Papua New Guinea's People and Provinces - Gulf Province

Map of Papua New Guinea highlighting Gulf Province

Flag of Gulf Province

Kerema is the capital of Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea. It is located on the coast of Gulf of Papua. The Gulf region is aptly named for its concave costline with large deltas. The Gulf area is a riparian region were many rivers from the southern slopes of the highlands drain into.

History

James Chalmers, or 'Tamate' as the locals of Toaripi called him, was the first white man to land in the province. He first landed in Iokea in 1885. Cannibalism was a way of life for the fierce gulf people until the arrival of Christianity. Although head-hunting has not survived European civilisation, seven distinct styles of artistic craftsmanship have been categorised. A thriving market for carved masks, bull roarers, headrests, skull racks and gope boards keeps local craftsmen busy.

Culture and Tradition

Symbol representing the Gulf Province

The popular language spoken in Gulf Province is Torapi. The villages towards the East of Kerema from Hamuhamu to Iokea and inland to Moveave all speak Toaripi. The Gulf's traditional culture and knowledge was one of the first to be exposed to the outside world. Thus it was one of the first dying cultures, as outsiders mainly Christian missionaries have indoctrinated 80% of the coastal people to abandon most of their culture.

Industry

The Gulf area is blessed with many natural resources such as abundant marine life, rich jungle, sago, betelnut (buai), and many others. Currently oil explorations are showing positive results and it will be major income earner to the province. Fishing, logging and oil are the main industries, although betelnut and sago are the major cash crop for the local people. Gulf people supply 80% of the betelnut and sago to Port Moresby markets for cash.

Greenpeace activists paint 'Forest Destruction, Climate Crime, Moratorium Now' on barges of illegally felled trees waiting in Paia Port waterways to be loaded onto the 'Harbour Gemini' ship, currently occupied by Greenpeace activists, in the rainforests of the 'Turama extension' logging concession, Paia port, Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea, Thursday 4th September 2008. These forests are being felled by Turama Forest Industries - a group company of Malayasian logging giant Rimbunan Hijau.

Twenty percent of global greenhouse emissions annually are caused by the deforestation of natural forests worldwide.

Papua New Guinea's People and Provinces - Gulf Province

Map of Papua New Guinea highlighting Gulf Province

Flag of Gulf Province

Kerema is the capital of Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea. It is located on the coast of Gulf of Papua. The Gulf region is aptly named for its concave costline with large deltas. The Gulf area is a riparian region were many rivers from the southern slopes of the highlands drain into.

History

James Chalmers, or 'Tamate' as the locals of Toaripi called him, was the first white man to land in the province. He first landed in Iokea in 1885. Cannibalism was a way of life for the fierce gulf people until the arrival of Christianity. Although head-hunting has not survived European civilisation, seven distinct styles of artistic craftsmanship have been categorised. A thriving market for carved masks, bull roarers, headrests, skull racks and gope boards keeps local craftsmen busy.

Culture and Tradition

Symbol representing the Gulf Province

The popular language spoken in Gulf Province is Torapi. The villages towards the East of Kerema from Hamuhamu to Iokea and inland to Moveave all speak Toaripi. The Gulf's traditional culture and knowledge was one of the first to be exposed to the outside world. Thus it was one of the first dying cultures, as outsiders mainly Christian missionaries have indoctrinated 80% of the coastal people to abandon most of their culture.

Industry

The Gulf area is blessed with many natural resources such as abundant marine life, rich jungle, sago, betelnut (buai), and many others. Currently oil explorations are showing positive results and it will be major income earner to the province. Fishing, logging and oil are the main industries, although betelnut and sago are the major cash crop for the local people. Gulf people supply 80% of the betelnut and sago to Port Moresby markets for cash.

Greenpeace activists paint 'Forest Destruction, Climate Crime, Moratorium Now' on barges of illegally felled trees waiting in Paia Port waterways to be loaded onto the 'Harbour Gemini' ship, currently occupied by Greenpeace activists, in the rainforests of the 'Turama extension' logging concession, Paia port, Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea, Thursday 4th September 2008. These forests are being felled by Turama Forest Industries - a group company of Malayasian logging giant Rimbunan Hijau.

Twenty percent of global greenhouse emissions annually are caused by the deforestation of natural forests worldwide.

Papua New Guinea's People and Provinces - Gulf Province

Map of Papua New Guinea highlighting Gulf Province

Flag of Gulf Province

Kerema is the capital of Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea. It is located on the coast of Gulf of Papua. The Gulf region is aptly named for its concave costline with large deltas. The Gulf area is a riparian region were many rivers from the southern slopes of the highlands drain into.

History

James Chalmers, or 'Tamate' as the locals of Toaripi called him, was the first white man to land in the province. He first landed in Iokea in 1885. Cannibalism was a way of life for the fierce gulf people until the arrival of Christianity. Although head-hunting has not survived European civilisation, seven distinct styles of artistic craftsmanship have been categorised. A thriving market for carved masks, bull roarers, headrests, skull racks and gope boards keeps local craftsmen busy.

Culture and Tradition

Symbol representing the Gulf Province

The popular language spoken in Gulf Province is Torapi. The villages towards the East of Kerema from Hamuhamu to Iokea and inland to Moveave all speak Toaripi. The Gulf's traditional culture and knowledge was one of the first to be exposed to the outside world. Thus it was one of the first dying cultures, as outsiders mainly Christian missionaries have indoctrinated 80% of the coastal people to abandon most of their culture.

Industry

The Gulf area is blessed with many natural resources such as abundant marine life, rich jungle, sago, betelnut (buai), and many others. Currently oil explorations are showing positive results and it will be major income earner to the province. Fishing, logging and oil are the main industries, although betelnut and sago are the major cash crop for the local people. Gulf people supply 80% of the betelnut and sago to Port Moresby markets for cash.

Greenpeace activists paint 'Forest Destruction, Climate Crime, Moratorium Now' on barges of illegally felled trees waiting in Paia Port waterways to be loaded onto the 'Harbour Gemini' ship, currently occupied by Greenpeace activists, in the rainforests of the 'Turama extension' logging concession, Paia port, Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea, Thursday 4th September 2008. These forests are being felled by Turama Forest Industries - a group company of Malayasian logging giant Rimbunan Hijau.

Twenty percent of global greenhouse emissions annually are caused by the deforestation of natural forests worldwide.

SKEVE is GONE for good

Skeve (above) posing for the camera outside our porch in the winter of 2009 and Elizpeth (below) following her brother Skeve outside our porch enjoying the snow in good times.

Skeve died unexpectedly of natural causes on Tuesday. Skeve was around for ten and half years. Elizpeth is now lonely, we are planning to have a buddy for him hopefully next week so that she will be happy again.

SKEVE is GONE for good

Skeve (above) posing for the camera outside our porch in the winter of 2009 and Elizpeth (below) following her brother Skeve outside our porch enjoying the snow in good times.

Skeve died unexpectedly of natural causes on Tuesday. Skeve was around for ten and half years. Elizpeth is now lonely, we are planning to have a buddy for him hopefully next week so that she will be happy again.

SKEVE is GONE for good

Skeve (above) posing for the camera outside our porch in the winter of 2009 and Elizpeth (below) following her brother Skeve outside our porch enjoying the snow in good times.

Skeve died unexpectedly of natural causes on Tuesday. Skeve was around for ten and half years. Elizpeth is now lonely, we are planning to have a buddy for him hopefully next week so that she will be happy again.

The Face of the New Generation

By Gelab Piak

Have you ever wondered where Papua New Guinea will stand or how it would look like half after century from now? Well that has always burned as a great furnace in my mind. But what puzzles me the most is where we would be now, if we had taken a different course?

I do not speak for myself, but I speak for the many young people in PNG. Today, many young people of Papua New Guinea often wonder how great this beloved country could look like if the so many billions of kina stolen by our selfish corrupt leaders were used on infrastructure, education, health, transport, and other such things as businesses, people’s welfare, school materials, medical drugs, vehicles for Government agencies, etc..

Turning a blind eye on the future generation could mean disaster

By now our government should be concentrating or focusing its resources on maintenance of infrastructure and investing for the future generation. Investing in terms such as; putting computers in every school in the country, subsidizing school fees 100% and letting the general public to have free access to clean water and power supplies. Not opening billion dollar gas plants and million dollar mines. What good would those do except pollute us, bred more corrupt politicians and bring upon us more suffering.

To paint a more realistic and perfect face of the Government, take look at the Government agencies in the provinces and districts outside of Port Moresby. Government agencies are run down, incapable of performing their duties and are under-resourced. So where do all the billions and billions of kina go?

I think the answer to that lies in the back of our minds. And we are the only ones who can make a difference by finding an unavoidable solution that interacts directly with our answer. Every year hundreds of Papua New Guineans die from treatable diseases like malaria, TB and leprosy. Its genocide being committed by the Government, and the government should be guilty of that, which is a crime against the people it is obliged to serve.

When will we Papua New Guineans realize that? When will we stop being fools and slaves in our own land? Well some of us, the wise one, who are not blinded by these blind prophets who lead us, have realized it. In universities all over the country, young students’ minds are becoming radicalized. They believe that a revolution is the only way to fix up our country. Whether it is a peaceful one or a bloody one, yet it’s coming, and it is unavoidable.

Unemployment and related issues for the youth needed to be addressed now or else, anything can happen in the Land of the Unexpected

It is mostly those who have come from rural areas, who have gone through suffering at the hands and whims of the Government that are calling for a revolution. They know what it’s like to be left out, to live in inaccessible places, to have no access to government services, to trust their hope into false promises, and they what it’s like to lose everything and pay the hefty price of freedom so that their children can have a better, fruitful future.

These young people are, not criminals, not homeless people, no, they are university students and graduates, who live, work and mingle with you. They know only one thing; and that’s that one morning the rest of PNG will wake up to the sound of, not signing birds, but bombs and guns, and they will all know that the face of the new, elite, and educated generation of Papua New Guineans is an ugly one, with the word Revolution, written all over it.

Gelab Piak is a freelance journalist and a student of Divine Word University; Madang, Papua New Guinea

*** The writer and many other young Papua New Guineans are so concerned that their future is so grim in the country they grew up and love very much. We're voiceless even though we raise our voices to be heard from somewhere for those who want to listen and direct us to a brighter future.

Like Piak and many of us who have Internet excess in front of us, we'll continue to write on important issues that are affecting our nation and that will in the future concerning our young generation of Papua New Guineans. I encourage you all to write to your MP or representatives at your levels to consider the plea for our younger generation and the direction that our nation is heading.

We've bunch of leaders who want to quench their thirst and never had a second thought of who is behind them. This is a dangerous precedent for a young nation like Papua New Guinea who nobody seems to care what is happening with the rest of PNG and it's people.

The Face of the New Generation

By Gelab Piak

Have you ever wondered where Papua New Guinea will stand or how it would look like half after century from now? Well that has always burned as a great furnace in my mind. But what puzzles me the most is where we would be now, if we had taken a different course?

I do not speak for myself, but I speak for the many young people in PNG. Today, many young people of Papua New Guinea often wonder how great this beloved country could look like if the so many billions of kina stolen by our selfish corrupt leaders were used on infrastructure, education, health, transport, and other such things as businesses, people’s welfare, school materials, medical drugs, vehicles for Government agencies, etc..

Turning a blind eye on the future generation could mean disaster

By now our government should be concentrating or focusing its resources on maintenance of infrastructure and investing for the future generation. Investing in terms such as; putting computers in every school in the country, subsidizing school fees 100% and letting the general public to have free access to clean water and power supplies. Not opening billion dollar gas plants and million dollar mines. What good would those do except pollute us, bred more corrupt politicians and bring upon us more suffering.

To paint a more realistic and perfect face of the Government, take look at the Government agencies in the provinces and districts outside of Port Moresby. Government agencies are run down, incapable of performing their duties and are under-resourced. So where do all the billions and billions of kina go?

I think the answer to that lies in the back of our minds. And we are the only ones who can make a difference by finding an unavoidable solution that interacts directly with our answer. Every year hundreds of Papua New Guineans die from treatable diseases like malaria, TB and leprosy. Its genocide being committed by the Government, and the government should be guilty of that, which is a crime against the people it is obliged to serve.

When will we Papua New Guineans realize that? When will we stop being fools and slaves in our own land? Well some of us, the wise one, who are not blinded by these blind prophets who lead us, have realized it. In universities all over the country, young students’ minds are becoming radicalized. They believe that a revolution is the only way to fix up our country. Whether it is a peaceful one or a bloody one, yet it’s coming, and it is unavoidable.

Unemployment and related issues for the youth needed to be addressed now or else, anything can happen in the Land of the Unexpected

It is mostly those who have come from rural areas, who have gone through suffering at the hands and whims of the Government that are calling for a revolution. They know what it’s like to be left out, to live in inaccessible places, to have no access to government services, to trust their hope into false promises, and they what it’s like to lose everything and pay the hefty price of freedom so that their children can have a better, fruitful future.

These young people are, not criminals, not homeless people, no, they are university students and graduates, who live, work and mingle with you. They know only one thing; and that’s that one morning the rest of PNG will wake up to the sound of, not signing birds, but bombs and guns, and they will all know that the face of the new, elite, and educated generation of Papua New Guineans is an ugly one, with the word Revolution, written all over it.

Gelab Piak is a freelance journalist and a student of Divine Word University; Madang, Papua New Guinea

*** The writer and many other young Papua New Guineans are so concerned that their future is so grim in the country they grew up and love very much. We're voiceless even though we raise our voices to be heard from somewhere for those who want to listen and direct us to a brighter future.

Like Piak and many of us who have Internet excess in front of us, we'll continue to write on important issues that are affecting our nation and that will in the future concerning our young generation of Papua New Guineans. I encourage you all to write to your MP or representatives at your levels to consider the plea for our younger generation and the direction that our nation is heading.

We've bunch of leaders who want to quench their thirst and never had a second thought of who is behind them. This is a dangerous precedent for a young nation like Papua New Guinea who nobody seems to care what is happening with the rest of PNG and it's people.

The Face of the New Generation

By Gelab Piak

Have you ever wondered where Papua New Guinea will stand or how it would look like half after century from now? Well that has always burned as a great furnace in my mind. But what puzzles me the most is where we would be now, if we had taken a different course?

I do not speak for myself, but I speak for the many young people in PNG. Today, many young people of Papua New Guinea often wonder how great this beloved country could look like if the so many billions of kina stolen by our selfish corrupt leaders were used on infrastructure, education, health, transport, and other such things as businesses, people’s welfare, school materials, medical drugs, vehicles for Government agencies, etc..

Turning a blind eye on the future generation could mean disaster

By now our government should be concentrating or focusing its resources on maintenance of infrastructure and investing for the future generation. Investing in terms such as; putting computers in every school in the country, subsidizing school fees 100% and letting the general public to have free access to clean water and power supplies. Not opening billion dollar gas plants and million dollar mines. What good would those do except pollute us, bred more corrupt politicians and bring upon us more suffering.

To paint a more realistic and perfect face of the Government, take look at the Government agencies in the provinces and districts outside of Port Moresby. Government agencies are run down, incapable of performing their duties and are under-resourced. So where do all the billions and billions of kina go?

I think the answer to that lies in the back of our minds. And we are the only ones who can make a difference by finding an unavoidable solution that interacts directly with our answer. Every year hundreds of Papua New Guineans die from treatable diseases like malaria, TB and leprosy. Its genocide being committed by the Government, and the government should be guilty of that, which is a crime against the people it is obliged to serve.

When will we Papua New Guineans realize that? When will we stop being fools and slaves in our own land? Well some of us, the wise one, who are not blinded by these blind prophets who lead us, have realized it. In universities all over the country, young students’ minds are becoming radicalized. They believe that a revolution is the only way to fix up our country. Whether it is a peaceful one or a bloody one, yet it’s coming, and it is unavoidable.

Unemployment and related issues for the youth needed to be addressed now or else, anything can happen in the Land of the Unexpected

It is mostly those who have come from rural areas, who have gone through suffering at the hands and whims of the Government that are calling for a revolution. They know what it’s like to be left out, to live in inaccessible places, to have no access to government services, to trust their hope into false promises, and they what it’s like to lose everything and pay the hefty price of freedom so that their children can have a better, fruitful future.

These young people are, not criminals, not homeless people, no, they are university students and graduates, who live, work and mingle with you. They know only one thing; and that’s that one morning the rest of PNG will wake up to the sound of, not signing birds, but bombs and guns, and they will all know that the face of the new, elite, and educated generation of Papua New Guineans is an ugly one, with the word Revolution, written all over it.

Gelab Piak is a freelance journalist and a student of Divine Word University; Madang, Papua New Guinea

*** The writer and many other young Papua New Guineans are so concerned that their future is so grim in the country they grew up and love very much. We're voiceless even though we raise our voices to be heard from somewhere for those who want to listen and direct us to a brighter future.

Like Piak and many of us who have Internet excess in front of us, we'll continue to write on important issues that are affecting our nation and that will in the future concerning our young generation of Papua New Guineans. I encourage you all to write to your MP or representatives at your levels to consider the plea for our younger generation and the direction that our nation is heading.

We've bunch of leaders who want to quench their thirst and never had a second thought of who is behind them. This is a dangerous precedent for a young nation like Papua New Guinea who nobody seems to care what is happening with the rest of PNG and it's people.