ABSTRACT
This chapter explores aspects of the deeply entangled relationship between the post-colonial societies of Melanesia and what could be variously conceptualized as the West', the international community', or the developed world', particularly around questions of conflict and violence. It considers the question of how Melanesian identity constructions might promote peace and conflict, it pays greater attention to the question of whether ways of identifying Melanesians promote peace or conflict in the region. It challenges the images of the South-west Pacific islands images which are commonly applied to post-colonial regions not for being without any empirical basis, but for nevertheless being misleading in profoundly significant ways. Melanesia is a sub-region within the Pacific Islands, an arc of tropical and subtropical islands and ocean in the Western reach of the Pacific Ocean, to the north and east of Australia. By contrast, the violence of colonization was seen as inherently civilizing and as a necessary part of Pacification.
