Bougainville’s Independence Struggle Won Against the Odds
Bougainville is a Pacific island with a population of just 300,000, but its independence movement successfully challenged one of the world’s most powerful and predatory mining companies. Its people have now voted overwhelmingly to form their own state.
Guerillas of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army, some still wearing camouflage, watch the signing of the cease-fire agreement that ended their campaign. (Torsten Blackwood / AFP via Getty Images)
The Pacific island of Bougainville lies northeast of Australia and due east of Papua New Guinea (PNG). Roughly the same size as Puerto Rico, Cyprus, or Corsica, it has a population of about 300,000. Anthropologically, the island is an incredibly complex place with a variety of precolonial cultural practices, a variegated tribal make up, and a deep commitment to Christianity.
The faith was brought over by German missionaries whose government formally held dominion over the island until Australia annexed it after World War II. After World War II, Bougainville entered a state of legal limbo as a United Nations Trust Territory. Australia still held administrative responsibility for the island and the neighboring archipelagos.
In 1975, Canberra granted independence to Papua New Guinea (PNG), which had also been under Australian state control, and included some neighboring islands in the new country, such as the large and supposedly “unexplored” Bougainville. Bougainville’s people launched a political campaign for independence, but the international community ignored it.
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