In this passage, Matilda considers the different ways people in her village approach the Bougainville civil war. Although some people support the rebels fighting the “redskin” forces for independence, others wish things would return to how they used to be, when the island accommodated whites Australians, Papua New Guineans, and native Bougainvilleans alike while also running an economically rewarding copper mine. When Matilda writes that “these people missed buying things,” she shows the influence the mine had on her culture, demonstrating that Bougainvilleans learned to prioritize money and “biscuits, rice, tinned fish, tinned beef, sugar.” Ironically, the hostile “redskin” aggression—which…