Community Order-Making in Melanesia Part 1 –Empirical Findings

Abstract

Green Valley, an informal settlement in the midst of the urban sprawl of Solomon Islands’ capital, Honiara, was formerly known as a difficult place to live. Nighttime brawls, the sale of home-brewed kwaso and rampant petty theft regularly kept families awake and forced small shops to close before dusk. Women felt unsafe walking around, taxis and buses were reluctant to drop people off in the settlement, and the police were not responsive when called. During past episodes of urban unrest, the residents from Green Valley were often the first ones on the frontline. However, during Solomon Islands’ last major riots in 2021, the Green Valley ‘boys’ did not attend. These days, local shops stay open later and people quieten down by 10 pm. Local community members attribute this transformation to new community by-laws that were introduced around 2020. Formed from a combination of strong community leadership and processes of dialogue and collaboration, the by-laws are administered by a committee of volunteers and supported by a local ‘taskforce’ that conducts patrols every evening. Green Valley is just one of many communities we visited over the past four years as part of our research into community laws, often called by-laws in Papua New Guinea (PNG), Bougainville, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Fiji. We have found a spectrum of formality in these laws: some are broad principles prominently displayed on village billboards, some are circulated solely within the community, and yet others are ‘checked’ and signed by state officials. We view this production of by-laws as part of an efflorescence of local-level order-making aimed at reinvigorating community governance in the face of multiple stresses.