Table of Contents
I have been conducting research in the Solomon Islands since the 1970s, but must admit my intensity varied during the 1980s and 1990s, when I continued to visit my adopted family[1]but concentrated on other historical projects elsewhere. Then in the early 1990s, I conceived the idea of writing a history of Malaita Province from the time the British administration began on the island in 1909 and started working slowly, through the files in the National Archives in Honiara. At the beginning, this meant a few weeks each year or two, typing everything into my laptop as there was no photocopying facility available. I came to respect the huge amount of material in the archives and despaired that I would never get through it all. During the crisis years, 1998-2003, my attention to events in the contemporary Solomon Islands intensified and eventually I decided to write an account of the years, which appeared in 2004 as Happy Isles in Crisis: the historical causes for a failing state in Solomon Islands, 1998-2004.[2] At the same time, I applied for Australian Research Council funding to write a history of Malaita, and received a large grant over 2005-2007.
In writing Happy Isles in Crisis, I became aware of just how difficult it is to gather even basic biographical information on the leaders of the nation, or to get reliable information on everything from the oil palm plantations to churches and other organisations. I now know I got some things slightly wrong, and a few things quite wrong. I even slighted a Prime Minister, Francis Billy Hilly, in a short biographical piece, by omitting to mention that he had once been Premier of Western Province. These frustrations led me to think about how this situation could be rectified, both for myself in the future, and for other researchers. In my speech when the book was launched in Honiara in August 2005, I began to formulate a plan to create a historical dictionary of the Solomon Islands. During 2005, I had a full-time research assistant, and the funds to buy microfilm. I used it to complete the necessary Malaita research, but at the same time gathered a wider source base that will enable me to work on the whole history of the Solomon Islands, and to create a historical dictionary for the nation.
The Solomon Islands is the second largest nation in the Pacific in land area, and has a population of over half a million. Yet it is poorly served in historical literature. There is a substantial bibliography of published sources on the Solomon Islands to 1980, by Sally Edridge, which is something of a bible for all Solomons scholars.[3] There is a large literature on the Solomon Islands, some of it scientific, relating to geology, agriculture and marine studies, but most of it is social science monographs, chapters and journal articles that are not easily accessible to Solomon Islanders. There are two excellent general histories, Wealth of the Solomons and Pacific Forest by Judith Bennett, church histories such as those by David Hilliard for the Anglicans, Hugh Laracy and Claire O’Brien on the Catholics, and Dennis Steley on the Seventh-Day Adventists, labour trade histories by Corris and Moore, and a substantial body of Second World War writings, but overall the Solomons has not been well served by general texts.[4] There is also Graham Goldens’ The Early European Settlers of the Solomon Islands (1993), which is of indifferent quality, and a large collection of autobiographical reminiscences by missionaries, planters, traders, government officials, and anthropologists, mainly written since the 1920s.
My proposal is to create a historical dictionary of the Solomon Islands which will contain a dictionary of biography and a historical encyclopaedia of events for the Solomon Islands, arranged alphabetically. The models for the project are Jackson Rannells’ PNG: a fact book on modern Papua New Guinea,[5] and to a greater extent Ann Turner’s Historical Dictionary of Papua New Guinea.[6] This Solomons’ historical project will be in two volumes, one covering the period from first foreign contact to Independence in 1978, concentrating on the 1893-1978 British Solomon Islands Protectorate years, written or edited by Clive Moore. The second would cover the period from Independence to the present day. The overall aim of the project is to foster national consciousness in the Solomon Islands and to provide easily accessible information for use by government departments, churches, civil society organisations, the tourist industry, students, teachers, and the interested general public.
Based on the Scarecrow Press model that has worked successfully for Papua New Guinea and dozens of other countries, the two books would contain:
A chronology
A historical dictionary of biography on leading citizens of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate (BSIP) to 1978; and of the modern nation since 1978
A historical encyclopaedia of information on important events and places
A short bibliography of easily available sources on the Solomon Islands.
There are differences between this and the Scarecrow Press model: Scarecrow uses only one volume for each nation. My concept has two volumes, and the research base for each volume will be different. Scarecrow Press usually contracts single authors to write each volume. This would probably be the case for volume one, but not for volume two of the Solomons project.
Volume One will depend mainly on existing materials already published by the BSIP government, private newspapers, secondary sources, and hopefully the assistance of colleagues and the Solomons general public, both as critics and to supplement areas where my information is too meagre. I have gathered large amounts of material on a variety of topics from the National Archives in Honiara and from the Western Pacific High Commission Archives now situated in Auckland, which will form part of the basic entries. This will be supplemented by newspaper sources. The Government Information Service began a roneoed News Sheet in 1955, and each District also had its own local version. The Pacific Manuscripts Bureau has copied the main News Sheet and intends to copy the District News Sheets in the near future. In Malaita District, for instance, the local News Sheet began in 1954, continued until the mid-1980s, then staggered on until 1991. The Honiara-based BSIP News Sheet continued until 1975 when it turned into a weekly newspaper called Solomons News Drum. The first private newspaper was The Kakamora Reporter, published between 1970 and 1975, set up as an alternative to the government-controlled press. This was followed by Solomons Toktok, which began in 1977 (originally published as the Melanesian Nius and the Kiokio Nius), and continued publication until 1992. The Toktok was the first Solomons tabloid newspaper with its own version of sensationalist reporting. It came out in competition with the government-owned Solomons News Drum and was intended to have more popular appeal. The Solomons News Drum was privatised in mid-1982, taken over by Solomon Islander shareholders, and renamed the Solomon Star. It remains the main newspaper today, with five issues a week.[7] Other newspapers have also come and gone. At present, the lesser rivals to the Solomon Star are the National Express and various church papers.
As in all newspapers, the quality of the reporting varies, but collectively the Solomons papers are an enormous resource that has been little tapped by historians. The print media from the 1950s and 1960s contained many biographical pieces on the nation’s first educated and politically conscious citizens. It is possible to build up biographies and other items of interest by compiling them from a run of sources. Young future leaders such as Peter Kenilorea, Baddeley Devesi, Mariano Kelesi or Lilly Ogatina Poznanski start to appear through snippets in newspapers, and in government records bit-by-bit as they attended school, progressed through the public service or entered politics. Older famous citizens such as Jacob Vuza, Jonathan Fifi‘i, ‘Elota, Fred Osifelo, Lloyd Maepeza Gina, Belshazzar Gina, Gideon Zoleveke and Dominiko Alebua have written autobiographies or had books or chapters written about them,[8] and they can also be followed in the media. Although newspapers are an invaluable aid, later in this paper I will give some examples of why newspapers should not be trusted as sole sources of information.
So far I have prepared a 50,000 word draft of 186 biographical entries and 184 general entries for Volume One, which vary in length from a few lines to 2,500 words for the Diocese of Melanesia (the Melanesian Mission). There are many entries for non-Solomon Islanders who have served the Solomon Islands in some way. The Resident Commissioners, some District Officers, planters and bishops all deserve entries, as do some of the quite remarkable lesser clergy. How could I leave out Sister Mary Joseph, or Mother Superior Marie Irene, or the Reverend Charles Fox? Sister Mary Joseph, an Australian, joined the Catholic Mission in 1941. In 1944 she was sent to the Makogai Leprosarium in Fiji for two years, to specialise in the care of those suffering from Hansen’s disease. She arrived in the Protectorate in 1946 and became sister-in-charge of the Government Leprosarium at Tetere in 1949, where she remained, improving and extending the hospital. A 1950s World Health Organisation survey found that two-thirds of the lepers in the Protectorate were being treated at Tetere and the Mission leprosariums, using DDS (Diphenyl-dimena-sulphone), an effective cure for most cases, rendering the patients non-contagious. She was awarded an MBE in 1957. Although Sister Mary Joseph was much loved by Solomon Islanders, John Roughan, a long-time resident of the Solomons, has a memory of her as being quite ferocious to any patient who did not take their medication at the correct time, and as having an interesting hobby. She was a good shot and loved going crocodile hunting. They bred tough nuns in the Solomon Islands.[9]
Sister Marie Irene was the first Catholic nun to become a missionary in the Solomon Islands in 1904. Born in France in 1878, for nearly 40 years she directed the work of the Mission’s Sisters throughout the Protectorate. First based at Rua Sura, Guadalcanal, where she educated women, she next served at Tangarare, opening the first girls’ school there. Based at the Visale headquarters when the Japanese invaded, she escaped with other Mission staff to Tangarere, where she was picked up on a government boat and taken to Lunga to travel by American Liberty ship to Nouméa. Returning to the Protectorate in 1946, she was again stationed at Visale, this time as Mother Superior. After retirement, she continued to train local Sisters at Visale. Awarded an MBE in 1959, she died on 23 September 1965. She gave over 60 years service to the Solomon Islands, her few years in Nouméa the only absence.[10] There are many other clergy who similarly spent many decades in the Protectorate.
While Mother Superior Marie Irene’s stay was quite remarkable, she was eclipsed by Charles Elliot Fox, an Anglican priest and Brother who gave 65 years of his long life to the Protectorate. Born in 1878 in Dorset, England, Charles Fox holds the record as the longest-serving expatriate member of any religious order in the Solomon Islands. Son of Canon John Elliot Fox and Emma L. F. (née Phillips), he was educated at Napier Boys High School, the College of St John the Evangelist, Auckland and at the University of New Zealand (Auckland College) where he obtained BA and MA degrees (1899-1901). After a short spell teaching science in New Zealand, he became a member of the Melanesian Mission on Norfolk Island in 1902, and was ordained in 1903. He taught for a short time at the Norfolk school, where there were 240 boys, 160 of them from the Solomon Islands, which was the beginning of his interest in the Protectorate. After a few months on Mota Island in the New Hebrides, Fox began his Solomon years as a missionary at Pamua on San Cristoval. In 1905 he returned to teach at Norfolk Island, before returning to San Cristoval in 1908, where he remained for the next 10 years. In 1911 he opened the first boarding school in the Solomon Islands, St Michael’s at Pauma, for boys from San Cristoval, Ulawa and Malaita. In its early years the school had to post guards to prevent attacks from marauding bushmen. In 1922, the Melanesian Mission’s main school on Norfolk was moved to Pawa on Ugi Ne Masi Island, near San Cristoval, and between 1924 and 1932 Fox became principal of All Hallows School, Pawa, which in the 1920s was the finest school in the Protectorate. In 1932 he declined the Melanesian bishopric, becoming a member of the Melanesian Brotherhood on Guadalcanal (1933-44), and at Fiu, Malaita (1944-50).
During the war, then well over 60, he spent some time as a coastwatcher on Malaita, before moving to Nggela as a guest of the American Seebee Construction Corps. In 1950 he became principal of the Catechists school, and in 1952 chaplain at diocesan headquarters, before two years (1952-54) as Head Brother of the Melanesian Brotherhood at the headquarter school at Tabalia. In 1956 he was made Canon of Melanesia, and finally (1968-70) was based as chaplain at Taroaniara. He retired to New Zealand in 1973. Also known as ‘Takibaina’, this was an exchange name given to him during his early years on San Cristoval, when he gave his name, house and possessions to a local man in a swap of identity. Author of a dozen books on the Solomon Islands, his major publications include Introduction to the Study of Oceanic Languages (1910), Threshold of the Pacific (1924), Lord of the Solomon Islands (1958), his memoirs Kakamora (1961), and dictionaries of the Nggela, Lau and Arosi languages. Fox received a Doctor of Literature from the University of New Zealand in 1922, an MBE in 1952 and a CBE in 1974. He died in 1977, one year short of 100.[11]
What is clear from these three European biographical entries is that the detail on expatriates is usually better than on Solomon Islanders in this period, but I have also tried to include as many indigenous entries as possible. Two will serve as examples. In 1851 William Didi was the first Solomon Islander to be baptised by the Melanesian Mission. Born on San Cristoval, he was taken from the island in 1850 by the Captain of the HMS Havannah and sent to St John’s College in New Zealand where he spent 1850-51. Then he joined a vessel as crew, which took him to China and around the Pacific. Returning to St John’s in 1858, Didi helped Bishop George Selwyn translate the Lord’s Prayer into the Arosi language.[12] Another very different Christian convert was Monilaws Soga, the last great chief of Isobel Island. Soga, son of the great fighting chief Bera, was a chief at the time when head-hunting raids from New Georgia were causing havoc. He lived at Pirihandi in the Bugotu area and was personally responsible for a great deal of the upheaval. In the 1890s it was said that Soga had earlier destroyed many of the coastal communities, and he had entirely wiped out the people of St George’s (Maumolu Naunitu) Island. He was baptised in 1889 after an 1886 influenza epidemic, when he was nursed back to health by Bishop John Selwyn. Charles Fox described him as a ‘tall, lean, powerful man’ who always travelled with an armed bodyguard.[13] Bishop Wilson described Soga as ‘a very remarkable man’, ‘with a face and bearing of one greater than all his neighbours’.[14] Easily able to raise an army of 200 men, after baptism he was as fervent a Christian as he had ever been a warrior, and used his power to befriend the New Georgia raiders and his enemies on Isabel. Through his great influence, peace was achieved and the Melanesian Mission was able to spread Christianity through the island. In later life he lived at Sepi village and when he died in 1898, the cross on his grave bore the inscription Ke vonungia na dotho (He was filled with love).[15]
There are many other such individuals of note, and the art will be in achieving a balance between foreigners and Solomon Islanders, and between the biographical and historical events and places sections. At the moment, Honiara has the longest place entry, and my favourite entry is on the Kakamora, the legendry midget humans of San Cristoval, Guadalcanal, Malaita and the Banks Group, believed to be about two feet to four feet tall with long black hair and long finger nails. On South Malaita they are called Mumu. They are said to hide in the mountains, living in caves and eating wild bush foods, never using fire. They have a reputation as mischievous, and were said to become aggressive when cornered.[16] Charles Fox seemed to believe they existed when he wrote about them in his book The Threshold of the Pacific (1924), and used the name as the title for his autobiography, in which he said ‘[t]hey build no houses, have no tools, make no fires, but they are strong and live in holes or caves’.[17] They may be like fairies and goblins of European mythology, but since the early 2000s archaeological discovery that a small, pre-modern human-related race once lived on Flores Island in Indonesia, the myth has regained some validity. Whatever the truth, how could I leave them out?