Walkabout and Urban Movement: A Melanesian case Study

Abstract

Whether they are singing or talking about life in town Solomon Islanders make frequent reference to the practice of wandering around and consider it an important part of the urban life style. By focusing on 1 group of town residents this paper shows that wandering around (liliu la) is an activity of much significance for those who engage in it and represents a form of urban adaptation that involves rural styles of behavior yet allows migrants to take advantage of being in town. It is possible to distinguish 2 countervailing tendencies in Toambaita mobility especially that which takes the form of wandering around. In leaving north Malaita during adolescence males and females become separated from the home country for indeterminate periods and travel widely throughout the independent Solomons. Some become successful and financially secure in Honiara working at a range of jobs and even venturing into small businesses. Predisposed to experiment by their position in the life cycle liliu la is a key part in a continuing process of innovation and inventiveness for these young people. The other and contrary tendency arises from the close contact the Toambaita in Honiara and other places maintain with each other and with those in north Malaita. People linked by kinship and locality of origin are continually in contact providing support for one another and they maintain high levels of mobility to achieve this. They maintain high levels of interaction much of which occurs through wandering around in the public realm. For the Toambaita liliu la is that form of mobility through which they discover much that is interesting and exciting and through which they regularly seek out and find each other.