Inter‐island relations in Oceania's archipelagos: Identity and everyday politics

Oceania includes sovereign states as well as overseas territories of metropolitan powers. In both cases, contemporary geopolitical borders are legacies of colonialism. As in many (de)colonised places, materialisations of spatially anchored social imaginaries and practices of self and otherness, play...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Asia Pacific viewpoint 2021-08, Vol.62 (2), p.223-241
Main Authors:	Prinsen, Gerard, Mawyer, Alexander, Cholymay, Margarita, Lotti, Allison, Manuireva, Ena, Muir, Helen
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Archipelagoes Borders Colonialism Colonies & territories Community Geopolitics Humanities and Social Sciences Identity politics Islands Library and information sciences Local politics Otherness Pohnpei‐Chuuk Politics Rarotonga‐Manihiki Regions Secession separatism Social Anthropology and ethnology State Tahiti‐Mangareva Territory Wallis‐Futuna
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Summary:	Oceania includes sovereign states as well as overseas territories of metropolitan powers. In both cases, contemporary geopolitical borders are legacies of colonialism. As in many (de)colonised places, materialisations of spatially anchored social imaginaries and practices of self and otherness, play a role in the everyday politics of Oceania's communities and states. Notably, cultural intimacies (Herzfeld, 2016) in this region are also shaped by tensions between islands in an archipelagic unit. Characterised by plural identities, Oceania's communities must navigate solidarities within the colonial borders of unitary sovereign states or non‐sovereign island territories. Given this context, we ask whether spatially anchored identities within archipelagic contexts are politically engaged, playing a role in the politics of state (dis)cohesion across the region. This paper presents findings from 73 interviews across four pairs of Pacific islands – Wallis‐Futuna, Tahiti‐Mangareva, Rarotonga‐Manihiki, Pohnpei‐Chuuk – exploring how communities define their own identities and the identity of those on ‘the other island’. We find both sides in agreement on six complementary and rather respectful identities. We therefore suggest that while political tensions and calls for secession in archipelagos are real, it is unlikely that identity politics at this point in time inflames political break ups.
ISSN:	1360-7456 1467-8373