Life in the Pacific Islands has been transformed over the last century and a half, economically, geographically, politically and socially. Nevertheless, for the majority of islanders land is still central to their life and the land tenure arrangements which people use help shape their settlement patterns and agricultural systems, and are important components of socio-economic and political structures. The majority of land in all South Pacific Island countries remains under what are commonly described as ‘traditional’, ‘customary’ or ‘native’ land tenure systems. This book argues that in many parts of the region the ways in which the ‘customary’ land is now held by owners or users have changed to a much greater degree than is commonly acknowledged. The changes are intimately linked to concurrent changes in the socio-economic and political organisation of Pacific Island communities, but they are not unique to the region. They are specific cases which have, or have had, parallels in other parts of the world. The details are not identical, but the general processes of transformation have led to a widening range of situations in which land formerly held in common, or used through various communal arrangements, is now controlled and used exclusively by individuals or small family groups. In a broad sense much customary land is being privatised. Historical parallels can be found in Japan and China over the last millennium or more, in the mediaeval and later enclosure movements in Europe, and in Africa and insular Southeast Asia in the present century.

A central component of the socio-economic transformations, of which the tenure changes are part, is the change from subsistence to market economies.

Land tenure in the Pacific Islands has always been subject to change. Even in pre-colonial times, which are sometimes portrayed as a time of stability and little change, land tenure practices were modified pragmatically to meet changing conditions, and control of land frequently passed from one group to another as a result of warfare, changing demographic pressures, or migration. Indeed, all tenure systems change over time, conditioned by broader socio-political shifts, demographic trends, technological and economic innovations, and alterations in the extent to which land is a scarce good. The current complexity and state of flux in the tenure arrangements for what is usually defined in the Pacific Islands either as ‘native land’ or ‘customary land’ is not unique. Comparable situations can be found in many other places and at many other times. One of the themes of this book is the occurrence in the Pacific Islands of particular cases of what is arguably a world-wide trend for communalistic forms of land tenure to be replaced by forms in which individual ownership plays a much greater role.

What makes the South Pacific Islands unusual is, first, the relatively recent occurrences of major changes in land tenure. Second, many of the changes have been unusually rapid. Third, national leaders in the region often refer to traditional land tenure as one of the important markers of national or cultural distinctiveness. At the same time a reluctance to acknowledge the extent to which the customary practices of today differ from those of a supposedly immemorial tradition is coupled with a willingness to ignore the divergence between current practices and the law where the conventions of land tenure have been codified.

Most Pacific Islanders living in rural areas use land tenure arrangements which are commonly described by islanders and outsiders alike as ‘traditional’ or ‘customary’. Yet current tenure practices on ‘customary’ or ‘native’ land often differ considerably from the ‘customary’ practices described by early observers, land commissions or in recorded oral history. What are now described as ‘traditional’ or ‘customary’ tenure arrangements are often greatly simplified or modified models of what was ‘customary’ in the mid-nineteenth century or earlier. Fiji and Tonga provide examples. In the former, ‘the land tenure system which exists today evolved from the varied administrative decisions of a colonial government’ (France, 1969:174). In Tonga, the indigenous government acted more drastically and officially replaced the customary practices of the early nineteenth century by an entirely new system of land tenure under a constitutional decree promulgated in 1875. In fact, practice was slow to adapt to the constitution (see Chapter 5), but today many people in Tonga feel towards their land rights like those in Fiji who regard the colonial creation as ‘immemorial tradition’ which ‘enshrine[s] the ancient land rights … [and] is a powerfully cohesive force in Fijian society’ (France, 1969:174–5).

In many countries the idea that the maintenance of ‘traditional’ forms of land tenure is essential for the integrity of culture and way of life is expressed as a basic article of faith by politicians, planners, and others (Fingleton, 1982). During the nineteenth century, some colonial governments sought to protect indigenous rights to land as these were seen as being vital to the survival of the people as a community (e.g. see Chapter 6).