DPA Seminars - S2 2025

DPA Seminar Series recordings now available on YouTube

Community Approach to Prevent and Mitigate Intimate Partner Violence: Youth Perception
Speaker: Minetta Kakarere

For PNG to achieve a decline in domestic violence incidents in the future, it is imperative that youth are educated about this issue and other societal challenges. They have the potential to become either agents of change or harmful forces in our society. The research aims to gather their thoughts on intimate partner violence and best approaches to address IPV at the local level. Convenience Sampling was used in this research where 250 participants were selected based on their availability and proximity. The study primarily relied on interviews and questionnaires. Thematic Analysis was used to develop the themes from the findings. Common among participants was the recognition that it was illegal to inflict violence in intimate relationships, and that there are laws in place to protect and punish victims and perpetrators respectively. Furthermore, the majority of the respondents stressed the importance of doing more awareness in the community targeting the community leaders and the elderly population as an approach to reducing and addressing IPV at the local level. It is pivotal to start with the community leaders, by training, educating and gender sensitizing them on the causes and consequences of IPV as gate keepers of local communities and societies.

Engendering Power, Performing Authority: Masculinities, Party Politics, and Power in Fiji
Speaker: Romitesh Kant

How are political masculinities constructed, legitimised, contested, and performed within Fijian political parties? This pre-submission seminar presents findings from Romitesh Kant’s doctoral thesis, which examines masculinity as a political formation that structures leadership, authority, and belonging in Fiji’s postcolonial state. Rather than treating masculinity as a background norm, the thesis foregrounds it as a central logic of institutional power and legitimacy. To explore this, the study develops a four-part conceptual framework: masculinities as political infrastructure, grammar, adaptive legitimacy, and relationality. This framework enables a multi-scalar analysis of how masculinist authority is embedded, enacted, and sometimes unsettled. The research draws on political ethnography informed by feminist and decolonial approaches and is based on a year of fieldwork (2023–2024) involving immersive observation, interviews, and document analysis. Through case studies of FijiFirst, the Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA), the People’s Alliance, and the National Federation Party, the thesis reveals how militarised, chiefly, technocratic, and redemptive masculinities operate across intersecting lines of race, class, generation, and sexuality. The study contributes to global debates on political masculinities, feminist institutionalism, and postcolonial governance by making visible the gendered logics that scaffold political life in Fiji.

Gendered Experiences and Challenges in Political Participation and Labour Mobility in PNG
Speaker: Geejay Milli, Natasha Turia, Mercy Masta

Papua New Guinea (PNG) faces complex gender dynamics that impact women's participation in both the formal labour force and in political leadership. Whether moving from rural villages to urban centres or pursuing international opportunities through schemes like the Pacific Engagement Visa, women, as well as men, face a complex web of barriers—entrenched gender roles, cultural expectations, and systemic inequalities. Labour mobility isn't just about economics; it's about who gets to move, who gets left behind, and who gets to decide. In a nation grappling with high rates of gender-based violence and chronic underrepresentation of women in governance, this panel explores the powerful intersection between gendered labour migration and political participation. How do mobility and politics reinforce—or resist—each other in shaping women’s agency in PNG?

Factors in Employment Policy in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu
Speaker: Stephen Close

While prioritised by Pacific Islanders, employment policy has long challenged their governments. There has been little study of how politics and societal interests shape Pacific employment policy delivery. This pre-submission seminar presents findings from Stephen Close’s doctoral thesis, which examines politics of employment policy in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. The research focuses on two prioritised and contested employment policies: overseas tertiary scholarships, and overseas labour mobility. In structurally similar contexts, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu politicians and officials responded differently to pressures including surging demand for higher education and jobs, personalised selection, equity of access and work opportunities overseas. The research draws on interviews with national policy actors, and analyses policy documents, budget and student data and media articles. Critical policy analysis and policy ethnography identified who had power and how they used it. Important political and institutional differences, including different distributions of power, incentives, accountabilities and societal interests shaped how politicians and officials developed, delivered and reformed policy in ways that were transactional or programmatic. Two distinct patterns of employment policy-making emerged in the two states. This thesis provides a rare contemporary understanding of the politics of employment policy-making, to better understand policy development, delivery and reform in Pacific states.

Evaluating the Bougainville Peace Agreement’s Implementation
Speaker: Kevin Pullen

To what extent has the partial implementation of the Bougainville Peace Agreement affected the Autonomous Region of Bougainville’s ability to realise its long-standing aspirations for self-determination? This question lies at the heart of Kevin Pullen’s doctoral research. In this seminar, Kevin will provide an update on his doctoral research, including preliminary findings from fieldwork conducted earlier this year in Bougainville and Papua New Guinea. His analysis focuses on the practical and political challenges that continue to hinder full implementation of the Agreement, despite its foundational role in shaping Bougainville’s autonomy and providing for a referendum on the region’s future political status. Issues to be discussed will include the impact of persistent capacity constraints, the continued underpayment of constitutionally mandated grants from the national government to the Autonomous Bougainville Government , and the lack of progress on several provisions designed to support the region’s transition to independence, including critical coordination, consultation and review mechanisms. The seminar will also explore how these implementation gaps have influenced public confidence in the peace process and the broader implications for Bougainville’s political future. 

Navigating Security, Mobility and Climate in a Shifting Region
Speaker: Anna Naupa, James Batley, Bal Kama, Rochelle Bailey

As the Pacific region faces rapid transformation, from climate impacts and labour mobility to new regional agreements and security dynamics, Vanuatu’s national broadcaster — the Vanuatu Broadcasting and Television Corporation (VBTC) — is convening a Press Klab Blong Vanuatu in Canberra to spark informed, critical discussion. Held on 27 October 2025, and delivered in partnership with the Pacific Research Program (Phase 2), this event will bring together policymakers, academics, and journalists to explore Pacific-led approaches to key regional issues. The discussion will centre on four themes: labour mobility and development; the Nakamal Agreement and regional cooperation; Pacific-led security frameworks; and Vanuatu’s leadership on climate advocacy ahead of COP31. Moderated by Pacific journalist Leah Lowonbu, the two-hour session will feature perspectives from Pacific and Australian experts. Together, they will examine how the region can shape its own narrative on security, sovereignty, and resilience while strengthening people-to-people and media linkages between Vanuatu, Australia, and the wider Pacific. The event will engage regional audiences and promote dialogue on the future of Pacific cooperation.

Bougainville at a Crossroads: Leadership, Development, and the 2027 Independence Horizon
Speaker: Theckla Gunga-Jogo, Oliver (Oli) Nobetau, Yuambari Haihuie, Laurelle Pentanu, Michaela Long

Bougainville faces two defining deadlines in 2027 - the anticipated ratification vote in Papua New Guinea’s National Parliament and its self-declared “Independence Day”. The countdown to these milestones unfolds amid persistent socio-economic challenges that cannot be resolved by political independence alone. As President Ishmael Toroama embarks on his second term, the region stands at a crossroads where governance, development, and diplomacy must align to sustain momentum towards self-determination. This panel will explore the policy, institutional, and developmental priorities that must be addressed in the lead-up to 2027, and examine how both the Bougainville and Papua New Guinea governments can navigate this decisive phase in their shared history.

The Role of Service Providers in Helping Women Access Justice for Domestic Violence Cases in Bangladesh and Papua New Guinea
Speaker: Subrata Banarjee

What are service providers’ perspectives on how they help women access justice services, and do these perspectives reflect different viewpoints on what justice is? How are recent legal and policy reforms impacting service provision and practices, and fostering a more collaborative approach among services? How do multiple intersectional factors affect service provision and women’s access to justice in both countries? Based on qualitative fieldwork in Bangladesh and Papua New Guinea, in this pre-submission seminar Subrata will present findings that show noteworthy progress in improving women’s access to specialised and district courts, the police, village courts, and victim support services. Women’s access to those services remains limited in rural areas, however, where culture, religion, patriarchy, and community power structures are also influential factors in village court settings. The findings also reveal persistent biases based on class, education, and geography among service providers in rural and urban locations. The study develops a framework for measuring access to justice that incorporates legal protection, accessibility, empowering victims, and support. It argues that feminism and human rights movements have informed legal and institutional reforms in both nations significantly and that the concepts of vernacularisation and intersectionality are useful to illustrate the differences, challenges, and adaptations encountered during policy implementation. Aware of his positionality, being from Bangladesh, Subrata focuses on Bangladesh but explores key themes across the two countries.

A Beginner’s Guide to Land Grabbing in Port Moresby
Speaker: Colin Filer

It is commonly asserted that 40 per cent of the land in PNG’s National Capital District is customary land. Like the assertion that 97 per cent of the land in PNG is still customary land, this is a ‘concrete factoid’, that is to say, a statement that is no longer true, and keeps getting less true, but is still bandied about because Papua New Guineans have an unshakeable belief that it ought to be true even if it isn’t. In this seminar, the speaker will examine the five legal avenues through which customary land in the NCD has been alienated since 1975, when the assertion probably was true. Under current legislation, these five avenues are: special agricultural and business leases, voluntary customary land registration, land tenure conversion orders, alienation by agreement with the minister and compulsory acquisition by the minister. The speaker will provide figures on the amount of land that has been alienated through one or more of these legal avenues, assess the extent to which the acts of alienation also count as acts of expropriation, and consider the ways in which the customary owners have or have not been able to resist the alienation of their land.

Enemy Friends: Schooling, Conflict and Peace in the Southwestern Pacific (no recording)
Speaker: David Oakeshott

Youth in Bougainville and Solomon Islands face challenges familiar to young people in post-conflict contexts everywhere. They must come to terms with the violent past of their parents’ generation while learning how to live with members of opposing “sides.” "Enemy Friends" describes how students and their teachers form connections to the past and each other that cut through the forces that might divide them. Thrown together in every aspect of daily life at boarding school they learn about and train themselves in cultural practices for memorialising violence that encourage individuals to refuse to talk about the past. In the process they discover broad similarities amidst significant cultural diversity. These similarities in their cultures are in fact broader lessons from their schooling experiences, which teach that while relationships might not be inherently peaceful, peace and reconciliation are almost always attainable. David will present an analytical framework with potential use across the global south and findings that illustrate the creativity of students and teachers as they engage with education policies. He therefore provides an important addition to assessments of schooling that view education’s contribution to transitional justice, peace-building, and development primarily through state-driven reform to the content of curricula or style of teaching.
 

Upcoming DPA Seminars
 
Digital Politics in Fiji
Speaker: Jope Tarai

In this seminar presentation, PhD candidate Jope Tarai will present the findings of his research addressing the question: Does social media use inform politics in Fiji? The research has utilised digital ethnography as an approach to explore social media use and politics in Fiji through an embedded examination of four case studies. These include;  social media use in political campaigning since the 2014 national election, the role and use of social media amongst the tertiary youth, regional advocacy campaigns, and the interplay between the social media sphere and the traditional media sector. The case studies have been foregrounded by a critical examination of Fiji’s political history and ongoing legacies. In answering the central question of the thesis, this pre-submission seminar will build into branches of knowledge around social media use and politics. These branches of knowledge include but are not limited to: online political campaigning, youth online engagement, advocacy campaigning, traditional media online, and methodological insights regarding online research. Therefore, the thesis makes wider contributions to Fiji and the Pacific in politics, youth engagement, the media and methodological applications for grounded research.


*Since its inception, DPA has been regularly publishing research and critical commentary on topics of interest to a wide audience of academics, policy-makers and others interested in contemporary Pacific issues. We welcome submissions to our various publication series.