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‘Time is against us’ : Anti-Communism, decolonisation and Papua New Guinean independence
Piccini, Jon
Piccini, Jon
Author
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.
Keywords
Papua New Guinea, communism, Moral Re-Armament, Australian Association for Cultural Freedom, nationalism, Oala Oala-Rarua, Australia
Date
2024
Type
Journal article
Journal
Book
Volume
55
Issue
2
Page Range
310-329
Article Number
ACU Department
School of Arts and Humanities
Faculty of Education and Arts
Faculty of Education and Arts
Collections
Relation URI
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
License
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
File Access
Open
Notes
© 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
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