Rory Ewins's Pacific Islands Politics

Rory Ewins’s Pacific Islands Politics

For much of the 1990s I was a student of Pacific islands politics, studying the interaction of tradition and politics in Fiji and Tonga. These pages collect some of my writings on the subject: some deal with specific events in Fiji and Tonga, while others range more widely and touch on the realm of political theory.

Colour, Class and Custom: The Literature of the 1987 Fiji Coup
Web version of a long paper surveying the literature of the 1987 Fiji Coup, first published in 1992.
Changing Their Minds: Tradition and Politics in Contemporary Fiji and Tonga
Abstract and extract from book published in 1998.
The 1993 Silver Jubilee of Taufa‘ahau Tupou IV, King of Tonga
Slide-show accompanying Changing Their Minds.
Evolving a Theory of Tradition
Paper based on the PhD thesis that ultimately became Changing Their Minds.
Some Effects of Tradition on Politics
Another paper from the same source.
Tradition, Politics, and Change in Contemporary Fiji and Tonga
The 1995 PhD thesis that became Changing Their Minds, in PDF form at the ANU Open Research Library.
Tradition in the Politics of the Pacific: Interviews with Simione Durutalo and Bishop Patelesio Finau
Paper based on two PhD interviews, published in 1997 at The Contemporary Pacific, 9(2): 430-445.
The Papua New Guinea Constitution: Australia’s Role in its Development, 1960-75
An honours essay written in 1990.
The Bougainville Conflict
A lecture delivered to cadets at the Australian Defence Force Academy in September 1999.
Notes on the 2000 Fiji Coup
Weblog entries on the early days of George Speight’s attempted takeover.
Linking the Islands: Pacific Implications of the Web
A paper presented at the Fifth Conference of the European Society for Oceanists in July 2002.
About the Author