‘Time is against us’ : Anti-Communism, decolonisation and Papua New Guinean independence

Journal article


Piccini, Jon. (2024). ‘Time is against us’ : Anti-Communism, decolonisation and Papua New Guinean independence. Australian Historical Studies. 55(2), pp. 310-329. https://doi.org/10.1080/1031461X.2023.2256740
AuthorsPiccini, Jon
Abstract

This article traces the importance of anti-communist organisations to the development of early Papua New Guinean political elites. Focusing on Oala Oala-Rarua (1934–80), it shows how his participation in activities organised by the spiritual group Moral Re-Armament and the Australian Association for Cultural Freedom provided avenues and platforms through which to articulate an increasingly nationalist politics. Both groups feared that radical nationalism in the Australian-administered Territory would serve communist purposes, and as such sought to cultivate a liberal political leadership. Following work on non-communist forms of anti-colonial worldmaking, this article shows how Oala-Rarua and his contemporaries saw much of value in the ideas on display and the connections they facilitated. While initially accepting of Australian tutelage, this article shows that, over time, emerging nationalist elites found the realities of slow progress and ongoing racial discrimination in the Territory to be at odds with even the most conservative post-colonial schema.

KeywordsPapua New Guinea; communism; Moral Re-Armament; Australian Association for Cultural Freedom; nationalism; Oala Oala-Rarua; Australia
Year01 Jan 2024
JournalAustralian Historical Studies
Journal citation55 (2), pp. 310-329
PublisherTaylor & Francis Australasia
ISSN1940-5049
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/1031461X.2023.2256740
Web address (URL)https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1031461X.2023.2256740
Open accessPublished as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
Research or scholarlyResearch
Page range310-329
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Open
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online30 Oct 2023
Publication process dates
Deposited04 Jul 2024
Additional information

© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent

Place of publicationAustralia
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