Tuesday, May 31 at 7 PM MDT in USA/Canada via Zoom (Weds. June 1 @ Noon Bougainville Standard time)
Dr Jeffrey Noro, Founder, The Kainake Project

Bougainville is the largest island in the Solomon islands archipelago and is culturally and socially part of the Solomon Islands. However, power and resource sharing between various colonial rulers since 1768 led to Bougainville’s inclusion as part of the Australian Territory of New Guinea (PNG) under a League of Nations mandate in 1920. Bougainville became part of an independent Papua New Guinea on September 16, 1975. The lack of political participation and self-determination in managing their affairs in the colonial era have primarily set the stage for tensions, confrontations, and a decade long conflict for independence (from PNG) and resource sovereignty in the late 1980s and 1990s. As a result, more than 20,000 Bougainvilleans lost their lives.
While many anthropological studies and museological collections were conducted before the merging of Bougainville with PNG in the 1920s, local voices and cultural perspectives were considered less important than imaginary territorial boundaries drawn to benefit the colonial rulers.

In light of the colonial legacies, which partly contributed to the Bougainville civil war (crisis), this talk by Dr. Jeffrey Noro, Founder, The Kaiake Project, will focus on current actions across communities in rural Bougainville to strengthen their localized social and cultural governing structures. Such local initiatives are imperative to Bougainville having greater autonomy and a voice to redirect its self-determination path.
The talk will also explore avenues in which digital repatriation of knowledge and materials can become a positive driver in building bridges between Bougainville's past and the future. Bougainville must build trustful relationships into the future and achieve its sociopolitical and economic aspirations. Noro will discuss how sharing knowledge and technology and the ability to listen to other perspectives is critical to a stable and sustainable future.  

This lecture is presented in conjunction with the new online exhibit Sincerely, Bud Johnson: The Bougainville Island Collection and is moderated by Dr. Jen Shannon, Curator and Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology at the CU Museum.