Ramu Nickel Mine – Arguments Against Uprooting Our People

There is something very powerful about the simple yet pronounced observations of rural Papua New Guineans. These observations are often devoid of any emotive bias that they are so brutally honest in their assessments.

I find these personal viewpoints ultimately refreshing as they innocently strip away the layers of political correctness that so many times corrupt the process of good-governance. Sometimes I wonder whether we, in our struggle to become developed and up to the Western standard of what “development” entails, we lose the real essence of who we are – we lose our souls.

The following short film is titled Uprooted and is the story of four communities affected by the Chinese owned Ramu Nickel Mine in Madang. Produced in March 2010 by SoulPNG, prior to the mine’s first production, it raises questions about the issue of submarine tailings disposal in an area that is actively fished by the local people.

In what is a moving short film, old men cry for their land and future while children play happily around them not fully comprehending the meaning of being landless on their own land and in their own country.

The following landowner quote would not look out of place in a Ray Anderson speech:

“Gavman na kampani mas luk save long dispela (bel hevi bilong mipela). Dispela pait bilong mipela i no min olsem mipela no laikim dispela kain samting long kamap. Nogat, em i no as bilong belhevi. As tingting mipela sanap long en, em i environment bilong miplea. Bus, graun, na wara bilong mipela. Bikos bus, graun na wara, em i konekt wantaim laip bilong yumi.”

~ by Tavurvur on June 11, 2010.