IB2017/1 'Independence Doesn't Have Any Meaning': Disenchantment in Rural Papua New Guinea

This In Brief reports on recent research among the people who live in the shadow of Mt Wilhelm, PNG’s highest mountain, in the Kundiawa-Gembogl District, Chimbu Province. Existence for the people of this province with its rugged mountain terrain is distant from life in the resource-rich provinces of Hela and Southern Highlands. Aside from income from coffee grown at lower altitudes, access to cash income and services is a perennial problem. This marginalisation has generated a profound disenchantment with the PNG government and the project of nationhood.