Archives as artefacts of knowledge: A Sepik philosopher and a Chinese trader in Papua New Guinea
Book Chapter ResearchOnline@JCUAbstract
Papua New Guinean colonial histories have typically tended to focus on the construction, and deconstruction, of a racialised political order concerning black-white relationships. This has meant that the Chinese have been rendered largely invisible in histories of the colonial and postcolonial state. In this chapter, we focus on the archival collection made by former officer of the Australian Administration in Papua New Guinea (PNG), Laurie Bragge, as a materialisation, or artefact, of the classificatory processes of race that state agents produced and reproduced in the course of colonial governance. We explore the different histories of the racialised postcolonial production of social value discoverable in the archive, focusing especially on the transcripts of interviews that Bragge did with Sepik elders during the 1960s and 70s, and his reflections on relations with Chinese living and working in the Sepik during the colonial era.
Journal
N/A
Publication Name
The Chinese in Papua New Guinea: Past, Present and Future
Volume
N/A
ISBN/ISSN
http://doi.org/10.22459/CPNG.2024.02
Edition
N/A
Issue
N/A
Pages Count
17
Location
N/A
Publisher
ANU Press
Publisher Url
N/A
Publisher Location
Canberra, ACT, Australia
Publish Date
N/A
Url
N/A
Date
N/A
EISSN
N/A
DOI
10.22459/CPNG.2024