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Papua New Guineans Reconstructing their Histories: The Pacific War Revisited
Author(s) -
Ritchie Jonathan
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
oceania
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.356
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1834-4461
pISSN - 0029-8077
DOI - 10.1002/ocea.5159
Subject(s) - new guinea , argument (complex analysis) , history , world war ii , ethnology , genealogy , anthropology , sociology , archaeology , biology , biochemistry
This article discusses the project to record interviews with Papua New Guineans about their experiences of the Pacific War between 1942 and 1945, which was very much a critical juncture in the course of Papua New Guinean history. It examines how Papua New Guineans’ encounters with the War that devastated their land have been portrayed, and suggests that an exploration featuring Papua New Guineans in the telling of their own experiences with the War derives from the argument by the late Epeli Hau'ofa that they should be active participants in the reconstruction of their histories and the creation of their realities.