McLaren, John (1999) Nationalism and imperialism – Australia’s ambivalent relationship to Papua New Guinea and the Pacific islands. In: Ninth Biennial Symposium on the Literatures and Cultures of the Asia-Pacific Region, 1999, Singapore. (Unpublished)

Abstract

Australia, unlike New Zealand, has never had any clear consciousness of its relation to the ocean of islands that constitutes the Pacific. This is despite its own imperialist involvement, from the nineteenth century blackbirders who kidnapped islanders for near-slavery on Queensland plantations, to companies like Burns Philp who developed more respectable trading networks through the islands, and twentieth century venturers like Emperor Goldmines, whose activities were one of the factors behind the military coup in Fiji in 1987. The response by the Australian government to this coup reflects Australia’s general ambivalence to this whole area

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