Paper long abstract:

Panapompom, a small island in the Louisiade Archipelago of Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea, is a popular destination for yachts. The arrival of a yacht reiterates the founding opposition of Panapompom efforts to appear developed: that between the white other and the black self, striving towards the other's position of wealth and power. This opposition grounds contests over local identities and the form of the community.

Yachts are a useful source of ropes, sails, lead ballast, and other high value items for local people. Requesting things of white tourists, however, places Panapompom people in a developmental bind. In the normal run of day-to-day development, local people seek to present an image of parity with their imagination of white people by rejecting 'primitive native custom' in favour of 'developed' or 'modern' modes of acting. However, perceived tourist demands for the attention of natives, not developed counterparts, leads to a humiliating dilemma for local people. How should they present themselves to tourists as attractive people of culture and local knowledge, while at the same time using them as an avenue to development?

I dwell on the efforts of one young informant, Maipu, whose own response to this conundrum focuses on the development of a personal style that I gloss as black as opposed to native. Asserting his identity as a mystic 'bush doctor', criminal and rapper, he populates the space opened by the white-black dichotomy with a parallel culture that seems to offer parity in difference. At the same time, his black style brings him into conflict with local elders who see his attempts on the white other as an immoral transgression of the Christian norms of the developing community.

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