ABSTRACT
The history and culture of the Pacific islands is seldom written by the people it most concerns, the islanders themselves, and this has long been recognized as a problem. Joseph Waleanisia traces the florescence of Solomon Islands literature to the first generation of Islanders returning with overseas tertiary education, who began contributing to the Kakamora Reporter newsletter in 1970, as a medium for critical intellectual discussion in anticipation of the self-government and independence conferred in 1978. For Solomon Islands, the strengths and weaknesses of this kind of academic agenda are well illustrated by the work of Roger Keesing, a strong advocate of researchers’ responsibilities in the Research in Melanesia debate, whose consciousness of Western cultural hegemony developed from his own research among the Kwaio of Malaita island.
