Accounting, Customary Land and Indigenous Peoples : Case Studies from the Pacific

Abstract

The literature on accounting, land and Indigenous people has universally portrayed accounting as a tool of devastation, destruction and dispossession of Indigenous people. Accounting has been employed as a technology of the state to advance the imperialist agenda. While there exists a rich history of studies on accounting, land and Indigenous people, there is a dearth of literature that examines this relationship in contemporary settings. Furthermore, some authors have argued that the extant literature has been overly negative and that there is a need for a plot change in the narrative of accounting and Indigenous people. I respond to this call by seeking to understand how accounting can be used to empower Indigenous people in the management of their customary land. This thesis comprises three papers that have either been published or accepted for publication in internationally ranked peer-reviewed accounting journals. The first publication is based on Papua New Guinea (PNG) and describes the case of accountants of a foreign company who use their economic capital, knowledge of accounting and power to alienate customary land from Indigenous Papua New Guineans. The second paper examines the role of accounting in a recent neoliberal reform in Fiji. Both these papers highlight the malleable and political nature of accounting as it is employed for different purposes by the state, Indigenous landowners and activists. Finally, the third paper imagines the future of social and environmental accounting research in Pacific Small Island Developing States. The first two publications employ a qualitative methodology with data collected from semi-structured interviews and analysis of publicly available documents. The publications are informed by the theoretical framework of Pierre Bourdieu. The third publication conducts a literature review and suggests possible interventions for a social and environmental agenda for the Pacific. Together, these three papers highlight how accounting has been used, how accounting is used and ...