Perspectives from Melanesia: Aboriginal relationalism and Australian foreign policy

ABSTRACT

The Coral Bell School’s inaugural lecture in Indigenous Diplomacy considers Aboriginal relationalism and suggests implications for Australian foreign policy and diplomacy. Revealing a multi-polar and multi-generational lateral political order in Aboriginal cultures, the lecture emphasises the significance of landscapes and individual autonomy intricately woven with group identities that manage and counter rather than institutionalise the survivalist impulses of humans. This response reflects on the lecture from the perspectives of Indigenous Melanesians. We reflect on the strong resonance between Aboriginal relationalism and our own notions of relationality, as well as divergence around our response to what the lecture terms the survivalist impulses of humans. We contemplate what the lecture might offer the emerging field of Indigenous Diplomacy and the broader decolonisation of hegemonic diplomatic practices. Finally, we consider how the Australian state may respond, arguing that embracing reciprocity, respect, and interdependence will improve Australia’s ability to navigate diplomatic relations in the Pacific region, and that honouring Indigenous peoples and cultures must start at home.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous diplomacy
• Pacific
• Melanesia
• Aboriginal relationism
• Australian foreign policy

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Correction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article was originally published with errors, which have now been corrected in the online version. Please see Correction (https://doi.org/10.1080/10357718.2023.2273621)

Notes

1 In 2017, Pacific Islands Forum Leaders endorsed the Blue Pacific narrative as a strategic framing for Pacific regionalism and collective action of Pacific Island States. https://www.forumsec.org/2017/09/05/opening-address-prime-minister-tuilaepa-sailele-mailelegaoi-samoa-open-48th-pacific-islands-forum-2017/.

2 Naupa (Forthcoming) refers to the use of "kastom" in contemporary Pacific state-centric diplomacy as vernacular diplomacy.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Meg Taylor

Meg Taylor is a Papua New Guinean citizen of the Blue Pacific, who has served in many roles at national, regional and international level including as the first female Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum. She is currently based in Papua New Guinea where she serves on the Board of Nambawan Super the PNG Sustainable Development Program. She is a member of the International Advisory Panel for the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and an Advisor to the Vanuatu government on its application to the International Court of Justice on Climate Change. Dame Meg has an LL.B. from Melbourne University and an LL.M. from Harvard University.

Priestley Habru

Priestley Habru is a Solomon Island PhD student at the University of Adelaide researching public diplomacy and its implications in the Pacific. He is a journalist by profession having worked in the Solomon Islands media and other communications roles for over a decade before coming to Adelaide. He completed his undergraduate studies in journalism and postgraduate studies in gender at The University of the South Pacific.

Solstice Middleby

Solstice Middleby is a researcher, author, partnership broker and former Australian Diplomat to the Pacific. She has lived and worked across the Pacific Region for the last 20 years, supporting Pacific-led development through partnerships approaches, innovation and multistakeholder collaborations working with AusAID, DFAT, IUCN and as CEO of the Australia Pacific Training Coalition. Soli is the Director of Coconuts and Kurrajongs and has been involved with various community projects. Her doctoral research, focused on Pacific regionalism, considers how power is understood and exercised in the practice of regional agreement making within the Pacific Islands Forum.

Anna Naupa

Anna Naupa is a ni-Vanuatu PhD candidate at the Australian National University’s School of Culture, History and Language where she is researching the intersection between kastom and diplomacy in Vanuatu and with its neighbours. She has worked at the regional level in the Pacific, and has previously held senior advisory and management roles at the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, UN-ESCAP and the Pacific Fusion Centre. She is based in Port Vila, Vanuatu.

Jope Tarai

Jope Tarai is an indigenous Fijian scholar who is pursuing a Ph.D. at the ANU. His research interests include Pacific diplomacy, politics and development. His latest contributions provide a deeper critical examination of the use of indigeneity in statecraft and engagement in the South Pacific. Prior to this he was based at the University of the South Pacific as an Academic/Teaching Staff for the Ethics & Governance course.