Melinda Kii, Ruth Maetala, Rebecca Monson, Vice Chancellor of Solomon Islands National University Professor Transform Aqorau, Reverend Dr Cliff Bird, Dr Lincy Pendeverana
“It is always exciting to receive ‘official’ recognition of the value of your work, and this award affirms the enormous contributions made by Pacific legal scholarship, Pacific studies, and the theories and analyses developed within Pacific communities.”
Professor Rebecca Monson has been awarded the 2023 Australian Legal Research Book Award in recognition of her ground-breaking monograph investigating gender inequality in Pacific land tenure.
Gender, Property and Politics in the Pacific: Who Speaks for Land? (Cambridge University Press, 2022) advances debates about gender, property and legal pluralism in the Pacific by linking them with questions of public authority and state formation. In so doing it extends global debates about property, public authority, Indigenous territorial struggles and post-colonial states.
One peer reviewer described the manuscript as “offering a highly sophisticated analysis” and making important contributions to debates about paths to peace, plural legal orders, and gender skewing.
Professor Monson said she is “enormously honoured” to have received this prestigious award.
“It is always exciting to receive ‘official’ recognition of the value of your work, and this award affirms the enormous contributions made by Pacific legal scholarship, Pacific studies, and the theories and analyses developed within Pacific communities,” she said.
“The book represents my perspective, but it simply wouldn’t have been written without the generosity and patient guidance of a great many people, particularly residents of Kakabona and central Marovo Lagoon in Solomon Islands.
Professor Monson explained that while “colonisation may have formally ended, the struggle to defend Indigenous lands, waterways, skies and lifeways is ongoing”.
“I genuinely hope the book is useful in some way,” she said.
“ANU has always been involved in these struggles and entanglements, often in a complex and contradictory way. Many of the people who provided the intellectual foundations for the book are, like me, ANU graduates.”
Professor Monson said her book is “a product of weaving the intellectual traditions and communities that ANU has fostered and nurtured, and its ongoing proactive commitment to Pacific communities and Pacific Studies”.
Image: Dianah Hoa’au, Enya Hoa’au, Rebecca and George Hoa’au (ANU LLM graduate)
A book review concluded that Professor Monson “points to the co constitution of ‘property’ and hyper-masculinist forms of authority in the Solomon Islands”.
“Given that such dynamics are in evidence far beyond the Pacific, her book deserves to become a key reference in global debates on gender and land. At the same time, the book also explores the different ways and contexts in which Solomon Island women negotiated the management of land and access to resources.”
The book was launched in March 2023 at Solomon Islands National University by Vice-Chancellor Professor Transform Aqorau. Public discussions of the book have also been held in Suva and most recently in Port Vila, at the Melanesian Arts and Culture Festival.
Purchase your copy of Gender, Property and Politics in the Pacific: Who Speaks for Land? here. For 30% off and free shipping enter ‘MONSON30’ at checkout (valid until end of October).
Read more about this ground-breaking book on our website.