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The Story of Jimmy: the practice of history in North Pentecost, Vanuatu.

Taylor, John (Jack)

Description

The Story of Jimmy is a frequently told oral-historical account of 'first contact' from North Pentecost, Vanuatu. It describes the adventures of a group of ni-Vanuatu plantation labourers who escape from Fiji by hijacking a ship and navigate a return to their home islands in Vanuatu. Central to the story is a young white man, known simply as Jimmy. Unwittingly forced to make the journey with them, and before they are all finally shipwrecked on the east coast of North Pentecost, Jimmy witnesses...[Show more]

dc.contributor.authorTaylor, John (Jack)
dc.date.accessioned2015-12-08T22:13:32Z
dc.identifier.issn0029-8077
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1885/29866
dc.description.abstractThe Story of Jimmy is a frequently told oral-historical account of 'first contact' from North Pentecost, Vanuatu. It describes the adventures of a group of ni-Vanuatu plantation labourers who escape from Fiji by hijacking a ship and navigate a return to their home islands in Vanuatu. Central to the story is a young white man, known simply as Jimmy. Unwittingly forced to make the journey with them, and before they are all finally shipwrecked on the east coast of North Pentecost, Jimmy witnesses the murder and cannibalisation of his father by the starving hijackers. Yet upon departing for home some four years later he bestows a new name upon the Island: Uretabe, the 'world of love/gifts'. This story, with its dual-inverted narrative of abduction, transformation, escape and return, presents a remarkable account at a unique moment of historical rupture and cross-cultural exchange. In doing so it also expresses idiomatic themes of mobility, place and identity as they relate to the politics of both the colonial past and post-colonial present in North Pentecost. This paper explores those themes and narratives while considering their relevance to my own experiences as a researcher in the area.
dc.publisherOceania Publications
dc.sourceOceania
dc.source.urihttp://proquest.umi.com/pqdlink?index=10&did=588078471&SrchMode=3&sid=1&Fmt=6&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1218287093&clientId=20870&aid=1
dc.titleThe Story of Jimmy: the practice of history in North Pentecost, Vanuatu.
dc.typeJournal article
local.description.notesImported from ARIES
local.identifier.citationvolume73
dc.date.issued2003
local.identifier.absfor160104 - Social and Cultural Anthropology
local.identifier.ariespublicationu3937051xPUB69
local.type.statusPublished Version
local.contributor.affiliationTaylor, John (Jack), College of Asia and the Pacific, ANU
local.description.embargo2037-12-31
local.bibliographicCitation.issue4
local.bibliographicCitation.startpage243
local.bibliographicCitation.lastpage259
dc.date.updated2015-12-08T07:44:10Z
local.identifier.scopusID2-s2.0-1642268776
CollectionsANU Research Publications

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