Looking Forward to Hosting RedTide 2020

RedTide logo by Mark Gauti, T’Sou-ke Nation.

An essential part of PPP’s work is to provide spaces for peoples of the South Pacific and Indigenous peoples of Canada and their allies to convene, learn and exchange knowledge on matters of mutual concern. Over the years, we have hosted 23 Pacific Networking Conferences (PNC) on wide ranging themes of self-determination, reconciliation, and gender equality to name a few.

In May 2018 we helped coordinate the first ever PNC overseas in the beautiful territory of Te Whānau-A-Apanui, New Zealand alongside the host partner Toitoi Manawa Trust. Their vision was to hold an international summit for Indigenous peoples focusing on climate change. For two years prior to the event, a dedicated core committee and ever-expanding group of contributors and partners worked to realize this vision. Together we created RedTide: International Indigenous Climate Action Summit and Youth Conference. Check out the reflections from the coordinating partner Ora Barlow Tukaki of Toitoi Manawa Trust and this beautiful short film by Kl. Peruzzo and Erynne Gilpin that showcases the experience of participants.

Following on the success of RedTide 2018, PPP and our partners declared that we would host RedTide: International Indigenous Climate Action Summit and Youth Conference during the summer of 2020 here on Vancouver Island. We are thrilled to have the continued engagement of Pawa Haiyupis in this developing program. Pawa was an invaluable member of the original coordinating team that helped to design and develop RedTide 2018, and we are delighted that she will Chair the 2020 event which also marks PPP’s 45^th Anniversary and our 25^th PNC!

While it is still early in the planning for RedTide 2020, we will be seeking volunteers, partners, speakers, sponsors and contributors to help envision and realize this international gathering. Please send us your suggestions.

RedTide Youth Summit at Pahaoa Marae, Te Whānau-A-Apanui.

 

One Wave Gathering 2018 Continues!

Io’omalatai, a Jr. Champion Samoan fire knife Dancer, participated in the One Wave Gathering. Photo Heather Tufts

From September 1-15th 2018, Pacific Peoples’ Partnership (PPP) proudly presented the 11th annual One Wave Gathering, an international Pacific Indigenous arts cultural celebration. It was held with permission and engagement of Songhees and Esquimalt Nations on the traditional territory of the Lekwungen speaking peoples. Since 2008, One Wave has celebrated international Pacific community, arts and culture in Victoria, British Columbia. This gathering offers a unique opportunity for communities to meaningfully engage with local and international Indigenous artists, youth and culture, fostering an environment of solidarity and expression amongst Pacific peoples.

The 2018 One Wave Gathering spanned two weeks and was held in three venues, providing a host of free public programming that celebrated Pacific Indigenous arts and cultures through music, dance, film, digital art and community discourse.  See full details and acknowledgements here and the digital artwork tribute to the 2017 Longhouse project created by Austin Willis.

PPP was thrilled to have the Songhees Girls Youth Group volunteering at our One Wave Gathering in 2018.  The youth group ran our family fun activity centre, helped with set up and take down, and with a giveaway at the end of the day.  In return for their efforts, their group received a modest honorarium from PPP.  As an immediate legacy spinoff from their valuable participation, these amazing youth decided to use their funds to give back to those in need within the Victoria community during the winter season. Check out the story here.

In early 2019, we look forward to officially announcing two exciting legacy projects made possible through the 2018 One Wave Gathering. We also wish to invite potential volunteers and committee members interested in helping with One Wave Gathering 2019 to let us know at: director@archive.pacificpeoplespartnership.org.

 

The Songhees Girls Youth Group donated their One Wave $500 honorarium to helping Victoria’s people in need during the winter holiday season. Photo courtesy of CHEK TV News.

West Papua December 1, 2018 News Reports

Compiled by veteran PPP Volunteer, Andy Nystrom

 

In 2017, PPP representatives and New Zealand parliamentarians met Benny Wenda, a West Papua self-determination advocate and leader in exile.

 

On December 1, 1961, West Papuans first raised the Morning Star flag and received recognition of it as supplemental to the Netherlands flag from the Dutch authorities ruling that territory as Netherlands New Guinea at the time. Special ceremonies in many parts of the world take place on December 1 of each year to commemorate that first flag raising. However, the flying of the Morning Star is seen by authorities of Indonesia as advocating independence and challenging Indonesian sovereignty.

Here is a round-up of 2018 activities in Indonesia and elsewhere associated with the commemoration:

About 537 people were arrested across several cities in Indonesia before and after rallies due to violence and raising the Morning Star flag. At least seventeen people were injured including head wounds, largely from stones being thrown by counter-protestors. The arrests took place in Kupang in East Nusa Tenggara, Ternate in North Maluku, Manado in North Sulawesi, Makassar in South Sulawesi, Jayapura, Asmat and Waropen in Papua and Surabaya in East Java. In Papua there were ninety additional arrests, though all of those were released on Sunday; around eighty people were reportedly arrested in the Papuan provincial capitol of Jayapura.

There were about 300 demonstrators in Indonesia’s second largest city, Surabaya, on the island of Java, demanding a referendum for West Papua’s independence to mark December 1. Things were peaceful until protestors met resistance from around 200 counter-protestors, largely from the Communication Forum of Indonesian Veterans Children (FKPPI) and Pancasila Youth (PP). Some 233 Papuan students and one Australian woman were arrested in Surabaya (according to another source, 322 people were arrested in that city); the students were released without charges but the Australian woman has been handed over to immigration. She denies she was at the rally or in custody, claiming that the authorities are just keeping her safe.

The arrests have drawn criticism from human rights groups claiming that the arrests infringed on the West Papuans’ right to freedom of expression and assembly.

The Solomon Islands Prime Minister declared that his country will stay out of West Papua issues, considering the matter to be a domestic one. In contrast, West Papua’s Morning Star flag was raised in areas of New Zealand such as Canterbury and Takaparawha Bastion Point, an act that, in West Papua, could land someone in jail for up to 20 years. There were also demonstrations in Australia.

 

 

A West Papuan right to self-determination march carrying the illegal Morning Star Flag.

Sources:

Radio New Zealand: Hundreds arrested in Indonesia over West Papua demos.

Radio New Zealand: Solomons PM says his govt want nothing to do with West Papua.

Washington Post: West Papuans demand independence at Indonesia rally.

Stuff: Profile of West Papua gradually being raised.

Waatea News: Marae flies flag for West Papua independence.

The Jakarta Post: 537 Papuan arrested before and after Dec. 1 rallies in various cities.

Newsweek: Hundreds of People Have Been Arrested Just for Raising a Flag. Here’s Why.

Free Malaysia Today: Indonesia arrests pro-Papua activists.

Loop PNG: Mass arrests over West Papua demos in Indonesian cities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The “Two Canoes” Seminar: A Study in Perception

By Arthur Holbrook

 

Each seminar concludes with a traditional drumming circle in an indoor or outdoor setting. Credit: Ann Jacob

Based in British Columbia, the Fair Mining Collaborative, www.fairmining.ca, is an Indigenous organization providing “technical and practical assistance around the issues and impacts of mining in British Columbia.” The organization provides a number of services to aboriginal communities including mine analysis and monitoring, reviews of exploration and mine permits, and development of tools to improve community oversight of mining operations. The organization also provides, among other things, training, coordination with scientists and other experts, development of relationships between communities and mines as well as strategies for communities dealing with mining companies that are operating on their territories.

The Fair Mining Collaborative has recently introduced a seminar called “Two Canoes” https://www.fairmining.ca/two-canoes/ that focuses on helping non-aboriginal people to understand aboriginal rights and title to land in the context of mining claims. I attended this seminar in Victoria in October 2018. In the seminar, Glenn Grande, executive director of Fair Mining Collaborative, focuses on the differences between aboriginal and non-aboriginal perceptions of the land. Those differences begin with the original “colonial” legal perception that land is to be discovered and claimed while aboriginal peoples have always seen, and will continue to see, themselves as of the land.

Mr. Grande demonstrated the differences in perception with a series of comparisons. Aboriginal society emphasizes cooperation whereas European societies emphasize competition. Other comparisons include: group vs. individual, autonomy vs. control, sharing vs. individual ownership, generosity vs. saving, orientation to the present vs. focus on the future, and many other contrasts in perception between the two cultures … or “Two Canoes”, as it were.

The first half of the seminar was a presentation by Mr. Grande on the legal status of aboriginal rights and land title in Canada.  In the province of British Columbia most of the land is unceded territory meaning that the Indigenous people did not sign it away to the government or settlers.  Canadian common law sees this land as Crown land, meaning it is owned by the government, whereas most First Peoples do not share this perception. During the seminar, participants walked through history from ancient times to some of the recent Supreme Court of Canada court decisions regarding the land.  Important dates in that history include 1846 and the Oregon Treaty. In court, B.C. First Nations are generally required to prove that an activity existed prior to the date of the Oregon Treaty to be accepted in common law as an aboriginal right. In effect, this jurisprudence freezes aboriginal rights in time, by assuming no cultural development since that date could form the basis of a right.

Another significant date is 1876, the date of the passing of the federal Indian Act which is the last race-based legislation remaining in the western world. It was only in 1954 that Indians were recognized as persons in Canadian law.

During the seminar, we learned that a number of Supreme Court of Canada cases over the last fifty years have helped to define aboriginal rights and title.  The Calder case in 1973 was the first mention of “aboriginal title” to land. It was the precursor to today’s Nisga’a Final Agreement which has seen Nisga’a land removed from the B.C. land registry, thereby recognizing aboriginal rights on traditional Nisga’a territory within the Constitution of Canada and the Canadian Charter of Rights. The Delgamuukw decision of 1998 declared that aboriginal oral history/testimony would be recognized as evidence in court proceedings. The Haida decision of 2005 provided a “duty to consult” – a common law duty required when the Crown has real or perceived knowledge that an activity may infringe on an aboriginal right.  The Tsihlqot’in decision of 2014 granted title to ancestral lands to the Tsilhqot’in people. It was the first time ever in Canada that aboriginal title to land was formally recognized.

After Mr. Grande delivered this intense history lesson, he turned the proceedings over to Elder Fred John of the Xaxli’p First Nation to offer attendees at the seminar a fascinating glimpse into the practical application of the different perceptions of the world of aboriginal and “colonist” societies. Mr. John is a teacher and healer. He described how doctors, tutored in western medicine approach healing from the outside in while native people practice healing from the inside out. He has used his healing skills to help people where western medicine has failed, often despite the resistance of doctors. As part of the seminar, Mr. John led a smudge ceremony and drumming, offering participants a more active and spiritual entrance into the aboriginal world.

I felt it was important to take the seminar because, as a member of the PPP Board, I believe it is necessary to be aware of First Nations issues. I was not disappointed. The seminar was challenging to me as a white person. It was revealing to have my traditional white notions confronted as Mr. Grande and Mr. John recounted a version of Canadian history one does not find in schools or in our media. The seminar concluded with a traditional drumming circle in a park. At first, I felt quite self-conscious as people stopped to watch us but soon found myself enjoying the occasion as Mr. Grande welcomed others to join us. I recommend the Two Canoes seminar to anyone interested in aboriginal issues.

 

Glenn Grande is of European and Aboriginal (Cree) ancestry, presently living in Victoria, British Columbia. With a Juris Doctorate focusing on Aboriginal Law, inherent rights, and self-determination, he has designed two Fair Mine Collaborative training programs: First Rock: Mining Justice Basics and Two Canoes. He joined the PPP Board of Directors in November 2018. See his fuller biography elsewhere in this newsletter.

Arthur Holbrook has been on the PPP Board of Directors since December 2016. Now retired, Art traveled to the South Pacific as a filmmaker. He went to Papua New Guinea to film “Killer Whale and Crocodile,” the story of an exchange between the carving cultures of the Iatmul of PNG and the Coast Salish of Vancouver Island. The travel was organized by long term PPP board member Elaine Monds. Art also went to Vanuatu to film a moving “sorry ceremony” between the people of the island of Erromango and the descendants of John Williams, a missionary who was killed when he attempted to step ashore on the island. In the past, Art has worked with Inuit Communications on several films in the Arctic and for Indian and Northern Affairs on modern self-government initiatives by several First Nations.

 

 

In 1988, the Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives became the first Senate approved research centre at the University of Victoria (UVic). Recognizing the importance of the Asia-Pacific region to Canada, the concept of a centre focusing on Asia-Pacific issues was given financial support by the Dorothy and David Lam Foundation, the Federal Secretary of State and the Provincial Government of British Columbia. Since its inception, the Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives (CAPI) https://www.uvic.ca/research/centres/capi/ has acted as a vital link between the university and the Asia-Pacific region, providing programming and research initiatives that have brought together scholars from the Asia-Pacific region with those from UVic. Three decades later, the Asia-Pacific region not only continues to be of importance to Canada, but it has grown substantially in its significance.

PPP and CAPI have a history of collaboration since 1992. This has included the exploration of Pacific knowledge through conferences, lectures, publications, policy and proposal development, and special events. Together we have raised CAPI’s and PPP’s respective profiles, benefiting each organization’s capacities and knowledge base.

Many of PPP’s Pacific Networking Conferences have been in partnership with CAPI, taking place on UVic’s campus. Past examples include: Pacific Wayfinders – Celebrating Indigenous Knowledge Leadership (2010); Peace Development in the Solomon Islands – What role for Canada? (2004); Pan Pacific Perspectives on Governance (2002).

“Pacific Peoples’ Partnership is the sole Canadian nonprofit organization working in solidarity with Indigenous peoples across the Pacific regions,” points out PPP Executive Director, April Ingham. “We are in a unique position to partner with CAPI to meet the growing interest in Oceania on campus while cultivating a vibrant university civil society partnership. The partnership stimulates the production and exchange of knowledge pertaining to the Pacific, bringing increased awareness and understanding to the complex socio economic, political, cultural, and ecological realities of the region.”

In 2019 CAPI is offering thirteen funded internship opportunities for UVic students to work with partner organizations in India, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, and South Africa. These internships represent a unique opportunity for work-integrated learning, experiential learning, the development of cross-cultural understanding and communication skills, and first-hand experience of grassroots community engagement, advocacy and activism in the global south.

Book Review: Everyday Acts of Resurgence (edited by Jeff Corntassel)

by Rachel Levee

Everyday Acts of Resurgence, published by Daykeeper Press (2018), is an impressive, accessible volume of short works exploring diverse perspectives on the ways in which the seemingly mundane and ubiquitous elements of daily life can be sites of Indigenous resistance and Indigenous cultural resurgence. The edited volume of works, collected under the three themes of “People,” “Places,” and “Practices,” brings together visual art, poetry, narrative, essays and speeches from authors, activists, artists and academics of Indigenous heritage and / or those deeply connected to Indigenous perspectives.

Approachable and intriguing, the varied works each bring their own flavour to this curated volume. What perhaps is most important about this volume is the complementarity of the pieces. While each piece does not reinforce the perspective of the other, each serves to buttress the meaning of the whole: that in the smallest moments, the smallest gestures, we can actively participate in resistance and resurgence. Of course, the opposite is true as well: a number of the pieces briefly discuss how easily our (in)actions uphold and strengthen the colonial project – but this topic is explored extensively in other volumes and is not dissected here. Rather, instead, we see how little moments can make big change.

For me, a mother of a young son, many of the pieces’ explorations of how parenthood as a space of resurgence struck a chord. It can perhaps seem trite to say that children are, of course, the future. What more likely space for resurgence? But the onus to bring about this resurgence isn’t on the little future-makers themselves, but rather on how we parent. It’s about parenting “in a good way”, as Mick Scow explains in his essay “Relentlessly Coastal: Parenting, Research and Everyday Resurgence”: “our relationships depend on the presence of love,” But this, too, is in balance with reality. Jeff Corntassel, in his piece “Renewal,” beautifully strikes a note of empathy and reality when he states that “When speaking of everydayness, we should be careful not to romanticize these actions. They are often thankless. Anyone who raises children knows that the daily realities of parenting can be exhausting and frustrating at times.”

Some works, like DIBIKGEEZHIGOKWE’s piece “Embers of Micro-aggression,” actively challenge and deliberately provoke through an airing of longstanding frustration. It is an essential, stunning piece in a collection that can feel somewhat conciliatory at times – not too unsettling for the settler-background readers – and lends a delicious gut punch just when the timing is right. The piece was wonderfully unsettling for me (in the figurative and literal sense). The short narrative reminds us that safe spaces to shout (or whisper) in rage – and be respected – are essential to the decolonization process.

While I lack the space in this short review to explain just what each piece meant to me, I’ll end with sharing how much Noenoe K. Silva’s essay “Recovering Place Names from Hawaiian Literatures” resonated with a growing shift in colonial / government perspective here in British Columbia. Silva’s essay discusses the revitalization and collection of Hawaiian place names as an anti-colonial project. Living in British Columbia for more than a decade, I’ve had the privilege of watching elements of the colonial slip away as highways, rivers, waterfalls, streets and parks lose the name given to them by settlers, and Indigenous names re-emerge. While it is an ongoing project, Silva’s essay is a reminder of how intrinsically the resurgence of Indigenous cultures across the globe are interrelated, and how all these efforts reinforce one another.

It is through innovative and engaging works like Everyday Acts of Resurgence that broader audiences can learn more about global Indigenous realities and how they, as Indigenous peoples, scholars, artists, or persons of any background, can actively participate in challenging the colonial project and in supporting the re-emergence of Indigenous worldviews. This book doesn’t seek to avoid reality but rather to celebrate it and show how we all can be agents of change in the everyday.

Everyday Acts of Resurgence is available online at the University of Victoria Bookstore, in person at the University of Victoria Bookstore (3800 Finnerty Rd, Victoria, BC) and online at Amazon.ca.

 

Rachel Levee, of mixed European settler and Jewish descent, is the Vice President of the Board of Peoples’ Pacific Partnership (PPP). Originally from Montreal, and a guest on Lekwungen territory for over two years, Rachel is grateful for the opportunity to engage with and learn from Indigenous and Pacific Islander world views in her work with PPP.

Jeff Corntassel is a new member of the Board of Pacific Peoples’ Partnership, and is a writer, teacher and father from the Tsalagi (Cherokee) Nation. He is currently Associate Professor and Director of Indigenous Governance at the University of Victoria, located on the unceded ancestral homelands of the Lekwugen and Wsanec peoples.

 

 

David Williams

David is descended from the South Pacific missionary and adventurer, John Williams (great, great grandfather) on his paternal grandfather’s side, and from Staat’imc (Lillooet) Chief Joseph on his paternal grandmother’s side (coyote clan). His roots go deep into what is now British Columbia, and also into the South Pacific Archipelago.

Working extensively to support and promote reconciliation for over 25 years, he is deeply committed to reconciliation in Canada, and is profoundly aware of the obligations imposed by settler privilege. With an honours degree in anthropology and an advanced degree in library science, David’s experience as a farmer, deep ocean seaman, fisher, hunter, engineer and advisor to conservation biologists brings a wealth of expertise to PPP.

David has been instrumental in conservation science and ethno-ecology. In 2010 he established RAVEN (Respecting Aboriginal Values and Environmental Needs), and served as its president for five years. He has worked to advance the interests of the Tsilhqot’in community, assisting in the successful Roger Williams rights and title case, and in creating the ?Elegsi Qayus Wild Horse Preserve. His work was instrumental in preventing federal approval of the New Prosperity Mine.

 

Glenn Grande

Glenn is of European and Aboriginal (Cree) ancestry.  Grandson of Louis A. Romanet (“Kabluk of the Eskimo”) and resident of Victoria, BC, Glenn has a Juris Doctorate from the Peter A. Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia, with a focus on Aboriginal Law, inherent rights, and self-determination. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree through Thompson Rivers University and a Bachelor of Education degree from Vancouver Island University.

Glenn is Executive Director of Fair Mining Collaborative, www.fairmining.ca, an organization that provides technical and practical assistance around the issues and impacts of mining on First Nations people and local communities in British Columbia. He has designed training programs: First Rock: Mining Justice Basics, and Two Canoes. 

When growing up in the heart of Alberta’s “coal branch” between Edmonton and Jasper, Glenn watched the land around him expropriated and literally devoured for the mining of coal, then “reclaimed”. Through this firsthand experience, he learned the lessons of mining’s destructive power, our enabling dependency, and its irrevocable blight on the land. Glenn also volunteered on the board of the Vancouver Aboriginal Community Policing Center and served as a soldier in the Canadian armed forces. He is a certified teacher, having taught all grade levels.

 

Dr. Jeff Corntassel 

As a member of the Tsalagi Cherokee Nation, Jeff was the first to represent the Cherokee Nation as a delegate to the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Peoples. He strives to honor his family and nation as a teacher, activist, and scholar. Jeff received his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 1998. He is currently an Associate Professor and Graduate Advisor in the School of Indigenous Studies and an Acting Program Director for the CIRCLE (Centre for Indigenous Research and Community-Led Engagement) at the University of Victoria, which is located on Lekwungen and Wsanec homelands.

Jeff has been a valued partner of PPP since 2014, and helped us to produce two conferences and many events including a 2015 Pacific Networking Conference, RedTide: International Indigenous Climate Action Summit and Youth Conference in 2018 and event components of PPP’s One Wave Gathering among other initiatives.

 

Jessica Rutherford

Jessica is a Physical Scientist at Geological Survey of Canada, Institute of Ocean Science. She has a Masters of Science (Marine Environmental Science Murdoch University, Perth, WA), a Bachelors of Environmental Science from Royal Roads University as well as an Advanced Diploma in Sports Therapies and Natural Medicine and Bachelors degree in Biological Science. She has lived and worked in Canada, Australia and the Solomon Islands.

Jessica spends much of her time at sea working in remote and resource poor areas. She supports government to develop community sustainable fishing practices, and assists nationally and internationally in hazard research and rapid assessment response. Two examples of the important work she is doing include:

1) Honours Team Project: Canadian Alternative Energy Information Package: Q&A publication for the United Nations Energy Production Committee written on behalf of Geological Survey of Canada, addressing environmental, social and economic impacts related to the research and development of gas hydrate production in the Canadian Arctic.

2) Comprehensive Project Report: Sustainability and emergency response strategies, resources management, mitigation and adaptation protocols for managing marine resources, floods, spills and environmental disasters for western Canadian coastal communities.

 

On November 15, 2018, PPP members and friends gathered at Blue Heron House on Victoria’s Royal Roads University campus for the organization’s AGM.

 

People and Passages:

Retiring Board members: PPP wishes to specially recognize Board members that retired this past AGM in November 2018. We are ever grateful for the support of Eugene Lee who served the past ten years as President and Past President; to Ruth Markowsky who gave passionately for her one-year term; and to Alison and Peter Gardner who have provided countless hours of support to PPP as Volunteers, Board members and Donors for nearly three decades!

Passing: PPP was deeply saddened by the death of PPP’s long-time champion Douglas Monds who supported our work in various ways for the last three decades. We also acknowledge the untimely death of T’Sou-ke Nation Elder Linda Bristol who provided invaluable support and guidance to our staff.

Early in 2018 our President Muavae (Mua) Va’a had the opportunity to meet with staff from the Samoa Social Welfare Fesoasoani Trust (SSWEFT) while he was visiting the country.  From this a friendship has blossomed between Pacific Peoples’ Partnership (PPP) and this important social service organization.

Based in Samoa, SSWEFT (www.facebook.com/ssweft) is a non-governmental organization established in 2015. Its main focus is on assisting offenders and members of the community not only in court cases but also in counselling, immigration matters and providing legal advice.  

Their project “THERE IS HOPE” offers counselling for offenders to increase self-esteem.  This program engages with males and females who have been sentenced by the court or are awaiting sentencing for their crimes through workshops and other services.  The main clientele is youth between the ages of 15 to 25 who are involved in crimes, plus charged and sentenced by the court. SSWEFT offers a holistic program for offenders especially youth who have experienced the harsh justice and correctional systems, so they can emerge as responsible, rehabilitated young adults who can contribute positively to the welfare of Samoa.

SSWEFT also does early intervention outreach programs to discourage youth from breaking the law in the first place. Juveniles released on parole are now offered programs to assist with education and pathways to employment. Most SSWEFT staff are volunteers and they are always looking for resources to sustain their projects and programs.

“It’s not easy to reintegrate any offender as they are looked at as outcasts but we try our best to find ways that these offenders could be accepted back into their communities,” says LeaulaTheresa Asiata, SSWEFT Chief Executive Officer. “We also work together with youth who are involved with alcohol and drugs.  Our message to these offenders is that ‘There is always Hope’ for each and every one of them.”

Early in 2018 at SSWEFT’s request, PPP sent a letter to the Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi requesting support for a delegation to attend a major international conference in which PPP was a partner, that is, RedTide in New Zealand. [See the December 2018 issue of our e-newsletter for a full report on the Red Tide Conference.]  This was especially timely as Cyclone Gita had just blown through their country leaving much destruction in its path. To our amazement, the Prime Minister provided the support required for the delegation to attend, and from this experience participants conceived of a new program for offenders whereby they become active in civic defense. Offenders will now be trained as responders to climate change that is affecting their homeland.

PPP continues to stay in touch with SSWEFT and was pleased to send a modest donation raised at the Pearls of the South Pacific luau fundraiser in Victoria to assist them with their HOPE project. We look forward to building our relationship with this dedicated team.

Flowers in the Wall: Truth and Reconciliation in Timor-Leste, Indonesia, and Melanesia

What is the experience of truth and reconciliation? What is the purpose of a truth commission? What lessons can be learned from established truth and reconciliation processes?  

Click to access downloadable pdf version https://press.ucalgary.ca/books/9781552389546

 

Flowers in the Wall explores the experience of truth and reconciliation in Timor-Leste, Indonesia, and the Solomon Islands. It examines the pre- and post-truth commission phases, providing a diversity of interconnected scholarship. Well-researched and balanced, this book examines the effectiveness of the truth commission in transnational justice. It offers valuable lessons to Canadians and all others trying to attain the goal of truth and reconciliation.

As those will know who have participated in it, this process is complex and ongoing. Although the operational phases of truth commissions have been well examined, the efforts to establish these commissions and the struggle to put their recommendations into effect are often overlooked.

In part, this book is an outcome of a program in which Pacific People’s Partnership (PPP) was involved in 2015: “Memory, Truth and Reconciliation, a collaborative research project and workshop on truth and reconciliation in East Timor and West Papua,” https://memorytruthreconciliation.wordpress.com/.  It was held in Canada’s capital city, Ottawa, and reported on in PPP’s 40th Anniversary Tok Blong Pasifik issue in 2015.  Dr David Webster secured the funding via university sources that brought to this event PPP Executive Director, April Ingham, and Betty Gigisi, a peacekeeper in Solomon Islands during and after that country’s Civil War.

Inspired by her participation in the landmark Ottawa event, April Ingham shared: “PPP was founded in Canada in 1975 in response to nuclear testing in the South Pacific.  We successfully contributed to international solidarity movements to stop the testing, and have been actively rooted within human rights, social and ecological justice work ever since.  Our past campaigns and initiatives included support for peacekeeping and the truth and reconciliation processes within East Timor and Solomon Islands, and for three decades we have maintained a special focus on the human rights atrocities against the Melanesian peoples of West Papua, Indonesia.  Central to our work is connecting Indigenous peoples across the Pacific for knowledge sharing and solidarity building. We actively engaged in Canada’s TRC processes and are working on several TRC recommendations in support of our Indigenous peoples and allies.”

She goes on to say, “PPP believes in the power of partnerships, the importance of nation to nation relations and in our shared learning for the betterment of all.  So we are thrilled to see the realization of Flowers in the Wall.  It offers important reflections and learnings about the opportunities such pathways present to people who continue to suffer injustice, such as those still battling the darkness like our Melanesian brothers and sisters in West Papua, Indonesia.  It serves as an invaluable accompaniment to the essential work of building peace.”

David Webster teaches international and Asian history at Bishop’s University in Canada’s province of Quebec. His academic interest is 20th century history. He is the author of Fire and the Full Moon: Canada and Indonesia in a Decolonizing World, and a collection editor of East Timor: Testimony.

“There is a role for historical research and memory in helping to build sustainable peace and stability in new nations,” he declares. “On the other hand, ignoring violent pasts undermines peace building efforts.

“In the wake of conflict and crimes against humanity, more and more countries are forming a truth and reconciliation commission (TRC). A tool developed for use in less developed countries emerging from conflicts, it has also been applied in Canada which is the only Western developed country to have held a full truth commission around the legacy of residential schools for indigenous people. Truth knows no borders. Increasingly, neither do truth commissions,” Dr Webster concludes.

 

By Dr James A. Boutilier, President Emeritus, PPP

 

More than thirty years ago, in October 1985, the defence communities in Washington, Wellington, and Canberra were rocked by the news that the newly independent Republic of Kiribati had entered into a year-long fisheries agreement with the Soviet Union. It was the depth of the Cold War and it looked as if Moscow had just stolen a march on the western allies in the South Pacific. For its part, Kiribati, bereft of revenue from the recently exhausted phosphate mines on the island of Banaba and challenged by the predatory operations of American Tunaboat Association vessels, had pulled off a masterstroke. Although a micro-state in terms of land area, Kiribati was a giant in the oceanic realm; skillfully parlaying its abundant maritime resources to gain leverage – direct or indirect – with the great powers. From the Russians, the islanders obtained assured revenue; from the Americans, New Zealanders and Australians, renewed geostrategic attention.

The same dynamics occur today. The only major difference is that we are now dealing with a far more powerful, ambitious, and globally-engaged player: China. The meteoric rise of China was, arguably, one of the most important global developments in the last quarter of the 20th century. In the process, Beijing embarked on two unprecedented initiatives: it built an ocean-going navy that is, quantitatively, larger than the United States Navy and it embarked on the so-called Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The BRI is a pharaonic tribute to the power and vision of Xi Jinping, the president of the People’s Republic of China. It envisages two grand commercial arteries, one linking China with Europe across the Indian Ocean and the other linking China with Europe across the heartland of Eurasia. Never before have the Chinese sought to export their influence beyond the Middle Kingdom in this way.

The Chinese leadership has elaborated on the BRI construct since it was first articulated in 2013. They now call for an Arctic ‘Silk Road’ and over the past half-decade they have spoken about a spur line that will extend from Southeast Asia into Oceania. They have already perceived the geostrategic advantages that have accrued to the United States from its privileged relationship with the island polities of Micronesia, a relationship that facilitates an American naval presence in the approaches to the Chinese coast. Why not, Beijing argues, alter the geostrategic balance in the approaches to critical US allies like Australia and New Zealand by targeted development assistance to island states lying across the South Pacific?

Beijing has been extraordinarily adept at exploiting the presence of overseas Chinese communities as a point of entry into these and other societies. In the oceanic context, there were already small Chinese communities, dating back to the colonial era, in key states like Tonga, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea. Regrettably, these communities have been the subject of racist pogroms over the years. More than 25 percent of the Chinese stores in Nuku’alofa, the capital of Tonga, for example, were looted or burned during riots that swept the town in 2006. Similarly, much of the old China Town in Honiara, in the Solomon Islands, was destroyed some years earlier.

Whatever the case, the presence of Chinese citizens legitimized overtures from Beijing and if we look at Fiji over the past decade, when relations between Suva, Wellington, and Canberra were at their worst, we see that the Fijian President, Frank Banimarama, was more than happy, like his Kiribati forerunner, to turn not only to the Russians, but to the Chinese. The Chinese, of course, recognize a good thing when they see it. Small amounts of money, strategically positioned, secure disproportionate amounts of influence, particularly in micro-states. In Beijing’s defence, of course, China as an emerging great power, is doing what all great powers do. However, there has been a good deal of angst about China’s endgame recently. Serious questions have been raised around the world about the economic viability of the BRI, about the potential for BRI loans to become debt traps for recipient states (the inability of Sri Lanka to pay off its loan to China for the development of the port of Hambantota is frequently cited as an example), the theft of intellectual property by Chinese corporations, Chinese espionage activities, Chinese “United Front” activities overseas to influence local opinion and politics, and China’s long-term strategic goals.

Thus, when word reached Canberra early in 2018 that the Chinese were eager to build a port in Vanuatu which could be utilized by the Chinese navy, alarm bells went off in western chancelleries. As it happened, both the Ni-Vanuatu and Chinese authorities denied the suggestion resolutely but Winston Peters, the Deputy Premier of New Zealand, spoke out (interestingly enough at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, rather than in Wellington) about the fact that Oceania was now becoming a contested space. Several months later, the Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, warned Beijing not to consider building any military facilities in the Pacific Islands and the Australian government moved to undercut a Chinese bid to lay communications cables from the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea to Australia. Indeed, there has been considerable concern in western capitals that Chinese communication firms like Huawei are effectively arms of the Chinese intelligence system and that the utilization of Chinese equipment could compromise western security.

It is important to note that, while Beijing is seeking access to raw materials and markets as well as strategic advantage, the Chinese are playing a parallel game; eroding diplomatic support for Taiwan. Six of the seventeen states that support Taiwan are Pacific Island nations: Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, the Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu. Taiwan is the tenth largest donor in Oceania although there is a critical difference between Taipei and Beijing. While Taipei only gives grants, Beijing gives grants and concessional loans. Loans are where the trouble lies. In the Sri Lankan case, the government’s inability to repay a Chinese loan obliged it to deed the port of Hambantota to Beijing for 99 years.

 

In the case of Palau, the penalty came in a different form. When Palau hosted the Taiwanese President, Tsai Ing-wen, in 2018, the Chinese set out to punish Palau by cutting off the flow of Chinese tourists. As one news source opined, China had weaponized tourism. There was nothing new in this approach. In 2017, when South Korea sought to protect itself from North Korean attack by installing missile defences, China (alleging that the radar associated with that defence system compromised Chinese security) cut off the flow of tourists to South Korea, thereby inflicting billions of dollars of losses on the republic’s economy. The same has been true in Palau where almost half of the annual influx of 122,000 tourists come from the People’s Republic of China.

These sorts of punitive strategies are frequently counter-productive and the scope and tone of Chinese activities in Oceania have resulted in renewed commitments by Australia and New Zealand to the Pacific Islands in the run-up to the Pacific Islands Forum meeting in September in Nauru. Australia is already the biggest donor in the region although much of that support is earmarked for Papua New Guinea. The Chinese have continued with their grants and loans programme, buttressed by the recent goodwill visit of the Chinese hospital ship, Peace Ark, to Vanuatu, Fiji, and Tonga. The vessel had visited Nuku’alofa in 2014 but this visit coincided with an interesting and murky episode in which the Tongan Prime Minister, Akalisi Pohiva, suggested that Beijing forgive the loans that China had made to Pacific Island nations. Almost immediately, Pohiva reversed himself, whether as a result of pressure from China or Samoa’s prime minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, the outgoing chair of the Pacific Islands Forum, is hard to say. Whatever the case, the Tongan proposal highlighted, once again, the concern of small, third world states in the Indian and Pacific Ocean areas that deep indebtedness is a significant possibility when taking receipt of foreign loans.

What we can see is history repeating itself, more or less. Kiribati’s overtures to the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s enhanced its budgetary prospects but alarmed the metropolitan capitals concerned about the strategic implications of Soviet activities in the heart of Oceania. Similarly, Chinese activities in Oceania in the opening decades of this century, sharpened by an increasingly pessimistic assessment of China’s global ambitions, have resulted in new aid and security initiatives issuing from Canberra and Wellington. The problem evaporated in the 1980s when the Soviet Union collapse ignominiously. In the 21st century, however, the challenge is likely to grow as China seeks to exert its newfound wealth, authority, and military power around the globe.

 

 

Postscript

Just as this article was being drafted, the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) was taking place in Nauru. The PIF was, in many ways, a perfect metaphor for Pacific Islands’ dynamics. The host nation, Nauru, enjoys diplomatic relations with Taiwan and the Nauruan authorities reportedly refused to allow the Chinese delegates to enter the country on their official passports. At the same time, concern about the extent of Chinese activity in Oceania ensured a fairly high level of diplomatic representation from the United States and Australia. Ironically, neither of these governments is enthusiastic about climate change initiatives, something which is of crucial importance to Pacific Island nations. In fact, five years ago, Christopher Loeak, the president of the Marshall Islands, noted that “the Pacific [was] fighting for its survival.” He spoke just after a freak tide had inundated the capital, Majuro, and flooded the airport runway.

The PIF proceedings were marred by a diplomatic contretemps in which the Nauruan president, Baron Waga, refused to allow a Chinese delegate to speak out of sequence and the delegate stormed out of the room (in a building constructed with Taiwanese aid money!) The Nauruans were offended by what they considered to be the bullying and arrogant behaviour of the Chinese delegate and alleged that they would seek a formal apology from the People’s Republic. In the interval, the newly-appointed Australian Foreign Minister, Senator Marise Payne, (barely a week in office after a change of prime ministers in Canberra) broke with her party in promising climate change support for the islands and the US government issued a statement enumerating the array of initiatives undertaken by American agencies in Oceania. For more on this story, see Taiwan News, 7 September 2018, https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3524503.

 

September 2018 articles with fast-breaking news around this theme:

“Tides of change in the South Pacific,” 8 September 2018, East Asia Forum, http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2018/09/08/tides-of-change-in-the-south-pacific/

“… Increasing Chinese activity across the region is well documented. Beijing has usurped the United States as the region’s second largest aid donor and is funding projects across the South Pacific. Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has said that Fiji’s cooperation with China ‘reminds [Canberra] that countries like Fiji have options’.”

 

“ADB ramps up Pacific presence as aid donors jostle for influence,” 17 September 2018, Reuters Business News, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pacific-debt-adb/adb-ramps-up-pacific-presence-as-aid-donors-jostle-for-influence-idUSKCN1LY09Z

“… The Asian Development Bank said on Tuesday it is expanding its presence in the Pacific islands, at a time of competition for influence there, opening seven new country offices and expecting its loans and grants in the region to top $4 billion by 2020.”

 

“Chinese Tourists Are Beijing’s Newest Economic Weapon,” 26 September 2018, Foreign Policy Magazine,

https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/09/26/chinese-tourists-are-beijings-newest-economic-weapon/

“… Due to its unique ability to control outbound tourists, China can use tourism as a tool of pressure, giving it a new form of soft power never seen before on the global stage. And the country is beginning to use it. Last year, it was directed at South Korea. Today, the target is tiny Palau due to its ongoing diplomatic recognition of Taiwan. Tomorrow, it could be Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, or any country that gets into a geopolitical spat with China.” 

 

“U.S. to counter Chinese internet bid in Papua New Guinea: diplomat,” 27 September 2018, Reuters World News, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pacific-debt-huawei-tech/u-s-to-counter-chinese-internet-bid-in-papua-new-guinea-diplomat-idUSKCN1M800X

“… The United States is working on a counter-offer to stop Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd from building internet infrastructure in Papua New Guinea (PNG), its top diplomat to Australia said on Friday.

“The bid comes two years after Huawei first agreed to build a network there, and as the United States and its allies mount a vigorous campaign to check China’s rising influence in the region by deepening their own diplomatic ties and boosting aid.”

 

“Questions over huge Chinese funded PNG power project,” 28 September 2018, Radio New Zealand, https://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/367475/questions-over-huge-chinese-funded-png-power-project

“… China is said to be pressuring Papua New Guinea to sign a huge hydro electricity deal before the APEC summit in November. … The project is linked to Beijing’s signature Belt and Road Initiative through the Shenzhen Energy Group, which would finance, build and operate the plant for its first 25 years.”