Word: melanesian
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...already hosted man-made destruction. It experienced the blood and thud of modern warfare when Japanese and Allied Forces fought crucial battles here during World War II. Still, outsiders don't play much of a part in the traditional lifestyle of fishing, gardening and carving that has sustained these Melanesian people of the islets and lagoons. Christian missionaries, as well as some shady proselytizers, have founded peaceful flocks. Time lolls about in this clime, news occasionally wafts in. Now they are the news...
...Close as it is to their shores, the western half of the island of New Guinea remains a mystery to most Australians - as does its Melanesian people's 40-year struggle for self-rule. Home to vast mineral and timber wealth, West Papua's status is an accident of colonialism: retained by the Dutch when Indonesia declared independence in 1945, it came under Indonesian rule after the Act of Free Choice referendum in 1969 - a change decried by many Papuans, who say the 1,000 voters were hand-picked by Indonesia...
...After a 50-min. journey, the boat arrives at Rendova Island, and Curragh and Sergeant Allenson Tiazy jump from the boat onto a small wharf at Ughele village - to be greeted by a throng of children that appears to double in size by the minute. It's a common Melanesian scene: skylarking children enjoying their freedom, men in earnest discussion at disused market stalls, and in the background - nursing, gardening, forever at work - the village women...
...lead. "The underlying question about our political system is this: Does it serve the people? If it doesn't, let's do away with it." Says Central Bank governor Hou: "The politicians are there to line their own pockets. It's the way Solomon Islands is structured. In Melanesian culture we have the idea of the Big Man. Whether they behave or misbehave, you don't criticize them." Some of those major players are finally being called to account. In September, Agriculture Minister Alex Bartlett was arrested on charges of demanding money with menace, assault and arson after an incident...
...Melanesia's 60 Sunday schoolers bolt like whippets out of the starting box; it's playtime for the children of trainee Anglican priests and their wives. A smiling but intense Father Brown speaks about the scarcity experienced in rural areas during the tensions and the role of the Anglican Melanesian Brothers in making peace. "ramsi has started the process to get to a solution," he says. Across the country, people are amazingly resilient. They may still identify as Malaitans or Guadalcanalese, rather than as Solomon Islanders, but they're united by their miserable circumstances. They have not come to rely...