Guadalcanal Weather Coast Project 1971-75

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This collection relates to the Guadalcanal Weather Coast Project (GWCP) of south Guadalcanal. It spanned 1971 to 1975 and came from a suggestion by the Solomon Island administration, then a British protectorate. Based on landscape and population surveys during the 1960s of the 'Weather Coast', locally Tasimauri (live sea), the concern was that population densities on valley and coast environments could outstrip food, land, and marine resources. Framed as a joint project between the East-West Center (Population Institute) and the University of Hawai`i, GWCP involved (post)graduate students in agricultural economics (Eric Witt), economics (Robert Freeman, David McClure), education (Keri Freeman), history (Judith Bennett), public health (Thomas Foye, Jane Tanner), and political science (Elizabeth Muhr). Overall, it was shaped and coordinated by two geography faculty (Murray Chapman, Peter Pirie).

Between September 1972 and January 1973, Tasimauri field enquiries at eight village sites focused on population, agriculture, money, communications, and socioeconomic activities. Crucial to all activities, as a base line, was a comprehensive census of 27 November 1972. Many local people were involved in this project as interpreters, census enumerators, research aides, and porters; 176 are listed and acknowledged in the project report (Tasi Mauri 1974).

Items in this collection relate to the preparations, raw materials, and findings of the Guadalcanal Weather Coast Project (GWCP). For the regional census, 27 November 1972, it includes pre-census preparatory materials, raw census data, and preliminary post-census reporting. The majority of both published and unpublished materials in this online collection are also available in hard-copy in the Pacific Collection, where they have each been cataloged as separate items. They are gathered together here to document the history and results of this project, as well as to give open access to Pacific Island and other scholars, especially from Solomon Islands.

In addition to the materials that have been digitized for this online collection, the Pacific Collection at UH-Manoa Library holds two related items that are only available in print form: The original printouts of the 1972 GWCP Census and a printout of the population by locality portion of the 1970 National Census.

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