A book chapter in The Menzies Legacy Ideals, change, procession, 1960s and beyond (Melbourne University Press, 2025).

Although fading into history, some readers may recall Melanesia’s cargo cults – scattered ritualistic island movements that sought to summon material Western goods from supernatural forces. Prevalent in the wake of the second world war, small groups of devoted followers marched, raised flags, and engaged in activities such as lighting torches to create plane landing strips in the hope of treasured ‘cargo’. While a curious act of the recent past, its characteristics live on in Melanesia’s most populous nation – Papua New Guinea, where imitation and mimicry is manifesting in government technology and AI aspiration. Take, for example, PNG’s recent […]