ABSTRACT
It may seem a contradiction in terms to speak about ‘local government’ in Melanesia. Government in this region is largely perceived to be an influence brought in from the outside, introduced by colonial powers. There is – at least in origin – nothing local about it. Government in Melanesia has thus been characterised as a ‘foreign flower’ (Larmour 2005), imposed upon indigenous populations. Consequently, Melanesian government institutions have often been accused of having little legitimacy in the wider population. At the same time, numerous initiatives stemming from a diversity of actors and sources have attempted to meaningfully appropriate, realign or localise government in ways that articulate with fluctuating indigenous social, political and cultural circumstances and desires (e.g. Lattas and Rio 2011). This chapter pursues the perspective that the process of ‘downward institutionalisation’, which brings state systems into rural areas, and incorporates the local into larger national political frames of reference, is entangled with a reciprocal process of ‘upward colonisation’ of state systems by local political practices, expectations and meanings (see Gordon and Meggitt 1985; Oppermann 2015).
