Articulating kin groups and mines : the case of the Gold Ridge Mining Project in the Solomon Islands

Abstract

In the world of increasing globalisation and nation state development, many traditional cultures are increasingly under pressure. This is to not only change their ways of life, but also even to surrender the natural environment in which they have lived for many generations. Natural resources development is one of the most important forces exerting major changes on traditional culture in Melanesia. The dilemma is in finding the balance, if there is any such thing between natural resources development for nation building and the survival of cultural groups that have always depended on those environmental areas accessed for commercial development. This thesis is about social groups and their relationship with natural resource development projects. It hopes to contribute to the understanding of the nature of that relationship. Further on, the idea is to improve understanding of how natural resource development relations are practised. The focus is on the sector of mineral resources development, in both Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The investigation focuses on forms and practices of articulations in the context of mining project relations. The underlying assumption is that the nature of relationship in any scheme of things matters for the actors involved. The methodology used is that of case studies. The Gold Ridge Mining project in the Solomon Islands constitutes the major case research for this work. The selection of the Gold Ridge Mining project is important because of its relevance for understanding social group relations in mineral resources development. Apart from Gold Ridge case, four other major mining project cases in Papua New Guinea are also reviewed. These projects are the Panguna, Ok Tedi, Porgera, and Lihir Mining projects. Each case is examined in order to identify the forms and practices of articulation of social groups in mineral resources development. Apart from mining cases in PNG and the Gold Ridge Mining project in Solomon Islands, the research also reviews other natural resources development projects to locate the historical context of articulation of social groups. ·Historically, the articulation of social groups began after contact in both Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. The articulation of social groups first occurs through material exchanges with social group members, and subsequently through the introduction of state institutions. The introduced central state made unto itself the role of 'central ruler,' and in the process automatically made social groups 'the ruled'. This study finds that this instrumental form of articulation rooted in historical contact has also sustained in the postcolonial state in Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. The mmmg cases reviewed in Papua New Guinea show that despite gradual improvement in the nature of relations with social groups in each subsequent mining project, such improvement was characteristically of process forms. In other words, there have been improvements in attitude, actions and forms of interactions in relations to project development. However at the same time, the structures that govern these processes remain, and social groups could never be equals in their position of influence towards mining development projects. The Gold Ridge Mining project case also showed improvement in the processes of good public relations, reflected in government land offers and higher award of royalties and relatively reasonable compensation packages. However, at the same time, social groups find these processes to be a means of distracting the resource owners from the more important things about resource use. That is, the need for the state to surrender mineral rights to landowners so that they can take their rightful role as resource owners. Given the fact that the existing laws remain in favour of state ownership of mineral resources, at least for the mean time, the situation persists. In Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, natural resources development has its origin in the periods of colonisation, and therefore the rules, roles and values associated with the imposed state have carried forward into the post-colonial period. In other words, the problem of relations between kin groups and state is structural. The state persisted over time in maintaining control over the use of natural resources for national development. This served the interests of the state but marginalise kin groups. Therefore, despite a gradual improvement in the processes applied in accessing natural resources in PNG and Solomon Islands, the structural displacement of kin groups remains to undermine the use of such resources to meet kin groups' local goals.