Mā whero, mā pango ka oti ai te mahi: The role of indigenous diplomacy in the success of the 1997 Burnham talks

Abstract

After 13 failed negotiations, the July and October 1997 talks at Burnham Military Camp in New Zealand managed to achieve a durable truce in the Bougainville Civil War, a vital step in the path to the 1998 Arawa Agreement ceasefire. The New Zealand Government employed an unconventional negotiating model, which included the use of Melanesian and Māori cultural practices. This thesis seeks to answer how and why indigenous cultural practices contributed to the success of the 1997 Burnham talks through the lens of indigenous diplomatic theory. It first explains how the conventional model used in earlier talks was vulnerable to being undermined by potent factors of the war. The key features of the Burnham model are then explored, demonstrating how indigenous cultural practices were among changes made to mitigate the risk of these destabilising factors. Two cultural practices, trautim and pōwhiri are then framed as indigenous diplomacies to understand how they contributed to the talks. The analysis focuses on the inherent socio-cultural context and the reported impacts of practices on participants to understand their influence. The thesis finds that the indigeneity of the practices used at Burnham provided the culturally relevant environment necessary for sustainable outcomes owned by local participants. It concludes that alongside ripeness theory, indigenousdiplomacy provides a powerful, more holistic understanding of the Burnham talks’ success. Show more