Rat and bat hunt helped heal rift from colonial cruelty

In the British Solomon Islands Protectorate in 1927, a warrior named Basiana led the Kwaio resistance against colonial rule of the island of Malaita, in which 15 people — including an Australian and a Briton — were killed with spears and a few rifles. The London Colonial Office asked Australia to quell the ‘uprising’. In the months that followed, Australians and Solomon Islanders killed at least 60 Kwaio, desecrating shrines and violating cultural taboos. Eventually, Basiana surrendered and was hanged with six conspirators. For almost a century, these events have held back the Kwaio people, shaping their relations with ‘Europeans’.