The Pacific: Then and Now
• Teaching Pacific island history to lower and
middle secondary in the context of colonial
relations and World War Two
Aim and Structure of Presentation
• To discover the knowledge that we may already
have or think we have about the Pacific region.
• To trace the origin of some of those culturally
located understandings and consider how they
inflected historical events and continue to impact
thinking and political behaviour
• To reiterate the importance of teaching students
in Australian schools about the Pacific region
and their place as local and global citizens
• To propose some strategies with regard to
teaching and introduce the Pacific Neighbours
resource.
What we think we know
• Western knowledge of
the Pacific region is
heavily weighted with
escapist fantasies about
deserted beaches and
idyllic holidays.
• There is a long and
complex history attached
to the development of
these understandings
Starter Activity
• Shut your eyes and think of the Pacific
island region.
• Write down the colour, the symbol and the
image that come to mind when you hear
the words “Pacific Island”.
Imagining the Pacific
• Write down three things
you know about one or
more Pacific islands.
• These could include
history, geography,
culture, weather, lifestyle
or other factors and be
acquired through reading,
travel or other
experiences.
Some Pacific Facts
The Pacific Ocean covers
about 1/3 of the earth’s
surface. There are more
than 25,000 islands and
islets (or atolls) of 25
nations and
territories spread over
the Pacific. Its total
population is about 30
million people. Pacific
islands are the home of some of
the most remote and
economically challenged
nations on earth.
Australia in the Pacific
Since WW2 it has become a political and economic
mantra that Australia is “part of Asia”. However,
geographically and historically, it is equally important to
understand Australia as a Pacific island continent. The
rationale of Pacific Neighbors is that developing an
understanding of our region and our closest neighbours is
fundamental to fulfilling our role as responsible global
citizens. Pacific Neighbors is informed by ACARA, The
Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young
Australians (2008) and A Framework for Global Education
in Australian Schools (2008)
Learning focus: Pacific stories and
human rights
Key Concepts
• Early exploration and
colonial relations
• World War 2 in the
Pacific
• Nuclear testing in the
Pacific
• Year Levels
• Years 7 & 8
• Years 9 & 10
• Years 9 &10
Colonial History
• The Pacific Islands were among the last regions
to be discovered and mapped by European
seafarers and explorers.
• While late to be claimed as colonial
possessions they were equally late to gain
independence.
• Small (in global terms) economies, isolation and
limited natural resources means that in many
cases, independence has been nominal: “more
a political process than an economic or cultural
one” (During, 1992).
Early Pacific Contact
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A variety of evidence (linguistic, genetic and archaeological) suggests that
Melanesian islands were occupied by Papuan people from about 50,000 years
ago and that significant migration from Asia through the Pacific to Polynesia
began around 6,000 years ago and continued for several thousands of years
until New Zealand was finally settled by Maori people about 1,000 years ago.
Over time these early settlers developed large, double hulled vessels capable
of traversing great distances and carrying groups of people as well as their
plant and animal stock.
1519 Ferdinand Magellan sailed from Portugal through the straits of Magellan
to the Philippines, making contact on Guam and the Marianas.
1526 Alonso de Salazar recorded sighting the Marshall islands.
Francis Drake sailed across the Pacific but did not have contact with Pacific
islanders.
1634-43 Abel Tasman visited Tasmania, New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga.
1767 Samuel Wallis landed in Tahiti.
1766-69 Louis de Bougainville made contact in Tahiti, Samoa, Vanuatu and the
Solomons. The reports of Wallis and Bougainville popularised in England and
France the idea of an earthly paradise in the South Seas.
1768- 79 span the years of the three Cook voyages. Cook mapped Tahiti, New
Zealand and the east coast of Australia, landed at Easter Island, New Caledonia
and Vanuatu and mapped Hawaii.
Pacific Mappings
• The divisions between Polynesia, Melanesian
and Micronesia date back to the Gook voyages
and although in common use are challenged by
many island people. Those who most object to
the terms prefer to use the terminology
“Oceania”.
• Established on racial as well as geographic
categorisations, the names can be seen to be
part of the C19 project of classification and
cartography.
The Romance of the Islands
• In 1777, John Webber (artist
accompanying the 3rd Cook
voyage) painted Poedooa in
the traditions of C18th
classicist beauty.
• This built upon earlier
descriptions of islander
women. In 1768 Bougainville
had written that a young
Tahitian girl appeared as
“Venus…with the celestial form
of that goddess”
• These images and writings are
the fore-runners of a prevailing
Western romance with the
“hula girl” and the idealised
Pacific island.
Colonising the Pacific
• A beginning activity for students working with
this material might be the mapping of a time line.
This could include some dates related to the
indigenous settlement of the islands followed by
European contact dates and colonial claiming. It
might also go on to chart dates of national
independence and lead to discussions/debates
about what “independence” actually means for
aid dependent nations.
• An example of an excellent interactive time line
can be found at
http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/58432
Thinking about our thinking about
the Pacific
• In the context of mapping colonial history and engaging
with the past and present infringements of the rights of
Pacific islanders it is valuable to consider the evolution of
the types of thinking that supported activities such as
colonial appropriation and indentured labour.
• There are particular ways in which Western cultures
have tended to view the Pacific region and these have
remained remarkably constant through time. These
include the fable of the “deserted island” and the
“treasure island”. Where have these myths come from
and do they still have meaning?
Treasure islands
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In 19th and 20th century film and
fiction there is a recurring Pacific
island genre. The first is about
solace and tropical peace –
escaping from the pressure of
modern life. This is ubiquitous and
has been commercially
appropriated in marketing for
Pacific island holidays.
Another is the “treasure island”
usually buried pirate treasure. This
seems to be an antidote to the fact
that Pacific islands were never
great generators of income for
their colonial masters. Bar the
phosphate industry, the C20th
importance of Pacific islands
came to be specifically about
military/political strategy.
The Blackbird Economy
• The economic benefit of the latter C19th relationship
between Australia and its Pacific island neighbours was
primarily located in the industry of “black-birding”. With
the cessation of convict transportation and expansion of
agrarian enterprise, large numbers of cheap manual
workers were in demand. Between 1863 and 1904 about
55 000 Pacific islanders were black-birded to Australia.
Some were abducted and treated as slaves, others
(usually later) came voluntarily under contract as
indentured laborers and later returned to their own
homes relatively economically better off after being paid
6 pounds a year. They worked mostly in Queensland in
the farming, mining and pearling industries.
Questions for students
• Compare the different stories of islanders recruited to
work in Australia
• How were they treated?
• Should the workers have been allowed to stay if they
wanted to?
• Why were they forced to go home?
World War 2 in the Pacific
• The Pacific war
provided an
opportunity for many
Australian servicemen
to acquire an
understanding of the
Pacific region and
their own part in it as
distinct from Australia
being a British colony
Islands as a war zone
• The war also visited violence
upon Pacific islanders and
their homes. Many suffered
simply from being resident in a
war zone. Others were injured
or punished (sometimes
tortured or killed) for
supporting opposing sides.
• In Micronesia local people
tended to support the
Japanese and were penalised
for this at the end of the war. In
Polynesia and Melanesia, local
support generally turned
towards the Allies.
Suggested student activities
• Consider the traditional life of a village in Papua New
Guinea before the war
• Discuss the impact that war would have on village
people, considering such factors as cultural contact and
change, food supply (farming and fishing), violence,
environmental damage and direct involvement in the
war.
• In small groups take on the role of a Papua New
Guinean family/village and talk about how you might be
compensated for the damage done to your people and
environment by the war. Write a letter explaining your
need for compensation to the Australian government.
Soldiers and Hula Belles
• Allied soldiers arrived in the
Pacific with expectations fed
by Hollywood movies about
island paradises and hidden
treasure but mostly about the
“hula girl” – the beautiful
woman who welcomes
travellers to the island and
enhances their stay. Many
Pacific historians have argued
that this sort of representation
distracts from the violence of
colonial contact and war. This
particular myth has a long
history and intersects with war
and nuclear colonialism.
Look at this cartoon. Take a moment. What do you
see? What do you think? What do you wonder?
Racism and Sexism in the Pacific
• The idea of the hula girl
clashed with the reality of the
Pacific war experience.
• As well as dealing with their
war ravaged home
environment – villages were
bombed and destroyed, fishing
habitats unsafe and
contaminated, farms damaged
and family members killed, or
involved in the war – islanders
contended with racist
assumptions which sometimes
overflowed into violence.
Islanders were not always
treated well by Allied
servicemen.
Suggested student activities
• Imagine yourself an Australian soldier
stationed in somewhere in the South
Pacific during WW2. Identify your location.
• Write a series of journal entries describing
what you see and how it differs from what
you expected. Describe local conditions
and the local people you meet. Reflect
upon what they must be thinking of you
and the war.
The Bikini
• In 1946, French fashion designer Louis Reardon
showed a new and daring version of the two
piece swimsuit, cut deliberately to draw attention
to the same parts of a woman’s body that it was
designed to conceal. He named it the bikini to
celebrate the nuclear tests that had just been
carried out in the Marshall Islands.
• A sexy bathing suit designed for pristine
beaches had been given a name synonymous
with military imperialism and nuclear
contamination.
Post war Nuclear testing in the
Pacific
• The American, French and British governments
in total carried out about 240 nuclear tests in the
Pacific between 1946 and 1996
• The people most impacted were the 167
Bikinians who were displaced so that 67 tests
could be undertaken on Bikini Atoll between
1946 and 1958. Moved to different unsuitable
sites they pined and starved. They were
eventually allowed to return to their home but
forced to move again several years later when it
became apparent that the atoll was
irredeemably contaminated.
Student Activities
• Discuss the reasons why nuclear testing originally
seemed like a good idea.
• Review the arguments which were presented to the
Bikinians to persuade them to leave their island.
• Use the (simplified version) of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights as a framework to consider the
infringement of human rights.
cyberschoolbus/humanrights/resources/plain.asp
• Have a class debate with one side arguing the US case
for “the good of mankind” and that the Bikinians have
been adequately compensated, while the other side
arguing the Bikinians case that nothing can ever fully
compensate you for the loss of your homeland and
culture
Pacific Neighbours
• Overview and Photo Gallery
• Review the Pacific Neighbours resource
Resources
• cyberschoolbus/humanrights/resources/pl
ain.asp
• http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/58432
• http://digicoll.manoa.hawaii.edu/hwrd/Pag
es/about.php?s=about
• http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1339/