Papua New Guinea art takes Australia by storm

Artwork by Mairi Feeger featuring various social ills such as sorcery, violence and alcohol. It will go on show in BundabergArtwork by Laban Sakale

Winnie Weoa (left) and Daniel Waswas - both of whom are involved in the Australian exhibition - at Gerehu in Port Moresby last week

Joycelin Leahy (centre) with artists Winnie Weoa (left) and Daniel Waswas - both of whom are involved in the Australian exhibition - at Gerehu in Port Moresby last week

Lae girl, former journalist and Miss Papua New Guinea Joycelin Leahy is taking Australia by storm with an art exhibition, aptly titled Pacific Storms.
Pacific Storms will feature new and well-known Pacific artists such as Daniel Waswas and brothers Jeffrey and Mairi Feeger from PNG, as well as Paskua from Tahiti.
“The show will show key works, not seen in Australia before,” says the popular former journalist and 1989 Ms PNG, who ran Beyond Art in Port Moresby before moving to Australia.
Ms Leahy, now based in Australia, is well-known in both PNG and down south for being an art curator.
Just last week, she visited home at Wagang (Sipaia) village in Lae and took a boat to the cultural treasure trove of the beautiful Tami Islands off Finschhafen, Morobe province, to buy art works.
Pacific Storms, a contemporary art exhibition will be opened by Australian Minister for Pacific Affairs, Duncan Kerr, on June 3 and ends on July 13 at Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery.
It will, in a way, it will be poetic justice as Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery is historically a significant location for Pacific people including South Sea islanders that have contributed immensely to the sugarcane plantations – many through the infamous blackbirding days - and Queensland's economy.
“There are a number of their descendants and other islanders that live there,” Ms Leahy says.
“The exhibition hopes to draw the community together to re-connect with history in a contemporary and art sense.”
The show is coordinated by Pacific Curator Ms Leahy with the support of Bianca Acimovic, Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery.
In the Pacific, when you see frigate birds, you know, a storm is not far behind.
During a workshop in Bundaberg last year, Ms Leahy proposed Pacific Storms as an idea to Bianca Acimovic, colleague and exhibition officer at the Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery.
After much discussion and a written proposal, the gallery accepted the idea and Joycelin, 20 years experience in working with PNG and other Pacific artists, invited over 30 artists across the Pacific islands and within the Australian Diaspora communities to have a collaborative show to highlight climate change and a number of other challenging issues in the Pacific.
These included the killer disease HIV AIDS, security, logging, and many other social threats.
Ms Leahy’s interest in climate change and how it affects cultures of coastal communities in the Pacific culture in the Pacific led to call for new art for a topic which is a hot global debate, but one that is serious for many islanders who watch their homes disappear under the seas with sea level rise and other intense weather.
“Australia has significant geographical, historical and economical ties with the Pacific islands,” she says.
“It is important for Australians to learn more about the Pacific people, as many now live and contribute to the economy and call Australia ‘home’.
“The Pacific Storms programme at Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery extends to and links the community through family and artist community collaborations, professional development and celebrations of Pacific Culture.
“Apart from Bianca and myself, several other artists are all helping to pull together what we need for the show as given the obvious economy state of our country; it has been very tough trying to get assistance.
“However, I am proud to say that the show has developed a momentum and we have been inundated with inquiries about the art, programme and involvement of others.
“It is also a good opportunity to assist the artists to do business with Australian galleries, museums and collectors as well as general public for future business partnerships.
“We are looking for a second venue in Brisbane and in hope to keep the show running for a further six to eight weeks.

Police arrive in Ramu mine to probe brawl

From The National (Papua New Guinea’s leading daily newspaper)

 

POLICE have been deployed to the Ramu nickel mine site in Madang to restore law and order.

Provincial police commander Chief Insp Anthony Wagambie Jr said a police composite has been deployed to the Basamuk refinery site to police and investigate a confrontation that allegedly resulted in some nationals and Chinese workers seriously injured.

 “Police personnel have been deployed to assess the situation and provide security for the mine workers.

“Police will also investigate the incident which has led to disruption at the mine site,” Chief Insp Wagambie said.

Police were deployed to Basamuk after three Chinese workers were seriously wounded and properties worth thousands of kina, including accommodation block and plant equipment, were damaged.

 The three wounded Chinese were evacuated to Port Moresby over the weekend while the locals, who were admitted at Madang’s Modilon Hospital, were later released.

 He said the officers, which included investigators and traffic police, would investigate and bring to justice any offenders identified.

Chief Insp Wagambie said police will be working closely with the company and the local landowners to solve the issue and let the mine continue operations.

“The situation has been reportedly quite since Friday but tense, and it is premature at this stage but we will be working closely with all parties to solve the matter quickly,” he said yesterday.

 The mine management yesterday claimed that about 30 Chinese workers were injured in the confrontation, but that could not be confirmed.

 

Mine violence

Three Chinese in critical condition

From The National (Papua New Guinea’s leading daily newspaper)

 

A FIGHT between Chinese and Papua New Guinean workers at the Ramu nickel project in Madang has left three Chinese seriously injured and properties extensively damaged.

The fight occurred last Friday at the Basamuk refinery site, and work there has halted.

Five Chinese were initially injured during the fight and were admitted to the Madang’s Modilon General Hospital.

However, three were found to be in critical condition and were evacuated to a hospital in Port Moresby.

Extensive damage was also done to properties, including accommodation blocks and plant equipment.

At least 30 vehicles were destroyed or damaged.

Three nationals were also injured and treated at Modilon.

In a statement released yesterday, deputy general manager corporate office of Ramu NiCo Management MCC Limited Wu Xuefeng blamed the attack on a small group of national employees.

Mr Wu said around midday on Friday, a small group of national employees attacked and assaulted members of the Chinese staff injuring 30 of them, with five of them hospitalised at the Madang hospital.

“There was a lot of damage caused with more than 30 vehicles destroyed while workers’ accommodation blocks and plant equipment were extensively damaged.”

Mr Wu said the attack stemmed from rumours regarding an earlier industrial accident in which a national worker was injured and admitted to the Modilon Hospital.

Management had informed workers that the worker had been treated for his injuries and was now in stable condition.

Mr Wu said with the situation at Basamuk tense and all construction work halted, Government authorities had also been briefed on the attack.

“We call on the PNG Government and police to fully investigate the incident and bring the perpetrators to justice, and to promptly restore law and order on site.

“We understand that the MRA, the Madang provincial government and local community members share the same view.

“The company, at the same time, reserves the right to take further legal action.

“While investigating and assessing the scale of damages and delay caused to the project, we urge the Government to finalise several remaining issues with the local community, including the MoA review process and the outstanding land title disputes in the project area.

“We also request the Government to fulfil its commitments with the local stakeholders,” the Ramu NiCo management said in its statement.

Today's aww!

I don't know where the story comes from but it's today's Awww!

These little bunnies, about six days old, were attacked by a dog andorphaned.

Two out of the litter of five did not survive, and these threewere not doing very well.
Noah is a non-releasable, one-legged homing pigeon that we have here inrehab.
Noah kept going over to the bunny cage and looking in....even sleeping in front of the door to the cage.
Then, two days ago, I only counted two bunnies in the cage, so I hurriedly picked Noah up from the front of the cage so I could look inside.
And to my surprise...there was the tiny bunny...under Noah's wing...sound asleep!
The bunny had crawled through the cage....preferring a featherbed, no doubt.
Now, they are all together, and the bunnies are doing GREAT.
When the bunnies scoot underneath Noah's feathers, he extends his wings out to surround them.and they snuggle.
When one of them moves and they start sticking out here and there, he gently pushes them back under him with his beak!!!!!

A few more visitors

Captions: 1. Cabbage moth 2. Cabbage moth 3. Mating flight 3. Female butterfly

 

From PAUL OATES in Queensland, Australia

 

Kokoda Track breakthrough

THE barricades at Kovelo Village were taken down last night allowing trekkers free passage along the renowned Kokoda Track.

A representative of the Kokoda Track Authority met with the local community and has resolved most of the outstanding issues.

“This is a great outcome” stated Kokoda Track Authority Chairman, James Enage, who travelled to the community to negotiate a resolution at the weekend.

“Talking together and sharing our concerns allowed us to work through these very challenging issues. We believe there is a solution and at the Management Committee meeting tomorrow we will explore options to provide a long term and equitable resolution.”

“Any new system takes time to settle in and this issue is an example of this settling in process. The trekking season only began in March and some collected monies are ready to go out to communities as soon as a fair and reasonable process is put into place. There is an important legislative process that exists, ward development committees, but it has not been implemented in this area to date.  The KTA does not want to hold the money any longer than it has to, but we do want to ensure that it gets to the right people,” said Rod Hillman, the KTA Chief Executive.

The current Kokoda Track Authority is governed by a management committee comprised of Papua New Guinean national, provincial and local-level government officials, one landowner representative from Kokoda and another from Koiari. The management committee directs the actions of a small management team based in Port Moresby.

 

 

Butterflies at the farm

From Paul Oates in Queensland, Australia (but hey Paul, you, as a former kiap of Papua New Guinea, know that we have more variety and bigger butterflies – the biggest in the world, in fact -  north of the border!)

A few of the butterflies that visit our garden when the Grevilleas and Bougainvilleas are in flower.