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.

This book advances an innovative approach to explain international interventions' uneven outcomes in given contexts, and harnesses this approach to examine three prominent case studies: Aceh, Cambodia and Solomon Islands. It is the first book comprehensively to discuss the rapidly growing literature on how interventions interface with target states and societies.

The Solomon Islands Campaign of World War II has been the subject of many published historical accounts. Most of these accounts present an ‘outsider’ perspective with limited reference to the contribution of indigenous Solomon Islanders as coastwatchers, scouts, carriers and labourers under the Royal Australian Navy and other Allied military units. Where islanders are mentioned, they are represented as ‘loyal’ helpers. The nature of local contributions in the war and their impact on islander perceptions are more complex than has been represented in these outsiders’ perspectives. Islander encounters with white American troops enabled self-awareness of racial relationships and inequality under the colonial administration, which sparked struggles towards recognition and political autonomy that emerged in parts of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate in the postwar period. Exploitation of postwar military infrastructure by the colonial administration laid the foundation for later sociopolitical upheaval experienced by the country. In the aftermath of the 1998 crisis, the supposed unity and pride that prevailed among islanders during the war has been seen as an avenue whereby different ethnic identities can be unified. This national unification process entailed the construction of the ‘Pride of our Nation’ monument that aims to restore the pride and identity of Solomon Islanders.

Malaita is one of the major islands in the Solomons Archipelago and has the largest population in the Solomon Islands nation. Its people have an undeserved reputation for conservatism and aggression. Making Mala argues that in essence Malaitans are no different from other Solomon Islanders, and that their dominance, both in numbers and their place in the modern nation, can be explained through their recent history. A grounding theme of the book is its argument that, far than being conservative, Malaitan religions and cultures have always been adaptable and have proved remarkably flexible in accommodating change. This has been the secret of Malaitan success. Malaitans rocked the foundations of the British protectorate during the protonationalist Maasina Rule movement in the 1940s and the early 1950s, have heavily engaged in internal migration, particularly to urban areas, and were central to the ‘Tension Years’ between 1998 and 2003. Making Mala reassesses Malaita’s history, demolishes undeserved tropes and uses historical and cultural analyses to explain Malaitans’ place in the Solomon Islands nation today.

"This multi-authored volume draws on the collective experiences of a team of researcher-practitioners, from three Oceanic universities, in an aid-funded intervention program for enhancing literacy learning in Pacific Islands primary education schools. The interventions explored here-in Solomon Islands and Tonga-were implemented via a four-year collaboration which adopted a design-based research approach to bringing about sustainable improvements in teacher and student learning, and in the delivery and evaluation of educational aid. This approach demanded that learning from the context of practice should be determining of both content and process; that all involved in the interventions should see themselves as learners. Essential to the trusting and respectful relationships required for this approach was the program's acknowledgement of relationality as central to indigenous Oceanic societies, and of education as a relational activity. Relationality and Learning in Oceania: Contextualizing Education for Development addresses debates current in both comparative education and international aid. Argued strongly is that relational research-practice approaches (south-south, south-north) which center the importance of context and culture, and the significance of indigenous epistemologies, are required to strengthen education within the post-colonial relational space of Oceania, and to inform the various agencies and actors involved in 'education for development' in Oceania and globally. Maintained is that the development of education structures and processes within the contexts explored through the chapters comprising this volume, continues to be a negotiation between the complexity of historically developed local 'traditions' and understandings and the 'global' imperatives shaped by dominant development discourses"--

Du site de l'éd.: "The history of the Solomon Islands is in itself an intriguing story, and Dr. Bennett tells it more than well. The depth and breadth of the work is impressive in at least two respects. First, it covers events in the Solomons from initial European contact in the middle-1500s to the country's emergence as an independent and sovereign state in 1978. Second, all facets of colonial history are covered; to name only a few: the early contact period, the whaling trade, the development of plantations, the nature of British colonial rule, and missionization. Considering the scope of this volume, it represents a definitive history of the Solomon Islands, and it will remain so for many years to come."

This book addresses the contending views of the uses of Solomon Island forest. Ranging from an examination of the interaction between the first settlers and their forest, the book goes on to analyse the attitudes of the British administrators, planters, and missionaries. The colonial government sought to protect the resource, but neglected to consider the wishes of the forest’s inhabitants in planning for its future economic use. The independent governments failed to protect the dwindling forest on customary land in the face of accelerating demands from their own people and of Asian-based logging companies, while non-governmental organisations and aid-donors have tried to invoke a more conservative regime of forest use.