Pacific Perspectives on the World: Listening to Australia’s Island Neighbours in Order to Build Strong, Respectful and Sustainable Relationships

Peacifica, Tess Newton Cain, Geir Henning Presterudstuen

Research output: Book/Research ReportResearch report

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Abstract

After a long absence, the world has rediscovered the Pacific. Following this escalation of international interest in the Pacific over the last decade, the region finds itself the subject of as many as a dozen new international initiatives, most notably China’s Belt and Road initiative, Australia’s Pacific Step-up and the broader Indo-Pacific geostrategic phenomenon. As these initiatives have proliferated, the Pacific peoples themselves have reclaimed their own voices, heard most prominently in the world’s global climate discourse and in the region’s own Blue Pacific initiative. But there is a way to go before the region’s own voice has equal weight. Australia’s Pacific Step-up, while welcome, shares with its international counterparts this weakness: though well-intentioned, it has been conceived as an external initiative. The Whitlam Institute is concerned that Australia’s past and emerging engagement in the region pays insufficient attention to Pacific perspectives – not only official positions but also the voices of ordinary people from across the region. The Institute engaged Peacifica to contribute to filling this gap, to learn from a cross-section of Pacific islanders about their perspectives on the world and their place in it and how other countries (notably Australia) can best contribute to their future. This report, and the field interviews and conversations that support it, are the first stage in a dialogue that the Institute and Peacifica hope will continue as a constructive contribution to the well-being of all Pacific people and to the promotion of a secure and prosperous region. We want to see an enhanced and comprehensive Australian foreign policy engagement that can better position Australia as a member of the Pacific community. The research was conducted in Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, three countries with which Australia has deep historical, social and economic connections. Its findings relate specifically to those places, but due to the methodologies employed, some can be inferred with confidence to apply more widely given their prominence across the research sites and broader discourses in the region. We will be taking the findings back to the region to explore these questions further. The research team, comprising Australian and Pacific island researchers, spent time in the three countries in September and October 2019. Around 150 people from diverse backgrounds participated through a series of focus groups and key informant interviews, followed by expert seminars in November, in Canberra and Suva, at which initial findings were presented and discussed. Critical to these conversations was the freedom given to participants themselves to identify what was important. The few questions asked by the researchers invited participants to reflect on their hopes for their future and what roles their own governments and people, as well as external ones had to play to realise that future. The team did not ask about climate change, labour migration or aid – all issues came from the participants themselves. From this the research team, led by Dr Tess Newton Cain, identified the key themes and recommendations that emerged from the data.
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationRydalmere, N.S.W.
PublisherWhitlam Institute within Western Sydney University
Number of pages39
ISBN (Print)9781741085044
Publication statusPublished - 2020

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