21 Oct 2019

Re-Discovering Bougainville

The morning dawned heavy with humidity and expectation as Spirit of Enderby sat anchored off Bougainville Island. We are among the first visitors to return to the island and an early morning downpour has slightly delayed our departure. On shore the islanders are patiently awaiting the arrival of a fuel tanker to restart their generators having spent the last two nights without power, and next month they will vote in a referendum on whether they will become independent or continue as an Autonomous Region of Papua New Guinea.

Filling mini vans we are appreciative of the cooler climes as we make our way up to the mist covered mountains behind the township of Arawa, to the abandoned Panguna copper and gold mine. Both the land and its people are still scarred from the Bougainville crisis/civil war brought on by disputes over indigenous control of land and inequality of profit distribution from the mine established in 1963. Rivers still run either muddy or stained blue by the copper leaching from the site, while machinery, plant and worker accommodations have been destroyed, the metals sold for scrap or left to decay as the jungle silently reclaims the land.

We are surprised when our guides tell us that mining is still taking place, just on a much smaller scale, with landowners fashioning their own equipment upcycled from the remaining scrap. Reaching an elevation of 1,000 metres we are perched on the edge of the old mine site, at its peak the largest open cut copper mine in the world, the former mountain now a gaping cavity almost as deep as it once was high.

An apocolyptic landscape awaits at the former workers' apartments, the abandoned ghost town ruins now used as schools and housing for those displaced during the uprising, we visit the school and chat with the locals before leaving for Arawa market. The market's aisles hum with the chatter as hundreds of locals shop under the thatched roof and stall owners lazily wave long sticks with plastic bags attac hed to the ends to keep the flies at bay.

Having enjoyed a successful morning, our birders rejoin the group for lunch before we all visit a Catholic Missionary were we are welcomed by a new singsing experience complete with pan flutes, guitar and gentle drumming. The strong connection the people of Bougainville have with those living on the Solomon Islands is reflected in their music. We farewell our time in Papua New Guinea with swim off the ship then set sail for Choiseul Island, in the Solomon Islands, after dinner.

Image (c) I.Wilson, Heritage Expeditions