The rambutan, the chopper and the broken spear: Peacebuilding on bougainville as a cross-cultural exchange

The article explores the local-international peacebuilding interactions which contributed to the success of peace formation in Bougainville (Papua New Guinea). This exploration is guided by a cultural-relational approach to understanding peace processes, with internationally supported peacebuilding conceptualised as a relational exercise in working with and across cultural difference. The focus is on everyday interactions in the local context, addressing issues such as: building relationships and trust, reconciliation and spirituality, and different understandings of gender-relations. The Bougainville case shows that peacebuilding is fundamentally relational, a multifaceted and complex cross-cultural international-local exchange. The stories told by locals and internationals prove to be a rich resource for understanding how internationally supported peacebuilding plays out in local everyday life. It is these stories that allow us to capture the relationality of peacebuilding, and they are constitutive elements of this relationality