Missions, education and literature in Oceania

410 Pages·2012·2.62 MB·English

University of Wollongong
Research Online
University of Wollongong Thesis Collection University of Wollongong Thesis Collections
2011
Missions, education and literature in Oceania: with
emphasis on Papua New Guinea
Shayne Kearney
University of Wollongong, [email protected]
Recommended Citation
Kearney, Shayne, Missions, education and literature in Oceania: with emphasis on Papua New Guinea, Doctor of Philosophy thesis,
School of English Literatures, Philosophy and Language, University of Wollongong, 2011. http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/3572
Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the
University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW
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Missions, Education and Literature in Oceania

With emphasis on Papua New Guinea

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the
requirements for the award of the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
from

UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG

By
Shayne Kearney. B.A. Hons.
Faculty of Arts

School of English Literatures, Philosophy and Language

2011

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Thesis Certification

I, Shayne Kearney, declare that this thesis, submitted in fulfilment of the requirements
for the award of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Department of English Literatures,
University of Wollongong, is wholly my own work unless otherwise referenced or
acknowledged. The document has not been submitted for qualifications at any other
academic institution.

Shayne Kearney

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Table of Contents

Title Page …………………………………………………………………..1
Certification ………………………………………………………………..2
Table of Contents ………………………………………………………… 3
Abbreviations ……………………………………………………………....4
Abstract …………………………………………………………………….5
Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………...7
Foreword …………………………………………………………………...8
Introduction ………………………………………………………………..9
Chapter 1: A Mission History……………………………………………35
Chapter 2: Mission Education …………………………………….……..74
Chapter 3: Teachers and Sovereigns: The Early Converts ……………..120
Chapter 4: The Emerging Élite ………………………………………….173
Chapter 5: Moving Forward: Syncretism and the Pacific Writer ………238
Conclusion ………………………………………………………………..322
Notes……………………………………………………………………….331
Bibliography ……………………………………………………………....354

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Abbreviations

ABCFM American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
ANGUA Australia New Guinea Administration Unit
ANU Australian National University
CM Catholic Missions
B. S. I. P. British Solomon Islands Protectorate
LMS London Missionary Society
MS Manuscript
NLA National Library of Australia
SSL South Sea Letters
SL State Library of New South Wales (Mitchell Library)
T.P.N.G. Territory of Papua and New Guinea
UPNG University of Papua New Guinea
UPS University of the South Pacific

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Abstract

The London Missionary Society’s [LMS] first mission endeavour was in the South
Seas at Tahiti in 1797. The mostly Calvinist missionaries unquestionably transformed the
lives of the Pacific Islanders forever. Although the missionaries primary goal was Christian
conversion, their influence far exceeded the religious realm. They became, perhaps
unwittingly, agents of colonialism by introducing their own social mores and morality;
enforced Western codes of law, banned traditional practices and captivated the Islanders
with Western technologies. Their success was not instant; it took years of dedication and
sheer doggedness to achieve their goal, but success when it came, was staggering.
Teaching the indigene to read and write was a vital adjunct to Christian conversion
and the LMS was the first facilitator of Western (English) education. It was through formal
schooling that their influence was nurtured as they introduced four culturally transformative
concepts to the indigene student: literacy, Christianity, Western education and eventually
the English language. Stemming from this education is the production of Pacific writing in
English by indigenous writers: a legacy as enduring as that of Christian conversion in the
region. Through schooling, often in remote locations, the missions had a destabilising
influence on whole generations as they severed the indigene child from his or her traditional
culture.
This thesis examines the production of indigenous literature written by students
taught or influenced by missions by analysing it through two postcolonial models. The
indigenous élite offer a significant contribution to Oceanic history as they ‘write back’ to
the dominant white history of the region (Ashcroft et al 2001). Many of these writers were
of the “first mission contact” generation of their respective societies. Through their letters,
journals, diaries, autobiographies, novels and poetry, a fascinating insight into their thoughts
(feelings, frustrations and attitudes) on the numerous and enduring transformations they
were undergoing unfolds.
Post-colonial Pacific writing exhibits many of the attributes of other former colonised
regions and has ‘followed the trends, (in the most part), of other colonised territories
worldwide such as India, Africa, the Caribbean, Canada and Australia’ (Ashcroft et al 2001
7). Firstly, this thesis examines the style of writing as it exhibits the shifts and progresses
of Western (mission) colonisation; which Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin
define within three categories as imitation, abrogation and appropriation (2001 5-6). It
then, compares and contrasts the phenomenological state or the conscious awareness of the
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‘native intellectuals’ defined by Frantz Fanon within three distinct stages: unqualified
assimilation, restlessness and resistance.
Fanon’s theory is central to my thesis. The manifestation of the confusions of cultural
disconnection and identity continues to be a topical theme within Oceanic literature. Post-
colonial theory also insists on attending to the local specificities of history and power and
accordingly this thesis shows that Pacific literature suggests the need for an additional two
stages to Fanon’s model.
In the Pacific context, it is apparent that a stage precedes Fanon’s first stage of
unqualified assimilation. There is a resistance by the indigene to whole-heartedly accept
Westernisation. In this proposed stage, the indigenous writer shows signs of accepting
colonial inculcation as normal, however, the indigenous writer continues to assert their
own traditional culture so, the assimilation is incomplete. The Tahitian kings Pomaré I and
II exemplify this phase as they retain their traditions while adopting some Western
practices.
Furthermore, Martinique-born Fanon died in 1961 as his adopted country, Algeria, was
gaining its independence, so I humbly suggest that his model is incomplete. The final
stage that I propose is one of acceptance – a stage of renewed vigour, a syncretic stage.
Two groups of writers may be categorised within the stage. Firstly, many of the writers of
this stage are at least two generations removed from the cultural transformation period and
the impact on them was never, therefore, as great as the early writers. Secondly, for the
writers who began their careers within the emergent generation, the evolution in their
works could be deemed to be an example of dynamic syncretism, whereby aspects of
colonial inheritance, both welcome and unwelcome, are tenuously reconciled into a form
of hybridity.
A further reason to modify Fanon’s three-stage model is that postcolonial theory also
insists on attending to the local specificities of history and power and accordingly this
thesis shows that Pacific literature suggests the need for an additional two stages to be
added to Fanon’s model.

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Acknowledgements

I am deeply indebted to many people for helping to get this thesis to completion. First
and foremost, I wish to offer my sincerest gratitude to Associate Professor Paul Sharrad
for his academic generosity and patience in supervising this project; for his
encouragement and support which were always willingly offered and always gratefully
received. I also extend my gratitude to my co-supervisor, Associate Professor Anne
Collett, for her generous support and contributions.
I also extend my gratitude to the Arts Faculty at the University of Wollongong
for their financial support to attend the International Conference on Arts and
Humanities in Honolulu, Hawai‘i in January 2005 and for their ongoing support during
my candidature. I would also like to thank the Research School of Asia & the Pacific at
the Australian National University College of Asia & the Pacific for its scholarship to
attend the Asia-Pacific Week Conference in January-February 2004.
This thesis could not have been completed without the invaluable assistance of
several libraries and their librarians. To Susan Jones, the archivist at the University of
Wollongong Library, I extend my deepest gratitude for her generosity of knowledge and
assistance in gathering materials from the Cochrane files. I also wish to thank her
assistant, Laura Richardson, for her welcomed assistance over many visits. I also want
to acknowledge and thank Susan Cochrane for her generosity in allowing access to her
parents’ files, The Cochrane files, and for her permission to use some of her father’s
photos in this thesis. I would like to thank the librarians at the State Library of New
South Wales and the National Library, especially those employed in the manuscript
sections. I would like to thank Stuart Dawrs and the late Karen Peacock of the
University of Hawai‘i library in Mānoa for their generous support and guidance in
locating materials relating to Pomarés I and II and Queen Lili’uokalani. Also in
Hawai‘i, I wish to extend my gratitude to the librarians at the Bishop Museum whose
expertise and knowledge, on a very brief visit, were most rewarding.
I would like to offer my thanks to several colleagues who have since received
their doctorates, Sparse Karoski, Joakim Eidenfalk, Megan Brown and Kazuhiro
Monden for the support, encouragement and companionship over many weekends.
Finally, I wish to thank the generosity, understanding and patience of my
children Damian, Claire, Katie, Isaac and Dylan, and also to Mimi for without their
support and encouragement this project would never have reached completion.
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Foreword
As I sit and stare absent-mindedly out my window hoping for the day’s inspiration,
Djera (Mt Keira) stares back at me. She has watched over me nearly all my life; I was born
under her gaze; I can see her from my sunroom at home; I watch the sun set behind her
every day. She is my favourite Illawarra landscape. On ANZAC Day 2007, a landslide
“scarred” her cliff face; I shed a tear for her, much to my children’s bewilderment and
amusement.
I “Write the Pacific” from the beautiful University of Wollongong campus on the
traditional land of the Wadi-Wadi peoples of Australia. Over the past few years, I have
become self-consciously aware of my whiteness but, I love this land, it is a part of me and
yet I am not an indigenous Australian. Irish blood courses through my veins, yet I am not
Irish. I am, it seems, a displaced person. British colonialism has played its part on my life.
I am not exactly sure how I came to study Pacific writing, fate seems to have dealt
my hand. I knew that I wanted to study the impact of missions on indigenous peoples but
initially I intended to study their impact on the indigenous peoples of Africa, India, Canada
and the Caribbean. Too big Paul (Sharrad) said; why not look a little closer to home - at the
Pacific; too big indeed! With that, he gave me a copy of Papua New Guinean, Russell
Soaba’s Wanpis and I was hooked. Papua New Guinea was nothing knew to me. It was
frequently mentioned at home. My dad was in the Water Transport unit of the Australian
Army in World War II and spent a lot of time between Port Moresby and Lae until cerebral
malaria almost cost him his life. The “Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels” came to his rescue and his
gratitude to his dying day was obvious. His most treasured material possessions were the
maps he “forgot” to return to his unit. The ragged-edged, yellowed sheets of paper were a
familiar sight to us kids and they never failed to cause a ripple of excitement as he dragged
them out to give us yet another history lesson! They were lessons set in war, but never of
war, those stories he kept in the deep recesses of his mind never to be shared. He could
never quite get through a conversation about Papua New Guinea and its people without his
chin quivering ever so slightly as he tried to hold back the overwhelming emotion he felt.
Us kids grew up with the upmost respect for these gentle people. My dad’s anger at their
mistreatment by the Australian government and the undeniable racism of a large section of
the white Australian population was never hidden. I learnt a lot about compassion and
respect from my dad.
I do not profess to “know” the Pacific. My only venture into the region was in
January 2005 when I attended a conference in Waikiki, O‘ahu, Hawai‘i. My limited
knowledge has been gleaned from books. Some so horrific that I cast them aside in despair,
others moving, eloquent and poignant. All of them have left their mark. Three texts, more
than any others, had a significant affect on me and as I reflect on the past few years and the
hundreds of texts that have crossed my desk, it is these texts that I remember, almost
tangibly. I can vividly remember the impact of reading Mi Mere, a collection of poetry
written by several Solomon Island women, the power and emotion within their work is
indescribable, their lives, to me, unfathomable. The passion of Haunani-Kay Trask’s poetry
in Light in the Crevice Never Seen is devastatingly potent. The third is Linda Tuhiwai
Smith’s Decolonising Methods: Research and Indigenous Peoples and it was this text that
made me self-consciously aware of my whiteness and to question whether I had the right to
analyse indigenous writing from the Pacific.
I thought long and hard of the complex issues surrounding my thesis and decided
that as a white Australian, I did indeed have the right to analyse and/or criticise my
country’s policies and involvement in the Pacific. The repercussions of these policies for
the indigenous people are as real as their literature suggests. I make no critical judgement
of their work. I do not have the right. In fact, I am in awe of their work, as it never fails to
move me. I do, however, cast a critical eye over western intervention, its “benevolence”
and the staggering legacy, both good and bad, it has left in its wake.
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