The Mountain Philosopher

When the white man gazed upon the black Bougainvillean body they saw a primitive, Blaise observes.

The black body possessed knowledge not seen by the white man, he argues.

Knowledge of astronomy. Knowledge of chemistry. Knowledge of mathematics.

"Bougainville man had his government structure and a system of administration long before any [European] civilisation".

Bougainville man, Blaise contends, had laws and systems of justice. Bougainville man had a spiritual system that connected them to the universe, god and ancestors.

Bougainville had culture, art, and entertainment. It had a stable economy and monetary system.

'There was no poverty. There were no poor people. There were no street people'.

Then came the coloniser.

'Somebody from somewhere came. He thought that the Bougainville man was a primitive and he needs education and he needs religion. Bougainville man, became a confused man'.

Blaise recalls a time of confusion, as Bougainville's rich civilisations were confronted first by the German imperial power, and then the emerging regional hegemon, Australia.

The coloniser, Blaise remarks, sewed doubt into the mind of the colonised through displays of his 'superior' ideology, weapons, and manufactured goods.

"Impressed by materialism, the Bougainville Man accepts the new person as a master and a model. And himself as an inferior"

This leads Bougainville, Blaise contends, down a path of cultural depreciation. Indigenous cultures, traditions, and political-economy are devalued, as are those who are steeped in these traditions and ways. And yet the Bougainville man can never fully emulate the coloniser, achieve what he has, and knows what he knows. The coloniser does not disclose such secrets, Blaise notes.

The path to dependency is born.

It does not end with independence. Blaise observes, education and debt become the new chains.

European systems of knowing educate minds to accept as a baseline of normality, values and approaches to life that was previously exported forcefully via the imperial rifles. But without the wealth of European civilisations to live out the new ways this 'educated' mind must now turn to debt, and accept the scriptures of Western lenders.

'Borrow for money, borrow for services, becomes a slave to the Master'

''We have to go back to start a new journey', Blaise remarks.

For the outside academics, journalists, and 'spooks', who observed the revolution on Bougainville these kinds of statements were seen as chilling. Pol Pot and his year zero campaign was a common reference point used to frame the Bougainville crisis and demonise its participants.

For Blaise going back is about reconnecting with a history brutally amputated by colonialism. To explore it. To rekindle it. But not to uncritically accept all its features. Blaise argues this revolution is not about retreating into the past, but moving forward with pride, history, culture and independence.

"Research and discovery must be the foundation ... Stand on indigenous wisdom"