Since Papua became part of Indonesia in 1963, hundreds of thousands of people have migrated there from other parts of the nation. By 2000, over a third of the province??s residents were non-indigenous people, with the great majority of these immigrants living in the more developed urban areas along the coast. This mass movement has transformed the territory??s society, altering the social, cultural and economic position and opportunities of the indigenous inhabitants. This thesis uses statistical data from Indonesian government publications to describe the development of these changes to the province??s population from 1963 to the early part of the 21st century. While it is acknowledged that the military presence and actions in the territory have played a crucial role in creating distrust of the Indonesian government among the indigenous people, this material supports the thesis that the mass movement of people to the region has developed an identification among the indigenous peoples of the territory of being part of a single Papuan community, a Papuan nationalism. This migration has also limited the educational and employment opportunities of indigenous people, creating hostility towards the newcomers among indigenous people and resulting in an alienation from the Indonesian nation. It will be argued that the patterns of settlement, employment and perceptions of ethnic difference between indigenous and migrant groups reflect a form of internal colonialism that has resulted from this immigration. While independence is a popular aspiration among indigenous Papuans, an evaluation of the national political situation suggests that this event is unlikely in the foreseeable future. If Papuans are to be incorporated fully into the nation of Indonesia, an understanding of the impact of migration on the province??s people is vital. This material also suggests that while there have been negative consequences of the Indonesian rule of the territory, claims that the indigenous population has suffered from genocide perpetrated by Indonesian forces are not supported by the statistical data.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 201-225). / xiv, 225 leaves : ill. (some col.) ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Mitochondrial control region and cytochrome b gene sequence comparisions were used to investigate the molecular systematics of pythons. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Adelaide University, Dept. of Genetics, 2001

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a country composed of thousands of tribes, clans, cultures and customs, with well over a hundred languages and totemic groupings spread sparsely across its lands (Bonney 1986: 2) (see Map A). Today the country has a total population of four million people (NSO 1991). Before colonisation, Papua New Guinea’s indigenous settlement patterns and social organisation reflected the fragmented nature of the country’s environment, its isolation from the eastern and western centres of civilisation, and the needs of small-scale subsistence economies. Over thousands of years, Melanesian societies have been too diverse for any particular area or group to typify the country’s culture or to maintain a dominant role within government. Deviance, regulatory mechanisms and methods used by each tribe or cultural group to resolve disputes, varied according to the community’s culture and customs. At the time of colonisation the indigenous people were artificially united in one nation-state. With the introduction of Western social, political, economic and judicial systems, they were forced to live under alien dispute resolution procedures and to accept an imposed Western system of sanctions, which overlaid or supplemented the customary dispute resolution procedures. Since colonisation, a Western legal system of sanctions has been imposed on Papua New Guineans in which the colonialists have overlooked traditional, unwritten customary systems.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Adelaide, 1985. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 418-425).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Anthropology, 1986. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 417-424).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Anthropology, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 302-311).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2004. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 363-402.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Oregon State University, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 359-373).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Western Australia, 2006.

Thesis (J.C.L.)--Catholic University of America, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-75).