In April 2004, the Pacific Islands Forum leaders issued the Auckland Declaration, paving the way for the design of a Pacific Plan for Strengthening Regional Cooperation and Integration. The plan is part of a process of reform officially launched through the endorsement at the 2003 Forum Leaders’ meeting of New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark’s, request, as chair of the forum, to review the ‘forum’s role, functions and Secretariat’. An Eminent Persons’ Group (EPG) was set up and, after region-wide consultations, it drafted a review, entitled Pacific Cooperation: Views of the Region, in which it recommended the endorsement by Pacific leaders of a Pacific Plan ‘to create stronger and deeper links between the countries of the region’ (EPG 2004: 21).

The plan was thus envisioned as a way to strengthen the region and particularly to help it adapt to encroaching global conditions, in accordance with the EPG’s stern assessment that: ‘The bottom line is that future inter-country relationships will need to be closer and more mutually supportive if the region is to avoid decline and international marginalisation.’ Leaders in the region are no doubt concerned about the problems their countries are facing, such as growing unemployment, poverty, crime, lack of resources to provide basic services and opportunities to their peoples, as well as tensions between national and local governance norms and institutions. There is a genuine conviction that the region is having difficulty coping with global pressures and changes. As the EPG review states, ‘Modernisation and globalisation have brought wonders to our shores but they have also exposed the vulnerability of our small island developing states. They have threatened our family and community bonds and values, weakened our ability to live off the land and sea, and upset our harmony with the natural environment. Nevertheless we shall stand strong to preserve our region, our heritage and the best aspects of our traditions, and enhance them for the benefit of future generations.’

The plan was conceptualised by the EPG as the tool that would ensure that the leaders’ Pacific vision could be translated into reality via intensified regional cooperation. But in its understanding of the purpose of regionalism the EPG emphasised the need for a ‘focus on people’. In particular, it affirmed that ‘[t]ogether we shall work to ensure that this is a region where people matter more than anything else, and where every person feels loved, needed and able to enjoy a free, responsible and worthwhile life’. As a guide to ensuring that this focus on people was upheld, the EPG noted a series of areas that it considered required ‘immediate attention’ at the regional level. The first area listed was ‘cultural identity’.

One of the fundamental aspects of contemporary Pacific culture and cultural identity is its ideal of a focus on people, relationships, on caring and sharing networks, and on working together for the betterment of all. Furthermore, cultural identity is a bond that brings Pacific Island countries and peoples together. As the EPG states, ‘Our cultures link us with other Pacific peoples, and with our sea, land and ancestors.’ Unfortunately, at present, the plan endorsed by the Forum Leaders in 2005 has little to say about culture. Cultural issues are viewed only as strategic objectives under two of the four goals of the plan, namely, sustainable development and good governance, but not as the foundation for further regional integration.

This paper argues that Pacific Island countries have traditionally sought to make cultural identity the foundation of regionalism and that it is in their best interest to continue to build on this approach if regionalism is to have any meaning for the peoples of the Pacific Islands and if it is to become an effective tool for the betterment of governance and development in the Pacific. The paper begins with a brief overview of the current draft plan, its process, main objectives, and its inadequacy in addressing cultural identity. It then discusses the past role of culture in establishing a foundation for regionalism and the difficulties of integrating culture in regionalism, before suggesting ways in which cultural identity can be promoted as a platform for furthering regionalism.