind was 7 July 2008, the thirtieth anni-

versary of independence, which was then only about fifteen months

away, almost too short a time for a commercial publisher to be inter-

ested. The manuscript also needed more detail and context in places,

to explain to non-Solomons readers the circumstances of various de-

velopments. However, I told Sir Peter that he had put together a fine

autobiography, arguably the best ever written by a Solomon Islander.


He was quietly elated, but showed little feeling, guarded as he always

is about displays of emotion.

Sir Peter is a busy man. As Speaker, he managed the Parlia-

ment and served on numerous committees. I saw little of him while I

was working on his text, and we communicated by phone. He caused

consternation among the neighbours on one occasion when the mo-

bile phone network was at its erratic worst, by calling to see me un-

announced. During this visit I had two meals with him, a lunch at the

Mendana Hotel, and a Chinese meal with Sir Peter and Lady

Kenilorea (always called Lady Margaret, Solomons-style), during

which I suspect I was inspected to see if I was suitable for the grand

endeavour. Sir Peter gave me free rein to shape the book, and asked

only that I not cut back the Biblical quotations that peppered the

manuscript. I did my best to oblige. There are still sixty-seven textual

quotations from the Bible in the final book, by far the most refer-

enced single source in the autobiography.

I continued to work on the manuscript while I was in Honiara,

along with other projects, and then from late March to June while

back in Brisbane. I returned to teaching in the second half of the year,

and kept working on the draft, cutting it back, expanding sections

which needed amplification, and moving sections around. I was able

to add details, fix dates, standardise names, and clarify sections that

would puzzle outsiders. The final manuscript consisted of one hun-

dred and eighty thousand words, with twenty-three chapters, two ap-

pendices, 135 photographs and eight maps. Along the way, I proba-

bly added five thousand words of historical context in the text, foot-

notes, and appendixes. While Sir Peter had never kept a diary or

press cuttings, he did have copies of some crucial correspondence

and a good store of photographs from his public life in Solomon Is-

lands and around the world. We also raided the government photo-

graphic archives. His best historical asset was his memory, which

proved remarkably accurate, aided I suspect by a lifetime as a teeto-

taller, but also fairly typical of Solomon Islanders of the older gen-

eration who remember details easily.


Before the final product was ready, I had to visit Honiara two

more times, and had the pleasure of staying with Sir Peter and his

family at their Kola`a Ridge home. Their close immediate family

flows constantly through the house, as does the extended family,

mainly relatives on Sir Peter’s side and, less frequently, those of

Lady Margaret. In Malaita, a woman marries into her husband’s fam-

ily, largely cutting her ties with her own kin. This pattern is observed

in the Kenilorea household.

On my first visit in December 2007, I was very frank with him

that we needed to pin down a wealthy benefactor very quickly, and

suggested that he approach the embassies. I also wanted a reputable

publisher, to give prestige to the book and to ensure that there was

sufficient editorial assistance. He nodded and went out to work, com-

ing back that evening to say that he had been to see Taiwan’s ambas-

sador, George Chan, and that he thought everything would be all

right. This was followed up with an official letter and a favourable

response.

Taiwan has few diplomatic friends in the world, most of them

Pacific nations, and the Solomon Islands is one of the most steadfast.

In 1984, Sir Peter, against the advice of his cabinet, up-graded 1983

consular level recognition to full diplomatic relations with the Re-

public of China, instead of aligning his nation with the People’s Re-

public of China.16

Taiwan has always been a generous aid and devel-

opment partner, and Sir Peter was in a position to call in favours. It

was also too good a chance for the Taiwanese to miss: there was no

doubting the importance of the book, and it was to be launched at the

national ceremony for the thirtieth anniversary of independence,

which placed the Taiwanese at centre stage. The publisher, the Centre

for Asia-Pacific Studies at Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s key academic

academy, was arranged through my Taiwanese colleague, Dr. Pei-yi

Guo, an anthropologist working on Malaita. This pleased me im-

mensely, and set the right tone of seriousness and quality. The em-

bassy obtained substantial funding for the project, which appeared to

be more than enough to cover all eventualities. There would be two

thousand copies produced, all to be given away, with a preface by the


then President of the Republic of China, Chen Shi-bian. The stars had

all aligned, and now it was time for a sprint to the finish line.

Looking back on the first half of 2008, I still can barely com-

prehend how hard I worked. Tell It As It Is is twice the length of a

standard modern book. I had to re-order almost every sentence, to

improve the flow of words, to cut repetition, and to moderate the rhe-

torical style of a preacher and politician. At the same time, the words

had to retain his flavour and stylistically be those of a Solomon Is-

lander. One review of the book said that “The language used in the

book is at times laborious, tedious and repetitious with quite awk-

ward sentence construction.”17

I laughed when I read this, thinking

back to what had been deleted and altered, but I also thought that the

reviewer was unfair, considering that he had once worked in Solo-

mon Islands. I made a deliberate attempt to maintain Sir Peter’s writ-

ing style, and my most basic premise was that it was Sir Peter’s book,

not mine, and in the long term my name would not be remembered. I

also chose not to control what Sir Peter included or left out. This was

his chance to set down his views for the historical record. If readers

felt he was unfair in his memory of events, then it was up to them to

join the debate. I did severely prune chapter twenty on Financial

Misdealing, because it was so complex that I could not follow it, and

I knew that others would have the same problem. I warned Sir Peter

to check with the two lawyers amongst his children over one section

of chapter twenty-one, and I challenged him over his justification of

the 1986 Rara affair that lost him his prime ministership, which he

took with good grace. Apart from that, he chose what went in and the

emphasis in the book.

Collecting the photographs was accomplished on the second

trip, and we also discussed how to turn the manuscript into a book.

As I have said, Sir Peter is old-fashioned when it comes to technol-

ogy; he regards email and attachments as beyond his expertise. We

had to invent an alternative communication path between Brisbane

and Honiara. Phone calls were out of the question, except on rare oc-

casions, as the Solomon Islands government foolishly entered into a

long-term monopoly with one phone company, and calls cost about


A$1.70 per minute. Communications were accomplished through his

executive secretary, who passed on email messages, and his daughter

May, who had email at home and at work. May was our saviour and

deserves the highest praise for her dedication: hundreds of email

messages full of fiddly questions over the spelling of names and mi-

nor details passed back and forth. The book could never have been

completed in such a short time without her.

I learned a few truths about diplomacy and status in dealing

with Ambassador Chen. He had no appreciation of the size of the

task, and after a month or two asked if the job had been completed,

surprised to be told that we were a long way off. Then, early in 2008,

staggering under the load, I assessed that we could not meet the 7

July deadline, and asked to be allowed to slow down. The ambassa-

dor’s answer was no, not under any circumstances. The pride of Tai-

wan was at stake, not to mention the reputation of the ambassador

and president. In fact, the book project involved the ex-president: he

had written the foreword while he was president, and then there was

a change at the top. The ambassador would not consider asking the

new president for a new foreword. It mattered not one jot that part of

the reason for the proposed delay was that the transfer of funds be-

tween the government, the embassy and Academia Sinica had taken

an inordinate amount of time, nor that the assistance that I had re-

quested right from the start—a good copy editor—had not been

forthcoming. The publishing process was remarkably efficient in

many ways, and editor Hsinyi Chien was a joy to work with, but the

Centre for Asia-Pacific Studies, despite the huge finances available,

had not engaged an independent copy editor. The manuscript had

moved too fast not to have mistakes in it, and it needed eyes other

than Sir Peter’s and mine to remove errors. Eventually, some other

readers were arranged, at the last minute, and the text is actually re-

markably clean in its final form. One of the last decisions was over

the cover, which exposed a culture clash. Sir Peter and his family

wanted to use a rather splendid black-and-white photograph from

1978 as the centre piece, a request met with horror from Taiwan.

They said that only dead people were shown in this way, and that we


must use a colour photograph. In the end, the wisdom of Solomons

and Australia prevailed, and we got the cover we wanted; after all, it

had to be attractive to Solomon Islanders, not Taiwanese.

The book went to press in the second half of June—the 20th

if

my memory is correct. The final run through the printing press and

the transport to Honiara was accomplished by commandeering a

press in Taipei, and then sending all copies express air freight to

Honiara. We all watched a series of email messages that tracked pro-

gress, fingers crossed, until the two thousand copies reached Honiara

two days before the 7th

of July celebration. I was there at the cere-

mony to see it launched, and Ambassador Chen was centre stage in it

all, as was Sir Peter. I was in the crowd.

Recent literature on autobiographical writing places stress on gender

and race.18

Tell It As It Is was a classic exercise in male biography.

Sir Peter is a patriarchal figure in politics, his family, and church, and

makes no pretence to be otherwise. He wears his knighthood like a

first name and, out of politeness and respect, I have never called him

other than Sir Peter. His church is fundamentalist, and in it males di-

rect their families. His second-to-last chapter, “Raising a Christian

Family,” is in many ways the most interesting in the book in the way

that it identifies the conservative nature of the man. Whiteness Stud-

ies would suggest that issues related to race might have an impact on

the author/editor relationship.19

I will leave others to ponder this, but

I do not believe this to be relevant. I felt that I was only the facilitator

of this book, and did little to shape it, other than moving some sec-

tions around. The working relationship was harmonious, and grew

out of the Davidson-Crocombe admonition that academics have a re-

sponsibility to assist.20

Yet there were issues relating to the editorial process that are

worth discussing. Three issues tested me as editor. First of these was


his role in negotiating independence in 1978: was he as central to the

process as he believed? The second was his decision to step down as

prime minister in 1986, still the most contentious issue in his long

career. The third was my need to come to terms with his Christian

persona. In the first two of these areas, I needed to make my own as-

sessment of Sir Peter’s account, and decide how much I should inter-

fere and question his version of events. The third, Christianity, is an

area where I accepted his right to assert views that were basic to his

personality and modus operandi. As his editor, I was subservient to

his interpretation, yet on occasions I also had to act as devil’s advo-

cate, to ensure that his perspective could stand up to rigorous criti-

cisms from his readers.

Negotiating Independence

What did the British make of the young Peter Kenilorea, chief minis-

ter of the Solomon Islands at thirty-four years old, who visited Lon-

don twice to negotiate his nation’s financial severance package, the

new Constitution and the final relationship between Britain and its far

away Pacific protectorate? He had to deal with Lord Goronwy-

Roberts, minister for foreign affairs, and his senior staff. Chapter ten,

entitled “A Rather Reluctant Politician,” provides details of the nego-

tiations. Only one other person involved has ever written on the

topic, Yash Ghai, a Kenyan citizen of ethnic Indian descent, who was

the constitutional advisor provided by the British.21

Ghai wrote in the

1980s and was careful not to give any strong opinions, merely re-

cording events in detail.

Sir Peter had slowed down by a year the timing for independ-

ence accepted by Solomon Mamaloni, his predecessor as chief minis-

ter,22

much to the frustration of the British and Governor Sir Colin

Allan. New in the job, reliant on his public service skills, prayer, and

determination to do his best by his country, Kenilorea wanted to en-

sure that all thirty-eight Members of the Legislative Assembly under-

stood and felt they had ownership of the independence Constitution.

In confidential foreign affairs reports back in London, the Pacific


Territories department was not sure that Kenilorea had enough politi-

cal cunning to survive as chief minister, let alone prime minister. Sir

Donald Luddington, governor until mid-1976, reported that

“Kenilorea himself is politically naive and lacks the experience and

ability to quote back speeches that Mamaloni and Ulufa`alu23

have

made in the past.”24

When Mamaloni and Ulufa`alu supported

Kenilorea in delaying the independence date, the British conclusion

was that they had done so to allow time to strengthen their power

base “inside and outside the Assembly with a view to overthrowing

the present Government and themselves leading the Solomons into

independence.”25

The British saw Kenilorea as slow and boring, with

no imagination, yet he has survived and served in many public posi-

tions, perhaps showing that the British assessments were wrong, or at

least did not understand what Solomon Islanders wanted from a

leader. Fred Osifelo, speaker of the Legislative Assembly, was an-

other important figure in the 1970s. Unhappy about the prospects of

Mamaloni becoming prime minister, Osifelo was flying kites about

standing for election himself. He was quoted very revealingly, in re-

lation to political power in Solomon Islands, in a conversation with

the deputy governor in 1976:

But Trevor, that is the Melanesian Way! We are dictators.

This why there is now plenty of talk about Chiefs. We un-

derstand that. We do what Big Men tell us to do. We are not

ready for democracy. We need more experience. We like to

talk but we agree to what someone strong tells us. We shall

have a dictatorship.

Trevor Clark added to his report: “Fred would be a benign, wise, pig-

headed old dictator, but I doubt his chances.”26

Kenilorea was the

modern Solomon Big Man: he had a sense of what was right and

necessary in the circumstances.

Kenilorea’s slow pace was very frustrating to the governor

and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, but from the judgement

of history it was the correct tactic. The various British officials who

came to Honiara to negotiate did not have enough authority to make


final decisions, which all had to be made by Foreign Affairs in Lon-

don. In May 1977, the Solomons sent a bipartisan seven-man delega-

tion to London, headed by Kenilorea. They came back with a £23

million package, which was £3 million more than the British had

proposed. In the next London meeting, in September 1977, the tactics

were quite different: the delegation consisted of twenty-nine mem-

bers, twenty-four of them MPs, which left only a small number at

home to run all government portfolios. The main points of contention

were finances (which had been dealt with initially in May), enabling

future development of provincial government, land issues, the rights

of Gilbert and Ellice Islander migrants in the new nation, and “Be-

longer’s Status” for foreign residents and their rights to citizenship.

The British were most concerned to safeguard the rights of present

and future investors in Solomon Islands and to ensure fair purchase

terms for any lands resumed. As the protectorate had 999 years leases

over plantation lands, there was every reason to be concerned.

Sir Peter says that the size of the delegation was part of his

strategy, as it allowed the majority of Members to be involved, and

was expensive. Usually, British territories were expected to meet

their own costs of representatives at an independence conference.

Kenilorea proposed that the British come to Honiara for the confer-

ence because the reverse trip was too expensive for his government.

This sent the British into a tailspin: the “logistic nightmare”27

of dif-

ferent time zones and inadequate communications would have left

their delegation cut off from London, and Honiara’s hotels were

judged to be primitive.28

There was also the advantage of bringing

the supplicant protectorate to the metropolis, with all its pomp and

ceremony. The British decided that the political risk of travelling to

the islands was too great.29

In the end, an agreement was reached that

the Solomons government pay the air fares, but with the British gov-

ernment breaking with precedent and paying the accommodation

costs in London. Negotiations took longer than expected, and the

British were not keen to pay for an extra week. All of this seemed to

speed their deliberations on some issues. Kenilorea was correct in

this strategy.


Another strategy, after a rather shambolic first day, was that

the delegation agreed to communicate only through designated

spokesmen, and by the third day communication was solely through

Kenilorea. In the end, it was his private negotiations with Lord

Goronwy-Roberts that shaped the final agreement. The Foreign Of-

fice had been aware that direct negotiations with the foreign minister

might well be necessary, which was one reason for not holding the

conference in Honiara. The final sticking point was the British insis-

tence on recognition of “Belonger’s Status,” which would have al-

lowed any foreigner of more than seven years residence automatic

citizenship at independence, with land rights equal to those of in-

digenous Solomon Islanders. This affected British residents, but also

Chinese,30

and the Gilbertese and Ellice Islands migrants who had

arrived since the 1950s.31

Kenilorea refused to accept this, which was

no surprise. In a meeting of key officials from London and Honiara at

Government House on 26-27 June 1976, this issue was listed as

likely to be the most serious difficulty.

On present proposals there would be no certainty at inde-

pendence who would be a Solomon Islands citizen. This

would have a direct effect on UK citizenship law—a highly

sensitive subject.32

The private negotiation with Lord Goronwy-Roberts and Dr. David

Owen, secretary of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, is de-

scribed in detail in Sir Peter’s book.33

He told Goronwy-Roberts and

Owen that:

To Westerners, land is an economic commodity, while to

Solomon Islanders land is our mother and an integral part of

our total being and existence—culture, taboos, values,

wealth, social worth, religion and soul. It can never be

bought or sold in the modern sense of the word. It follows

therefore that, to a Solomon Islander, it is not possible com-

pletely to sever the sense of belonging between mother earth

(land) and its human inhabitants.34


Kenilorea told Goronwy-Roberts and Owen that he would rather re-

turn home without concluding the negotiations than agree to non-

indigenous Solomon Islanders having the same rights to land as in-

digenous Solomon Islanders. Although this brinkmanship was a risky

strategy, Kenilorea meant what he said. Owen was forced to make

this significant concession and to recognise the sanctity of Solomon

Islands customary land rights over land alienated to foreigners. A be-

leaguered Goronwy-Roberts also agreed. The Gilbert and Ellice Is-

landers were safeguarded under the 1977 Land Act, which allowed

them to have perpetual title to areas on which they had been settled,

without further commitment to their descendants.

An innocent David went to Goliath’s lair to negotiate a com-

plex deal that set his nation on its track for the next thirty years. With

the hindsight of the wider British decolonisation process, the Solo-

mon Islanders managed well in their negotiations, and have a lot for

which to thank their young chief minister. His assessment of his role

stood up to all scrutiny.

Resigning as Prime Minister, 1986

Sir Peter served as prime minister until 1981, when he lost to Solo-

mon Mamaloni, and from 19 November 1984 until 1 December

1986, when he felt that he had no option but to resign, continuing as

deputy prime minister under Ezekiel Alebua. One of the longest

segments of his autobiography discusses the incident that led to his

resignation: the Rara Cyclone rehabilitation pledge by the French

government.35

It is Sir Peter’s Achilles’ heel and the section that took

the greatest diplomatic skill on my part to get right. I played devil’s

advocate with him, which I don’t think he liked much, but I knew

that it would be the section read avidly by his detractors. There re-

mains a general belief, vaguely remembered, that he had done some-

thing wrong and been forced to resign. People said that he had taken

money from the French to help his own village, Rara, which had been

damaged by Cyclone Namu. In the end, I was satisfied that he had

explained things well enough, exonerated himself, and was guilty


only of naivety, which in itself is not a good quality in a prime minis-

ter.

Cyclone Namu arrived at a time when the French were very

unpopular in the Pacific. Decolonisation was almost complete, but

the French government claimed that their three Pacific territories

were an integral part of domestic France, which was nonsensical po-

litically. They were conducting nuclear tests in French Polynesia, and

the Kanak in New Caledonia were agitating for independence, all of

which made France unwelcome in many quarters of the Pacific.

France established diplomatic relations with Solomon Islands just

one year after independence, and when France offered to send a plane

equipped with medical supplies, temporary shelters, and water purifi-

cation gear, Prime Minister Kenilorea was immensely grateful. Gas-

ton Flosse, president of French Polynesia and minister for the South

Pacific, arrived just after Kenilorea had been on a trip to see the dev-

astation on Malaita, and offered, amongst other assistance, to help

rehabilitate the Provincial Primary School at Oteiora near Rara. This

was all very public and above board, and Kenilorea stayed at arm’s

length from the funds. No money was spent on his family home in

the village, although his extended family lived in the area given assis-

tance. Sir Peter remains very hurt by the allegations that he person-

ally benefitted from the French money, asking why his own people,

who were in need, should be punished because he was prime minis-

ter.

It was a true test of his prime ministership in an emergency

situation, and, although he instituted mechanisms to keep himself

well away from the funding, he probably should have relied on his

own government services to rehabilitate his local community. The

French wanted to buy influence and were not just being good

neighbours. They dangled funds in front of the prime minister that he

should have used in some other way, and it was his undoing. His po-

litical opponents pressed the matter and, after several members of his

cabinet resigned, he lost his majority, and resigned his office. His

own explanation was carefully worded:


Perhaps President Flosse had political purposes in making

his offer, but I never saw it that way. Perhaps I was politi-

cally naive and too trusting, or had been blinded by my

Christian conviction that this was a straightforward cyclone

rehabilitation assistance pledge and was God’s special bless-

ing to my people in the circumstances. Whatever the reason,

I have no guilty conscience about it in the slightest, nor did I

have any reason to consider it in any other way.36

His reaction to the debacle showed the character of the man: a little

naive perhaps, but principled.

Christian Principles

This brings us neatly to Sir Peter’s Christian upbringing and convic-

tions, which have permeated his life and career. Since I edited the

book I have written two major papers on Solomon Islands. One was

on the political and constitutional processes that developed in the

1960s and 1970s, leading to independence in 1978. I did this because

I felt that I did not totally understand the process.37

I have also writ-

ten on the Queensland Kanaka Mission, which became the South Sea

Evangelical Mission and finally an independent Church. In my earlier

dealings with Sir Peter, I was always puzzled by the origins of this

unique Church. He is the son of a pastor, and is himself a lay

preacher in his local SSEC branch. In the 1999 Solomon Islands cen-

sus there were 69,651 members of the South Sea Evangelical

Church.38

Today, adherents number around eighty-five thousand,

making up eleven percent of Christians in the nation. The SSEC grew

out of the South Sea Evangelical Mission, which began in 1907 as an

islands-based continuation of the Queensland Kanaka Mission that

operated in Australia between 1886 and 1906 and in Solomon Islands

after 1895. The SSEM expanded into Papua New Guinea after the

Second World War, where there are now around twenty thousand

members. In 1964, the SSEC was inaugurated as an indigenous

Church in the Solomon Islands, in which national leaders took total

responsibility.39


Figuratively heir to Puritan and Baptist traditions, steeped in

the beliefs of the Open Brethren, influenced by the Keswick Conven-

tion and the wider evangelical movement, the SSEC has maintained

an uncompromising doctrinal stance centred on a literal interpretation

of scripture. Church members are Trinitarians in the great Puritan

tradition. They pray directly to God the Father from the heart,

through Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, and do not use

set liturgy or clergy. They believe that they have direct access to

God’s grace in Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit. Adult baptism

has remained a central tenet of the Church.

Sir Peter is a passionate and committed SSEC Christian,

which gives him his perspective on life. I have a Low Church Angli-

can upbringing, and in adulthood I have professed no Christian faith

at all. Every decision Sir Peter makes is guided by prayer, and he is a

forgiving man who carries no grudges. As I said in my preface to the

book, I am always inclined to look for administrative and economic

logic and political gamesmanship in decision-making. While I am

sure that Sir Peter makes rational administrative decisions, the extra

spiritual dimension is constantly present. It is refreshing, and a useful

reminder to Pacific historians and political scientists, that Christianity

is a crucial motivation for many Pacific Islanders. While many world

leaders profess to be Christians and regularly attend church, few are

as dedicated as Sir Peter, nor do they come from a denomination with

such unbending adherence to belief in its doctrine.

The first dedication in the acknowledgements section of Tell It

As It Is is to God, and the text is full of Biblical textual references.

After thirty-five years of living with and dealing with Solomon Is-

landers, I still find this issue one of the most confronting. At core,

they are a religious people, originally through ancestor worship and

animism, and since the nineteenth century mainly through Christian-

ity. As an outsider, I feel welcomed in all ways, and regard Solomon

Islands as my second home, and I am part of a large extended family

there. Yet, there will always be a gap when it comes to Christianity,

just as there will always be a gap in my understanding of their rela-

tionship with land and ancestors. When he was negotiating independ-


ence in 1977 and the issues of “Belonger’s Status” and citizenship,

Sir Peter voiced an example for a British official who was trying to

understand the issues. He said that, however much the man wished to

be Kenilorea, he never could be, and Kenilorea could never be the

British man. He told the official that only an indigenous Solomon Is-

lander can feel and appreciate the relationship that exists between

them and their land.40

This applies just as well to my relationship with Sir Peter and

other Solomon Islanders. There is also a lesson here for any of us

who try to write about the lives and cultures of others. No matter how

much we try to understand and have empathy, we are not them. Even

after questioning the autobiographer we can only guess at real moti-

vations and why certain decisions were made.

Historians as editors need to reveal their relationship to the

subject and motivations. After the book is produced and enough time

passes to allow some perspective on events, we need to place our

roles on the record, as the book is ours as well.41

I feel privileged in

being able to share knowledge of Sir Peter’s life and of his nation. I

hope that in my small way I have helped to create a book that will be

remembered and important. Books other than the Bible are actually

rare commodities in Solomon Islands’ homes and schools. Thanks to

the Taiwanese embassy, Tell It As It Is has now been placed in every

school and institution in the country. The book will become an ongo-

ing source of historical knowledge for the nation, not just an autobi-

ography. It has been more widely distributed than any other book

ever published on Solomon Islands. As Jeremy D. Popkin suggests,

historians are ambivalent about their relationship with autobiography.

The drive to write more “scientific” history that began in the nine-

teenth century is undoubtedly a factor. Nevertheless, historians rec-

ognize that autobiography, although interdisciplinary in nature and

dominated by those whose primary interest is literary, can be a rele-

vant field to history.42

In the Pacific, where segmented academic

boundaries are not relevant to indigenous cultures, the memoirs of a

leader will be regarded as an important source of national history.

Kenilorea’s book is a personal history of the late colonial years and


up to 2008. Given that histories of the Solomons are in short supply,

Kenilorea’s book, distributed free of charge widely, and available for

purchase at a subsidised price, will in effect be the main history book

that Solomon Islanders read for the next ten years.

Historians, anthropologists, political scientists, and Christian

Church personnel have been intimately involved in aiding the pro-

duction of Pacific autobiographies, an indication of the closeness be-

tween Pacific autobiography and history. The Kenilorea book is typi-

cal of this genre, and challenges some of the best-practice advice in

the international literature on autobiography. Perhaps the difference

is inherent in the nature of Pacific cultures and Pacific Studies as an

academic discipline, which concentrates on understanding the region,

not on disciplinary boundaries. For me, the production of Tell It as It

Is has offered the opportunity to reflect on the issues associated with

autobiography and, more particularly, with Pacific Islands political

history.


Notes

1 Peter Kenilorea, Tell It As It Is: Autobiography of Rt. Hon. Sir Peter

Kenilorea, K.B.E., P.C., Solomon Islands’ First Prime Minister, ed. Clive

Moore (Taipei: Centre for Asia-Pacific Area Studies, Academia Sinica,

2008), xxxvi. 2 Mark Otter, review of Tell It As It Is, by Peter Kenilorea, Australian Jour-

nal of Politics and History 55:1 (2009):137-138; Judith Bennett, review,

New Zealand International Review XXXIV:5 (2009): 26-27; Debra

McDougall, review, Journal of Pacific History 44: 2 (2009): 229-230; Jaap

Timmer, review, Pacific Affairs 82:4 (2009/2010): 760-762; Michael W.

Scott, review, New Zealand Journal of History 43:1 (2009): 110-111; An-

drew Podger, review, Australian Journal of International Affairs 63: 4

(2009): 596-598. 3 I am indebted to my colleagues Michael Goldsmith, Robert Kiste, Brij V.

Lal, Adrian Muckle, Doug Munro and Edward Wolfers for their advice on

the references in this paragraph. 4 Kamisese Mara, The Pacific Way: A Memoir (Honolulu: University of

Hawai`i Press, 1997). 5 Sitiveni Rabuka, Rabuka: No Other Way. His Own Story of the Fijian Coup

as told to Eddie Dean and Stan Ritova (Sydney: Doubleday, 1988). 6 Michael T. Somare, Sana: An Autobiography (Port Moresby: Niugini Press,

1975). 7 Walter Lini, Beyond Pandemonium: From the New Hebrides to Vanuatu

(Wellington: Asia Pacific Books, 1980). 8 Ignatius Kilage, My Mother Calls me Yaltep (Port Moresby: Institute of Pa-

pua New Guinea Studies, 2000); Paulias Matane, My Childhood in New

Guinea (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1972); Paulias

Matane, To Serve With Love (Mt. Waverley, Vic.: Dellasta Pacific, 1992);

Timoci U. Bavarda, Bavadra, Prime Minister, Statesman, man of the Peo-

ple: Selection of Speeches and Writings, 1985-1989, ed. `Atu Bain and

Tupeni Baba (Nadi: Sunrise Press, 1990). 9 Tom Davis, Island Boy: An Autobiography (Suva: Institute of Pacific Stud-

ies, University of the South Pacific, 1992). Sir Tom and Lydia Davis also

wrote Doctor to the Islands (Boston: Little, Brown, 1954). 10

Jérôme Cazaumayou and Thomas De Dekker, eds., Gabriel Païta:

Témoignage Kanak. D’Opao au Pays de la Nouvelle-Calédonie, 1929-1999

(Paris: Hartmattan, 2000); Vijay R. Singh, Speaking Out: Commentary on

Political, Social and Economic Issues in Fiji during the Decade 1995-2005

(Brisbane: Knightsbrook Publications, 2006); Tomasi R. Vakatora, From

the Mangrove Swamps (Suva: University of the South Pacific, 1998); An-


thony Siaguru, In-house in Papua New Guinea with Anthony Siaguru (Can-

berra: Asia Pacific Press, 2001). 11

George G. Carter, David Voeta: The Story of a Pioneer Missionary, Pro-

ceedings of the Wesley Historical Society, (New Zealand), 28, no. 5 (Auck-

land: Wesley Historical Society, New Zealand, 1973); George G. Carter,

Yours in Service: A Reflection on the Life and Times of Reverend Belshaz-

zar Gina of Solomon Islands, ed. Esau Tuza (Honiara: University of the

South Pacific Centre, 1990); Tarcisius Tara Kabutaulaka, Footprints in the

Tasimauri Sea: A Biography of Dominiko Alebua (Suva: Institute of Pacific

Studies, University of the South Pacific, 2002). 12

Frederick Osifelo, Kanaka Boy: An Autobiography (Suva: Institute of Pacif-

ic Studies and the Solomon Islands Extension Centre, University of the

South Pacific, 1985); Gideon Zoleveke, Zoleveke: A Man from Choiseul,

ed. John Chick (Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South

Pacific, 1980); Èlota, Èlota’s Story: The Life and Times of a Solomon Is-

lands Big Man, ed. Roger M. Keesing (Brisbane: University of Queensland

Press, 1978); Jonathon Fifiì, From Pig-Theft to Parliament: My Life Be-

tween Two Worlds, ed. and trans. Roger M. Keesing (Honiara and Suva:

Solomon Islands College of Higher Education and Institute of Pacific Stud-

ies, University of the South Pacific, 1989); Noel Fatnowna, Fragments of a

Lost Heritage, ed. Roger Keesing (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1989);

Ben Burt and Michael Kwaìoloa, eds., A Solomon Islands Chronicle: As

Told by Samuel Alasaà (London: British Museum Press, 2001); Lloyd Ma-

epeza Gina, Journeys in a Small Canoe: The Life and Times of a Solomon

Islander, eds. Judith A. Bennett and Khyla J. Russell (Suva; Canberra: In-

stitute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific; Pandanus Books,

2003). 13

Susan Magarey, “Three Questions for Biographers: Public or Private? Indi-

vidual or Society? Truth or Beauty?,” Journal of Historical Biography, 4

(2008): 1-26; Jill Kerr Conway, When Memory Speaks: Reflections on

Autobiography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998); James Goodwin,

Autobiography: The Self Made Text (New York and Toronto: Twayne Pub-

lishers, Maxwell Macmillan Canada and Maxwell Macmillan International,

1993); A.O.J. Cockshut, The Art of Autobiography in 19th and 20

th Century

England (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1984); Robert

Folkenflik, ed., The Culture of Autobiography: Constructions of Self-

Representation (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993); Jeremy D.

Popkin, “Coordinated Lives: Between Autobiography and Scholarship,”

Biography 24, no.4 (2001): 781-805. 14

Maasina (brotherhood) Rule (also known as Marching Rule) began during

1944 while Malaitans were members of the wartime Labour Corps on Gua-


dalcanal. The movement continued until 1952. Nori and Aliki

Nonoòhimae from ÀreÀre, joined later by Timothy George from South

Malaita, began to conduct meetings on Malaita that expressed independent

and anti-British sentiments. They were influenced by American service-

men, particularly African-Americans whose humane treatment of them and

advice on action against colonialism encouraged them to make a stand

against British authority after the war. The trio spread a message of inde-

pendence amongst Malaitan ex-Scouts and labourers, who began a cam-

paign of non-compliance and civil disobedience. They were also influenced

by earlier movements, such as the Fallows Movement in the 1930s. The

Maasina Rule movement advocated a policy of improved agriculture, con-

centration into larger villages, and non-co-operation with the protectorate

government and missions. These teachings were coupled at some stages

with millenarian ideas of an earthly paradise to come. With the movement

spreading to all areas of Malaita, for eight years Maasina Rule leaders en-

deavoured to dominate affairs on the island, and their influence spread to

other parts of the protectorate. It was an indigenous proto-nationalist

movement based on civil disobedience, and expressed a desire for self-

government and self-determination. The British tried to destroy Maasina

Rule and imprison its leaders, ultimately failing in their endeavour. Maas-

ina Rule was the most significant opposition to British administration in the

Pacific Islands, and rates highly as an important civil disobedience move-

ment in the British Empire. Hugh M. Laracy, Pacific Protest: The Maasina

Rule Movement, Solomon Islands, 1944-1952 (Suva: Institute of Pacific

Studies, University of the South Pacific, 1983); David Akin, Colonialism,

Maasina Rule, and the Origins of Malaitan Kastom (Honolulu: University

of Hawaiì Press, 2012). 15

Clive Moore, “Rakwane,” in Pacific Places, Histories: Essays in Honour of

Robert C. Kiste, ed. B. V. Lal (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press,

2004), 242-266; Clive Moore, “Noel Fatnowna and His Book: The Making

of Fragments of a Lost Heritage,” Journal of Pacific Studies 18 (1994-

1995): 137-150. 16

Kenilorea, Tell It As It Is, 286-288. 17

Mark Otter, Review of Tell It As It Is, 138. 18

Gillian Whitlock, The Intimate Empire: Reading Women’s Autobiography

(London and New York: Cassell, 2000); and Soft Weapons: Autobiography

in Transit (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2007); Helen

M. Buss, Repossessing the World: Reading Memoirs by Contemporary

Women (Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2002). 19

Steve Garner, Whiteness: An Introduction (Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon

and New York: Routledge, 2007); Aileen Moreton-Robinson, ed., Whiten-


ing Race: Essays on Social and Cultural Criticism (Canberra: Aboriginal

Studies Press, 2004). 20

For instance, I moved the Kenilorea family genealogy from the front of the

book to Appendix One and joined some chapters together. 21

Yash H. Ghai, “Constitution Making and Decolonisation,” in Law, Politics

and Government in Pacific Islands States, ed. Yash H. Ghai (Suva: Institute

of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific, 1988); and “The Making

of the Independence Constitution,” in Solomon Islands Politics, ed. Peter

Larmour with Sue Tarua (Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies, University of

the South Pacific, 1983), 9-52. 22

Solomon Sunaòne Mamaloni (1943–2000), prime minister and business-

man, was born in January 1943, at Rumahui village, Arosi district Makira

Island, son of Jaash Stephanus Sunaòne. He was educated at Church of

Melanesia (Anglican) Pawa School and at King George VI School for four

years, before completing his secondary education at Te Aute Maori College

in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand from 1964-1966. The first chief minister of

Solomon Islands (1974-1976), he served as prime minister three times

(1981-1984, 1989-1993, 1994-1997) and three times as leader of the oppo-

sition. Universally known as Solo, he was a colourful political figure, a

great nationalist who believed that his people should break away from

Western paradigms. Foreign governments found him unpredictable, wily

and corrupt in his financial dealings, as he never separated his personal

business from political gains. He was the shrewdest politician the Solomon

Islands have known, always willing to take risks and regularly trouncing

his political opponents. He died on 11 January 2000 when kidney problems,

exacerbated by diabetes and gout, finally overwhelmed him. 23

Bartholomew Ulufaàlu was born in Aliteè Village, Langalanga Lagoon,

Malaita in 1950 and received his secondary education at Catholic schools.

He attended UPNG in 1970, where he became President of the Students

Representative Council and graduated with a BA in Economics in 1974.

After returning to the Solomons, he worked to set up Rafea and Kwakuna

Co-operative Development Society. In February 1975, he founded and be-

came President of the Solomon Islands General Workers Union. He set up

the Nationalists Party to fight the June 1976 General Election, in which he

became a member of the Legislative Assembly. He formed the Coalition

Opposition Group, which later became the Nationalists Democratic Party,

and published a weekly newspaper during 1977. He also was elected a

Member of the Honiara Town Council.

Ulufaàlu was leader of the opposition for two years leading up to inde-

pendence, and became finance minister in the 1981–1984 Mamaloni gov-

ernment. He spent the next few years involved in various business ventures


of little success. He returned to Parliament in 1988, only to resign his East

Honiara seat in 1990 to join the Prime Minister’s Office in order to estab-

lish a pool of local business and development advisers to replace expatriate

consultants. Prime Minister Mamaloni then claimed that the new scheme

was too expensive and abolished it, leaving Ulufaàlu as a private consult-

ant and low-profile businessman. He still did some work for the govern-

ment and, on his own initiative, set up the Solomon Islands Farmers’ Asso-

ciation. Then, at Mamaloni’s urging, he ran unsuccessfully against his arch-

political rival Francis Saemala in a bitter and heated contest for the Central

Malaita seat. In 1996, he formed the Liberal Party, which became his po-

litical come-back vehicle in 1997.

He served as prime minister from June 1997 until deposed by a coup in

June 2000. He became an embittered leader of the opposition. Returned

again in the 2000 elections, after the April 2006 elections he was finance

minister in the Sogavare government from May until October 2006. He

died on 25 May 2007 after a long battle with diabetes. 24

Governor Sir Donald Luddington, 20 September 1976 to H. S. G. Stanley,

Assistant Under Secretary, Foreign and Commonwealth office, Solomon Is-

lands Constitutional Conference 1976—Administrative Arrangements, ,

FCO32/1356, The National Archives, Kew. 25

C. A. Holmes, Pacific Dependent Territories Department, 21 October 1976

to Messrs E. A. W. Bullock and H. S. G. Stanley and Lord Goronwy-

Roberts, Constitutional and Political Development—Solomon Islands,

FCO32/1357. 26

Deputy Governor A. T. Clark, 6 May 1976 to E. A. W. Bullock, PDTD,

FCO, Constitutional and Political Development—Solomon Islands,

FCO32/1357. Born on 15 October 1928 near Aànangali village in east

Baegu, Malaita, Frederick Osifelo was the son of a police station sergeant

who later became district headman, court president in East Baeguù and a

member of the Malaita council. With only a basic education, Frederick

Osifelo began work as a messenger for the administration at Auki in 1945,

and was quickly promoted to assistant clerical officer (1951) and assistant

administrative officer (1954) by District Commissioners Stanley Master-

man and Tom Russell, who both admired his dedication and hard work. He

travelled to Port Moresby in June 1961 with Tom Russell, by then senior

assistant secretary (personnel), to attend a study group on the problems of

urban youth. In September 1964, he left to attend an eight-month local gov-

ernment training course at the South Devon Technical College, Torquay,

Great Britain. As a senior executive officer, level B, from 1965, he com-

pleted a variety of government tasks, from returning officer at a Yandina

by-election in 1966, to his work as a magistrate.


He went on to become a long-term senior public servant, appointed district

commissioner of Eastern District in 1972, and in 1974 became chairman of

the governing council and first speaker of the Legislative Assembly later

that year. At independence in 1978, Osifelo remained chairman of the Pub-

lic Service Board and it was not possible under the Constitution for him to

continue in both positions. Awarded an M.B.E. in 1972, in 1977 he was the

first Solomon Islander to be knighted. He died on 26 March 2001. 27

F. S. E. Trew, Pacific Dependent Territories Department, 25 August 1976,

to H. S. G. Stanley, Solomon Islands Constitutional Conference 1976—

Administrative Arrangements, FCO32/1356. 28

Crossland to Government House, Honiara, Telegram 10 September 1976,

Solomon Islands Constitutional Conference 1976—Administrative Ar-

rangements, FCO32/1356. 29

H. S. G. Stanley to Governor Sir Donald Luddington, 31 August 1976, Sol-

omon Islands Constitutional Conference 1976—Administrative Arrange-

ments, FCO32/1356. 30

Clive Moore, “No More Walkabout in Chinatown: Asian Involvement in

the Solomon Islands Economic and Political Processes,” in Politics and

State Building in Solomon Islands, ed. Sinclair Dinnen and Stewart Firth

(Canberra: Asia Pacific Press, 2008), 64-95. 31

Kenneth E. Knudson, “Sydney Island, Titiana, and Kamamleai: Southern

Gilbertese in the Phoenix and Solomon Islands,” in Exiles and Migrants in

Oceania, ed. Michael D. Lieber (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,

1977), 195-241; Kenneth E. Knudson, Titiana: A Gilbertese Community in

the Solomon Islands, Department of Anthropology Project for the Compar-

ative Study of Cultural Change and Stability in Displaced Communities in

the Pacific No. 1 (Eugene, Oregon, USA: Department of Anthropology,

University of Oregon, 1965). 32

Note on a Meeting held at Government House, Honiara on Thursday 24

June, Saturday 26 June and Sunday 27 June 1976, Item 2, 3, Solomon Is-

lands Constitutional Conference 1976—Administrative Arrangements, ,

FCO32/1356. 33


Ibid., 225. 35

Ibid., 271-285. 36

Ibid., 282. 37

Clive Moore, “Decolonising Solomon Islands: British Theory and Melane-

sian Practice,” Working Paper No. 8, (Geelong: Alfred Deakin Research

Institute, Deakin University, 2010). http://www.deakin.edu.au/alfred-

deakin-research-institute/assets/resources/publications/workingpapers/adri-

working-paper-08.pdf.

http://www.deakin.edu.au/alfred-deakin-research-institute/assets/resources/publications/workingpapers/adri-working-paper-08.pdf




38

The full analysis of the 2009 census has not been released. 39

Clive Moore, “Florence Young and the Queensland Kanaka Mission, 1886-

1906: Beginnings of an Indigenous Pacific Church,” Solomon Islands Na-

tional Museum Occasional Paper No. 2 (December 2009). 40


Richard Vinen, “The Poisoned Madeleine: The Autobiographical Turn in

Historical Writing,” Journal of Contemporary History 46:3 (2011): 531-

554. 42

Jeremy D. Popkin, History, Historians, and Autobiography (Chicago and

London: University of Chicago Press, 2005), 11-16.

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