A National Strategy For The Study Of The Pacific

"This Report was commissioned by the Australian Association for the Advancement of Pacific Studies (AAAPS) at its first Annual General Meeting in January 2006. A workshop in Canberra in 2004 and the subsequent first conference of the Association in Brisbane in January 2006 identified a malaise in Australia in teaching and research on the Pacific and called for a program to revive and enhance the excellence in teaching and research that had once marked Australia as the leader in the field. AAAPS also acknowledged the increasing concern in Australia about security, good governance, stability and development in the neighbouring region, which includes two territories formerly under Australian colonial control - Nauru and Papua New Guinea. The need for a review of teaching and research grew from the sense of falling behind felt among the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences in universities, but equally among archives, libraries, galleries and museums." --Preface.