Indigeneity, land and activism in Siberia

Abstract

This chapter explores the tensions and contradictions between custom, tradition and the 'Pacific Way' and development in its many forms. Nowhere are the tensions and contradictions more evident than in dealing with land and access to land in the South Pacific region. The chapter elaborates the contradictions between what is said to be customary and what is actually practised as customary land tenure. It highlights the confusion between the Pacific way and the Western way, which is elaborated through what people call the plurality of registers. This plurality is in many ways central to the conflict between the development agenda and notions of tradition and/or neo-tradition. The chapter focuses on the voices of Pacific Islanders and their reaction to the development agenda at a time of accelerated resource grab, and the associated ground swell of emotion that resulted in the 2009 establishment of the Melanesian Indigenous Land Defence Alliance (MILDA).