Space and time in West Guadalcanal: a political economy

Abstract

In Guadalcanal, regular contact with European traders beginning in the early 1800s initiated a profound shift in the nature of settlement, a reconfiguration in the pattern of life and a reorientation of economic practices away from the bush and towards the coast. The Vaturanga have come to use directional markers to explain the changes they have experienced as a result of pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial processes. These include east and west, but are more pronounced in the usage of tasi (towards the sea) and longa (towards the bush). These directions have come to represent change not only in space but in understanding time. The main issues relevant to this are land claims, rights, exchange patterns and notions of identity. The Vaturanga assert ideas about space in order to resist and alter dominant hegemonic constructions made about them by others.