Leadership and Change in the Western Pacific

An ethnographic exploration of the rise of new forms of leadership at community and national levels with islanders are synthesising traditional and Western models. Introduction - leadership and change in the Western Pacific; sanctity and power - Polynesian chieftainship revisited; authority and egalitarianism - discourses of leadership on Nukulaelae Atoll; a new king for Nanumanga - changing demands for leadership and authority in a Polynesian Atoll society; the absurd side of power in Samoa; the Bellonese - high, low and equal - leadership and change on a Polynesian outlier in the Solomon Islands; money, sovereignty and moral authority on Rotuma; who are the chiefs? chiefship in Lau, Eastern Fiji; leadership and Solomon Islanders' resistance to plantation-based political economy - roles and circumstances; priest and prince - integrating Kastom, Christianity and modernization in Kawra'ae leadership; identity crisis - changing images of chieftainship in Manam society; from possession to apotheosis - transformation and disguise in the leadership of a cargo movement; epilogue - old canvass, new leadership.