[Anthropgrad] FW: Seminar Placing the Planters:European Settlers in Late Colonial Papua New Guinea 6 June 11 am

[Sue Fraser]

Sue Fraser

School Administrator

School of Archaeology & Anthropology

ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences

AD Hope Building #14 

The Australian National University

Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia

 

T: +61 2 61253309

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________________________________

From: Veenita Vido 
Sent: Monday, 2 June 2008 11:48 AM
Subject: 

 

 

 

 

 

Placing the Planters:

European Settlers in Late Colonial Papua New Guinea

 


 

 

Scott MacWilliam

(ANU: Crawford School/PhD Candidate )

 

 

 

Friday 06 June at 11am in Haydon-Allen 1207 (Fairbairn Room)

 

In the face of economic crisis and apparent stagnation, commentators on,
as well as policy makers for, PNG are once again focusing upon increased
agricultural production as the basis for development. While most
proposals centre upon such matters as the preferred form of land
ownership, there is little clarity about the desired form of production,
largeholding or small, plantation or household, utilizing wage labour or
family labour processes. 

 

This paper argues that it would be especially unwise for current
policy-makers to draw upon a romanticised depiction of the expatriate
planters or settlers who occupied coconut, cocoa, and coffee
largeholdings during the decades after World War II. Their economic
significance as well as political weight expressed through the late
colonial state have been seriously exaggerated, as has their supposed
contribution to post-war changes in the process of (capital)
accumulation. 

 

By and large, the planters should not be seen as models of self-made
entrepreneurship, appropriate to be adapted for post-Independence
circumstances by favouring indigenous largeholding owner-occupiers as
the preferred means of expansion. Instead it would be far better to
understand why top officials, including Territories Minister Hasluck,
insisted on keeping the expatriate planters in their place, marginal to
development.  

 

 

 

General queries

mark.dawson at anu.edu.au

 

 

 

With thanks, Mark.

 

Mark S. Dawson

Lecturer in Early Modern History

Office: 1199 Haydon Allen Building

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