Clive Moore

Clive Moore is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Queensland, where he worked for 28 years, retiring as McCaughey Professor of Pacific and Australian history in 2015. In 2005, he received a Cross of Solomon Islands for his historical work on Malaita Island. He was inaugural president of the Australian Association for Pacific Studies (2006–10) and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He has authored five monographs, and been author or editor for 18 multiple-author and edited books and journal special issues, and many chapters and journal articles and several reports on New Guinea, Solomon Islands, the Pacific labour reserve, Australia’s Pacific Island immigrants, federation, masculinity and sexuality. He first visited Malaita in 1976 and has an abiding interest in the people of the province and their descendants in Australia.

Making Mala »

Malaita in Solomon Islands, 1870s–1930s

Authored by: Clive Moore

Malaita is one of the major islands in the Solomons Archipelago and has the largest population in the Solomon Islands nation. Its people have an undeserved reputation for conservatism and aggression. Making Mala argues that in essence Malaitans are no different from other Solomon Islanders, and that their dominance, both in numbers and their place in the modern nation, can be explained through their recent history. A grounding theme of the book is its argument that, far than being conservative, Malaitan religions and cultures have always been adaptable and have proved remarkably flexible in accommodating change. This has been the secret of Malaitan success. Malaitans rocked the foundations of the British protectorate during the protonationalist Maasina Rule movement in the 1940s and the early 1950s, have heavily engaged in internal migration, particularly to urban areas, and were central to the ‘Tension Years’ between 1998 and 2003. Making Mala reassesses Malaita’s history, demolishes undeserved tropes and uses historical and cultural analyses to explain Malaitans’ place in the Solomon Islands nation today.

Download for free Buy print ($68.00)