Eleventh Global Studies Conference

Abstract

People in Guadalcanal, both indigenous islanders and migrant workers and their descendants, communicate their identities increasingly in reference to the post-colonial nation-building projects which surround them. They utilize both traditional and non-traditional reference points in doing so, referring sometimes to themselves (in contrast to others) as “landowners” (or LO) or to others as “Solomon’s Men.” Sometimes they utilize songs, mass media (especially radio and newspapers), and even a rhetoric about magic to frame their social relations and make sense of the changing circumstances of their lives. This paper looks at such representations as derisive songs about “fat men” living on plantations, about village verses town life contained in interpretations of popular music, and about the contrast between the customary (kastomu in the local languages) and the modern. The goal is to expand our understanding of the nature of conflict communication, to broaden our background on ethnic tensions in Guadalcanal, and to explore how people react and respond to being characterized negatively by others. I will utilize a theoretical model focused on counter-ideologies or contested ideologies of nationalism and a politics of identity.