Kiriwina Island clashes | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Kuboma | Kulumata | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
26 killed | 6 killed |
On October 25, 2022, violence broke out between the Kuboma and Kulumata on Kiriwina Island, part of the Trobriand Islands chain of Papua New Guinea. The violence was the deadliest in Kiriwina history, and saw over thirty people killed. [1]
Under Australian rule, Papua New Guinea banned inter-tribal conflict, in an attempt to ease tensions in an area with thousands of unique tribes and cultures. [1] To resolve disputes between tribes and towns, Papua New Guineans turned to resolving disputes with games of cricket. [2] The concept stuck after Papuan independence in 1975, and generally continues to this day. [2] In September 2022, tensions arose when a Kuboma man ^ was killed in a fight over a soccer game. [3] The situation escalated on October 19, after Kuboma youth ^ allegedly destroyed the yam harvests of Kulumata villages. [3] Yams are considered an important part of Kiriwina culture, and the crops destroyed would cause food supply issues. [3]
Kulumata men painted themselves in tribal war colors, and marched down to the district development authority. When attempting to seek out for answers, Kuboma youth waiting at the station attacked the Kulumata. [3] Clashes broke out, and woman and children on both sides ran away. The men fighting used spears and bush knives. [3] Provincial police chief Peter Barkie claimed that the fighting got so out of hand that local elders couldn't contain it, and that a peace ritual held also did not help matters. [4] The end toll saw twenty-six Kuboma men die and six Kulumata men killed. [5]
Ten police officers were sent from Alotau, the capital of Milne Bay Province, where Kiriwina is located. However, locals claimed the police were outnumbered. [5] PNG Internal Security Minister Peter Tsiamalili claimed that over thirty people were killed in the violence. [4] Local MP Douglas Tomuriesa, who represents the Trobriand Islands, declined to comment to several news agencies. [6]
Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and its offshore islands in Melanesia. It shares its only land border with Indonesia to the west and its other close neighbors are Australia to the south and the Solomon Islands to the east. Its capital, located on its southern coast, is Port Moresby. The country is the world's third largest island country, with an area of 462,840 km2 (178,700 sq mi).
The Trobriand Islands are a 450-square-kilometre (174-square-mile) archipelago of coral atolls off the east coast of New Guinea. They are part of the nation of Papua New Guinea and are in Milne Bay Province. Most of the population of 60,000 (2016) indigenous inhabitants live on the main island of Kiriwina, which is also the location of the government station, Losuia.
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Enga is one of the provinces in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Enga is geographically situated in the northern region of Papua New Guinea and was separated from the adjacent Western Highlands at the time of national independence in 1975. The majority ethnic group are Engans. Approximately 500,000 people live within the province, which has one spoken language in all five of its districts. A small minority of Engans' land on the eastern side of the region remained in the Western Highlands, their territory being accessible by road from Mount Hagen but not directly from elsewhere in Enga territory.
Trobriand Cricket: An Ingenious Response to Colonialism is an anthropological Documentary film about the people of the Trobriand Islands and their unique innovations to the game of cricket, filmed in 1973–74. The film was made by Gary Kildea, under the direction of anthropologist Jerry Leach. It was shot in three weeks, on a budget of around Au$180,000.
Milne Bay is a province of Papua New Guinea. Its capital is Alotau. The province covers 14,345 km2 of land and 252,990 km2 of sea, within the province there are more than 600 islands, about 160 of which are inhabited. The province has about 276,000 inhabitants, speaking about 48 languages, most of which belong to the Eastern Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family. Economically the province is dependent upon tourism, oil palm, and gold mining on Misima Island; in addition to these larger industries there are many small-scale village projects in cocoa and copra cultivation. The World War II Battle of Milne Bay took place in the province.
Kiriwina is the largest of the Trobriand Islands, with an area of 290.5 km2 (112.2 sq mi). It is part of the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. Most of the 12,000 people who live in the Trobriands live on Kiriwina. The Kilivila language, also known as Kiriwina, is spoken on the island. The main town is Losuia. The island falls under the administrative division of Kiriwina Rural LLG.
The Porgera Gold Mine is a large gold and silver mining operation near Porgera, Enga province, Papua New Guinea (PNG). Located at the head of the Porgera Valley, The mine is situated in the rain forest covered highlands at an altitude of 2,200 to 2,700 m, in a region of high rainfall, landslides, and frequent earthquakes.
Sport in Papua New Guinea is an important part of the national culture. Rugby league is the most popular sport in Papua New Guinea.
The Papua conflict is an ongoing conflict in Western New Guinea (Papua) between Indonesia and the Free Papua Movement. Subsequent to the withdrawal of the Dutch administration from the Netherlands New Guinea in 1962 and implementation of Indonesian administration in 1963, the Free Papua Movement has conducted a low-intensity guerrilla war against Indonesia through the targeting of its military, police, as well as civilian populations.
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The Bougainville conflict, also known as the Bougainville Civil War, was a multi-layered armed conflict fought from 1988 to 1998 in the North Solomons Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG) between PNG and the secessionist forces of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA), and between the BRA and other armed groups on Bougainville. The conflict was described by Bougainvillean President John Momis as the largest conflict in Oceania since the end of World War II in 1945, with an estimated 15,000–20,000 Bougainvilleans dead, although lower estimates place the toll at around 1,000–2,000.
Papua New Guinea (PNG) is often labelled as potentially the worst place in the world for gender-based violence.
The people of the Trobriand Islands are mostly subsistence horticulturalists who live in traditional settlements. The social structure is based on matrilineal clans that control land and resources. People participate in the regional circuit of exchange of shells called kula, sailing to visit trade partners on seagoing canoes. In the late twentieth century, anti-colonial and cultural autonomy movements gained followers from the Trobriand societies. When inter-group warfare was forbidden by colonial rulers, the islanders developed a unique, aggressive form of cricket.
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