Indigenous Governance in Melanesia

Along with recent widely publicized problems of Melanesian states comes renewed interest in “customary modes of governance.” Although talk of custom now fl ows easily in discussions of political reform in the region, few of these discussions make any serious use of the extensive anthropological literature on the politics of “tradition.” The fact that custom now crosses lines of academic and policy discourse raises the question of how such concepts might be useful for policymakers and others looking for practical interventions in the notoriously weak states of the region. With that in mind, this paper offers a brief overview of issues and themes emerging from Melanesian studies that bear on current concerns with “indigenous governance.” My strategy for doing so is to discuss a recent case of political innovation in Santa Isabel, Solomon Islands. Drawing on my own research in Santa Isabel, I ask what issues and questions emerging in that locale may be relevant for other local systems in Melanesia. The challenge of the topic of indigenous governance is that there is both too much and too little already written on the subject. Issues of traditional leadership have long been a topic of research in Melanesia. There is a large literature on “chiefs”, “big men”, and the various forms of power characteristic of Melanesian communities. There is also a surfeit of writing on the problems of the state in the region, much of it concerned with problems of decentralization or strategies for connecting central government with local communities. What is missing are studies that focus on points of intersection between local cultural practices and state institutions. Despite a century of response and adaptation to state power, we know little about the ways customary practices actually articulate with government institutions. One of the ongoing puzzles in Solomon Islands, for example, is the fact that traditional leaders, “chiefs,” have been a topic of national interest and debate for decades with almost no real political reform that brings them into the machinery of government. The lack of accommodation in this area signals deeper problems in linking The contribution of AusAID to this series is acknowledged with appreciation. Discussion Paper 2007/5 State, Society and Governance in Melanesia THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY