School of Social and Political Sciences - Research Publications

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    COVID-19 and Facebook in Papua New Guinea: Fly River Forum
    Dwyer, PD ; Minnegal, M (Wiley Open Access, 2020-01-01)
    This article examines use of a Papua New Guinea (PNG) Facebook group, Fly River Forum, with reference to the COVID‐19 global pandemic. From about mid‐March 2020, when the PNG Government declared a State of Emergency, to early May, members of that forum shared an intense interest in the pandemic and were deeply concerned with its possible implications for the country. The great majority of COVID‐related posts, and associated comments, combined delivery of relevant information with scepticism about some of that information. Most participants did not take either religious tropes or conspiracy theories as primary sources of comfort or explanation. We argue that Fly River Forum played a positive role in the ways that people engaged with what could have emerged as a health disaster. More generally, geographically focused sites such as this provide a valuable barometer of local opinion and deserve close attention by politicians and policymakers in PNG.
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    On Reading Patrol Reports – 3: Burnett River People
    Dwyer, PD ; Minnegal, M (Taylor & Francis, 2020-01-01)
    Pre-independence patrols through remote areas of Papua and New Guinea were concerned both with mapping land and with identifying and counting those who lived there. People do not always stay in place, however, as colonial authorities envisioned, and patrols seeking to render them legible took different paths, at different times, through the same land. Reports from patrols to the vicinity of the Burnett River, which flows westwards from the Muller Range to the upper Strickland, used many different names when referring to groups of people who lived in that area. By cross-referencing between available reports, and supplementing interpretations with some post-independence information, we reach an improved understanding of the pre-independence distribution of people of different language groups. We direct particular attention to the role of interpreters in shaping the knowledge produced by patrol officers.
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    On Reading Patrol Reports – 2: Travels in East Awin
    Minnegal, M ; Dwyer, PD (Taylor & Francis, 2020-01-01)
    Reports of patrols through remote areas of Papua and New Guinea led by officers of the Australian administration must be read with care. We discuss the case of a patrol report from the mid 1960s where the patrol cannot have travelled the route indicated on the accompanying map. By cross-referencing to reports from later patrols, we provide both an improved reading of the report in question and, more generally, an appreciation of motivations that influenced the knowledge patrol officers produced.
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    On Reading Patrol Reports – 1: South of the Blucher Range
    Dwyer, PD ; Minnegal, M (Taylor & Francis, 2020)
    Reports of patrols through remote areas of Papua and New Guinea led by officers of the Australian administration have much to contribute to understandings of the work entailed in rendering both land and people legible to the colonial state. But these must be read with care. Using the text and maps produced by one patrol, led by John McGregor in 1968, we demonstrate how topographic maps, produced well after particular patrols were undertaken, may be used to both refine interpretations provided in such reports and reveal factors that shaped the knowledge patrol officers produced.