Papua New Guinea in pictures

By MALUM NALU

SINCE the beginning of this year, Stephen Dupont has been wandering Papua New Guinea, a self-described “nomad with a camera” to capture these moments for posterity. 

The Black Water River, Middle Sepik.-All Pictures @by STEPHEN DUPONT

This world-renowned photographer has this year worked in Port Moresby, Tari in Southern Highlands, Mt Hagen, Goroka, Wabag, Porgera gold mine, deserted Panguna mine on Bougainville, and the Sepik River as far as Black Water Lakes.

Stephen Dupont… ‘nomad with a camera’

A good mate of mine, whom I have known since 2009 when I assisted him and a French TV journalist on a documentary on crime in Port Moresby, Dupont has become well known to many at The National’s office as he wandered in and out to see me.

A church service and flag-raising at Kaningara village, Middle Sepik

Stephen Dupont was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1967.

During the past two decades, Dupont has produced a remarkable body of visual work; hauntingly beautiful photographs of fragile cultures and marginalised peoples. 

Trying to stay out of the rain, Enga Show, Wabag

He skillfully captures the human dignity of his subjects with great intimacy and often in some of the world’s most-dangerous regions. 

Evangelist bush church near Tari, Southern Highlands

His images have received international acclaim for their artistic integrity and valuable insight into the people, culture and communities that have existed for hundreds of years, yet are fast disappearing from our world.

Huli man and son, Tari

Dupont’s work has earned him photography’s most prestigious prizes, including a Robert Capa Gold Medal citation from the Overseas Press Club of America; a Bayeux War Correspondent’s Prize; and first places in the World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year International, the Australian Walkleys, and Leica/CCP Documentary Award. 

Highlands Highway between Mendi and Hagen

In 2007 he was the recipient of the W. Eugene Smith Grant for Humanistic Photography for his ongoing project on Afghanistan.

In 2010 he received the Gardner Fellowship at Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology.

Watching the rugby at Kaugere Oval, Port Moresby

His work has been featured in The New Yorker, Aperture, Newsweek, Time, GQ, Esquire,  French and German GEO, Le Figaro, Liberation, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Independent, The Guardian, The New York Times Magazine, Stern, The Australian Financial Review Magazine, and Vanity Fair.

Waiting for a PMV at Mt Hagen market

Dupont has held major exhibitions in London, Paris, New York, Sydney, Canberra, Tokyo, and Shanghai, and at Perpignan’s Visa Pour L’Image, China’s Ping Yao and Holland’s Noorderlicht festivals. 

Mt Hagen

Dupont’s handmade photographic artist books and portfolios are in the selected collections of the National Gallery of Australia, National Library of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Australian War Memorial, The New York Public Library, Berlin and Munich National Art Libraries, Stanford University, Yale University, Boston Athenaeum, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and Joy of Giving Something Inc.

Crowd waiting to see the Prime Minister arrive at Goroka Airport, Independence Day, September 16, 2011

He currently resides in Sydney with his family where he splits his production there with assignments and long term projects in the field. 

He is a photographer, artist and documentary filmmaker. 

Welcome singsing dancers on the tarmac at Goroka Airport waiting the PM to arrive, Independence Day, September 16, 2011

This year, he has been on a prestigious fellowship from Harvard University in the USA, called the Gardner Photography Fellowship at the Peabody Museum of Ethonology and Archeology at Harvard.

Mudmen on the tarmac at Goroka Airport waiting the Prime Minister to arrive, Independence Day, September 16, 2011

“My proposal was to do a project on Papua New Guinea,” Dupont says.

“My theme for this project would be around PNG society and detribalisation. 

Supporters of Prime Minister Peter O'Neil waiting for his arrival at Goroka Airport, September 16,  Independence Day, 2011

“In essence, I wanted to look at changes facing the human condition of PNG society today, 2011.

“I was awarded the fellowship to do this project for one year, so the money would help me come back and forth to PNG to complete this work, which would ultimately be a book and exhibition for the Peabody Museum.

Putting on make up, Enga Show, Wabag

“I started in Port Moresby where I focused on the urban environment and the effects of urbanisation on the various tribal communities."

“I wanted to contrast this window into the cities, with a focus on the rural environment, so I travelled to Tari in the Southern Highlands.

Singsing performers at Enga Show, Wabag

“I travelled the Highlands Highway to Mt Hagen and Goroka.

“I covered the cultural shows in Hagen, Goroka and Wabag.

“I visited Porgera gold mine and travelled through Bougainville, and documented the community around the Panguna mine.

Bride price ceremony, Banz, Western Highlands

“I also journeyed up the Sepik River as far as the Black Water Lakes, documenting traditional villages and their people.

 “I’m interested in these changes that are taking place in PNG.

“What I mean is that I’m looking at the effects and impact of globalisation on the society and westernisation on the society of PNG today.

“This can come through with obvious and dramatic new influences on the people, for example, the influx of commercialisation and advertising; the phenomenal advancement and popularity of mobile phones and telecommunications in this country; obviously the boom of mining today, like the LNG project in the Southern Highlands.

A bride price gathering in Banz, Western Highlands

“PNG is seeing a major economic boom in its resources and other resource-related sectors.

“Essentially, this is having a clear affect on the society.

“People are experiencing new and modern technologies like the mobile phone and internet, that people in rural communities never dreamt of before.”

Dupont searched for changes in culture.

“My project is a photographic project so I’m a visual storyteller,” he explains.

“Most of my information and stories need to be shown in the context of my photographs.

“I’m constantly on the lookout for these obvious clashes of traditional cultures and western influences.

“I’m walking the streets and I’m looking for this, whether it is in Port Moresby, or Mt Hagen, or the Sepik or Tari.

“I want to document, for history’s sake, these changes that are taking place in 2011.

“While I was in Tari, I witnessed the phenomenal impact that the simple mobile phone is having on the society there.

“These people in the Southern Highlands, like many other remote communities in PNG, have taken up the mobile phone and worshipped it, like they worship pigs or other valuables.

“The phone has introduced an unheard-of instant communication to friends and families around the country, that these remote communities have never experienced before.

“For the first time, it has brought communities together and in touch.

“In the West, we take this kind of thing for granted, but in PNG, the simple mobile phone network is a revelation.

“There’s nowhere in PNG experiencing these changes so quickly and aggressively as in the Southern Highlands.

“Traditional culture is rapidly changing forever.

“Whether this is seen as detribalisation or progress, it does not change the fact that ancient custom is on the edge of extinction.

“It is this question that I’m most intrigued about as I travel around the country - a nomad with a camera - that I’m trying to capture in my photographs.”

Dupont’s book, Piksa Niugini: The Land of the Unknown, is expected to be published and on sale in 2013.

The dawning of a new day for Ialibu

By MALUM NALU

A powerful new book by Lutheran missionaries Claire and Len Tscharke tells of how they brought the Word of God into remote Ialibu, Southern Highlands, in the 1950s.

The book, ‘The Dawning of a New Day’, launched at Evangelical Lutheran Church of PNG headquarters at Ampo in Lae in July this year, is a wonderful account of God’s leading, His blessing and of the turn-around of many Papua New Guineans to go God’s way instead of Satan’s.

 Cover of ‘The dawning of a New Day’

Here were two young novice missionaries taking God’s promises at face value and proving them true in their lives.

The Tscharkes were missionaries in PNG from 1954-1972, Len fondly remembered by many as the founding principal of the famous Asaroka Lutheran High School in Eastern Highlands (that is another story).

The Tscharkes being welcomed home Asaroka Lutheran High School outside Goroka in July this year.

For a period of four years, from 1955-1958, they were the first Lutheran missionaries into the then highly-restricted area of Ialibu.

At the time, Ialibu was quite unknown to the wider world, although a government kiap (patrol officer) had preceded them by some months.

This kiap, Brian O’Neill, became as good friends of the Tscharkes as they brought government services, education and the Word of God to the people of Ialbu.

O’Neill was the father of one Peter O’Neill, who just last month, became Prime Minister of PNG.

“The young patrol officer, Brian O’Neill, who had been sent there by the Government to open up this new region for others to follow, was an Australian man in his mid-20s, full of energy and enthusiasm,” they write.

“We pictured him to be a busy man, conscientious in all that he did.

“The fact that he had already completed the airstrip seemed to suggest that he was a man of action, as only a person with drive and initiative could have achieved what he had done in such a short time.”

One of the most amazing things in the book is that the Tscharkes, who built the first school in Ialibu, wondered if a future prime minister of PNG would come out of Ialibu.

“How long would it be for someone to emerge from a school such as ours to be ready to fill a meaningful role in the forums of the worldwide Church of God or in the halls of the nations of the world?” they write in ‘The Dawning of a New Day’.

“Was there perhaps a future Prime Minister sitting in one of our wooden benches out there in forgotten Ialibu?

“These thoughts did come to us.”

God must have listened to them, albeit more than 50 years later, as Peter O’Neill became Prime Minister of PNG and represented the country “in the halls of the nations of the world” such as the United Nations.

When the Tscharkes entered Ialibu, no other white person had entered this area until then, where the people were still living in the Stone Age.

The Tscharkes lived amongst these people, got to know them well and helped them to a new, a better life, where they know Christ as their Savior.

A good friend of mine, Rebecca Ogann Kiage, who is studying at university in Adelaide and whose guardians are the Tscharkes, recently gave me a copy to read and I couldn’t put the book down until I had completed it this week,

In fact, I was invited to meet the Tscharkes when they came over in July for the book launch as well as visit their old stomping grounds of Asaroka and Ialibu, however, I just missed their flight.

It is a book that every child of Ialibu, Southern Highlands and PNG must read because of its rich historical content, one that will make you laugh one moment, make you cry the next.

The story begins in 1955 when the Tscharkes and their one-year-old son, Terry, got on board a Mission Cessna 172 VHF- AMO and flew off to their new assignment.

Much of what is written in the book is written in diary form, where days and events have been recalled in the order they happened.

It is one big Christian adventure from start to end!

It starts with their arrival, first impressions, settling in, starting a new school, Ialibu becoming a derestricted area, Ialibu becoming a circuit, expansion, changes, consolidation, visit of Claire’s parents, plans for self-government and independence, Ialibu tradition, Kagua becoming a derestricted area, first mission trip to Kagua Valley, growth of Ialibu, first trip to Wiru Taru, Len’s final trip to the Pangia-Tiripini region, and the heartbreak of leaving Ialibu in 1959.

Their first-hand experiences with the people of Ialibu make for fascinating reading.

Many people have, over the years, asked the Tscharkes to record their unque experiences, however, they always said “no” until recently when they decided to publish the book.

“What happened at Ialibu in those early years wasn’t about us at all,” they write.

“Nor was it about the evangelists who played a part in bringing the Gospel to those fine people.

“It was about God and the power that he had invested in His Word.

“We were no more than His voice that he used to create for Himself a people that now follows Him and brings honor to the name of Jesus.

“He wanted those Ialibu people to have a place in His Kingdom, together with every other tribe, nation and tongue.

“And so it happened that He asked us to go there for Him.

“Like almost everyone else at the time, we hadn’t even heard of the place called Ialibu before we were asked to go there.

“In fact, it had only just been listed as a future centre, because of a young patrol officer (Brian O’Neill) who had gone up there to open up a station for the government.

“Before that, there wasn’t even a village there!”

This amazing book is on sale in Port Moresby for K50 from Delma Yore, who can be contacted on mobile 71097679.

In Lae, copies can be obtained from Pastor Greg Schiller at ELCPNG head office, Ampo.

All proceeds from book sales will be used for the Ialibu Pastoral Training Initiative.

Police disband NCD fraud squad

By JEFFREY ELAPA and JACOB POK

POLICE Commissioner Tony Wagambie has disbanded the National Capital District command centre and its fraud squad without explaining to his officers the reason, The National reports.
Attempts last night to contact Wagambie for a comment were unsuccessful.
But the Assistant Police Commissioner and NCD central divisional commander Fred Seekiot confirmed the move.
Seekiot said he had received instructions that the NCD fraud squad be disbanded and that the officers had been given until 10am today to vacate their offices.
NCD metropolitan commander Supt Joseph Tondop also confirmed receiving the instruction but declined to comment further.
A member of the NCD fraud squad confirmed receiving the instructions to disband the unit.
Seekiot said the letter from Wagambie did not give any reason as to why they were to be removed, and only stated that the "reasons were only known to him (the commissioner)".
Seekiot said he would be replaced by Assistant Commissioner Awen Sete.
He also revealed that Tondop would be replaced by the Morobe provincial police commander Peter Gui­ness.
He said they had been informed that the NCD fraud unit would be moved to the national anti-fraud and corruption headquarters at Konedobu.
Reliable sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said last night the decision was suspicious because it came at a time when high-profile fraud cases were being handled by the NCD fraud squad under the command of Seekiot and Tondop.
It included the K50 million Nasfund cases, Pacific Balance funds fraud case, and the K100,000 National Museum and Art Gallery case in which senior banker Aho Nollen Baliki appeared in court this week to answer charges of conspiring to defraud.
On that same case, police are looking for the museum board of trustees president Julius Violaris for questioning.
The sources said alleged fraud in the lands department in which the acting secretary had been implicated, the national planning anomalies and the public prosecutor case were among the ongoing high-profile cases being investigated by the NCD command.
The sources said the decision could affect the cases, some of which were pending in court.

Don’t stop InterOil LNG project, say clans

LANDOWNERS of the InterOil Gulf LNG pro­ject want Prime Minister Peter O'Neill to reconsider a cabinet decision to shelve it, The National reports.
They also want him to sack Petroleum and Energy Minister William Duma for misleading the people, the government and the developer, after deliberately sitting on the issue since the signing of an agreement with developers InterOil in 2009.
The Ihu and Baimuru landowners are represented by Aitari Huaupe, Ken Ori, Bernard Nikura, Winston Kupea, Gada Govea, Joe Meve and Ivan Evara.
They also represent the Gulf provincial go­vernment.
In a joint statement, they said they would stage a protest if the go­vernment failed to allow the project to go ahead.
"Why is he (Duma) advising the government to stop the project when he was the minister who signed the agreement and was making good promotional presentation on the project?" they said.
The landowners also want all LNG facilities to be set up in Gulf ra­ther than piping oil all the way to Port Moresby.
They said the Gulf people had been denied development for a long time and now wanted to use benefits from the project to change their lives.
"If it is removed, then we will remain poor," they said.
They also want Duma to name the company to take over from InterOil.

InterOil keen on Gulf deal

Oil company vows it will live up to agreement

THE InterOil Corporation says it is still committed to delivering a world-class Gulf LNG project in compliance with the 2009 agreement with the government, The National reports.
But this assurance did not help its performance on the New York Stock Ex­change as it got a hammering and shed 24% of its share value to trade at US$45.75 (down from an average US$56).
The NYSE recorded the big hit on the stocks as an "unusual stock move" which followed Petroleum Minister William Duma's announcement that the national executive council had decided to dump the project as InterOil had deviated from its original plan to build a world-class LNG plant alongside its NapaNapa oil refinery near Port Moresby.
InterOil chairman Phil Mu­la­cek said the company had this week discussed with Duma the government's concern over the project as highlighted in the media.
"We continue to be working together on the clarification of issues for the project execution, raised by the minister,'' he said in a statement.
"Recent meetings this week show support for the InterOil LNG project in the Gulf by the minister, prime minister and Gulf ministers. 
"Further clarification was added for additional support for LNG operations, which all parties are working on."
The government this week decided to cancel the InterOil-proposed Gulf LNG project be­cause the company had de­viated from the original project agreement.
Duma said InterOil had instead proposed a "small-scale fragmented" Gulf project to be developed by companies not recognised as LNG operators.
He said none of the companies were experienced in ope­rating a world-class LNG plant that InterOil was contracted to do.
Yesterday, InterOil said in the past 15 years it had been in ope­ration in PNG, it had worked hard to develop a lasting and constructive relationship with the people and the government.
A company statement said: "It is unfortunate that such assertions were being made by the
minister on the basis of preliminary interpretations of complex and permissive contractual definitions while the project continues to develop.
"As a company with a long history and all of its operations and business in PNG, InterOil hopes that these actions, together with the recent period of substantial change in PNG's national government, do not undermine PNG's status as a favourable country for foreign investment and international business.
"InterOil is developing its LNG project in compliance with its project agreement with the PNG government to deve­lop a world-class LNG project of the size provided for, of international scale and quality, and using internationally re­cognised technology.
"The company believes that reason and governance in the interests of the people of PNG will prevail, as has always been evident in its past dealings with the PNG government," the statement said.
Duma said earlier this week that while the agreement stated InterOil and its partners would build a world class LNG plant of international scale and quality, it had instead been announcing, presenting and promoting a different project without seeking prior formal state approval.
Duma, however, assured the developers that the government would continue to support the second LNG project if it complied with the original agreement.
InterOil said it was deve­loping a vertically integrated ener­gy business whose primary focus was PNG and the surrounding region.
Its assets include petroleum licences covering about 3.9 million acres, an oil refinery, and retail and commercial distribution facilities, all located in PNG.
In addition, InterOil is a shareholder in a joint venture established to construct an LNG plant in PNG.

Prime Minister: No job losses in airlines merger

By ISAAC NICHOLAS
PRIME Minister Peter O'Neill has given an assurance that there will be no single job loss in the proposed merger of Air Niugini and Airlines PNG, The National reports.
O'Neill also clarified that the National Executive Council had not made a final decision on the proposed merger but gave an approval in principle to look at the possibilities of merging the two airlines.
He said the NEC decision was very clear.
 "We will be looking at financial issues, job security and the ability to provide more services. The decision has not been made," he said.
He assured the workers of both airlines that there would be no job losses.
O'Neill's advice to unions is to look after the workers' welfare and not take over the job of the Independent Consumer and Competition Commission.
He said last week before leaving for New York to attend the United Nations general assembly that the details of the merger would be worked out by a special merger implementation office to be chaired by Public Enterprise Minister Sir Mekere Morauta.
The members will be the chief executives of Air Niugini, Airlines PNG and independent valuers.
"Both Air Niugini and Airlines PNG will be members of the implementation office as will the IPBC who will be assisted by technical experts including independent valuers to undertake a due diligence exercise to ascertain the exact value of assets and business of each airline,'' he said.
Sir Mekere said afterwards no firm decision had been made by cabinet on the merger.
"The MIO will examine the technical and financial feasibility of a merged airline and once a report is done I will take the recommendations to government, and the chairman and Airlines PNG CEO will take it back to their shareholders," Sir Mekere said.
He reminded unionist Michael Malabag that security of employment would be provided.
"The prime minister has given his assurance and if he wants me to put that assurance in writing I can do that."
Sir Mekere said the unions were resistant to changes and they were doing the job of the ICCC.
He said the ICCC had a role to play and would have a say in the merger proposal.

InterOil LNG project shelving welcomed

By JEFFREY ELAPA

FORMER Petroleum and Energy Mi­nis­ter Francis Potape has welcomed the government's decision to shelve the InterOil-proposed Gulf LNG project, The National reports.
He thanked his successor William Duma and secretary Rendel Rumua for coming to their senses and shelving the project after InterOil failed to honour the original agreement signed in 2009.
The agreement was that InterOil would buy crude oil from Kutubu, refine it and supply petroleum products to the domestic market.
Instead, it was buying refined petroleum products from overseas.
It was also discovered that InterOil had deviated from an agreement to build an InterOil LNG project alongside the NapaNapa oil refinery.
It instead opted for a different production method, a mini land-based trains and a fixed floating LNG plant.
Potape, a minister in the previous go­vernment, had raised the issue during a ministerial forum this year.
He had warned the executives of InterOil that the government would not allow companies with an unproven track record to operate a world-class LNG project with unproven technology.
"I told InterOil that the government will not allow any unproven techno­logy to be tested in PNG because PNG was not a guinea pig for international companies to test new technologies.
"My successor has now realised it and I commend him," he said.
He warned them to work within the agreement and not do things their own way because the government would not allow it.
Potape said Duma and Rimua had now realised the problem after sitting on it since 2009 when the agreement was signed.
"I think they have awoken from their sleep and have now realised the problem after I raised it with their executives du­ring my term as the minister," he said.