Decolonising methodologies: Emergent learning in island research

This article documents an attempt to decolonise our approach to methodology to explicitly show respect for islands and their islanders. Our twin starting points are an awareness of a turn to the Anthropocene in studies related to islands and an appreciation of the imperative to think outside colonial frames. The Anthropocene has been conceived as both an enduring colonising force and a significant moment in decolonisation, and islands have been viewed as emblematic of the Anthropocene, so the relationship between them is complex. These dynamic conceptions raise dilemmas for those wanting to apply methodologies to island research and negotiate ethical relations across multiple geographies and knowledge systems. For those whose cultures have been subjected to colonial oppressions, there are emotional and material costs and varied risks in participating in attempts to decolonise island research. Settler researchers seeking to ally themselves with others to advance such agendas and aspirations may slow or damage decolonising practices if they act without appropriate permissions, respectful commitments to support and understand decolonisation, and preparedness to engage in deep learning about what decolonisation of knowledge means. With these challenges in mind, we detail an approach to decolonising one of our own island research projects in ways that are enriched by a Tuvaluan concept, Fale Pili, which means treating a neighbour’s problems as your own.     

Book reviews

J. D. Legge. Intellectuals and nationalism in Indonesia: a study of the following recruited by Sutan Sjahrir in Occupation Jakarta, ix, 159 pp. Ithaca, N. Y: Cornell Modern Indonesia Project, Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 1988. (Publication 68 (Monograph Series).)

Mavis Rose. Indonesia free: a political biography of Mohammad Hatta. viii, 245 pp., 10 plates. Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell Modern Indonesia Project, Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 1987. (Publication 67 (Monograph Series).)

Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal‐, Land‐ en Volkenkunde. Documentation Centre for Modern Indonesia. Directory of West European Indonesianists, 1987. xiii, 313 pp. Dordrecht: Foris Publications, 1987. Guilders 35.

Werner Röll and Albert Leemann. Agrarprobleme auf Lombok: Untersuchungen zur Wirtschafts‐ und Sozialstruktur in Nusa Tenggara Barat, Indonesien. ix, 300 pp., plate, map. Hamburg: Institut für Asienkunde, [^C1987].     

Holistic Policymaking: "Neo-Liberalism" as Illustrated by the Women's and Disability Rights Movements

The past several decades have seen the rise of two movements, the disability rights movement and the women's movement, with parallel concerns, histories, organizational issues, and other attributes. This article examines the philosophies of the two movements and their significance for the policymaking process. For example, both have struggled with the issues of difference versus equality in determining public policy; both stress the importance of considering problems to reside not in personal characteristics but in interactions with the environment. The article traces these and other similarities in ways of looking at policy problems between the women's movement and the disability movement, examines how these similarities reveal a fundamentally different view of policymaking, compares this philosophy with basic tenets of the Clinton administration, as expressed by key policymakers, and discusses what policy would look like if these changes occurred.     

Book reviews

Jeremy H. C. S. Davidson and Helen Cordell (ed.). The short story in South East Asia: aspects of a genre. xii, 270 pp. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1982. (Collected Papers in Oriental and African Studies.) £5.

R. Z. Leirissa, and others (ed.). Maluku Tengah di masa lampau. Gambaran sekilas lewat arsip abad sembilan belas. [Edited by] R. Z. Leirissa, Z. J. Manusama, A. B. Lapian, Paramita R. Abdurachman, xiv, 281 pp. Jakarta: Arsip Nasional Republik Indonesia, 1982. (Penerbitan Sumber‐Sumber Sejarah, 13).

Gregory L. Forth. Rindi: an ethnographic study of a traditional domain in eastern Sumba. xvi, 519 pp., 8 plates. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1981. (Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal‐, Land‐ en Volken‐kunde, 93). Guilders 145.

Jilis A. J. Verheijen. Komodo: het eiland, het volk en de taal. xiv, 265 pp., map. The Hague: Martinus Nojhoff, 1982. (Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal‐, Land‐ en Volkenkunde, 96.)     

The legacy of communism: difficult histories,emotions and contested narratives

Abstract

This paper considers contested and traumatic narratives, using a case study of the planned National Museum of Romanian Communism and the site of Jilava Penitentiary, a former communist prison, near Bucharest in Romania. It discusses what happened when representatives from different groups of former victims and perpetrators met together with facilitators and worked towards a shared understanding of the past to reach some consensus about how to deal with different and apparently conflicting narratives within a new museum of communism. It draws on notions of emotional communities in order to understand the role heritage plays in contested situations. It also considers the nature of transitional justice (‘Transitional justice is an approach to systematic or massive violations of human rights that both provides redress to victims and creates or enhances opportunities for the transformation of the political systems, conflicts, and other conditions that may have been at the root of the abuses’.) in this context.     

“There is rosemary,that's for remembrance: And there is pansies,that's for thoughts.”

Irene Dowsing, Curtin of Australia, Acacia Press, Melbourne, 1969, pp. 175 + vii, $3.90.

Sir Lloyd Dumas, The Story of a Full Life, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1969, pp. 226 + vii, $4.95.

Sir Arthur Fadden, They Called Me Artie, Jacaranda Press, Brisbane, 1969, pp. 196, $4.50.

Frank C. Green, Servant of the House, Heinemann, Melbourne, 1969, pp. 173, $4.95.

Leslie Haylen, 20 Years Hard Labor, Macmillan of Australia, Melbourne, 1969, pp. 211, $4.95.

Edgar Holt, Politics is People, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1969, pp. 144, $3.75.

David Nicholas, The Pacemaker—The Playford Story, Brolga Books, Adelaide, 1969, pp. 190 + xvi, $3.95.

Alan Trengove, John Grey Gorton: An informal biography, Cassell Australia, Melbourne, 1969, pp. 251, $4.95.     

Water,Rules and Gender: Water Rights in an Indigenous Irrigation System,Marakwet, Kenya

The management of indigenous irrigation systems has received increasing attention both from social science researchers and from those development agents who seek to change them, or to find in them a model for organizing newly developed irrigation schemes. This article discusses how water is allocated within one such irrigation system, the hill furrow irrigation of the Marakwet escarpment in Kenya. It describes the ‘formal rules’ of water rights, giving particular attention to the issue of gender with respect to water rights. It then discusses the ‘working rules’ relevant to water allocation, involving various informal practices of sharing, buying and stealing. The implications of this complexity for understanding the operation of indigenous farmer-managed irrigation systems are examined.     

Folklore and Basque Nationalism: Language,Myth, Reality

Abstract. This article establishes a precise relationship between folklore and ethno-nationalism. In particular, it argues that the discursive elements of folklore have been used, as political narrative, within the history of Basque nationalism. The Basque nationalist movement, throughout its history, has been especially adept at harnessing the rhetorical power of language, history, myth and memory in its articulation of a Basque, as opposed to a Spanish, identity. The article concentrates on the specific information selected for transmission by the ideology of Basque nationalism. It is this articulation which establishes links between past and present, myth and ideology, and the relationship between culture and identity in the human experience. These are the bonds which are perhaps most pertinent to the general cause of ethno-nationalism, and the Basque case in particular.     

Islands,the Anthropocene,and Decolonisation

The Anthropocene is deployed as incontrovertible fact, yet its foundations merit strong critique to challenge how particular voices and locations are absented, silenced, or enrolled in the fallacies that attend this epochal framework. Other placed, grounded, and scale-sensitive explanations exist for present and future state scenarios, including on islands—often the focus of apocalyptic thinking. Dealing with historical and contemporary struggles to decolonise is more powerful than engaging with a reified framework that is part of ongoing colonial-imperial excesses, uneven development, and racial capitalism. This work considers how four of us, as instigating authors, worked with five others, as collaborating authors, to understand academic works, activism, and artistic expressions of island life and concerns. Our aim was to learn about how and why their efforts to prioritise decolonisation is at the heart of what is needed to shore up island peoples’ futures.