Digital Commons Network^™

Dynamics Of Civil Resistance In Oceania, Thomas Dick, Jason Mcleod, Luke Johnston

Thomas Dick

The Dynamics of Civil Resistance (DOCR), is a not-for-profit popular education and cultural development programme in Oceania. We work in collaboration with churches, human rights organisations, traditional leaders, women leaders, youth and student groups and community organisations to establish a network of indigenous educators who can resource nonviolent social movements and democratic transitions.

DOCR has developed out of programs that originated in 2005, in response to requests from Papuan human rights activists (Rayfield and Morello 2012). The purpose of the Project is to build their capacity of activists and artists working nonviolently for a just and sustainable peace in the …

Creating Policy That Supports Living Cultural Expression In Melanesia, Thomas Dick

Thomas Dick

In Vanuatu, communities have expressed a desire to continue leading lifestyles based on a traditional economic base. In the context of economic globalisation, however, this possibility is being ignored or denied by government policy decisions made on the basis of ‘economic rationalism’. There is growing concern that these government decisions are in fact destructive of ‘popular cultural expressions’, and do not respect the values of the community in relation to its development.

In 2006, an ‘Economic opportunities fact-finding mission’ to the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu was sponsored by NZAID and AusAID. The report that followed recognized that ‘many of …

Giving Voice To Cultural Enterprises From The Global South, Ben Farr-Wharton, Thomas Dick, Jaime Ruiz-Gutiérrez, Siegrid Guillaumon, Tania Casado, Lucas Gomes, Luke Johnston

Thomas Dick

Over the last decade-and-a-half there has been a rise in the amount of academic research exploring the conceptual and historical interactions of ‘culture’ and ‘the market’ (see for example Caves (2000), Cunningham (2002), Pratt (2004), Throsby (2008), O'Connor (2009), O'Connor (2010)). Although contentious, the impetus for this has largely been the establishment of the ‘creative industry’ discourse and how it has been applied globally in policy and practice (Cunningham 2009). Despite this, with only a few notable exceptions, the theory and concepts that underpin this discourse have largely been derived through research contexts that are Anglo/Euro-centric and metropolitan. The purpose …

Post-Colonial Reflexivities Of Ni-Vanuatu Urban Youth In The Muisc Industry, Thomas Dick, Monika Stern

Thomas Dick

The urban music of “developing” countries is a privileged form of expression for young people. Across international borders, musicians identify with each other as opposed to “non-musicians”, but at the same time assert themselves as privileged messengers of the young people of their community, their town and, in some cases, their country in general. Music is often subject to the paradox between admiration and disapproval: the talented musician as star or idol, appearing in the media, wearing “in” clothes, etc, as opposed to the unstable musician who is drugged, alcoholic, unfaithful, incapable, etc.

Today, the nascent music industry in Port …