By MALUM NALU
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Symbol of the Ahi
Festival
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The inaugural Ahi Festival, a major cultural and sporting
event involving the six Ahi villages in and around Lae, will be held at the Sir
Ignatius Kilage Stadium in Lae from Dec 12-17.
It is an initiative of Riback Stevedores Ltd, the major
employer of Ahi men and women from the six Ahi villages of Wagang, Yanga, Butibam,
Hengali, Kamkumung and Yalu and has their full support.
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| Riback Stevedores staff modeling uniforms which will be worn by the six villages during the inaugural Ahi Festival next month.-Pictures courtesy of Riback Stevedores |
Sporting events include basketball, volleyball, netball,
soccer, touch rugby and a number of other fun games for the kids.
The Ahi Festival – with the theme Promoting Education Through Sports & Culture - is aimed at
raising funds for the establishment of an Ahi resource centre, an education
facility which will have a library, computer laboratory and conference and
workshop facilities.
“The Ahi Festival is an initiative of Riback Stevedores Ltd
and has the full support of the Ahi community,” explains Riback general manager
Peter Boyd.
“The company believes that the effects of the social
problems facing the Ahi community can be wide-ranging in size anywhere from
local effects on a family or a village to the Lae community and even the entire
society.
“The company therefore wants to do its part in helping the
Ahi community to help themselves to take a lead now in working towards addressing
some of their social problems.
“We hope other members and stakeholders of the Lae community
can also join in and help the people of Ahi in their endeavours to create an
educated and orderly community that can co exist peacefully with others in the
wider Lae community.”
Boyd said the social problems of the Ahi community could be
addressed only if the community could unite and work together in search of
solutions with the support of strategic partners.
“The Ahi Festival can be a powerful tool to unite the Ahi
community,” he added.
“It can also create awareness of the social issues and
promote a team approach with key stakeholders to address the socials problems
with the view to minimise its crippling effects on the people of Ahi – the
current generation and also the future generation.”
Some of the main objectives of the Ahi Festival include:
• Promoting
community unity;
• Promoting
and preserving Ahi culture;
• Creating
awareness on social Issues and assistance available; and
• Showcase
local talents in culture, sports, music and business.
The Ahi villages are all located within and around Lae – the
industrial city of Papua New
Guinea.
Along with the expansion and development of Lae, these
traditional villages are also being forced to accept new changes and influences
brought about by the changing socio-economic conditions.
The changing socioeconomic conditions have placed a high
demand for land on the Ahi communities.
This has seen most of the traditional land being taken away.
Land was taken
earlier by missionaries, then the colonial government and recently the state
and industry.
The attractions of
urban life along with government’s and industry’s demand for labour has
also attracted Papua New Guineans to migrate to Lae in search for work and
better living conditions.
This unfortunately
has created a need for more land.
Consequently,
customary land which used to be hunting and gardening land has all been
replaced with buildings, factories and urban settlements.
Without gardening or hunting land, most inhabitants of the
Ahi community are now forced to adopt and embrace the cash economy.
“Education of the children of Ahi is therefore important,”
Boyd said.
“Without land and other natural resources, the human
resources must be trained and developed if the Ahi community is to survive and
live in peaceful co-existence with every other Papua New Guinean and the wider
Lae community.”
The economic changes around Lae also bring with them many
tangible and intangible social problems which affect the Ahi communities.
Tangible social problems include unemployment; law and order
issues; drug abuse; alcohol problems; and school drop-out rate is high.
Intangible social problems include breakdown in moral
standards; lack of ethics in community leadership – a recipe for corruption
which affects the management of church groups, clans and businesses owned by
the people; community disharmony; and breakdown in the family unit
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