Whose Pacific? Australia and the South Pacific Commission, 1940s-1990s

This project is the first study of the creation and development of the South Pacific Commission (SPC), Australia's first significant foray into regional institution building in the post-war period. At Australia's behest, the SPC was established by the region's colonial powers (Australia, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States) for the social and economic welfare of their respective dependent territories. This project will analyse how competition and cooperation between colonial state actors, particularly Australia and France, impacted the creation, mission and means given to the SPC over the post-war period to the 1990s, as the institution evolved to confront the challenges of decolonisation and the Cold War. It will explain how the SPC, through its Research Council, work programs and the South Pacific Conference (the first regional forum to involve Pacific Islander delegates) created a founding block for different contemporary understandings of what constitutes the Pacific space, for state actors, individuals and Indigenous communities. In the context of resurgent great power play in the Pacific, this project makes a timely contribution to discussions about regional competition and cooperation and will benefit current efforts for greater Indigenous representation and self-determination across the region.

2025-ongoing

National Library of Australia Fellowship, supported by the Stoked Family (2025)

RMIT University, seed funding