Latest Adventures - August 2010

Jim’s bit
Welcome to the Tenkile Conservation Alliance (TCA) website for our August 2010 update. This update begins in the middle of May when our Senior Project Officer, Mathew Akon, returned from the UK with the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN) Award. TCA is very proud of Mathew who impressed everyone he met which included Princess Anne and Sir David Attenborough. The WFN Award is prestigious and highly sought after by conservationists worldwide; TCA has now gained further recognition worldwide fro its’ achievements in conservation. Read more and view video narrated by David Attenborough.

Mathew was on a high for weeks and couldn’t stop talking about it. Can’t blame him really as Mathew has only left PNG once before and that was to the Philippines. This experience gave him and his community a real positive boost for all their efforts.

Jean’s bit
After Mathew’s return our Project Supervisor, Patrick Ikon, left for Lae to attend a Capacity Building Workshop with the Nature Conservancy. Their aim is to increase capacity among local people in the development and management of Carbon Trading schemes in PNG. While he was in Lae he was given the task of finding more Austrolaups Chickens to replace our now long gone stock. Unfortunately he was unsuccessful. Who would have thought a chicken project could be fraught with so many problems.

Jim’s bit
TCA Project Officers James Oso and Samuel Kabau flew to Sibilanga to conduct a meeting with all of the village representatives in the Weimang project area. Following this I few into Port Moresby to attend a rainforest meeting courtesy of J. Swire and sons Pty Ltd. They are trying to become “green” and have shown a particular interest in the TCA project. We hope that we can formulate a partnership with them in order to preserve more rainforest and in turn assist more communities in terms of resource management.

Jean’s bit
While Jim was in Port Moresby we were all in Lumi crossing our fingers and toes in hope that Jim would be able to sign the contract for the second phase Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project (RWSSP). I started to write a training manual for the Project Officers and Facilitators which would be used for the implementation of the entire RWSSP Project. I also came up with a team building day to bring all the new staff together. I was very excited and got right into it. But as it turned out he did not get to sign.

Jim’s bit
Unfortunately the RWSSP Phase 2 project was not yet ready to sign. Ten deep breaths taken and let’s keep traveling. Okay now to concentrate on the Conservation Area. Samuel Kabau, James Oso and Lemus Neyene walked to Mupun and Sikel to collect GPS points. These two villages had marked out their boundaries for their respective Conservation Areas and were now ready for their points to be recorded with the GPS. This work was completed with only one hiccup, a GPS unit was stolen at knifepoint over a misunderstanding over a land boundary but returned unharmed a few days later, otherwise no problems. After nearly eight years in PNG we are pleasantly surprised if a project is completed without any issues.

Jean’s bit
On Jim’s return to Lumi we decided to split ourselves up amongst various schools to celebrate the World Environment Day on June 5th. Lumi Primary School had requested that they wanted me to talk at the school. Closer to the time they asked if the whole school could visit TCA Base. So with only 3 days to prepare, I managed to whip up a round robin of activities, painted a rainforest mural at the back of the training centre, printed out a heap of animal photos and organized some girls as painters and reached Vincent Kelele, our rabbit trainer, to come in to Lumi and assist.

The round robin included 4 activities - a rabbit talk (Vincent), a tree kangaroo talk (Me), face painting and colouring table (the girls) and fish feeding activity (teachers). We split the school of 300 students over 2 days. For each day we had Francis Ulel in fine form controlling the time – 15 minutes at each activity and using the megaphone (not that he needs it) to tell each group when to switch to the next activity. The girls frantically painted pictures of animals on the students’ faces and arms. I had designed a few stencils but they seemed to work better in theory than in practice. In the end the girls did a great job and all 100 plus students were painted up each day.

Vincent and Francis Elpiti ,our rabbit caretaker, showed the students our rabbits and they all got to pat a bunny. I spoke in fine form about tree kangaroos and ended up on my soapbox at the Victoria’s Crowned Pigeon enclosure. This bird was locally extinct when we arrived due to over harvesting. Since we have been here the minimized hunting pressure in the mountains has assisted in the recovery of the worlds largest pigeon in the Torricelli Mountains.

At the fish pond students threw bread into the water to see the fish. Knowing our 3 turtles and crocodile would be out of sight under water, I had just the thing to provide added interest - Tadji’s tadpoles. I left a print out of the life cycle of the frog and list of discussion questions for teachers to use to fill up the 15 minutes. I think it worked!

Following the round robin of activities, the students and teachers were given a photo of a PNG animal. They had to stick the animal onto a rainforest mural to show where that animal lived in the rainforest eg the canopy, forest floor understory etc. Once they were all settled in the classroom we then talked about biodiversity, PNG fauna and how it is so unique and endemic. The guys put the generator on and I gave a short PowerPoint presentation on TCA’s work and goals and then showed the video made by Tim Flannery called “Islands in the sky”. This short film shows how the Tenkile was discovered.

Just before leaving we had a quick round of Q and A and then we provided everyone with a little bite to eat. The girls cooked up a storm of ‘meat donuts’ (imagine a hot jam donut but instead of jam in the middle it is corned beef and there is no sugar on the outside). Mmmmm tasty. They loved it!

Jim’s bit
While Jean was busy doing the World Environment Day activities in Lumi, Mathew Akon visited the Yaluwape Primary School and the Karaitem Primary School. He took the Whitley Award along with him and told of his adventure in London. Patrick Ikon visited the Fatima Primary School and they had a huge event with lots of singing and plays about looking after the environment. This was great to hear because the schools had promoted and initiated all of the activities themselves without TCA’s influence or assistance. We have not seen this level of involvement and interest on World Environment Day before.

Jean’s bit
After a quick birthday cake surprise and wishes for Jim and Tadji on the 8th of June, Jim was off in the helicopter to visit the Xstrata Copper Mine near Frieda River, south of Lumi. I conducted the World Environment Day activities for the remaining students and then fell into a heap – I was exhausted!

Jim’s bit
Xstrata Copper (a large mining company) had promised that they would take me on one of their field surveys as part of their environmental assessments. This was exciting, as I would be picked up in a helicopter and get to see the Sepik plain from the air.

Xstata had previously planned to put a slurry pipe through the Torricelli Mountain Range for the tailings of their mine in Frieda River. We had been communicating with Xstrata for some time expressing our concerns with their planned pipe and the negative impacts it would have on our project. Fortunately they are now putting their waste on barges down the Sepik River, therefore not have any direct impact with the project .

Frieda River is some 150 km south of Lumi across the Sepik plain and near the border of Sandaun and Southern Highlands provinces. The helicopter came to Lumi and I flew to the Frieda river base camp. Along the way we saw a large New Guinea freshwater crocodile, which was great.

At the site I got to meet a team conducting a biological survey of plants, birds, mammals, reptiles, frogs and butterflies. It was fantastic to just talk animals for a few days. With most of our villages having a realistic understanding of what biological research entails; it would now be appropriate for TCA to conduct a biodiversity study.

Jean’s bit
Once Jim was back we organized a TCA meeting for the Tenkile villages. We had a few things to go over with them including preparations for visiting tourists from America. We also had the reps sign the hunting moratorium for all 3 species of Tree Kangaroos (the Tenkile, the Weimang and the Grizzled Tree Kangaroo). But this time there was a catch - if anyone killed a tree kangaroo then that village would be off the TCA program for 12 months. This was the first hunting moratorium that had a consequence. All agreed and all signed.

Late last year we organized a school fee competition on behalf of Prof. Tim Flannery and Dr. Alexandra Slazay. Students were asked to write stories told to them by their grandparents. Both the Fatima Primary School and the Yaluwape Primary School students in year 7 participated and the Flannery family chose the winners. Lillian Yoboi, from Yaluwape Primary School, and Manaseh Wereye, from Fatima Primary School, have since had their school fees paid for this year. The two winning students received a backpack full of stationary and all participants received a TCA bag full of stationary. The schools also received K500 worth of materials courtesy of the Flannery family. The schools gave us a list of materials which varied from saucepans and guitars to soccer balls and wall clocks!

At the same time we also delivered second hand books to 14 schools in the project area which were donated from the Eastern Regional Libraries (Yarra Junction branch, Victoria). Thank-you all for your generous donations.

Jim’s bit
Finally I had everything organized to conduct Distance Sampling Officer (DSO) training at TCA Base-Lumi. To date DSO training has occurred twice, in 2004 and 2007, to the Tenkile villages. Each village has chosen two men to learn about Distance Sampling and to collect data in the mountains.

In 2007 the top 10 DSOs became Research Officers (RO). All ROs can work independently at the research sites. Now, in 2010, the Weimang villages were attending the DSO course for the first time.

I conducted four three-day courses to some 80 participants from the 18 Tenkile and 21 Weimang villages over a period of three weeks. It’s pretty tiring talking non-stop for hours on end and then saying it all again and again and again – but ya know so what. Overall, these courses were well worth it and very satisfying. Everyone really gets into Distance Sampling and there is great pride in doing this work. I’d finish teaching at 5pm, show a video and then everyone would be talking and reading their booklets until at least mid-night. Everyone was given a stopwatch, TCA bag, booklets on DS, pens, pencils and ruler. People tell me that they have a number in their community if they are a Distance Sampling Officer or a Research Officer.

Jean’s bit
After returning from Wewak, I made a quick trip up to Fatima and delivered the materials to the school and students and we had a fun day of speeches, songs and food. Our main partner Zoos Victoria were well known to people as their stickers were on the guitars, drums and amplifiers used in the band. Yes I know – here we were in the middle of nowhere and listening to a fully equipped electric band. Amazing! To make it even more surreal they sang a conservation song to the tune of Bonny M’s “By the river of Babylon”.

I returned to Lumi and helped Jim out with his Distance Sampling Officer training, not that I did much I was just the Gopher - finding stuff for him. So I spent most of my time putting all the paper work together for the accountants. Our accounts are audited every two years and we were well overdue so I made sure everything was in order ready to be sent off next time we were going to be in Wewak.

Kris Norvig had met us at the Wildlife Expo in San Francisco last year and made a generous donation to the Tenkile Conservation Alliance. Impressed by our work and being a frequent traveler she decided to tour PNG with her friend Rachael Kramer and pay us a visit.

They both arrived in Lumi via MAF and stayed with us in Lumi for 5 days. Being the adventurous type we decided to go on a “girly tour” so set off for Maiwetem village. I decided to try out my new hiking boots – bad idea. Only one hour into it I had huge blisters on the heels of both feet so off came the boots and on came the crocs. The road became far too muddy for the crocs so barefoot was the only option I had. I managed it somehow and can’t believe I did it but there you go. This impressed Kris no end but as I kept saying, I don’t usually walk barefoot.

Before we left Lumi there were disturbances at Yongite village and the GPS mapping made us think we better go the long way via Karaitem and use the track the kids use to go to school. So we talked and talked along the way and what should take us 5-6 hours took 8 hours – the road was terrible. It was so wet which surprised me because Lumi has had very little rain. It has been our driest “dry season” on record. But closer to the mountains it does get more rain so there you go.

The beautiful people of Maiwetem lived up to there hospitable reputation and welcomed us with open and generous arms. With very little warning and less than 2 days to prepare they were able to prepare a welcome ceremony and compose a song about the American tourists. Kris and Rachael were so happy and grateful so the 8 hour walk was worthwhile. Being so late arriving in the village we didn’t get to see much and had to leave early the next morning for Soulete village.

The disturbance and concern about going passed Yongite village became null and void once we saw how bad the road was to Maiwetem. As it turned out, one local guy from Soulete said he had never walked that way before and this was his first time. I also found out that I was the first white woman to walk that road in 2004. Another woman from New Zealand walked the same track in 2007 and now Kris and Rachael were the first American women to walk the track so that was a real buzz for all of us.

At Soulete more welcome ceremony’s, songs, speeches and food. After a light shower of unexpected rain and reluctant about going passed Yongite village, we eventually set off for Lumi. As it turned out it was a ghost town at Yongite – not one person, pig, chicken or dog was in sight! So, no problem.

All in all we had a great ‘girly’ trip but it was good to get back to Lumi and rest my feet.

Jim’s bit
The GPS mapping of the Conservation Area was progressing but not without its’ dramas. Land is everything in PNG and there are forever disputes about who owns what. Some villages have been disputing land for generations and will probably never come to an agreement. However, the good thing is, everyone is agreeing that the disputed areas are within the Conservation Area. We have eight Officers (Research and Project Officers) trained to use a GPS – collect waypoints and record track logs.

A team, of usually, three Officers goes out with a village’s Conservation Area Committee and collects the points of their Conservation Area. We then download the way points and track logs and send them to our contact in Australia who joins all the dots – via Arc view software. It usually takes a village five days to walk to and mark their boundaries. The people themselves are slowly locking up the Torricelli’s. People on the ground know where they can and can’t hunt animals.

We now firmly believe that not only the Tenkile is coming back. People are telling us more often that they are seeing Guria (Victoria’s Crowned Pigeon), Palm Cockatoos and Dwarf Cassowaries.

Jean’s bit
With uncertainty of knowing the date of signing the RWSSP grant and traveling to Wewak and Port Moresby we decided at the last minute for me to go into some of the Weimang villages and start conducting the drama education program. This was a very successful education program we held in all the Tenkile villages during 2004-2006. The Weimang villages still had a lot of doubt and confusion about TCA and conservation so the timing was right, especially before the RWSSP project started. So I packed my bags and headed off on a 10 day adventure with Sebby Baiwe, our rabbit trainer, and Austin Olikei a Research Officer.

The local policeman Pesci drove us up the Mai-Tadji road which is the only road to Aitape north of the Torricelli Mountains. It is usually so wet no-one can use it but we have had 2 months of very unusual dry weather so the road conditions were excellent – well for Sepik Highway anyway. So that meant I had only a 2 and a ½ hour walk to Muku village as opposed to a 4 hour walk from the main highway. I was wrapped!

At Muku I settled into my bush material abode set up my mozzie net, thermorest and sleeping bag ready for the sun to go down and start up the mini generator and show the movie “Islands in the sky” and talk about TCA’s work. This was the first time we had taken a generator into the field and shown videos so I was curious as to how people would react.

Turns out people were 100% engaged as soon as the noise settled down and people started to watch. They loved seeing the animals and you could hear all the young children call out their names in the local language. It was worth it.

The next day I conducted the drama education program. This involved playing a warm up game using peoples names, then talking about Tree Kangaroos and the unique fauna found in PNG, I am fairly passionate when I do this to try and invoke some kind of empathy and empowerment among the community for their natural resources. We then play a few more activities to build on drama technique such as using the body to tell a story (mime) using the types of environments as the subject.

Once we illustrate the different types of environments and what life they support it is fairly obvious that the rainforest environment supports the most life and so then we talk about the destruction of rainforest in its various forms, logging, agriculture, housing etc. This discussion usually leads into the greenhouse effect, climate change and carbon trading spiel that I have now got down to a fine art.

Then we do a talking and debating activity. The talking is to help people re-cap on what they have just learnt and also to develop their speech in preparation for the drama. The debate is to stir up some feelings around topical conservation issues. By the afternoon they are pretty much ready to put it all together into two role plays. One, on logging in PNG, and the other on the hunting moratorium for the Weimang. I usually step aside at this point and give the group time to practice. I provide a little bit of direction but not much. By the next day I see what they come up with during the performance in front of the whole village.

At night though the videos of logging and oil palm were interrupted with a fight between two young boys over a girl. The whole village up and ran after the two boys and it was on for young and old. I quickly packed up all the gear and hid in my room. The noise of yelling and screaming was just awful and I was completely choked up by a young girl repeatedly saying “mama mi fret yeah” (Mummy I’m scared). Now that I am a mother, this kind of behavior has a different perspective for me. Before I would have thought ”Oh PNG, typical, one in every crowd ”. But now all I could think of was Tadji and how he would feel if he was witness to this kind of behaviour and the trauma it must cause young children to be around so much violence. It affected me so badly that I almost gave up and returned to Lumi the next morning.

Jim’s bit
One of the best emails ever came to me here in Lumi. The RWSSP/European union grant was now ready to be signed. This was to be the final step in an exhausting procedure that had taken almost a year to get to. Fantastic and what a relief. This was to date our biggest grant/project and will mean a huge change to many people - 243 1000-gallon water tanks (& accessories) to 40 villages over the next 20 months. This will be a huge job and no doubt do our heads in, but what a benefit to the people.

Jean’s bit
In Muku the next morning I was still upset and quite depressed about what I had seen so I called Jim on the mobile and his “get over it” attitude seemed to help. Both Sebby and Austin were nonchalant about it too and it seems up and leaving would have made things worse. The local village leaders were fantastic in that they asked the young boys responsible to apologize and shake hands. It was the first time I witnessed a peace ceremony. Two kina (about $1) was exchanged and a few words were spoken and within a few minutes all was well again. So I didn’t leave and it was unanimous “the show must go on” and so it did.

The results of the drama program were great. It always amazes me that local grassroots people can come up with a real show with only one day preparation. It seems in this village the majority of people do not support logging and would not like it if someone in their village killed a Weimang. The community also came up with two songs about conservation and a traditional “tumbuna” story was performed by the men, complete with a traditional ‘sing-sing’.

So with that I took off to the next village – Winbe.

Winbe was about a one hour walk from Muku. I stayed in Jack’s house the local catholic church leader. There was a tree outside his house that had a ring of large stones around its base so it was a nice little gathering place and lovely shade to sit under. I conducted the moonlight theatre in this very spot and one young man decided the best seat in the house was in the tree. I thought so too.

The drama program went very well, no hitches there and a great tumbuna story over-acted out by the local blokes. The slapstick style of comedy really appeals to PNG people and John Cleese would be envious of the “silly walks” I was privy too during the ancestor story. The guitars made an appearance and two new conservation songs were born. Excellent!.

Jim’s bit
More GPS Mapping and organizing of TCA Base-Lumi. We were slowly getting the whole place fitted with security mesh and barbed wire. Most of the base is now protected and only a small 45m section not complete. We have been promised two more dogs (puppies) from our friends in Wewak and so are making arrangements for two more security dogs. In the wet season it is easy for the dogs to dig and escape, so we have to double the base of the fence with wire that digs into the ground a good six inches or so.

Jean’s bit
Next stop was Auang village. I stayed at the penthouse situated at the top of a hill with amazing views over the valley. The TCA rep Tony and his young wife and two children chose to live away from the village because it is much quieter and indeed it is. It was great. The walk to the dunny was a bit dodgy though. I will have to complain to the manager!

Drama was all good at Auang village. The local elementary school joined in with a great little play about the children wandering through the jungle and they cannot see the Weimang. This makes them so concerned and worried. Their song showed their empathy with words like “All of us are so happy with the Weimang, but we can’t see it so we are worried”. Lots of traditional dress in this village and a few men not scared to reveal all, which of course made everyone laugh. This village also composed a mixture of guitar and traditional singing which was nicely done. Something I had never seen before.

By afternoon after a big feast we headed into Nunsi village. The Nunsi people had a bit more time to prepare so I was welcomed by the community in traditional dress and singing and adorned with the Lesser Bird of Paradise feathers in my hair and traditional shell money around my neck. This was a real honour because they were actually giving these to me as a gift and I wore them all the way back to Lumi.

The next day I conducted the drama program as usual and noticed a young baby sleeping in a sling hanging outside a house. I looked in and could see the baby was only 1-2 months old and very malnourished. The baby’s skin was so flaccid from dehydration. After enquiring I found out the mother was a TCA rep and she had died in child birth. It was her 5th child and the baby was being bottle fed by her sister. I saw the bottle and the so called milk looked like someone had drunk the milk and had filled the bottle up with water ready to wash it. The water with a teaspoon of milk in it was clearly not the right consistency and was the cause of this poor baby’s state. The older kids were later playing with the bottle removing the lid which fell in the dirt and the children just brushed it off on their clothes and put it back. I hope that the aunty had the sense to clean the ‘water’ bottle and start all over again.

Another problem in this village was that we had to close the moonlight theatre – generator bugger up! I don’t know why but we just could not get it started. There was nothing I could do and there were no real mechanics in the village to have a look at it. So we spread word to get tools etc but to no avail. The Nunsi community was so keen they held a mini exorcism over the generator and asked clans and community reps to let go of their negativity and difference and literally prayed to make the generator start. But despite their best efforts it didn’t work. So the Nunsi community didn’t get to see any videos or photos of themselves which was a real shame.

The good news was that the next village – Weigint did have a generator that I could borrow and the Nunsi people were willing to walk to Weigint to see themselves on the big screen.

Jim’s bit.
I was now preparing to go to Port Moresby to sign the RWSSP Phase 2 contract. I would only see Jean for a little while before heading to Wewak and then to Port Moresby. There are always visits from village reps and other people when I’m in Lumi. Friday is always a big day due to the market and often get over 20 visitors. Often it’s just a general catch up but there is always at least one drama going on that needs sorting out. Latley it has been disputes over the GPS mapping of the Conservation Area. We have had threats from people wanting to break GPS machines to others waiting in the bush ready to attack another village when they mark their boundaries. Three times now our Officers have had to come back from village due to re-eruptions of land disputes.

Jean’s bit
In Weigint I stayed with one of the most respected women in the area Mrs. Paula Faru. She has been doing community work her whole life and is fantastic. She has worked in churches, with government and now she has been chosen as a Facilitator for the TCA. She will be great. After a day of training we settled in for a night of videos but the generator that we hired didn’t work.

Next day we got all dressed up for the big day and I wore a “Meri Blouse”. A dress a bit like a mumu which was introduced by early missionaries. But that dress was sooooo hot. It was made from cheap polyester and was way too heavy and long for PNG climate. I sweated in it all day. I couldn’t wait to take it off, I think I would have preferred a grass skirt!

The girls there were great they painted my face, braided my hair and put my bird of Paradise feathers in so that I was ready for the show. The Weigint Primary school started the program with the national anthem, flag raising and prayer. Then we had lots of speeches and lots of traditional stories and songs and of course the two plays about conservation. Melbourne Zoo even got a mention in one of the songs and it also showed a real sign of the times. “Oh Weimang, If Jean takes a photo of you , she will send it to Melbourne Zoo and put it on the internet. But if you want to see the real Weimang come to Souleri (their mountain)” .

It was a long program but worth it and the 500 or so people that came to watch also thought it was a good. The community provided all the neighboring villages with food which impressed me. I had not seen that before.

Later that night some young boys had managed to walk through the night to find another generator. It worked and we set up the screen and laptop under the stars. The dry weather and full moon were perfect conditions for an outdoor picture theatre and once we settled in we went through all the photos and videos from the last 5 villages (Muku through to Weigint), this took about 2 hours! Everyone was still keen to watch a movie so I put on the Carbon trading and oil palm video “The Burning Season”. About 15 minutes in another fight broke out. It was not serious but enough to disturb the evening and so I packed up and it was all over. This was a shame because we had such a great and positive day. In Paula’s words she was convinced it is the negative attitudes of some people and it happens at every community event. In true PNG custom the gods, spirits, ancestors or whatever you want to call it must have agreed because at about 5 in the morning the spirits sent us a warning – the house shook for a minute or two. It was an earthquake.

Jean’s bit
By day 10 I was ready to leave and see my two boys Jim and Tadji. After walking for 2 and ½ hours we arrived at Ningal and the car greeted us with Tadji and Jim on the back. Tadji just loved the Bird of Paradise feathers and he has been wearing them ever since. He also asked to watch David Attenborough’s Bird of Paradise documentary and he hasn’t stopped looking at himself in the mirror preening his feathers. I managed to buy some sausages and fresh chicken as a surprise for Jim. But I think I enjoyed them more than he did!

Jim’s bit
Now it was time to go to Port Moresby. On the 3rd of August 2010 I signed the MOU for the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Program – Phase 2. In Moresby I did my usual networking and also purchased a lot of equipment for this program. I was there only eight days and the time went very quickly. Patrick Ikon was with me and so together we achieved a lot.

Now begins the biggest project for the Tenkile Conservation Alliance.

Special Thanks:

Prof. Tim Flannery and Dr. Alexandra Slazay - from the Fatima and Yaluwape Primary Schools
Eastern Regional Libraries, Yarra Junction, Victoria – donation of 250 books.
European Union / RWSSP – good things take time! On behalf of the 10,000 people you will be helping - thank-you very, very much!

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Latest Adventures - August 2010