Keith Jackson & Friends: PNG ATTITUDE

Assistance for dying languages in PNG & beyond

SCIENCE BLOG

MANY OF THE WORLD'S LANGUAGES, including a number in Papua New Guinea, are disappearing and David Chiang wants to do something about it.

Chiang is an assistant professor at the University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute and he is worried that the loss of these languages will lead to a diminution of scientific knowledge and cultural understanding.

That’s why he spent two weeks in May last year leading a language preservation workshop to save endangered languages in PNG, which has a rich cultural and linguistic diversity.

PNG has arguably the highest language density and diversity on earth — over 800 different languages, or a new language for every 215 square miles.

Fast, cheap vaccine: Nanopatch trials to begin in PNG

MURRAY VALLEY STANDARD

A BRISBANE SCIENTIST is preparing to begin field trials in Papua New Guinea of an invention expected to get life-saving vaccines to children around the world immeasurably cheaper and years faster than is currently possible.

And it's all without the use of needles.

Professor Mark Kendall is the inventor of the Nanopatch, a strip smaller than a postage stamp that has thousands of microscopic points which can inject disease-busting vaccines into the skin.

For nine years, Professor Kendall and a team of international researchers have been working on the "needle-less" vaccination in the laboratory.

Beetle named after you? Moresby phonebook method

SCIENCE CODEX | Pensoft Publishers

TROPICAL RAINFORESTS ARE KNOWN for their high biodiversity of countless species, many of them unknown and not named by scientists yet. A large proportion of this undiscovered life on earth is formed by insects, especially beetles.

German researchers Alexander Riedel (of the Natural History Museum in Karlsruhe) and Michael Balke (of the Zoological State Collection in Munich), experts in the faunas of remote tropical countries, know this well.

Now they have come across a special case, the weevil genus Trigonopterus, which is hyperdiverse. Hundreds of distinct species roam the jungles of Papua New Guinea and most of them have never been recorded by scientists.

Case study: Big miners’ contribution to development

MARGARET CALLAN | Development Policy Blog | Extracts

THE LARGEST CONTRIBUTION to national development by the big four mining companies in Papua New Guinea (Lihir Gold, Oil Search, Ok Tedi Mining and Porgera Joint Venture) was taxes and other statutory payments paid to the national government, K1568.4m.

This represents an average of 17.2% of the PNG government’s total revenue and grants over the period and confirms that mining companies have a big stake in the national government’s capacity to use revenue well to provide development benefits to Papua New Guinean citizens.

Indiana Jones and PNG's 'lost tribe of Israel'

DEBORAH O'NEIL | Florida International University

PROFESSOR TUDOR PARFITT, the scholar known as the 'British Indiana Jones' was in Australia a decade ago lecturing on the Judaising Lemba tribe of southern Africa when a strange call came.

The man identified himself as a leader of the Gogodala  tribe of Papua New Guinea.

He told Parfitt: You’re the guy who proved the Lemba are really Jews? We are the same as the Lemba.

A few days later the Papuan man showed up in Parfitt’s hotel with a hat full of hair plucked from fellow tribe members. He asked Parfitt to test the strands to see if the Gogodala were a Lost Tribe of Israel.

New marine species discovered in Madang Lagoon

NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY | Red Orbit

WHEN PROFESSOR JIM THOMAS and his global team of researchers turned up at Madang Lagoon in Papua New Guinea they discovered a treasure trove of new species unknown to science - sea slugs, feather stars and amphipods, a shrimp-like animal (pictured).

“In the Madang Lagoon, we went a kilometre out off the leading edge of the active Australian Plate and were in 6,000 meters of water,” said Dr Thomas, a researcher at Nova Southeastern University’s National Coral Reef Institute in Hollywood, Florida.

“It was once believed there were no reefs on the north coast of PNG since there were no shallow bays and lagoons typical of most coral reef environments. But there was lots of biodiversity to be found.”

Is anyone listening? This research can really help PNG

KEITH JACKSON

MICHAEL DOM IS NOT JUST an award winning writer. In fact one of Papua New Guinea’s leading poets’ day job is as a research scientist.

At present doing postgraduate studies at the University of Adelaide, Michael is normally based at Labu Station, a National Agricultural Research Institute operation in Morobe Province.

Earlier this year, he and colleague Janet Pandi, from NARI’s high altitude highlands research centre at Tambul Station in the Western Highlands, presented a paper at a science and technology conference in Port Moresby.

“My session drew a crowd of six and a half people,” says Michael. “One person left half-way through my 15-minute talk to attend the more loud and argumentative session next door about funding for electrical engineers.

“But my audience discussed what I had presented in some depth, with much questioning and great feeling. It was all right.”

Well I’m hoping PNG Attitude can offer Michael a slightly bigger crowd.

Generational change underpins Pacific's digital future

DANIELLE CAVE | The Interpreter | Lowy Institute

LED BY BLOGGERS, DIGITAL ENTREPRENEURS and social media groups in Papua New Guinea, a Pacific 'digital generation' is emerging that is increasingly influencing public debates, forming policy ideas, holding institutions accountable and coordinating political protests.

The potential size and influence of the Pacific's emerging 'digital generation' is enhanced by the fact that more than 50% of the regional population is estimated to be below the age of 24.

In a new Lowy Institute Analysis research paper launched on Wednesday, Digital Islands: How the Pacific's ICT Revolution is Transforming the Region, I outline how the Pacific Islands region is in the midst of an information and communication technology (ICT) revolution that could have profound implications for the region's governance and development.

My research, sponsored by the Myer Foundation Melanesia program at the Lowy Institute, reveals that digital technologies are increasingly being used in the Pacific Islands to harness, influence and project political and social change.

About 60% of Pacific Islanders now have access to a mobile phone and this figure continues to climb. This has coincided and fused with another global phenomenon, the rise of social media.

This growth in mobile phone access is extraordinary given that only four years ago, six countries (PNG, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands) had penetration rates of 16% or less, meaning less than just one in five people had access to a mobile phone.

In Tonga, mobile penetration has risen from 3% in 2002 to 53% in 2011. Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu and New Caledonia now enjoy mobile penetration rates of over 80%. In 2006 only 2% of PNG's population had access to a mobile phone; today this figure is fast approaching 40%. 

The mobile growth statistics are impressive, but the region is home to some of the lowest internet penetration rates in the world. For example, only 2% of PNG's population had access to the internet in 2011 and in Solomon Islands, Samoa and Vanuatu, it is less than 10%.

However, web-enabled mobile phones and Facebook phones are enabling the region to leapfrog barriers (such as remoteness, cost and availability) to computer-enabled internet access.

Decreasing costs for handsets and calls, and better reception, has facilitated more widespread access, far beyond affluent urban dwellers.

There are now almost 700,000 Facebook users in the Pacific Islands, dispersed across the region's population of 10 million people.

PNG is leading the region's growth in social media use with Facebook membership nearing 150,000, a figure which has tripled since mid-2011. Fiji and Samoa, also experiencing high growth in Facebook membership, are not far behind.

Here biodiversity abounds: hunting new species in PNG

LAURENCE CARAMEL | Le Monde

ARMED WITH THOUSANDS OF test tubes, flasks, microscopes, mouth aspirators, gillnets and compressors, Philippe Bouchet and Olivier Pascal [pictured] have arrived in Madang, their departure point for their new expedition in Papua New Guinea.

Bouchet, the zoologist specialising in molluscs at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, and Pascal, the botanist for NGO Pro-Natura International, are old accomplices.

They even have special nicknames for each other:  ‘Seashells’ for Bouchet and ‘Muddy Old Boot’ for Pascal.

Since 2006, they have led a research team, Our Planet Reviewed, that has taken them from Vanuatu to Mozambique and Madagascar.

After two years of preparation, they are finally ready to embark on a new chapter in their inventory of the world's biodiversity, visiting one of the world’s most richly diverse areas, but also one of the least travelled. The expedition will last three months and will include almost 200 scientists of 21 different nationalities.

Papua New Guinea presents a double attraction for the scientists. It is situated at the heart of the Coral Triangle, which stretches between Taiwan, the Philippines, the Malaysian peninsula and Indonesia. This is the world’s most bio-diverse marine environment, where two-thirds of the world's coral reefs are to be found.

On land, the potential is just as appealing. PNG possesses the third-largest expanse of intact tropical rainforest, after the Amazonian basin and the Congo. The team will be based in Madang Province, where the rainforest extends from the coastal plains to the edge of the slopes of Mount Wilhelm, reaching to around 3,800 meters.

"Each new expedition is bound to lead us to the discovery of new species," predicts Bouchet, who will lead the marine mission. This is especially true as the mission will focus on species that have until now been neglected by zoologists: molluscs, crustaceans, polychaeta and algae.

"Molluscs and crustaceans represent around half of marine species; there are eight times more of them than there are fish," says Bouchet. "However, the scientific community suffers from the same problem as the general public. They're only interested in certain species, such as large mammals."

There is also another reason for this professional snub. It takes a considerable amount of time to track down, classify, and sample these small organisms, rarely bigger than a few centimeters. It can take years to declare a new species.

Discoveries are made almost unintentionally; however, they do follow a precise structure. Bouchet, staying with his team at Divine Word University, painstakingly goes through minute details with his team each night before dinner.

"On an expedition of this magnitude and at this level of complexity, I have to devote 100% of my time to management. You have to find the right balance between running a tight ship and one that allows researchers to fully express their creativity."

PNG coconut bank under threat from Bogia disease

ANNE MOORHEAD | SciDev Net

THE INTERNATIONAL COLLECTION of the South Pacific's coconut palm species, held at a field gene bank in Papua New Guinea, is under threat from a disease outbreak close to the gene bank.

The warning came at a meeting on the Pacific coconut research and development strategy in Samoa last week, convened by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.

The deadly disease, Bogia coconut syndrome, is threatening the survival of gene banks of region's most important tree, the coconut, a number of which are endemic.

Named after the town of Bogia, the disease appears to be caused by bacteria similar to, but distinct from, the better known lethal yellowing disease that attacks palm species.

Ironically, PNG was selected as the site for the gene bank in the 1990s because the country was relatively free of coconut pests and diseases.

In an attempt to contain the disease, movement of coconuts and coconut palms out of the affected region has been banned, with roadblocks in place to help enforce this.

The gene bank holds 3,200 coconut palms, representing 57 different varieties of Cocos nucifera, and is one of five international coconut collections around the world.

Duplication will not be easy: some of the varieties are not kept in any other gene banks and will need to be collected again from the field.

Roland Bourdeix, coordinator of the International Coconut Genetic Resources Network, is arranging an urgent mission to PNG to assess the situation.

"We hope to rescue the collection," Bourdeix says. "We'll relocate it if there's a safe way to move the plants. We are also planning to duplicate [the gene bank] in another country."

Are collectors the key to saving the giant butterfly?

PHILIP BETHGE | Spiegel Online

PAPUA NEW GUINEA IS HOME to the world's largest butterfly, but oil palm plantations are threatening the rare species' habitat.

Conservationists and local residents alike would like to save the species by lifting a ban on trade in the butterfly and selling it for thousands of dollars to collectors.

The insect makes a wide circle around Grace Juo's small stilt house and lands on a bright red hibiscus blossom. In Jimun, the language of the indigenous people, the Queen Alexandra's Birdwing butterfly is called dadakul.

It's the world's largest butterfly, with females attaining wingspans in excess of 25 centimeters. "We are proud of our butterfly, and we take good care of it," says Juo, glancing at the insect, which has now inserted its long proboscis into the flower.

Juo lives in Kawowoki, a small village of huts on the Managalas Plateau in eastern PNG. The volcanic soil here is dark and heavy, and the rainforest is an exuberant shade of green. The plateau is the last remaining habitat of any significant size of the Queen Alexandra's Birdwing butterfly, one of the world's rarest insects.

Some butterfly collectors would pay thousands of dollars for a single specimen. Local residents like Juo hope that they will soon benefit from the appetites of trophy-hungry collectors.

But multinational corporations believe that oil and natural gas deposits lie beneath the tropical paradise and the rainforest is threatened. Prospectors have also found copper and gold, and oil palm plantations are proliferating in the region.

The temptations of the modern age are reaching PNG, a country divided into hundreds of ethnic groups. It has a disastrous infrastructure, is wracked by tribal feuds and is at a high risk for disease epidemics.

The history of the Queen Alexandra's Birdwing butterfly isn't just the tale of a rare species. It also revolves around the question of how to go about protecting species in a developing country that is undergoing rapid change.

The search for answers begins behind a barbed-wire fence in Port Moresby, the capital city. Armed guards provide security against the city's criminal gangs, known as "rascals." A rattling air-conditioner helps to stave off the heat and humidity in the office of the organization Partners with Melanesians.

A conservation plan

Kenn Mondiai and Rufus Mahuru are sitting at a dark table, explaining their rescue plan. "For the last seven years, we've been discussing ways to save the Managalas Plateau together with the local people," says Mondiai, a heavy man with a round face and a moustache.

The activist wants to transform the habitat of the giant butterflies into one of the largest conservation areas in Oceania. "The butterfly helps us convince the people to support this cause," he says. "It symbolizes the diversity and value of our nature."

British naturalist Albert Meek was the first European to spot the giant butterfly in the rainforests of Papua New Guinea. Hired by the zoologist Lord Walter Rothschild, Meek explored the region in 1906 to find fresh trophies for Rothschild's private zoological museum in the English town of Tring.

One day, Meek discovered a butterfly flying at a high altitude, and promptly brought it down with a shotgun. The adventurer dissected the butterfly and sent it to England. Rothschild named the animal "Ornithoptera alexandrae," in honor of Queen Alexandra, the wife of King Edward VII.

Panguna mine not an adequate account of B'ville conflict

SIMON KENEMA | Australian Association for the Advancement of Pacific Studies

IN 1989 A GROUP OF DISGRUNTLED LANDOWNERS from Panguna hosting the giant Bougainville Copper Mine embarked on a violent sabotage of mine infrastructure.

Many reasoned that the violence was a failure on the part of the company and the government of Papua New Guinea to address outstanding landowner grievances.

Chief among these grievances was the view that the original agreement that gave effect to the establishment of the Panguna Copper Mine project was due for review. This agreement was made while PNG was still a colony of Australia.

But, just as plans of the need to renegotiate and review the agreement were being swivelled through the political and bureaucratic machinery of the government and the company, an undercurrent of inter-landowner tensions was swirling on the horizon.

And before any amicable solution could be reached to defuse the situation the disagreements flared into a violent conflict between the landowners themselves and the company.

It is widely accepted within post-conflict discourse that the tension and conflict was perpetuated by a combination of intergenerational differences between the elderly and young landowners and a range of different factors perceived by the locals to be the source of their exploitation and marginalisation.

This paper analyses these perceived causalities and how aspects of local cosmological reasoning can help us to understand the tensions that culminated in the violence….

An encompassing and detailed investigation of these tensions would require an extensive ethnographic investigation. Only such an investigation would adequately map the often divergent and conflicting sources of tension in the group dynamics of the landowners that eventually led to what became a full scale civil conflict.

The main aim of the paper is therefore to analyse the different causal explanations of the conflict. The analysis is centred on a dichotomy between post-conflict causal analyses and the existential experience of everyday life in the mine-impacted communities of Nagovisi and Nasioi.

I argue that the concept and value of 'post-conflict' in the subsequent proliferation of academic literature canvassing the conflict and its array of perceived causes is based on little substantive ethnographic data.

While it is not easy to discretely separate the historical continuity of events into 'post-conflict causalities' and 'pre-mine existential experience of social life', an attempt will be made here in spite of the complications rather than in ignorance of them.

Mining in Papua New Guinea – where do the benefits go?

MARGARET CALLAN | Development Policy Blog

NRI Discussion Paper No 124, Peter Johnson, Lode Shedding: A Case Study of the Economic Benefits to the Landowners, the Provincial Government, and the State from the Porgera Gold Mine

THE NATIONAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE (NRI) in Papua New Guinea has published an interesting study of the economic benefits from the Porgera Gold Mine over its lifetime.

The Porgera gold mine in Enga Province has been producing gold for over 20 years. This research identifies the benefits distributed from Porgera’s operations from 1990 to 2009 at K6.4 billion.

Of this, K4.8 billion was distributed to groups and institutions in PNG in line with the mine’s Memorandum of Agreement and K1.6 billion was distributed to international stakeholders.

According to calculations in this report, the share of total PNG benefits accruing to various parties amount to: national government K1.7bn; landowners K1.2bn; ‘PNG nationals’ K1.1bn (mainly wages and contracts); Enga Province K424m; Enga Provincial Government K279m; and Porgera Development Authority K130m.

In 2009 alone, K56 million in royalties, compensation and dividends was injected into the Porgeran economy, equivalent to approximately K3,935 per person, a contribution substantially higher than PNG’s 2009 per capita income of K2,337 (US$850).

The study analyses Porgera’s benefit flows by type of benefit as well as beneficiary. Wages and taxes have each accounted for 31% of financial benefits from the mine, with business contracts close behind at 29%. By contrast, royalty and compensation payments, while large kina payments, accounted for only 4% and 3% respectively of total benefits paid.

However you cut it, it is clear that the Porgera mine has delivered massive resources to the national government, provincial authorities, development authorities and the people of Enga province. With what results?

'Benign' malaria drove human evolution in Pacific

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute | PLoS Medicine

THE MALARIA SPECIES RAMPANT in the Asia-Pacific region has been a significant driver of evolution of the human genome, a new study has shown.

An international team of researchers has shown that Plasmodium vivax malaria, the most prevalent malaria species in the Asia-Pacific, is a significant cause of genetic evolution that provides protection against malaria.

Their finding challenges the widely-accepted theory that Plasmodium falciparum, which causes the most lethal form of malaria, is the only malaria parasite capable of driving genome evolution in humans. The study was published this week in the journal PLOS Medicine.

Professor Ivo Mueller from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and Barcelona Centre for International Health Research (CRESIB) led the study, with colleagues from the Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research, Centre of Global Health and Diseases, US, and the University of Western Australia.

Malaria is a devastating parasitic disease that kills up to one million people a year. It is a major cause of poverty and a barrier to economic development. Approximately half of the world's population is at risk of malaria infection.

"Humans and malaria parasites have been co-evolving for thousands of years," Professor Mueller said. "Malaria has been a major force in the evolution of the human genome, with gene mutations that provide humans with some protection against the disease being preserved through natural selection because they aid in survival."

Professor Mueller said the study has challenged the perception that P. falciparum malaria is the only malaria species that affects human genome evolution.

"It has long been assumed that Plasmodium falciparum, the species that causes the most severe disease and most deaths from malaria, is the most important driver of this gene selection in humans," Professor Mueller said.

"Our results suggest that P. vivax malaria, though until recently widely considered to be a 'benign' form of malaria, actually causes severe enough disease to provide evolutionary selection pressures in the Asia-Pacific."

Professor Mueller said that the research team was interested in whether P. vivax malaria might be the cause of the unusually high rates of Southeast Asian ovalocytosis (SAO), a hereditary red blood cell disorder, in the Asia-Pacific region.

"SAO occurs in approximately 10-15% of the population in parts of the South West Pacific and is caused by a hereditary mutation in a single copy of a gene that makes a red blood cell membrane protein.

“This is almost an absurdly high frequency when you consider that inheriting two copies of the mutation is invariably fatal, so we figured it must confer a strong advantage to the carriers," he said.

The research team looked at the incidence of P. vivax and P. falciparum infections in three studies that included a total of 1,975 children in Papua New Guinea aged 0-14 years.

"We found that SAO-positive children were significantly protected against P. vivax infection, with 46% reduction of clinical disease in infants with little or no immunity, and 52-55% reduction in the risk of infection in older children.

“We also saw a significant decrease in parasite numbers in infants and older children, which is linked to a decrease in risk of clinical disease," Professor Mueller said.

The finding could have dramatic implications for future malaria vaccine design and development, Professor Mueller said.

"Studying the mechanisms that cause SAO-positive people to be protected against P. vivax malaria could help us to better understand the mechanics of infection and help us to identify better targets for a malaria vaccine," he said.

$800,000 grant to study women growing vegetables

EMMA MacDONALD | Canberra Times

WOMEN WHO FEED THEIR FAMILIES by growing vegetables on small plots of land in Papua New Guinea will be the subject of a new University of Canberra research project into their business skills.

The university has received an $800,000 research grant - awarded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research - to send a group of researchers into the field to see whether improving the business skills and financial literacy of women vegetable growers in PNG would improve their ability to make a profit and live more securely.

The research is led by the university's associate dean in the Faculty of Education, Professor Barbara Pamphilon, who says the study is a first.

''Quite a lot of work has been done to improve the actual growing of vegetable or agricultural produce, and this has often focused on men,'' Professor Pamphilon said.

“Women smallholders grow vegetables for the family and sell the excess but the business skills behind planning and selling this type of produce has not been looked at to date.”

The four-year study will focus on improving the business know-how of women farmers and supporting their role in providing for their families.

''The long-term aim of the project is to improve family livelihood and family security. We will be focusing on women's work as part of a family small business, but it's important that men are welcome and the whole family unit is supported.''

Part of the research grant would also build the capacity of local trainers and researchers so that the project could continue once the study is finished.

''We're really looking to understand the contextual, cultural and social factors that impact on women both as farmers and on how they learn.

“We will trial a range of ways to support learning that are well beyond simple training days - women are already joining into collective groups and we will build on this sort of local activity.''

Traditional practices such as bartering would be examined as business impediments.

The project will focus on women in East New Britain, the Western Highlands and the area in Central Province around the capital city of Port Moresby.

It will include an email newsletter twice a year to the wider Papua New Guinea region to disseminate findings throughout the study.

World's largest butterfly disappearing from rainforests

THE GUARDIAN

HOW LARGE DOES A BUTTERFLY HAVE TO BE before anybody notices it is disappearing? In the case of Papua New Guinea's Queen Alexandra's birdwing, the answer is enormous.

The world's largest butterfly boasts a 30cm wingspan – imagine the width of a school ruler - yet few outsiders in its rainforest home in Oro province in northern PNG have ever seen it.

It's a scenario unlikely to improve as oil palm plantation and logging remorselessly devours this endangered butterfly's habitat.

Edwardian naturalist Albert Meek first recorded it in 1906 on a collecting expedition to PNG. The fast-flying butterfly frequents high rainforest canopy so Meek resorted to blasting them down by shotgun.

The Natural History Museum taxonomically allocated his buckshot-peppered specimens into the birdwing genus (a tropical grouping possessing super-elongated forewings) and named it after Edward VII's wife.

Because of substantial sexual dimorphism it took some time to correlate males and females as the same species. The females are velvety-black with cream patches and bright yellow abdomens. They are almost one-third larger than the males, which are iridescently patterned gold, turquoise, green, and black.

It is not clearly understood why the butterfly grows so large but its lack of predators due to its unpalatable nature is certainly a factor.

Queen Alexandra's eggs are laid on the poisonous leaves of a tropical pine-vine called aristolochia, found in Oro province's rainforests. Emerging caterpillars feeding on aristolochia ingest its toxins throughout all stages of growth until they pupate into chrysalises. Red hairs on the emerged adult butterfly's thorax warn predators that it remains highly toxic.

Their biggest threat, however, remains progressive habitat clearance. Queen Alexandra's have lost much of their range across Oro province's coastal plain and are now condensed into a small stronghold on a remote plateau called Managalas.

"Its habitat is being destroyed by oilpalm expansion and coffee and cocoa growing," explained Eddie Malaisa, wildlife officer for Oro provincial government.

"I'm very worried about this butterfly's future because on the lower plains I know of only seven isolated blocks where it's found but these are small patches of rainforest between 100-200 hectares surrounded by oil palm".

Ironically, weakening regulation set up to protect them may be the butterfly's best hope for survival.

Queen Alexandra's are currently classified as an appendix 1 species under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), which prohibits their trade as specimens for overseas collectors. With no legal trade, an illegal black market keep the specimens in demand.

In Winged Obsession: Chasing the Illegal Trade (2011), journalist Jessica Speart tells of a jailed butterfly trader who was offering pairs of Queen Alexandra's illegally smuggled out of PNG for more than $8,500.

She estimated the global butterfly smuggling trade to be worth around $200 millon each year.

Malaisa believes downgrading Queen Alexandra's Cites status  to allow a controlled limited trade would incentivise poor subsistence farmers to protect the butterfly's habitat by allowing them to sell an agreed quota of specimens.

"What is worse? Legally trading a few butterflies or removing Queen Alexandra's habitat forever," asks Malaisa.

Genetic evidence: cannibalism common in human past

SAM KEAN | Slate Magazine | Extracts

HUMANS IN DURESS EAT OTHER HUMANS, always have. A 100-pound adult, after all, could provide his starving comrades with around 40 pounds of precious muscle protein, plus edible fat, liver, blood, and gristle.

Some archaeological evidence suggests that humans have tucked into each other even when not famished. But for years, it was unclear whether most non-starvation cannibalism was religiously motivated and selective, or culinary and routine. According to some scientists, our DNA suggests routine….

Cannibalism per se isn’t bad for you; you can even spoon up and eat most human brains safely. But if your guest of honor happened to suffer from Creutzfeldt-Jakob or another prion disease, those misshapen proteins can slither into your own gray matter when you eat him. This exact scenario unfolded in Papua New Guinea last century, among some highland mountain tribes who consumed their relatives in ritual funeral feasts.

At its peak in the late 1950s, the PNG epidemic killed 200 tribal members per year. Strangely, though, while many victims died as children, some people exposed to prions lived four decades or more before succumbing. And some people who consumed tainted brains never showed any symptoms.

DNA explained the discrepancy. More than three-quarters of the long-term survivors had two different versions of the prion gene. Both versions produced healthy, functioning proteins, despite their slightly different shapes. The shapes made a difference only when people ate tainted brains, and faced an invasion of the infectious vampire prions.

While the bad prions could latch onto one of the two shapes just fine, the other shape could shrug them off and avoid corruption. Overall, then, having two different versions of the prion gene slowed the destruction down.

If the word “prion” has been tickling the back of your brain until now, that’s probably because of the outbreak of mad-cow disease in the United Kingdom in the 1990s. Mad-cow is a prion disease that arose when humans ate cows that had been forced to cannibalize each other on factory farms.

Museum botanist finds undiscovered plants in PNG

SHEILA SARHANGI
HONOLULU MAGAZINE

WHEN SHELLEY JAMES BROKE HER ARM in the bush of Papua New Guinea, a dreadlocked, tattooed medicine woman carefully wrapped stinging nettle leaves around her skin to create a poultice.

James, originally from Australia,  was a two-day hike from the pick up point and her plane wasn’t scheduled to arrive for three days after that.

“The plant has stinging hairs that release an irritating poison,” says James, rubbing her left arm, which is still pink from the cast.

“The leaves increased the circulation of blood flow so I didn’t get as much swelling as I would’ve if it was left untreated.”

James didn’t need convincing of the woman’s know-how or the plant’s coaxing powers. She’s an associate botanist in Hawaii’s Bishop Museum and for the past two years has led scientists on expeditions to remote forests across the country.

The project aims to discover new plant and animal species in one of the most species-rich countries in the world.

James’ focus is on vascular plants, which have only begun to be cataloged in PNG. Experts speculate there are between 11,000 and 25,000 species in the region, but that’s a wild guess.

The reason: PNG is not an easy place to do research. It’s expensive, extremely humid (which affects samples), and its diverse geography can make regions hard to access.

But documenting species can help identify priority areas for conservation and lead to medical breakthroughs. “There could be medical chemistry associated with some of these plants that could help fight cancer or AIDS,” James says.

The team hires local community members who help collect samples, share knowledge of where species are located, and cook and set up camp.

“In the villages everyone stares a lot; they’re just curious about what we’re doing and why we’re so interested in their plants,” she says.

When James broke her arm, several women gathered around her while she was being treated with the nettles [left]. “They were all bawling their eyes out with sympathy for me,” she says. “It was sweet.”

Why does she do it? “I’ve been in some hairy situations, but I love the field work. It’s just one big adventure.”

New 'bumblebee' gecko discovered in Manus

BIOLOGISTS FROM THE Papua New Guinea National Museum and the US Geological Survey have discovered a new species of gecko, adorned like a bumblebee with black-and-gold bands and rows of skin nodules that enhance its camouflage on the tropical forest floor.

Specimens of the lizard, which measures about 5 inches from head to tail, were collected in May 2010 in Sohoniliu Village on Manus Island.

Herpetologists George Zug of the Smithsonian Institution and Robert Fisher of the USGS Western Ecological Research Center described the new species in a report published in Zootaxa.

"The discovery of a new species from deep in the forests of New Guinea is a cause for celebration, adding one more chapter to 'The Book of Life,'" remarked USGS Director Marcia McNutt.

"Now the real work begins! To fill those pages with the wonders of this new creature, its place in the forest ecosystem, its adaptation to its environment, and perhaps even novel strategies for coping with disease from which we will ultimately benefit." 

"We've officially named it Nactus kunan for its striking colour pattern — kunan means 'bumblebee' in the local Nali language," says Fisher.

"It belongs to a genus of slender-toed geckos, which means these guys don’t have the padded, wall-climbing toes like the common house gecko."

Fisher found two individuals of the bumblebee gecko on Manus Island in 2010 and analysed their genetics to show that the lizards were new and distinctive. Two additional species were found that trip, and the specimens await further analysis. 

"This species was a striking surprise, as I’ve been working on the genus since the 1970s, and would not have predicted this discovery," says Zug, a curator emeritus at the National Museum of Natural History. 

"Exploration of Manus Province is in its infancy, with many new species possible, and this joint expedition was our first to this region," says Bulisa Iova, the reptile curator at the Papua New Guinea National Museum. 

This research on Pacific lizard biodiversity was supported by the Smithsonian, U.S. Department of Defense and USGS. USGS regularly collaborates on biological surveys with partner nations, as part of its mission to provide scientific information that help government managers address critical natural resource issues.

Arapesh lives on - thanks to university linguist

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA (USA)

MOST OF THE PEOPLE who spoke Arapesh when University of Virginia linguist Prof Lise Dobrin [pictured] conducted field work in Papua New Guinea about 15 years ago have died of old age.

Their children no longer speak the language, and their grandchildren have almost no knowledge of their ancestral tongue, she said.

But Arapesh has a chance to live on through a digital archive Dobrin created with the help of the university's Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities and an emerging collaboration with some middle-aged and younger Arapesh.

Dobrin, an assistant professor of linguistics in the College of Arts & Sciences' anthropology department, began the archive in 2005 and is focusing on it this year with support from the institute's residential fellowship.

The Arapesh Grammar and Digital Language Archive also has support from the Documenting Endangered Languages program, a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Science Foundation.

PNG is one of the most culturally diverse countries on Earth, it is home to more than 800 languages, none of which traditionally was written down.

What is lost when a language falls into silence? A treasure trove of cultural information that has been passed down from generation to generation, Dobrin says.

Endangered languages have properties only the speakers know, such as classifications of the natural world, for example.

In addition, there is a lot to learn from diverse systems of oral expression. Dobrin first went to PNG in 1997 to study the system of noun categorization of Arapesh for her University of Chicago dissertation.

Despite great strides in research, scientists and scholars still only partly understand language, she says.

In 1998-99 in the village of Wautogik on the north coast, Dorbin recorded Arapesh conversations to document speech patterns. She used a portable analog stereo cassette recorder and lavalier microphones to record villagers telling stories, talking about how they did things in everyday life, such as gardening, and describing events like First Communion.

Many Arapesh villagers today use PNG’s lingua franca, Tok Pisin, as their medium of communication in daily life.

IT researchers preserve remote languages

BY GRETA HARRISON
UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

RESEARCHERS FROM THE MELBOURNE SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING are travelling to remote Papua New Guinea to trial a mobile app that will document and preserve the region’s unique dialects; languages that are at critical risk of being lost forever.

The project is being led by Associate Professor Steven Bird [pictured] from the Department of Computing and Information Systems.

PNG has over 800 distinct languages, around one third of the world’s indigenous tongues. This linguistic and cultural treasure is at risk of being lost as the languages fall out of use.

“Now is the time to record and translate the stories and songs, so they can be heard and understood by future generations.” Prof Bird said.

“The best way to do this on a large scale is to use mobile phones. They are already in widespread use, even in villages without electricity, where they are recharged using car batteries.”

Doctoral student, Florian Hanke, developed the software for Android phones, which is capable of recording audio and sharing it over a local network.

“These people have extensive knowledge of their environment and a rich oral literature, none of which is recorded,” said Prof Bird. “We are introducing … social networking in a place with no previous contact with the Web.”

The project taps into the traditional knowledge of elders, combining it with the skills of a younger generation who have western-style education and carry mobile phones.

An elder will record a story on one phone. Someone else will then rate it, or supply another version of the story. Those listening to stories add their vote of approval and in some cases offer additional details.

A bilingual person will then listen to a highly-rated story on another phone and provide a translation into English. Another person will listen to the English and transcribe it. Over time, researchers will build up a large database of translated texts in many of the local languages.

Associate Professor Bird described the technology as a modern-day spoken Rosetta Stone, drawing on the wisdom of the community.

Within PNG, the project is receiving logistical support from the University of Goroka and the Summer Institute of Linguistics.

Dr Avei-Hosea, Dean of Humanities at the University of Goroka, said that PNG was one of the few countries in the world that still practices its oral cultures and speaks its languages, and is richly blessed with untapped traditional knowledge.

“More than 80% of PNG’s knowledge systems have not been researched, recorded and archived.

“Most of the Papua New Guineans who hold such knowledge are old people and if we do not act fast in preserving such knowledge, it is certain that we will lose what is truly ours forever,” Dr Avei-Hosea said.

Another PNG record: world’s smallest frogs

SMALLER THAN A TOEA, two newly discovered frog species are considered the smallest ever found. These pipsqueaks live in Papua New Guinea and are about 8-9 mm in length.

The two species, Paedophryne dekot and Paedophryne verrucosa, are not only the smallest frogs ever discovered, they are also the smallest of a group of animals called tetrapods (four-legged animals with backbones).

The name dekot derives from the word for "very small" in the local language, Daga; while verrucosa was named from the Latin for "full of warts" due to its distinctively lumpy skin.

P dekot inhabits the lower ranges, below about 1,200 metres, of the western slope of Mt Dayman in Milne Bay Province and P verrucosa lives on the southeastern slope of Mt Suckling, a region that adjoins Mt Dayman.

"Miniaturization occurs in many frog genera around the world," the Bishop Museum in Hawaii said in a statement. "New Guinea seems particularly well represented, with species in seven genera exhibiting the phenomenon."

The frogs are so small they seem to have hit the lower limit of body size for frogs and toads, so it's unlikely that researchers will find anything much smaller. The frogs are brown or red-brown in color, with camouflaging flecks of brown and blackish triangles on their sides.

Because of their tiny size, their fingers and toes are too small to allow much climbing, so they have found a niche on the forest floor, where their tiny body size allows them to hide among leaf litter and moss. The author suggests they might eat tiny arthropods, such as mites.

They are so small that females of both species can only have two eggs, limiting their ability to reproduce. They also lose moisture very quickly, restricting them to very wet tropical forests.

The call the male P verrucosa uses to attract females is said to sound like "a quick drag of a finger over a comb." It makes its calls at dusk until the sky turns dark and also before dawn.

Source: ZooKeys, 12 December

World’s first night flowering orchid discovered

BOTANISTS FROM THE Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Netherlands Centre for Biodiversity Naturalis have described the first night-flowering orchid known to science.

The discovery, which was made in New Britain, is published in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society.

The new night flowering species, Bulbophyllum nocturnum, is the first known example of an orchid species with flowers that consistently open after dark and close in the morning. Its flowers last one night only.

A relatively small number of plant species have flowers that open at night and close during the day. Until now, no orchids were known among them.

This in spite of the fact that many orchids are pollinated by moths. But these moth-pollinated orchids all have flowers that remain open during the day, even if they are mainly pollinated after dark.

Bulbophyllum nocturnum was discovered by Dutch orchid specialist Ed de Vogel on a field trip to New Britain, where he was allowed to collect some orchids in a logging area for cultivation in the Netherlands.

Under the care of garden manager Art Vogel one of these plant soon produced buds. Their opening was eagerly anticipated as de Vogel and his colleagues had already established that this plant was a member of the Epicrianthes group of orchids that contains many rare and bizarre species, most of which have only been discovered recently as they occur in some of the remotest jungle habitats on earth.

Frustratingly, however, the buds all withered once they had seemingly reached the size at which they should open. Wanting to get to the bottom of this, de Vogel took the plant home with him one evening in order to find out exactly what happened to the buds.

To his surprise, the bud that was then present opened up at ten in the evening, long after dark, revealing the flower of an undescribed species.

Observations on subsequent buds confirmed that they all opened around 10pm, and closed the next morning around 10am. The flowers lasted only one night, which explained why the buds were seemingly about to open one day and withered the next.

Why Bulbophyllum nocturnum has adopted a night flowering habit is unknown and requires further investigation however it is believed that its pollinators are midges that forage at night.

Source: Garden News, 21 November

Scientists learn the art of storytelling

BY MICHAEL DOM

WRITING IS AN ART – even scientific writing.  Scientific and technical articles are meticulous and precise but ‘there is always a story to be told’. The challenge is to tell it well.

The National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) recently conducted a course on scientific writing under a European Union funded ACP Project.

This learning opportunity was taken up with enthusiasm by twenty young scientists from Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, who spent two weeks at NARI’s Bubia Station in Morobe, dissecting and reconstructing their technical articles.

There were inspiring seminars from senior colleagues, tutorials, group work and discussions about how to write better papers. This training will raise the quality and quantity of journal articles reporting on research findings in these three Melanesian nations.

For any research article it is best to choose beforehand in which scientific journal you wish to publish. In PNG there are five: Journal of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Journal of Research, Science and Technology, Science in New Guinea, Niugini Agrisaiens and the Journal of Institute of Chemists.

Regionally there are many others, including the popular Journal of South Pacific Agriculture and historically there was PNG’s renowned journal Harvest.

It is every scientists dream to publish in the internationally distinguished impact journals, such as Science and Nature. But more often the research findings are relevant within our own regional and local communities and this local publishing must be promoted.

As one wiseacre said ‘to make the best cup of Arabica coffee you need a very sharp bush-knife’.

Our young agricultural research scientists tackle the many challenges we are faced with. Communicating the results of their research, telling the story of their good science, is an imperative for us to move forward along our development path.

Let them be our five-ninety Tramontina* to clear the way!

* Tramontina is a well known brand of bush-knife/machete, which at one time was sold for K5.90, and the model with the longest blade was so popular it was given the name ‘five-ninety’.

PNG's rich history comparable to early civilisations

BY ROBIN TORRENCE

BEGINNING ONLY IN THE 1960s, the archaeology of Papua New Guinea represents a very new field of research.

Even now only a handful of scholars are actively exploring this fascinating region with its high environmental and cultural diversity.  Approximately one-tenth of the world’s languages are spoken here!

The exciting new discoveries of the past 20-30 years have revealed a surprisingly rich history comparable in many ways to the much better known centres of early civilisations.

Major achievements such as maritime exploration, long distance trade, and the early inception of agriculture and complex societies provide serious challenges to the images of ‘primitive’ societies that have been promulgated by recent colonisers from the western world.

As the discoveries from each new field project continue to astound archaeologists, there seems to be no end to the surprises provided by the deep history of this tantalising country.

West New Britain has a very long history. People have lived in the island for more than 40,000 years, that is, more than 2,000 generations of families.

The history of WNB is known mainly through archaeology and other scientific studies. Traditional stories and clan histories tell us about the recent past, going back maybe 200 years, but archaeology shows that people have been in WNB much, much longer.

Volcanic eruptions must have caused great hardship to people when they happened but they are very useful to archaeologists. The ash covers up the ground and seals in evidence from the past. Since each ash looks different and scientists have determined their ages, archaeologists can use them to date the layers they find in excavations.

Tools that people used more than 40,000 years ago have been found near Kimbe and at Yombon, inland from Kandrian. At each site stone tools lie in the ground under many layers of ash from volcanic eruptions.

The age of these tools is found by radiocarbon dating pieces of wood burned in the eruption or in fires made by people. Volcanic eruptions must have caused great hardship to people when they happened but they are very useful to archaeologists.

The ash covers up the ground and seals in evidence from the past. Since each ash looks different and scientists have determined their ages, archaeologists can use them to date the layers they find in excavations...

This history of WNB is based on studies mostly in the Kimbe area and along the south coast. We know very little about other parts of the province because there has been little research there.

_____________

If you have questions about WNB history please write to Dr Robin Torrence, Anthropology, Australian Museum, 6 College St, Sydney NSW 2010 Australia.  All archaeological objects, such as pottery, stemmed tools and engravings, are a very important part of WNB history, so it is illegal for anyone to take them out of the country. If you find something, you should tell the your Provincial Cultural Centre or the PNG National Museum (P O Box 5560 Boroko, NCD, Port Moresby).

Source: Australian Museum.   Spotter: Peter Kranz

Fellowship awarded for research into Torres links

THIS YEAR’S John Oxley Library Fellowship of the Queensland State Library has been awarded to Heidi Gibson [pictured], who is researching border ties in the Torres Strait region.

Her project concerns the impact of Papua New Guinea’s independence on the traditional, familial and social networks of the Saibai and Boigu island communities.

The fellowship encourages the research and documenting of Queensland history, using sources contained within the State Library in general, and specifically within the collections of the John Oxley Library.

The Fellowship awards a prize of $20,000 which may be used to supplement the researcher's income during work on their project or to meet any necessary travel and research costs, within the parameters of the Fellowship.

Ms Gibson’s project will explore whether there have been changes in the perception and roles of PNG nationals within the Saibai and Boigu island communities since independence; and how any such changes may have impacted upon relationships within families and other social networks that span the border divide.

State Library of Queensland, 7 September
http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/whats-on/awards/slqawards/jolfellow

Seeking the keys to coral reef renewal & recovery

VITAL CLUES to coral reef recovery have been identified in a remarkable research project in which three scientists laboured to hand-build 30 coral reefs in Papua New Guinea from hundreds of tonnes of rock and gravel.

Working in a shallow, sandy area of Kimbe Bay, the team constructed the artificial reefs over several weeks, with just a boat and their bare hands, to find out whether it is possible to rescue a damaged coral reef from obliteration and restore its richness.

“When a reef suffers a heavy impact— such as a storm or outbreak of coral bleaching—there are two different effects on the coral habitat,” said Dr Mary Bonin of the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University.

“First, a lot of the habitat that was once available to fish is totally lost. And second, the habitat that still remains is often fragmented, or broken up into smaller patches.

“We wanted to figure out if the increased habitat patchiness is actually a problem for coral reef fishes, or whether it is really the loss of habitat that causes fish to decline following an impact.”

Together with Professor Geoff Jones and Dr Glenn Almany, Dr Bonin set out to construct 30 real-life coral reefs in an open sandy area where there were no natural reefs nearby.

Each ‘reef’ was constructed from boulders and coral debris, carted manually from the shore in a 6 metre boat, crowned with a square metre of living bottlebrush coral and stocked with 20 small blue and yellow damselfish [pictured]. After a time the ‘reef’ acquired richer diversity, as baby fish came in on the current and settled.

The scientists then simulated the effects of habitat loss – the sort of colossal damage that reefs suffer during a bad bleaching event or cyclone – habitat fragmentation, where the existing reef is broken into smaller fragments, and a combination of the two.

Strange? True? Are there tigers in New Guinea?

BY PETER KRANZ

YOU MAY KNOW of the New Guinea Singing Dog - a relative or ancestor of the dingo - which is preserved as a domesticated animal or zoo specimen in several countries.

Some wild populations may still exist - although they are now thought to be extremely rare if not extinct.

But did you know that there are also records and accounts of the Thylacine, or Tasmanian Tiger, in New Guinea?

Van Desusen in The Journal of Mammalogy (May 1963) reported the discovery of Thylacinus bones at Kiowa near Chuave in the Highlands. This was from an excavation at a rock shelter at the entrance to an extensive series of limestone caves, first discovered by Ralph Bulmer and his wife.

The bones were confirmed as being of a Thylacine by Dr Bergquist of the University of Auckland, Basil Marlow of the Australian Museum, Dr Ride of the Western Australia Museum as well as specialists from the American Museum.

But more fascinating is the anectdotal evidence that this carnivorous marsupial may still exist near Mt Cartensz in West Papua, and possibly near Mt Giluwe in Papua New Guinea.

An expedition in the early 1960's reported that local people and missionaries in the area around Mt Cartensz knew much about the animal, and claimed to have seen it often. But it had not been reported or described before. Further sightings have been reported as recently as 1997.

Sightings have also been reported near Mt Giluwe since the 1990's, with witnesses pointing to Thylacine photos when asked to choose which animal looks like their native dobsegna.

So the 'tiger' may still exist in remote corners of New Guinea. And if you find one you may become rich. Ted Turner put up a prize of $100,000 for proof of the continued existence of the Thylacine, while Tasmanian tour operator Stewart Malcolm has offered $1.75 million for a live one.

Good tiger hunting, but be careful! The mature Thylacine ranged from 100-130 cm long, plus a tail of 50-65 cm. The largest measured specimen was 290 cm (9.5 ft) from nose to tail. Adults stood about 60 cm at the shoulder and weighed 20-30 kg.

If you want to know what one looks like, there is some classic movie footage of the last known animal from Hobart zoo here.

And there are more academic references here.

Remote village inspired academic research

BY JOHN K WATERS

AS A CULTURAL anthropologist and researcher in the modern discipline of digital ethnography, Michael Wesch likes to ask the big, complex questions, like how technology affects society and culture.

It such a world, Wesch concludes, traditional classrooms are out of place. "It strikes me now that we have to move from knowledgeable--that is just knowing a bunch of stuff-- to being actually knowledge-able--that's being able to find, sort, analyze, criticise, and ultimately create new information and knowledge," he says.

Before turning his attention to the effects of social media and digital technology on global society, Wesch spent two years studying the implications of writing on a remote indigenous culture in Papua New Guinea. He found himself for the first time in a society that was not mediated.

"I was reborn, so to speak," he said. "It was terrible but also wonderful to have that opportunity to grow up again in a different culture. In that process, the thing that struck me the most was just how mediated I had been in my first American life - late '80s, early '90s - the MTV era and the beginning of the info-era.

“All of those things were so important to me as I was shaping my identity, and now here [in PNG], there was none of that. I really got a sense for the first time of what it means to be mediated, and I started studying what it means to live in a mediated world."

Wesch described how the remote village that inspired his future research became mediated right before his eyes.

"New media came in the form of writing - in particular, census books and law books from the government," he explained. "This was the first census ever done in the village."

The results were dramatic, even devastating, he said. Villages were rearranged - essentially destroyed - in neat rows with numbers to match the census book. Disputes that were once handled easily and openly among villagers were now handled in courtrooms.

"We have to recognise in our society that the new media we see in our environment are not just news means of communication, not just tools," he said.

"Media change what can be said, how it can be said, who can say it, who can hear it, and what messages will count as information and knowledge."

Because media ultimately shape how we connect with one another, he said, they're actually mediating relationships.

"When media change, our relationships change, and our culture changes," he said.

John K Waters is a freelance journalist and author based in Palo Alto, California

Source: Campus Technology

Anthropologists! Anthropologists!

BY PHIL FITZPATRICK

ONE OF THE MORE curious phenomena spawned during the days of colony and empire was the discipline of anthropology.

What began as a hobby for voyeuristic and bored administrators and planters with too much time on their hands in the 1800s had evolved into a full-blown career option by the early twentieth century. 

Although not a colonist, an American by the name of Lewis Henry Morgan has a lot to answer for.

Anthropology purports to be the study of people and how they have developed physically and culturally.

Its value lies in the noble idea that an understanding of the diversity of humans can lead to new perspectives and help in future planning and learning.

Anthropology is usually one-sided however.  With few exceptions the anthropologist doing the studying comes from a dominant or richer group.  The phrases ‘ruling hegemony’ and ‘cultural imperialism’ come to mind.

More often than not the anthropologist is white and the people he or she studies are black; although I have heard of a Papua New Guinean anthropologist who once carried out a study of the impoverished denizens of a slum tenement in Brooklyn in New York.

Like most professionals, anthropologists seek to corner the market and keep others off their turf by using specialist educational qualifications. 

This is fine for people like doctors; you don’t want an untrained person taking out your gall bladder; as for someone recording your genealogy maybe it doesn’t matter so much.

They don’t have it all their own way however.  Pulling the anthropologist’s leg is a popular village sport and is probably most exemplified by the ladies in Samoa who led Margaret Mead up the garden path and forever linked the images of swaying palm trees, grass skirts and free-love together.

Mystifying the results of anthropological enquiry turns it into a marketable commodity.  To do this anthropologists have invented specialised codes and jargon which laymen cannot understand.

The people who buy the results of anthropological endeavour tend to be actually interested in other things - like money. 

A miner or oilman, for instance, might think that the people in the area which he wants to dig up are different to him and if he is going to deal with them he will need to know what makes them tick.  This is a notch up from the imperialistic idea that they are different to us therefore we’d better get rid of them.

Of course, to understand someone else, information must be couched in your own terms.  How can we relate to them if you can’t compare them to us?

Just as Papua New Guinea is a rich resource for missionaries it is also fertile ground for anthropologists.  For a budding anthropologist who wants to get his career ticket by producing an obscure and often unverifiable thesis, Papua New Guinea is ideal.  It is one of a diminishing number of places left in the world that will tolerate such things being inflicted on its citizenry.

The PNG government cottoned on to its potential very early.  To carry out anthropological and other academic research in Papua New Guinea you need a special visa which has special fees.

You also need a permit from the National Research Institute, which also levies fees.  The Institute is supposed to pass on a cut from these fees to the government of the province in which the researcher works.

This doesn’t happen and some favourite anthropological haunts like Central, Madang, East Sepik, Manus, Southern Highlands, Western Highlands and Western Province have introduced their own hefty fees.  No guarantees about personally safety however.

The legality of these provincial fees is not clear; neither is what they do with the money.  The people who are the subject of the studies certainly don’t see it.  Nor do they often see what’s written about them.

The Institute is supposed to be provided with copies of the research.  They keep a copy and send one to the University of Papua New Guinea library.  A copy is also supposed to go to the provincial government.  Finding a research copy at UPNG is hard enough but finding one in the provinces is next to impossible.

Does anyone read them?  Your guess is as good as mine.  Are they worth reading?  Well, yes and no; apart from those who had their legs pulled, quite a few anthropologists failed miserably to understand the societies which they studied.  There is a booming sub-arm of anthropology dedicated to pointing out predecessors’ blunders.

On the other hand, there are a lot of societies which have lost their traditions and the works of anthropologists are one of the few ways in which they can find out what their people were once like.

While I’m not sure I’d like some bloke with a notebook following me around and recording my every move I personally regret that there weren’t any anthropologists about when my bare-arsed Celtic ancestors in Britain and Ireland were wandering around.

Among blackfellas in Australia having your own personal anthropologist is a status symbol.  Not sure if that works in Papua New Guinea.  Would an anthropologist be able to explain what is going on among the Somare clan for instance?

Earliest bananas in PNG 6,600 years ago

BY G S MUDUR

SCIENTISTS HAVE PLUCKED clues from genetics, archaeology and linguistics to show that the earliest cultivation of bananas was in the Kuk Swamp area of Papua New Guinea about 6,600 years ago.

From here, bananas were ferried by small groups of people from Southeast Asia moving westward to India and beyond.

A Southeast Asian banana species known as Mlali, a short yellow variety, was carried from the Indonesian islands into India around 4,000 years ago where its genome is still found in three varieties.

“It probably arrived 4,000 years ago, give or take a few hundred years. We don’t have enough archaeological data to narrow things down,” said Mark Donohue, a linguist at the Australian National University who was involved in the study.

The researchers combined genetic, archaeological and linguistic information to trace the domestication of the Musa family of bananas, which includes the standard yellow bananas sold around the world.

The researchers assumed that any cultivated plant would travel with people along with its name, and when a plant is culturally new, its name would be retained in the places where it had been introduced.

Source: Calcutta Telegraph

70% of PNGns say Oz relationship positive

BY KEITH JACKSON

LESS THAN HALF the Papua New Guineans who took part in a recent survey believed that Australia is the best partner for PNG, although 70% of people described the relationship with Australia as ‘positive’.

The research was undertaken by the Port Vila-based Pacific Institute of Public Policy, which is doing some excellent work on bringing a forensic approach to Pacific issues.

The poll took the form of a telephone survey of 363 people in PNG, Fiji, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands and was conducted in early March.

Asked ‘what major non Pacific island country is the best partner’ for PNG, 41% of respondents said Australia, 13% China and 10% New Zealand.

People who rate the PNG-Australia relationship as ‘improving’ (62%) outnumber those who think it is worsening by ten times.

On regional issues, Papua New Guineans are divided on now the international community should engage with Fiji. One third say the international community should engage more while a quarter say it should engage less and another quarter say it should maintain the current level of engagement.

Across the four countries, 42% of people believe West Papua should be included as part of the ‘Melanesian family of nations’.

But in PNG a massive 90% of respondents say they favour independence for West Papua.

Read the full survey report here by clicking through to MSG Poll Results

Best breasts depend on where you live

BY KEITH JACKSON

WHEN A GROUP of scientists got together to research the theory that men’s choice of a mate may have influenced the evolution of women’s breast morphology, there was probably no shortage of volunteers.

Six scientists from the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand conduct a questionnaire [based on images] to find out the preferences of men from PNG, Samoa and New Zealand for images of women’s breast size, breast symmetry, and areola size and pigmentation.

The results showed that men from PNG prefer larger breasts to a greater extent than men from Samoa and NZ.

Symmetrical breasts were most attractive to men in each culture. However, preferences were highest among NZ men, followed by men from Samoa and were lowest among men from PNG.

Large areolae were preferred among men from PNG, and to a lesser extent Samoa, while NZ men preferred medium-sized areolae. Thus, men’s preferences for women’s areolar size appear to be highly culturally specific.

Darkly pigmented areolae were most attractive to men from Samoa and PNG, whereas men from NZ preferred areolae with medium pigmentation.

From this titillating study, it’s possible to conclude that there are clear cultural differences in men’s appreciation of what makes the perfect breast.

Source: ‘Men’s Preferences for Women’s Breast Morphology in New Zealand, Samoa, and Papua New Guinea’ by B J Dixson, P L Vasey, K Sagata, N Sibanda, W L Linklater and A F Dixson, School of Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand, Archives of Sexual Behavior, September 2010

PNG fish learn how to avoid the spear

FISH ARE NOT AS DUMB as people think: marine scientists have found that fish regularly hunted with spearguns are much more wary and keep their distance from fishers.

An international team of researchers working in PNG found that fish exposed to speargun fishing take flight much earlier when a diver approaches compared with those living in protected zones.

To assess the effectiveness of marine protected areas and their effects on fish behaviour, the team decided to measure 'flight distance' in a range of coral reef fishes which are popular targets for local fishermen in the study area at Muluk in PNG.

At Muluk, the local chiefs close areas of reef to fishing, sometimes for several years at a time, whenever it seems the fish are becoming a bit shy. The study looked at fish traditionally hunted by the local people including snapper, triggerfish, parrotfish and surgeonfish.

"We were studying the effect of the customary reef closures which many groups in the Pacific use," said team member Fraser Januchowski-Hartley of James Cook University.

"In developed countries marine areas closed to fishing are a fairly recent idea – but in the Pacific islands, people have been using them for generations, for traditional reasons."

"Fish which are regularly targeted appeared to have a pretty fair idea of the 3m range of the typical rifle-style speargun used by the local PNG fishers", said lead author Dr David Feary of University of Technology Sydney.

Source: Physorg.com

Australia should fund PNG news agency

BY KEITH JACKSON

AUSTRALIA’s PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY for Pacific Island Affairs, Richard Marles, told me last year that one of his aims for his new portfolio was to increase the understanding of PNG among Australians.

In a paper delivered at a media educators’ conference three years ago, it was made clear just how difficult a task this will be. And more recently in her two articles for PNG Attitude. Jessica Carter affirmed the size of the challenge.

The three authors of Image of a Nation looked at how PNG is characterised in the Australian broadcast media. The research monitored news broadcasts of leading television and radio stations and found that, apart from ABC coverage, there is very little mention of PNG on Australian airwaves.

“The findings of this research highlight the value of the ABC as a source of information and knowledge for the Australian people,” the authors said. “Without it, there would be very little coverage of PNG in the Australian media.

“In particular, it seems important for the ABC at least to maintain its overseas correspondent position in PNG, hopefully as a stimulus to other Australian news providers to offer direct coverage on the ground.”

The paper said there is “a need for government policy to address the lack of coverage of PNG in the Australian media” suggesting that Australian funding might be provided to establish a national news agency for PNG.

“Founding of an independent, publicly funded news agency in PNG should enhance the amount of material available to media organisations in Australia and further afield.”

Read the entire paper here: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/16896/1/16896.pdf

Lee R Duffield, Evangelia Papoutsaki and Amanda H A Watson, ‘Image of a Nation: Australian broadcast media coverage of Papua New Guinea’ in Journalism Education Association Annual Conference, 2008, University of Wollongong (unpublished)

Spotter: Robin Hide

The burden relationship: Oz media & PNG

BY JESSICA CARTER

WHILE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS may possess a certain level of autonomy, even prestige, in their field, they are still subject to wider factors that affect their reporting.

Papua New Guinea is a difficult place to report from. This is mainly due to the limited technological, transport and communications infrastructure, along with the expensive nature of working there.

Since Independence, many Australian media have chosen to retreat from PNG, leaving the country neglected in terms of news coverage. This neglect has resulted in a lack of quality reporting on PNG - news articles about it tend to oversimplify issues and often don't provide historical or contextual background.

This means that PNG is systematically constructed and framed as a dangerous place for Australians. Frequent media references to PNG being a violent, unsafe, or unstable place for Australians (living there or visiting) reflect international news values which tend to preference disasters, accidents, conflicts or other negative stories.

For example, in my research, 89% of articles on PNG categorised as Transport featured plane crashes, with a strong focus on the PNG airline industry. Most of these articles emphasised Australian deaths rather than those of PNG civilians. These articles frame PNG as a place where Australians are usually the victims of this ‘dangerous country’.

ABC journalist Liam Fox argues that it can be difficult for journalists not to reinforce the negative perceptions Australians might have about PNG:

I try not to reinforce the stereotype that people have of PNG as being a wild, crazy land inhabited by savages. I try not to do that. But at the same time there’s no escaping that crime and violence are major issues here. […] There are some absolutely horrific things that I’ve reported on in my time here and you just can’t ignore those.

The very nature of news requires that bad news is reported. This in itself is not the problem; rather the issue is one of balance. While the only coverage of a place focuses on its problems and dangers, the news frames still construct it negatively, at the exclusion of the positive attributes of a place.

Emphasis on crime and killing in news articles tends to stereotype PNG as a place where violence reigns. This is further accentuated by the semantics of stories. The word ‘headhunt’ for example, was used in an article describing a PNG man being held at gunpoint. Yet ‘headhunt’ has connotations that were simply not relevant to that story, especially as part of a headline.

The sensationalisation of violent events highlights PNG as a place that is different to Australia, or, as Barry Lowe puts it, "a place that is worse than ours". PNG is dangerous; we are safe. It is tribal; we are civilised. It is deviant; we are normal.

These are some of the binaries that tend to emerge from the Australian news coverage of PNG. The consequence of this is that PNG is neglected – in terms of news quality – by Australian media. While there are some well-researched and in-depth news stories written about PNG, the great majority of articles fail to provide Australians with a well-rounded perspective on the issues, problems and opportunities faced by PNG.

Poor quality coverage constructs PNG as a country plagued by problems and in permanent need of help by Australia – a portrayal that suggests Australia is naturally superior to its northern neighbour.

Instead of viewing PNG's development as something to be nurtured through cooperation and partnership, media coverage suggests a relationship of burden between Australia and PNG.

This attitude has serious consequences that reach far beyond the pages of a newspaper – if most media coverage insists on emphasising negative issues, it can affect the Australia-PNG relationship at political, economic and social levels.

From ‘An examination of Australian news coverage of PNG’ by Jessica Carter, University of Sydney, 2010.  Read the full thesis here.

Reporting PNG: culture and visa control

BY JESSICA CARTER *

AUSTRALIA IS THE ONLY COUNTRY that has permanent foreign correspondents based in PNG, and the journalists employed by AAP and the ABC are confronted by a particularly unique set of workplace conditions. They also have a reasonably high level of interaction with local journalists.

ABC correspondent Liam Fox describes Port Moresby as a tough place to live and work.

We live behind a big razor wire fence, we’ve got big television cameras, [and] security guards. When you drive you’re always winding your window up, you’re looking out for car-jackings or for something to happen. There’s definitely an edge to the place, living here.

Port Moresby is not connected by road to the rest of the country, so all stories outside of the capital require journalists to fly there. This operation can be both costly and time-consuming, as journalists wait for the approval of funds from their employers.

The state of under-communication in PNG has significant impacts on local journalists and on the ability of foreign journalists to work there. Liam Fox explains that, unlike many other foreign postings such as the US or Europe, PNG does not have national news feeds.

The limited media infrastructure outside Port Moresby means that, when news breaks outside the capital, covering it can be difficult. These circumstances have led to the establishment of close dialogue between local journalists and Australian reporters based in PNG. Former ABC correspondent Sean Dorney says that he worked with local journalists “a hell of a lot”:

If you don’t work with the local journalists and give them a bit of respect then you’re really limiting your capacity to work. […] And one of the good things about PNG is that there really are a lot of good local journalists up there.

The Australian journalists agree that there is an ‘openness’ in Melanesian culture that makes it easy to work with local journalists. However, Ilya Gridneff, the current correspondent for AAP, points out that journalists in PNG encounter just as many, if not more, logistical problems than Australian reporters working there:

They don’t have enough resources, they’re hardly paid enough, and then there’s a lot of them who won’t ask questions, partly out of a culture of, you know, respecting the big man.

The practical consequences of this are that, while Australian journalists might rely on local journalists to a certain extent, many stories reported in the local media need to be treated with a healthy amount of cynicism.

Gridneff said, “You quickly learn that there’s three sides to every coin and you need to ring around yourself and check with the people involved”.

Liam Fox argues that, while this is often the case for a journalist working anywhere, in other locations with high intensity global news coverage there is usually a more established news network which can be accessed to verify reports of breaking news.

Former ABC correspondent Steve Marshall says that while a lot of news is misreported, this is not the fault of local journalists: “Most local reporters are based in Port Moresby, so it’s very difficult for anyone to ascertain the exact truth as to what’s gone on at an event elsewhere [in PNG]”.

The country has two daily newspapers, The National and the Post-Courier, both based in Port Moresby. The Post-Courier is the oldest and largest-selling newspaper in PNG, with a circulation of 29,819. It is a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Limited. There is one television station in PNG, Em-TV, owned by the Australian Nine Network.

Em-TV generates little of its coverage locally, and is not available across all of PNG. The state-owned National Broadcasting Commission provides the five national radio stations, and works closely with the ABC to deliver content.

Unlike other nations in the Pacific region, PNG enjoys a relatively free media. There are no limits on foreign ownership. Under these circumstances, Australian media enterprises have been able to flourish in PNG.

Although Australian organisations may dominate ownership of the PNG media, the same legal freedoms do not extend to foreign correspondents working there.

According to Rowan Callick, Asia-Pacific Editor for The Australian, the visa application procedure for foreign journalists wanting to report on PNG is among the most difficult in the Asia-Pacific region.

He says that getting a journalist’s visa for PNG is similarly complicated to getting one for North Korea, a country he has also reported on:

The Prime Minister’s older daughter decides who gets in and who doesn’t. Sean Dorney says that on a visit in 2010, he was unable to do any reporting because he did not have time to go through the tedious process of getting a journalist’s visa, which can take “a couple of weeks”.

In addition, Dorney points out that the complicated visa process is one of the reasons that few foreign journalists travel to PNG.

Source: Extracted from ‘An examination of Australian news coverage of PNG’ by Jessica Carter, University of Sydney, 2010.  Read the full thesis here.  Spotter: Robin Hide

Incredible find: 200 new species in PNG

CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL

AN ORANGE SPIDER, a jabbing spiny-legged katydid, a white-tailed mouse and a minute long-nosed frog are among an amazing 200 new species of plants and animals discovered during just two months of deep rainforest exploration in a small portion of PNG’s remote forest-cloaked mountains last year.

Coordinated by Conservation International (CI) in partnership with PNG’s Institute for Biological Research and A Rocha International, two scientific teams made these extraordinary discoveries in the country’s rugged and poorly-known Nakanai and Muller Ranges.

The searches were conducted as part of CI’s global effort to document the biodiversity of poorly known but species-rich environments, and raise their profile to assist local communities establish conservation priorities for future development.

The findings include 24 new species of frogs, two new mammals, nine new species of plants, nearly 100 new insects, and approximately 100 new spiders. Remarkably, several katydids, at least one ant and one mammal are so different from any known species that they represent entirely new genera.

In the Nakanai Mountains on New Britain, scientists worked with local communities to assess new and previously undescribed species. The mountains host some of the world’s largest underground rivers and most spectacular cave systems and are slated for World Heritage listing.

Among the Nakanai highlights were discoveries of a beautiful yellow-spotted frog, found only high in the mountains in the wet rainforests, as well as a bizarre little ceratobatrachid frog, which is just two centimetres long.

Also discovered in the Nakanai range was a distinctive mouse with white tipped-tail that was captured at high elevation site (1,590m). Although it resembles the prehensile-tailed tree mice of New Guinea, scientists report that this remarkable new species has no known close relatives and represents an entirely new genus.

PNG’s rugged terrain and difficult access may be conservation’s most powerful ally in a country where much remains to be discovered at a time some PNG forests face increasing threat.

In the Nakanai Mountains CI has been working with the East New Britain Provincial Government and local communities to protect a large tract of rainforest, where the communities do not want logging to take place on customary lands.

“There’s no question that the discoveries we made in both surveys are incredibly significant both for the large numbers of new species recorded, and the new genera identified,” said CI’s Leeanne Alonso.

Photos: 1 - Species of montane mouse. 2 - Newly-discovered katydid. 3 - Leeanne Alonso and guide Icky [Conservation International and partners]

PNGians played big role in Ivane discoveries

The leader of the research project which discovered evidence of human settlement in the PNG highlands nearly 50,000 years ago, PROF GLENN SUMMERHAYES, responded to reader PETER’s inquiries about the role of Papua New Guineans in the project

AS PART OF my commitment to developing archaeology in PNG through the university and the museum over the past 20 years I have tried to take students into the field as part of their training - where possible and only with permission of the university.

In 2007 and 2008 I took eight archaeology undergraduates of the UPNG into the field in the Ivane Valley (and more accompanied me to Kokoda Valley in 2008 and also with myself and Prof Jim Allen to Yule Island in 2007 as well).

UPNG students have also come with me on fieldwork in the Sepik and New Ireland. Apart from the students mentioned above, Mr Mandui, Chief Archaeologist of the National Museum and Art Gallery of PNG, accompanied me into the field, and indeed he is a co-author of this article (and others I have my name on).

Mr Mandui is completing an Honours degree at UPNG. We are affiliated with the National Museum when we undertake research.

Dr Leavesley, who was my post-doctroal fellow on the Ivane Valley Project, undertook teaching at UPNG and organised the students to participate in these Ivane Valley excavations as part of their studies. They were taught surveying, archaeology, geology, and excavation.

When his postdoctoral fellowship finished, Dr Leavesley continued teaching at UPNG keeping archaeology alive and well. He is also an author on the article (in Science).

I should also point that that we have also taken with us to Kokoda Valley one of Hugh Davies (UPNG Professor of Geology) geology students and indeed have encouraged Prof Davies to send more.

Prior to Dr Leavesley’s participation, I worked closely with Dr Bernard Minol (at UPNG) and, of course, with Dr Pam Swadling (National Museum). I find the participation of students a rewarding experience and would have hoped that this translated into more of them continuing with higher degree studies.

When I was Head of Archaeology and& Natural History at the ANU’s Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, I had two postgraduate students from PNG.

When I arrived in New Zealand in 2005 I had extensive talks with the late Bernard Narakobi (who was the PNG High Commissioner to NZ) about helping to increase scholarships through NZ Aid.

The priorities are determined by NZ AID in consultation with PNG - and believe me, to date, archaeology is unfortunately not a priority. All this takes time.”

New evidence of ancient civilisation in PNG

ANCIENT ARTEFACTS unearthed in PNG provide some of the earliest evidence of human settlement.

Charred nut shells from Pandanus trees, fragments of animal bone and the remains of stone axes were found in the remote Ivane Valley near the Kokoda Track by a team led by Prof Glenn Summerhayes of New Zealand’s University of Otago.

The artefacts have been dated at between 49,000 and 44,000 years old. In Australia, the Lake Mungo burial ground has been dated at about the same vintage.

The PNG find "is among the earliest evidence of human habitation in this part of the world, or indeed any place outside Africa, India and the Middle East," Prof Summerhayes told Australian Geographic.

He said the evidence showed that people “moved into highland valleys as soon as they got out of their canoes” and did not remain on the coast through an adaptive period.

The archaeological work revealed campsites buried by volcanic ash where people made stone tools, hunted small animals and gathered the high energy nuts of the local Pandanus trees in conditions much colder than the present day.

The sites were occupied during a relatively warm phase of the last ice age when New Guinea was joined to Australia as part of the continent of Sahul.

Starch grains from yams recovered in the valley appear to have been transported there from their natural habitat closer to the country's steamy sub-tropical coast.

Prof Summerhayes led the team of archaeologists from New Zealand, Australia and Papua New Guinea. He said the stone tools suggest the people deliberately modified the valley landscape, mostly likely to clear forest patches to promote the growth of useful plants such as Pandanus.

“Our findings paint a picture of a highly mobile society that quickly adapted to and survived in a radically different environment to the coastal regions they had recently arrived from.

“It is remarkable that this is occurring around 15,000 years before other modern humans would colonise Europe,” Prof Summerhayes said.

“All this is unprecedented evidence of careful, intentional colonisation over thousands of years, rather than people just wandering around foraging and moving on.

"These are unique footprints of humanity that challenge some current notions regarding at what stage humans can be truly said to have become ‘modern’ in their thinking and behaviour.”

Archaeologist Dr Andrew Fairbairn from the University of Queensland, who worked with Prof Summerhayes on the research, says it suggests early humans lived in small nomadic populations that moved up and down the mountains of PNG in search of food.

“We assume [they lived in] some form of egalitarian structure,” Dr Fairbairn said, “but it's very difficult to say from the archaeological remains alone. It was a very cold period in history and these people were both resourceful and capable to be able to live at this altitude."

While DNA evidence proves a common ancestral link between Australia's Aborigines and their modern Melanesian cousins, rising sea levels around 8,000 years ago separated the two groups of people, leading to significant differences.

Photo: A resident of Ivane Valley, Paul Lamui, demonstrates how rocks were used to crack open Pandanus nuts - the same method used 50,000 years ago (Andrew Fairbairn)

Sources: ‘PNG find prompts human migration rethink’ by Julian Swallow, Australian Geographic; ‘Archaeologists shed new light on adaptability of modern humans’ ancestors’, University of Otago website; 'Ancient man cool with high altitude living' by Brian Williams, The Courier-Mail, 1 October 2010

Spotters: Murray Bladwell, 'Peter'

Papuan shells & pots from 1,800 years ago

BY PHIL FITZPATRICK

AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL site in the Aird Hills near Kikori is providing new evidence about the antiquity of the legendary Hiri trading voyages.

When you look out of the window of your aircraft and see the distinctive Aird Hills climbing up from the beach on the right, you know you are just about at Kikori.

The Hiri voyages involved long distance sea travel in purpose built multi-hulled lakatoi with distinctive ‘crab-claw’ sails from around Port Moresby, where pottery was manufactured.

The lakatoi sailed to the Gulf Province, some 400 kms to the west, where the pots were exchanged for sago and canoe logs. Intricate family trading relationships evolved as part of the trade.

In 2008, a team of Australian researchers extended an archaeological excavation at Emo, on the edge of the old missionary village of Samoa on customary Porome land in the Aird Hills and have just published their results in Australian Archaeology, the journal of the Australian Archaeological Association.

The site was first excavated in 1971 and again in 1976 but the dating was inconclusive.

By using fine-grained excavation methods they have managed to decipher its chronological history and have confidently dated the first occupation there at 1,840 years ago (about 170 AD).

There were the remains of clay pots in the lowest and oldest levels but by 1,530 years ago (480 AD) pottery appears in much higher quantities and there are shell ornaments present, indicating that the Hiri trade was well and truly up and running.

Chert flakes also start appearing at about the same time. The nodules of chert were traded from inland and used as sago pounders. The presence of the chert indicates the increased production of the sago used to trade for the pots.

In 1886 it was estimated that the trade involved about 20-30,000 pots and upwards of 600 tons of sago annually.

Motuan oral traditions say the voyages were initiated by Esai Siabo of Boera village just west of Port Moresby about 350 years ago. The archaeological evidence suggests that trading voyages began well before that time.

The voyagers went about as far as Baimuru along the Purari River delta. The large trading villages established along the way served as redistribution centres for the pots to inland villages and villages further west.

These centres became powerful economic and political entities and were feared by inland people, particularly during raiding and head-hunting expeditions.

There were about 12 types of pottery manufactured for the trade with the main items being cooking pots (uro), water jars (hodu) and dishes (nau). They were all made using local clay and flat wooden paddles.

The pots were decorated with the maker’s individual designs so that the men exchanging them for sago or canoe logs could keep track of the exchanges.

All but two of the Motu villages and some Koita villages made the pots. The pottery making villages included Porebada, Boera, Lea Lea, Manumanu, Pari, Hanuabada, Elevara and Tanabada. Vabukori and Tatana specialised in shell ornaments for the voyages.

Women in the villages not only made pots for their own use and for the Hiri trade but also for trading locally with inland villages like Gabadi, Doura and the Koita villages along the Aroa River.

The women traded the pots mainly for meat, yams and bananas. The Koita villages then traded the pots further inland, thus ensuring they had a wide spread all along the Papuan coast.

If you want to find out more about the excavations link here

Australian military assistance in Asia-Pacific

BY TRISTAN MOSS

THE ADVISING OF foreign armed forces has a long and varied history, ranging from the French in Egypt in the 1800s, to Lawrence of Arabia and to more recent examples in Vietnam and Afghanistan.

Historically, however, these missions have received little analytical attention, being overshadowed by a historical focus on conventional wars and more easily definable activities. The Australian case is no exception.

As part of my history PhD at the Australian National University, I am researching Australian military assistance in the Asia-Pacific during the post-war period to 1990.

For more than 45 years, Australian troops have participated in a wide variety of military assistance efforts, the most well-known being the ten year service of the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam.

There are many more examples however, such as the deployment of advisors and loan officers to Malaysia in the 1960s, the joint mapping of Indonesia in the 1970s, and the hundreds of Australian personnel posted to PNG both before and after independence.

Additionally, Australia sent personnel to the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Burma as well as a host of island nations in the South Pacific.

The personnel involved in providing military assistance represented the sharp end not just of Australia’s defence forces, but of Australia’s diplomatic efforts as well. Yet, little is known about their attitudes, their experiences and more significantly their role.

Too often the focus of historical studies during this period has been on the decision making level, rather than the level of implementation; that is, ground-level.

Consequently, we know that three Australians commanded the Royal Malaysian Navy between 1960 and 1967, but we know little of what these officers experienced, changed or were challenged by.

The case of Australians posted to PNG is a similar, but much larger, example. In 1977 alone there were 306 Australian personnel in PNG. What were their experiences? How did they see their role? Were they effective and efficient in achieving their goals?

As part of my research, I am keenly interested in answering these questions, as well as many more.

I believe that by looking at the experiences of individuals involved in military assistance throughout the Asia-Pacific, we can gain a clearer understanding of Australia’s military and diplomatic history.

I would be very interested in talking to anyone who has had experience in these areas. Some of the interviews collected in the course of my research will be placed in the collection of the Australian War Memorial, which will then be preserved for use by others. Please contact me if you are interested in sharing your experiences.

Tristan Moss is in the School of Cultural Inquiry, 1st Floor, AD Hope Building (Building 14), Australian National University, ACT 2600.

His email address is tristan.moss@anu.edu.au

Studying the rich history of Rabaul's Chinese

BY PETER CAHILL*

THE HISTORY of the Chinese in and around Rabaul goes back a long way, and if you have any information or photographs on this subject, you may be able to assist with research for a book I’m writing.

In the mid-19th century, Chinese visited New Guinea as crew members on trading vessels. Irregular though these visits were, an association developed.

Later, after Germany declared a Protectorate over the northern part of mainland New Guinea (Kaiser Wilhelmsland) and the major island groups in 1884, the New Guinea Kompagnie brought in Chinese as cooks and domestic servants, bringing a closer acquaintance with the territory.

Later still, indentured labourers (coolies) were recruited from Singapore and the Dutch East Indies to assist in developing and maintaining tobacco and cotton plantations. Skilled Malay and Javanese tobacco processors also came.

These plantations’ horrific death rate from malaria, beriberi and dysentery, together with appalling living and working conditions and ill-treatment by overseers, caused most of them to be closed by 1900. Most of the coolies were repatriated, but a few chose to remain.

During the same period, plantations were successfully operated at Herbertshohe (Kokopo) on the Gazelle Peninsula. The New Guinea Kompagnie was always short of labour and tried – with occasional success – to get Imperial German assistance to engage workers from Singapore, offering them much improved working conditions.

With the decision to build a new capital at Rabaul, trained artisans (employed as “free” Chinese) were needed to construct the main wharf and town buildings. Again some remained after the work was completed.

Australia imposed stringent restrictions on Chinese migration to New Guinea which encouraged their intermarriage with native women. The children were usually acknowledged and raised as Chinese.

There was also some intermarriage with mixed-race (German/Indigenous) residents of Rabaul.

The Chinese lived, as required, in Chinatown and concentrated on their businesses and families. How this was done and the way they lived peacefully with other races in Rabaul make them an interesting minority group to study.

* Dr Peter Cahill, a former resident of Rabaul, is an academic at the University of Queensland. He is gathering material for a book on the Chinese in Rabaul 1884–1960 and invites people with stories or experiences related to this to contact him. Photographs would be a bonus. Write to Dr Cahill at 7 Wynyard Street, Indooroopilly 4068 or email him at p.cahill@uqconnect.net

Reports offer a rich research resource

 

FOR PNG, REPORTS from government patrols represent a major source of primary information on the pre-independence era.

Patrol officers and other officials wrote detailed documents reporting on all aspects of the work carried out by patrols.

These documents give first hand accounts on many events - first contacts, censuses, tax collection, healthcare, courts, agriculture, missions, anthropology and tribal warfare, to name just a few.

The library of the University of California, San Diego reports that it has acquired extensive microform sets of these reports and accompanying materials in its Melanesian Studies Resource Centre.

These documents include files of correspondence, journals and patrol reports of British New Guinea and Papuan outstations from 1890-1941 and Papua and New Guinea patrol reports from 1922-55.

The Library notes that microfiche versions of these documents may be purchased directly PNG’s National Archives (PO Box 1089, Boroko).

It’s good to know that this is one aspect of the Australian legacy in PNG that it is still valued and making a productive contribution.

Spotter: Assoc Prof Martin Hadlow

Researching Bougainville in German times

BY CHRISTINE LEONARD

I WAS BORN in Rabaul in 1955 but grew up on Bougainville - on a couple of plantations: at Tenakau near Wakunai and at Aropa, which my dad, Greg Wall, managed from 1964-1971.

I'm researching on Aropa Plantation (south of Kieta) and trying to fill some gaps pre-1947 and earlier.

I’m interested in contacting Nathan Diercke to see what he has on his great-great grandfather's time on Woskawitz at Tinputz, which could tie in with German holdings on Bougainville at that time.

I'm really interested in finding out about life on Bougainville in the German times prior to the expropriation board confiscating properties.

As a child, I remember Mrs Francis Kroening well. She was Dr Bruno Korening's widow and lived on Toboroi Plantation. Helmut, her son, ran the plantation as she was elderly by then.

Mum and dad used to call in on her, as Toberoi was between Aropa and Kieta. She was also part of the Parkinson family, a daughter of Queen Emma's niece. Frances Kroening's mother was born on the Mortlock Islands. Maiden name Calder. She told me lots of stories about the Ralum days and I'm so sorry no story has been written on her.

In any case, if you can steer me in a direction of resources on German times on Bougainville and also pre-1947, I'd be most grateful. Even if Aropa isn't specifically mentioned, it paints a picture of the economic, political, social life at that time.

I have the book Bougainville before the Conflict and am accessing interesting material through libraries and journals.

I'm in touch with past owner, Robin McKay, and managers who took over after Dad died in 1971. I’m also trying to locate information on WM Greer who first tendered for Aropa from the Expropriation Board in 1927.

It was after Greer, that Robin McKay lived there, selling the plantation to the New Guinea Biological Foundation in 1964. Mum moved to Kieta after dad died and was going to take out PNG citizenship. But she had a heart condition and I advised against her giving up her Australian passport.

I return to Bougainville almost each year as have been working on aid projects in PNG since 2006 and volunteering prior to that.

Focusing on plantation history is useful as they were a catalyst for development change in the Pacific. I'm looking forward to your readers’ comments and feedback.

You can contact Christine by emailing christine_brisb@yahoo.com.au or by writing to 63 Gaunt Street, Newmarket Qld 4051, Australia

Wanted: Australian veterans of the NG war

BY NORIKO MIYAKE-MCCLINTOCK

I AM A freelance media researcher and my task is to locate Australian war veterans who witnessed the PNG Aitape-Wewak campaign in 1944-1945.

I have spent hours and hours in front of my PC searching in vain until this evening.

I finally reached your site and saw people's names like Des Martin, Albert Speer and the father of Barbara Knowles. I believe these are the very people I have been looking for.

NHK has been making a World War II documentary film on the war in PNG toward its end, especially in Aitape-Wewak. As one of the Japanese generations born long after the war, I did not know much about what happened in PNG until five years ago.

My first task was to research the Cowra incident at the Japanese POW camp. We visited Australian witnesses in the NSW and Victorian countryside and interviewed them.

My work on PNG began last year and my main research objective has been to look into the records archived at the Australian War Memorial. At that time, I tried to find war veterans who served in PNG but I ran out of my time and gave up further search.

This year, we have resumed work on another film which is scheduled to be broadcast next year. My main task is to locate relevant witnesses and see if we can contact them to hear their stories.

I would very much appreciate it if you could pass my message to those people to see if I could get in touch with them.

I thank you for your time and look forward to hearing from you.

You can contact Noriko Miyake, who is based in Australia, at email noriko@with-ryugaku.com or fax 02 9984 8923.

The task of bringing home the dead continues

BY KEITH JACKSON

HARUMI SAKAGUCHI is a very special person. He is concerned that those who sacrificed their lives in PNG in World War II– on whatever side – are known.

Through his dedication to recovering the remains of Japanese war dead and his work assisting the Montevideo Maru Memorial Trust, Mr Sakaguchi – an independent researcher – has gone beyond the call of duty.

Harumi Sakaguchi was born in 1946, just after World War II. He studied in USA and then spent more than 35 years in the field of development assistance, mostly with the United Nations.

Along the way, he served in Geneva and New York; but it was his last posting to PNG, from 2004-08, that proved a significant part of his career and his life.

Now retired in Japan, the essence of Mr Sakaguchi’s current research is the location of the remains of Japanese victims of World War II, some of which he believes are buried near Port Moresby.

And, as he points out, while the war is long ago, the task of recovering the war dead and bringing closure to their families must continue.

“The task of recovery and repatriation is far from over. A huge number of Japanese families hope for final closure,” says Mr Sakaguchi.

This is where you – or a relative of yours – may be able to help.

Mr Sakaguchi wants to make contact with Australians and Papua New Guineans – whether ex-servicemen or other folks - who may have been engaged directly or indirectly in the burial of Japanese servicemen, especially prisoners of war.

He hopes Australians or Papua New Guineans can help provide information that may assist the final recovery of these servicemen.

He is particularly keen to contact and consult people who may have knowledge of:

(1)          the burials of Japanese prisoners who died at the 2/9 Australian General Hospital near Port Moresby

(2)          the remains of Japanese naval airmen recovered after being shot down during raids on Port Moresby

(3)          the Japanese servicemen and war prisoners initially buried in a Japanese war cemetery constructed by an Australian force in Torokina on Bougainville

You can contact Harumi Sakaguchi here, and I sincerely hope you do.

PNG Attitude readers assisted Mr Sakaguchi on a related project in April last year, as he says “triggering a sequence of events which I could never had induced on my own”. So let’s do it again.

PNG’s new wealth is not reducing poverty

A RECENT study has revealed that, despite PNG experiencing an uninterrupted seven years of economic expansion, this has not translated into reducing poverty.

The study’s author, Laurence Chandy of Australia’s Lowy Institute, says poverty affects much of PNG. Using the international poverty benchmark of US$1 a day, 40% of PNG’s people live in extreme poverty.

The study found that PNG’s major problems include lack of access to jobs, money, education, clean water, health care, transport and roads.

The research paper focussed mainly on who owns the money, how they spend it and how much is given to the poor. It found that people with high incomes generally did not apply their good fortune to poverty reduction.

Mr Chandy said PNG’s poverty is a rural problem; and that the rural poor are more impoverished than their urban counterparts because of a lack of basic services.

He recommended strategies for increasing the impact of growth on poverty, but said these would work only if individuals, companies and the government participated in translating them into policy.

Meanwhile contributor Paul Oates and I have derived some statistics that show comparative health indicators in PNG and for indigenous people in Australia’s Northern Territory (NT figures in brackets):

Expenditure on health per capita - $38 ($5,461)

Life expectancy – 57 (65)

Infant mortality rate  - 50 (14) per 1,000 live births

Maternal mortality rate - 470 (22) per 100,000 live births

Doctors - 1.3 (16) per 10,000 people

Nurses / midwives – 15 (51) per 10,000 people

Big man, great man: kaukau made a difference

BY PHILIP FITZPATRICK

RECENT CALLS for Papuan separatism stimulated by Reg Renagi saw a number of Papuan commentators claim that they are culturally different from PNG Highlanders.

So is there a difference between lowlanders and highlanders? Well, the anthropologists seem to think so. And it’s because of the humble sweet potato.

Sweet potato (ipomoea batatas) or kaukau is believed to have been introduced to Melanesia in the mid 1600s. The PNG sweet potato varieties are similar to the plant in South America, suggesting this as the original source.

The food was brought to Asia by the Spanish and Portuguese, reaching PNG through Indonesia and also as a result of Polynesian migrations.

While kaukau grows from sea level to about 3,000 metres, its maximum yields occur between 2,000 and 2,600 metres. Its believed that its introduction resulted in a dramatic rise in population in the Highland areas where it grew best.

Apart from food for humans, kaukau is useful as animal feed; and the number of pig bones at archaeological sites in the Highlands correlates well with the notion that the introduction of kaukau also led to an increase in the number of domesticated pigs.

These major changes in population and agriculture had a marked effect on social institutions leading to pressures that saw, for instance, the development of large scale warfare in the Highlands.

It is a maxim in anthropology that dense population leads to stricter social control. By the time Europeans reached PNG there was a real difference between the social structures of lowland and highland communities.

Anthropologists distinguish the two social systems as ‘Big Man’ and ‘Great Man’. In ‘Big Man’ societies, such as those in the Highlands, material wealth is significant.

This is evidenced in the payment of bride price and compensation paid for those killed in battle.  In other words, women, pigs and war dead have a commercial value.

Prestige and leadership is achieved through control of this wealth in elaborate and competitive ritual exchanges. Societies are organised around the circulation and redistribution of wealth.

In ‘Great Man’ societies, exchange is less significant and social systems more complex. Leadership is gained by an individual’s ability to assert dominance over a range of rituals and other aspects of life.

‘Big Man’ societies with their emphasis on material wealth tend to adapt well to western economic systems. ‘Great Man’ societies, with limited exchange systems, find it more difficult to deal with western-style economics.

Most Papuan societies fit into the ‘Great Man’ camp. Dual social systems and other practices lead to complex social relationships that inhibit broad-scale organisation and tend to encourage internal conflict.

Leadership based on hunting, ritual and warfare skills, many of which are now obsolete, do not easily translate into political skills. Having loose and ill-defined land boundaries creates insecurity and does not lend itself to commercialisation.

Anthropologists suggests these things might be the reason why lowland societies are not well developed and have extremely scattered settlements, low population density, stagnant community development and, despite vast resources, desultory levels of economic activity – I’m think about the Gulf and Western Provinces here.

I like to think that it makes for a more benign and caring society, too, but I’ve always had a soft spot for Papua.

New lease of life for those old area studies

BY PHILIP FITZPATRICK

Area studies were the bane of every kiap’s life. Standing orders stated they would "be updated every year and rewritten every three years".

I have memories of sitting in villages counting chickens and pigs, trying to figure out the local kinship system, and casting bones to determine local attitudes to "programs for increasing the cash earnings of the area once people realise an increase involves change and hard work.”

In the nether regions of the Western District, the latter hardly seemed to matter.

Well, area studies were resurrected under the monicker of "social mapping" with the passage of the Oil and Gas Act in 1998.

Under the Act, social mapping is required to help government decide which customary land owners should be consulted in negotiations regarding the distribution of royalties and benefits from oil and gas projects.

The underlying principle of the Act recognises the value of traditional life and culture and seeks to include these in the economic and social development of communities: a principle loosely referred to as 'the PNG way'.

Social mapping seeks to define those cultural and historic factors that have shaped the relationship between the people and their land.

It involves the systematic collection and analysis of a range of objective data relating to the physical, demographic and social landscape.

While it primarily assists the distribution of benefits from oil and gas projects, it has important secondary functions including informing and guiding project proponents about how to deal with customary landowners and in helping mitigate the social impact of projects.

Faced with this requirement, the old kiaps who work in mining and petroleum exploration have fallen back on the format of the old-style area studies. It's only when a project gets serious that heavyweight anthropologists are brought into play.

I'm doing some social mapping at the moment based on the region between Lake Murray and Daru. The old area studies are priceless background, but hard to come by. A visit to the archives in Port Moresby is hit-and-miss and depends on who is behind the counter. Otherwise, it's a trip to Canberra.

If any reader has kept copies of their patrol reports that include area studies and census figures, my advice is to hang on to them.

In the meantime, if you have area studies for Lake Murray-Daru, I'd be eternally grateful to get a copy. All that hard work and two-fingered typing may not have been in vain.

If you have any of those old reports, you can contact Phil Fitzpatrick here