More than 700 people have staged a protest march in at Madang provincial government headquarters to petition the administration to stop work on the controversial Pacific Marine Industrial Zone (PMIZ).

The PMIZ, at Vidar along the North Coast Road, is projected to be one of the biggest tuna developments in the Asia-Pacific region and will employ more than 30,000 people. It will have 10 tuna factories and processing facilities comparable to the existing Filipino-owned RD Tuna Canners, where fish will be processed and exported.

However, the protesters are against the development because of concerns over the environmental and social impacts the project will have on the local community. They say environmental impact assessment reports presented to them indicate that pollution would be a high concern and their livelihood is likely to be affected because their survival depends on the sea.

Another example of Big Men trodding over small men?

You may remember that last month there was a lot of hype made over the ‘discovery’ of a number of unidentified animal species within Mt Bosavi, an extinct volcano on the Great Papuan Plateau, located in Southern Highlands Province, and part of the Kikori River basin.

Although there were a number of photos released that captured the imagination of people all around the world, the first excerpts of the BBC’s Natural History Unit expedition have now been posted on YouTube. Of course, we’ll have to wait and watch all the full episodes to find out how exactly the species were ‘discovered’, but from first glance, it seems that all the glory has been gobbled up by the BBC’s posh-accented crew and the left-over crumbs (if any) offered to the local villagers and landowners who no doubt have played a critical role in the success of the expedition.

I’m not going to say much more about the issue right now but I will say that it does bother me. I’ve included a number of video excerpts of what will no doubt become a cash-cow of viewer ratings and advertising dollars for the BBC, but I do want to point out two things.

Firstly, when you watch the clip of the Silky Cuscus (the ‘new’ name given by the BBC crew), you will notice that it’s mentioned that “one of the trackers has returned to camp with a wild animal”. There is an obvious familiarity with this ‘new’ species of cuscus and the local people – why not use the name the people of the land have known it by for generations, instead of renaming an animal for what seems to be a push for scientific flattery.

Secondly, “Lost Land of the Volcano” – is it really lost? What rubbish! Ol papa graun i nogat save long graun bilong ol yet? Ol papa graun bin save long Mt Bosavi bipo long ol mama bilong olgeta BBC kru i bin karim ol.

NOTE:

To read the final report of the Mt Bosavi expedition, click here.

A friend pointed me on to Hailans to Ailans, a two-part international exhibition presenting contemporary artists from PNG. These artists work in a variety of media, including painting, metal sculpture, wood sculpture, weaving, and performance.

It’s a fascinating exhibition and I was particularly engaged with the performances of Dr. Michael Mel, performer, artist, writer, and co-curator of the exhibition which focuses on the contemporary art of PNG. Click on the image below to take you to one such performance – a short yet very powerful performance concerning colonisation, stereotypes and cultural exchange!

Irving Penn, the famous American fashion photographer and portraiture, passed away early this month aged 92 years old. Penn was a master of the studio flash and most of his portraits are lit with window light. When he travelled to New Guinea in 1970 to photograph some of our people, Penn created a portable studio with a skylight deployed facing north with impressive results. These pictures had the same feel as his portraits of celebrities; fully adorned, naturally lit, yet placed before the neutral backdrop, his tribal subjects appear as strangely defined models for a 19th-century ethnographic investigation.

I thought I’d include two of his photographs now famous around the world:

Last month Air Niugini’s main competitor in the PNG aviation industry, Airlines PNG, was splattered across news sites around the world due to the tragedy of the Kokoda crash where 13 people died in what was PNG’s worst aviation disaster to date. The investigation into the crash is on-going and there seems to be a lot of uncertainty as to how many people were actually on board the flight as  more human remains have since been discovered at the site of the crash and reports that the plane’s manifesto is unreliable.

Despite the severity of the crash, Air Niugini must have let out a sigh of relief that it wasn’t one of “theirs”, in what has become an aging fleet. Recently, PNG’s flagship carrier placed a firm order for two Q400 NextGen high-speed turboprop airliners worth US$ 60 million. The airline also took an option for an additional Q400 NextGen airliner, which would increase the value of the order to about $92 million if the option is exercised.

However, despite Air Niugini’s much needed spending spree, there seems to be a few niggles plaguing the firm that have hit the news waves around the world. Firstly, the firm owes nearly half a million dollars to Air New Zealand for equipment supplied by Air NZ’s engineering service, plus repair work and supplied materials for one of Air Niugini’s ‘cowling’ systems where the cooling air is discharged in the low-pressure area near the nose of an aircraft. It seems that Air Niugini is refusing to pay part of this invoice because it is disputing the costs – the case  is on-going in the Auckland High Court.

Secondly, media reports around the world have reported an underpants thief terrorising plane passengers in PNG. Reports suggest that locks have been broken off from suitcases, and ladies panties have been stolen – all this despite the fact that more valuable items present within the suitcase have remained untouched.

I wonder which one of the above niggles has caused the most harm to Air Niugini’s international reputation? For the same cost the airline is paying its expensive lawyers to flog out a dead-horse case in Auckland’s High Court, the firm could possibly invest in training initiatives and upskilling schemes in an attempt to empower its frontline staff so panties-stealing isn’t reverted to as a corporate pastime.

On the topic of PNG music, check out the stunning composition below organised by Aaron Choulai, VADA and the 16-voice Tatana Village Choir. The choir is performing Peroveta Anedia (Prophet Songs) – traditional choral music sung in intricate modal harmonies with soaring, interweaving parts. Choulai brought the Choir and Melbourne jazz collective VADA together as an exciting musical collaboration in 2007 for the film We Don’t Dance For No Reason [Ai Na Asi A Mavaru Kavamu], created for the 2007 Queensland Music Festival.

The Australasian World Music Expo (AWME) will take place in Melbourne from 19-22 November, 2009. Now in its second year, AWME is the Australia-Pacific region’s premier music industry conference and showcase of Indigenous, roots and world music, and a major event which cements Melbourne’s reputation as Australia’s live music capital. AWME brings together musicians, industry representatives and festival audiences from across Australia and around the globe for three days of the finest music from the Australasian region and beyond.

If you’re in Melbourne, pop on down to the Melbourne Recital Centre on Sunday, November 22  to support the Trade Winds Stringband Music Concert, a celebration of music from around the Pacific, and also including PNG’s George Telek and his Moab Stringband.

Dan  Box travelled to Bougainville after winning a competition run by the Royal Geographical Society and the BBC. As the winner of the annual Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Journey of a Lifetime Award, Dan traveled to the islands to witness the first wave of the Carterets Islanders’ evacuation and to make a BBC radio documentary about what is happening.

Click here to listen to a 10 minute recording of Dan’s intial thoughts of the situation.

To find out more about Dan’s mission, read his blog Journey to the Sinking Lands.

David Tenenbaum, founding Publisher of Melbourne Books, contacted me regarding a newly published book about Wendi Choulai. This beautifully produced book showcases the work of Wendi Choulai, one of the Pacific region’s most significant textile designers.

Born in Papua New Guinea and educated in Australia, Wendi Choulai was at ease in both worlds, but drew inspiration from the ritual, dance and grass skirts of her Papuan Besena (extended family). She was the first female graduate in Textile Design from the National Art School in Papua New Guinea, obtained a Master of Textile Design from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and exhibited widely, including the Asia Pacific Triennial in Brisbane with dancers from her Besena.

The following description is taken from the Introduction by Jill Kinnear:

“Wendi Choulai not only understood that culture was not static, but as a woman with strong beliefs and determination, she actively participated in fast-forwarding its evolution.

She turned her energies to investigating how she might incorporate traditional designs into her practice without ‘devaluing’ their original meaning, which was bound inextricably into the ritual of her clan. In addition to confronting the chaos of difference, the third space, she successfully and concurrently negotiated boundaries of gender equality, generational and geographical distance.

Choulai returned again and again to the grass skirt as a textile garment, an icon of ritual and a means of conveying her ideas. For her, the skirt was a metaphor; multi-layered like the overprint, it incorporated traditions and, through interaction with her clan, provided opportunities for legitimate innovation, the past and the future, inseparable and cohesive.

In the third space Wendi occupied a privileged position that she recognised as both an opportunity and a responsibility. Her premature death in 2001 was a tragic end to an immensely creative and intelligent spirit, but through the legacy of her work, her narrative and purpose will continue — she would wish it to, and the world needs desperately to hear her voice, that cautions us to remember the motto of her clan: ‘Aina asia mavaru kavamu’ — We don’t dance for no meaning.”

NOTE:

The book has a large format, is 144 pages long including an 8 page gate-fold, and is colour throughout.

It is selling for AU$ 45, and you can order a copy here.

SUMSUMA (1903?-1965), boat captain and New Guinea patriot, was born about 1903 at Sasa village on Boang Island, New Ireland, son of Tamapuat, of Ansingsing village on Tefa island, and Tarapat of Sasa. His parents were not influential and his prospects therefore few, but at age 10 he entered the foreigner’s world: his mother beat him and he ran away to sea. By 1927 he was captain of the Melanesian Co.’s motor schooner, Edith, a coastal trader out of Rabaul, and was probably the highest-paid New Guinean in the Mandated Territory, earning, with bonuses, up to £12 a month when most New Guineans working for cash received five shillings.

During December 1928 Sumsuma organized a strike by almost all Rabaul’s 3000 New Guinean workers to win them £12 a month. He united in common purpose men from around coastal New Guinea, many recently hostile to one another; he kept their plans secret from every European; and he gained the vital co-operation of another remarkable leader, N’Dramei of Pitylu island off Manus, the senior sergeant-major of police. Led by the police and the ‘boss boys’ (foremen), workers began quitting Rabaul after dusk on 2 January 1929 and by late that night had gathered at the Catholic or Methodist missions on the Kokopo road. Sumsuma had expected the missionaries to mediate, but they would not, and Rabaul’s employers would not negotiate. Although some strikers held firm for two or three days, and a few never went back to work, by mid-morning on 3 January the strike had collapsed.

Nonetheless, most of Rabaul’s Europeans, especially the planters and business people, reacted with fear and fury. The government dismissed 190 police, sentencing most to six months hard labour as carriers. Sumsuma, N’Dramei and nineteen others were imprisoned for three years: Sumsuma served his sentence at Aitape and Kavieng, where warders beat him so severely that he bore the scars for the rest of his life and never forgot the cruelties he suffered.

On being released, he went home to Boang and for the next thirty years searched for the road of progress. Both before and after World War II he organized copra marketing co-operatives, but they failed or were suppressed. When the Japanese came he collaborated, learning from them as he had from Europeans. When they left, his people were ready to elect him king, but the Australians returned and put him in prison again, for cargo cult activities. He toiled on, resourceful, innovative, determined to lead. With the local Catholic mission he established a bank, a power-house, a school and other projects. He was still looking ahead when he died of asthma on 20 August 1965 in the Boang mission hospital. From obscurity he had become a leader of his people, and one of the first—Black or White—to consider seriously the place of New Guineans in a rapidly changing world. His death stilled a great vision, a restless spirit, a friend of the people, and a true man.

NOTE:

This piece was taken from Bill Gammage’s: ‘Sumsuma (1903? – 1965)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 12, Melbourne University Press, 1990, p. 139.