Island Melanesians

Matthew Spriggs is of Cornish descent. He is Professor of Archaeology at the Australian National University in Canberra, from where he has conducted research on Island South-East Asia and the Pacific since 1987. He was formerly Senior Fellow in Oceanic Archaeology in the Division of Archaeology, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. Between 1981 and 1987 he was a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Hawaii. He has published extensively on the archaeology and the anthropology of Melanesia and the Pacific, as well as maintaining a research interest in the history of Cornish. He is married to Ruth Vatoa Saovan, an Island Melanesian, and drinks kava every Friday evening.