Hiding Your Genes from Jack Sparrow: bioprospecting and the implications of science as a tool of colonialism in the South Pacific

The thesis project consists of two sections. The first section of the project develops an academic and creative investigation of colonial discourse in historical and contemporary contexts and is founded in the traditions of academic prose. The second section of the thesis re/visions the case study at the center of the project through the creative piece, In a Lifetime, a mixed dialogue work for theatre using folk story, song, verbatim, and original sources. This latter section connects to and is broadly based on my research. I argue that science, as a tool of colonialism, has been and is used to transmogrify the aesthetic and political representations of the Indigenous/non-white body. The scholarly component of my project engages the debates arising from bioprospecting, and responses to it, in Papua New Guinea and abroad. I examine the historical foundations of science relevant to this aspect of bioscience and Western categorizations of the Indigenous/non-white Other. I also critique the conflation of Western scientific and religious discourse evident in the literature evaluated in this thesis using the anthropological construct of the Cargo Cult. Finally I examine some issues surrounding cultural appropriation and translation in a bridging chapter linking the investigative section of the thesis with the creative work, In a Lifetime.