United Nations, African Union and other peacekeeping has grown. What are the kinds of interventions that create wars and make things worse for people? How can peacebuilding contribute to justice and development? How do war and peace cascade from one hot spot to another? How can peacebuilding be locally responsive and restorative as it transforms structural causes of war?

The International Commission of the Red Cross (ICRC) currently registers 100,000 people as missing due to conflict; it acknowledges that number is only a fraction of the real total (ICRC 2018). The scale of the problem of the missing, and the damaging, long-lasting impact on families and communities, creates enormous challenges for societies rebuilding after conflict. There is growing evidence that the responses of international, state and nongovernment (NGO) actors have failed to effectively address these challenges.

Sorcery accusation related violence is seen as a growing problem in PNG and has attracted domestic and international calls for an effective government response. It is implicated in a range of negative developmental outcomes, including economic disempowerment, poor health, insecurity, persecution, and violence including torture and murder. What’s more, these negative outcomes impact disproportionately upon women and most acutely affect women who lack male protection and are consequently more vulnerable to sorcery accusations.

This collaborative ARC Discovery Project led by Cressida Fforde aims to re-conceptualise heritage from a standpoint of reconciliation. In doing so, it will generate new understandings about how heritage and its management can contribute to reconciliation processes. The project will combine Aboriginal, Maori and Western intellectual traditions in order to advance theoretical understandings of heritage and to examine its reconstructive power.