Catholic missions in the Solomon Islands, 1845-1966

Abstract

This study seeks to trace, account for and evaluate the development of Catholic (in the sense of Roman Catholic) missionary activity in the Solomon Islands. In more general terms, it attempts to examine the efforts made to establish a European institution in a changing but resilient Melanesian cultural environment. The subject is, therefore, considered in the broad context of culture contact, for Catholicism was not planted in the Solomon Islands as an isolated or merely religious phenomenon. It came as part of a broad range of European influences which, by the end of the nineteenth century, had begun to make a significant impact on the lives of the islanders. Moreover, although the missionaries' efforts necessarily reflect their own assumptions regarding their task, these were also shaped, and their effectiveness largely determined, by the environment in which they occurred. Focussing on the interaction of forces of indigenous and of exotic origin, the study readily falls into three parts, which correspond to three phases in the recent development of the Solomon Islands - early contact, colonial, and post-colonia1. In the first period, 1845-55» the missionaries were confronted with a society in which traditional values and procedures were still virtually intact and in which Christianity was unable to gain a foothold. In the second period, 1898-1942, on the contrary, as a result of increased contact, the situation had changed markedly, and the missionaries succeeded in winning a large following in nearly every part of the group. Even so, their work was far from complete. In the third period, 1946-66, the years since the Second World War, with the future of European domination becoming less secure they have been forced to pursue new goals - to offer more advanced social services than in the past and to make serious efforts to ensure the vital coincidence of self-rule in Church and State.