Solomon Islands

Near where the sunken warships of the Battle of Guadalcanal lie, glowing UFOs rise out of the Pacific, fly into the mountains and disappear into jungle lakes. Here, a tropical paradise exists with inexplicable, ancient ruins and puzzling writings of an unknown culture. Steamy, rugged mountain ranges are inhabited by strange Sasquatch-like creatures. They have come down to the villages to kidnap the locals for generations. Terrifying stories of abduction and cannibalism are passed on by the villagers to their children. These are some of the incredible tales that the Solomon Islanders have lived with for decades and you will read about in this spellbinding book. Author Marius Boirayon is the son of the World War II central France maquis (resistance) leader, and grew up in Mount Hagen in the Papua New Guinea Highlands. Following a career in the Royal Australian Air Force and as an aircraft/helicopter engineer working in outback Australia, he decided in 1995 to go to the Solomon Islands to live.

Archaeology of the Solomon Islands presents the outcome of twenty years’ research in the Solomon Islands undertaken jointly by Richard Walter and Peter Sheppard, both leaders in the field of Pacific archaeology. At the time of first European encounter, the peoples of Melanesia exhibited some of the greatest diversity in language, sociopolitical organization and culture expression of any region on earth. This extraordinary diversity attracted scholars and resulted in coastal Melanesia becoming the birthplace of modern anthropology, and yet the area remains one of the least well-documented regions of the Pacific in archaeological terms. This synthesis of Solomon Island archaeology draws together all the research that has taken place in the field over the past fifty years. It uses a multidisciplinary theoretical and methodological approach and considers the work of archaeologists, environmental scientists, anthropologists, and historians. At the same time, this volume highlights the results of the authors’ own considerable field research. Until recently, much Pacific archaeological research focused primarily on colonization events and cultural-ecological interactions. Walter and Sheppard are interested too in the long-term development of diversity in coastal Melanesia and in the evolution of “traditional” Melanesian societies. As a case study they focus on the Roviana Chiefdom, an aggressive but highly successful polity based around headhunting, slave raiding, and ritual violence that dominated the political economy of the Western Province into the early twentieth century. The authors also integrate the Solomon Islands into ongoing models and debates around Pacific culture-history, including in such key areas as human expansion during the Pleistocene, the spread of Austronesians, Lapita colonization, the development of food production, the role of exchange systems, the concept and meaning of culture areas, and human impact on landscapes and ecosystems. This fascinating and very readable book is written for an archaeological audience but is also designed to be accessible to all readers interested in Pacific archaeology, anthropology, and history. Featuring more than a hundred maps and figures, Archaeology of the Solomon Islands represents a groundbreaking contribution to Pacific archaeology.

The civil conflict in Solomon Islands (1998-2003) is often blamed on the failure of the nation-state to encompass culturally diverse and politically fragmented communities. Writing of Ranongga Island, the author tracks engagements with strangers across many realms of life—pre-colonial warfare, Christian conversion, logging and conservation, even post-conflict state building. She describes startling reversals in which strangers become attached to local places, even as kinspeople are estranged from one another and from their homes. Against stereotypes of rural insularity, she argues that a distinctive cosmopolitan openness to others is evident in the rural Solomons in times of war and peace.

This volume of the Peacebuilding Compared Project examines the sources of the armed conflict and coup in the Solomon Islands before and after the turn of the millennium. The Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) has been an intensive peacekeeping operation, concentrating on building 'core pillars' of the modern state. It did not take adequate notice of a variety of shadow sources of power in the Solomon Islands, for example logging and business interests, that continue to undermine the state's democratic foundations. At first RAMSI's statebuilding was neither very responsive to local voices nor to root causes of the conflict, but it slowly changed tack to a more responsive form of peacebuilding. The craft of peace as learned in the Solomon Islands is about enabling spaces for dialogue that define where the mission should pull back to allow local actors to expand the horizons of their peacebuilding ambition.

More than 80 years ago, Caroline Mytinger, a portrait artist, and her childhood friend Margaret Warner set out by freighter from San Francisco with little more than $400 in their pocket and a tin of paints to their name. Their objective was to paint portraits of the tribal people of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands before the encroachment of modern, European-style culture changed their lives forever. This gripping book tells of the two women’s experiences whilst travelling through Melanesia between 1926 and 1930.

Solomon Islands is a country located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. Comprising of over 900 islands, Solomon Islands is a sovereign state with a population of over 600,000 people. It is named after the biblical King Solomon and is located east of Papua New Guinea and northwest of Vanuatu. The country has a diverse and unique mix of cultures, with over 70 different languages spoken among its communities. The islands, which are inhabited by Melanesians, Polynesians, and Micronesians, have been inhabited for thousands of years, with evidence of human habitation dating back to 30,000 BC. The capital city, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal, and the country's main industries include agriculture, logging, and fishing. Despite being a small nation, Solomon Islands has a rich history and culture. It is known for its traditional music, dance, and art, as well as its exploration of the underwater world, with some of the largest and most diverse coral reefs in the world. Solomon Islands also played a significant role in World War II, as it was the site of the Battle of Guadalcanal, one of the major battles in the Pacific theater. Today, the country faces challenges such as poverty and environmental concerns, but it continues to maintain its unique cultural identity and remain an important part of the Pacific region.

Solomon Islands has made substantial progress since the Tensions in the early 2000s but faces considerable economic and governance challenges and is highly vulnerable to natural disasters. The logging industry confronts depletion and new sources of growth are needed. Governance challenges are significant, stemming from weak oversight of the resource sectors, a lack of transparency and a need to strengthen public financial management.