Dear Sir:
I work in the Karawari region of the East Sepik where, forthe past 7 years, I have been leading a group of PNG ethnographers andarchaeologists in recording and conserving the enormous cave art system thatriddles the northern escarpment of Mt MacGregor as it falls down the headwatersof the Arafundi and the Karawari Rivers.
Some of the people we work with are amongst the last nomadichunter gatherers in PNG, and the continue to live in these caves with stencilsand images that date back, we believe, 20,000 years. As yet we haven’t had theexpertise to confirm their age, but they are very similar to caves found inBorneo and Western Australia which have been dated to that era. Our efforts arefully endorsed by the National Museum and Art Gallery in Port Moresby, and wehave written numerous articles on their importance. The National GeographicSociety, which assists us with small grants, published a story about theMeakambut people in the January 2011 magazine (attached).
For a couple of years we have been aware of gold speculatorstraveling through the area and talking about mineral exploration on both theKarawari and the Arafundi Rivers. Just recently a company called Pristine No18, which is partly owned by Rimbunam Hijau, had applied for an ELA 2008covering the majority of these historic caves and the rainforest where theMeakambut still live and thrive. The northern tip of the ELA includes landowned by neighbours, the Alamblak Yimas peoples, who have very little land toexpand upon and are apparently happy to have their swamplands explored forgold.
But the Meakambut and the entire Penale tribe are adamantlyagainst the exploration. They know that once Pristine #18 has invested inexploration, they will find it impossible to evict them from their lands andforests. And they know what is at stake: Our company, Nancy Sullivan &Assoc, has spent the past 7 years paying all the school fees (and now projectfees), establishing a primary school, and bringing health services (in regularpatrols by a pediatric surgeon from Wewak) to the area. This is our quid proquo for allowing us to study their caves and ultimately produce a book aboutthem. Thus far we have received Guggenheim, Rockefeller and Christensen Fundgrants, as well as National Geographic support. Our interest in the region issincere and longstanding; we have a project that should continue for decadesyet and provide these communities with the income from scientists and communitydevelopment for their future.
For moreinformation about the company and what we do, please see www.nancysullivan.net and forimages of the work we do in the caves, please see the following: www.nancysullivan.typepad.com/weblong_2014/04/the-meakambut-penale-ewa-alamblak-and-sumariop-get-a-check-up.html
For details aboutthe Pristine # 18 meeting in the village recently, see our blog:
www.nancysullivan.typepad.com/weblong_2013/03/rh-descends-on-the-meakambut.html
We have the support of Ludwig Schulz, the Angoram MP, and awide swatch of his constituency who have benefitted from our work.
For the MRA representative who attended the meeting, weunderstand that Pristine #18 has 2 weeks to assemble an exploration applicationfor the Ministry’s approval. We seek to circumvent this right away, in theinterest of all the Penale as well as the Ewa and Sumariop people whoseprecious caves and histories will be disturbed by this venture.
To date, we have presented powerpoints on the caves to receptive audiences in Korea, the USA, Australia, Italy and the UK. Because of our high international profile, we will have nochoice but to begin a media campaign in support of our request to keep RH andcommercial mining out of these forests and away from the NATIONAL CULTURALPROPERTY within them. The Ewa people of the upper Karawari have suffered at thehands of art dealers who emptied their caves of carvings before independence andleft them with next to nothing as compensation---while their father’s carvingscontinue to fetch 6 figure prices on the Oceanic art market and can be seen inmuseums across the US and Europe. They too would be victims of this short termgreed if the exploration went forward. It is the government neglect of thisregion for decades that has left the Karawari people so vulnerable toexploitation. They are growing cocoa and other small crops we assist them with,and we continue to raise funds for development projects that would keep them intheir land, where they wish to remain. In an area where there are virtually noaid posts or schools, and where no provincial or national government has heardtheir cries for assistance since Independence, we are confident that aninternational campaign to save the region would go viral quite quickly.
I would be loathe to embarrass the ministry by embarking ona campaign like this. But we have no other choice but to reach out to theMinistry now and ask that you OPPOSE THE APPLICATION BY PRISTINE #18 FOR ELA2008 IN THE Karawari.
Nancy Sullivan
Photos above by Amy Toensig for National Geographic; below by Nancy Sullivan
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