REVIEW: Vibrant, stimulating view of region's nationalism, media

Review of: Blood on their Banner: Nationalist Struggles in the South Pacific, by David Robie

Abstract

Review of: Blood on their Banner: Nationalist Struggles in the South Pacific, by David Robie. London, Zed Books, 1989; Sydney: Pluto Press, 1990; Manila: Malaya Books, 1991.

Events in recent years in the South Pacific have dispelled hitherto widely held perceptions of the region as a peacefully modernising backwater of traditional societies. In particular, the 1987 coups in Fiji galvanised the attention of politicians and academics. But in truth, this was just one of a series of crises besetting South Pacific island states. David Robie's Blood on their Banner goes beyond the many accounts focusing on the Fiji coups to link together a range of events under the rubric of responses to colonialism and the emergence of Pacific nationalism. His credentials for doing this are excellent.