Search

It has become a convention in Melanesia that there is a vital relationship between group identity and land. Understandably then, as Papua New Guinea’s National Capital District has continually spread across the traditional territory of the Motu and Koita people, many people in the two groups fear their identity is threatened by their loss of land. Applying a historical perspective to their experience and contemporary apprehensions, this article critiques the discursive connection between land and identity, arguing that identity is connected not to ‘land’ but to places, and that toponymy is integral to the temporality of identity. In this regard, the contemporary orthography of urban Koita toponymy provides evidence of the resilience of identity – related to places – in the course of long-term socio-political change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1970s the Motu-Koita, traditional inhabitants of what is now the National Capital District of Papua New Guinea, inaugurated a yearly cultural festival thematically based on traditional coastal trading voyages known as hiri. Contestation over the location and commercialization of the festival in the capital city developed in the new century as one distant village claimed to 'own' the hiri. The Motu-Koita view of their past and their identity has been affected by their encounter with Christianity, colonialism and its aftermath, and the rhetoric of the villagers' claims drew on criteria of authenticity, cultural purity, and exclusiveness which are arguably contemporary rather than 'traditional'. This article reviews Motu-Koita history, the story of the origin of the hiri, and the local politics of the cultural festival. It attempts to understand the way the past, which was formerly mythopoeically invoked, is being historicized and thereby fixed in new local discourses of cultural and heritage rights and ownership, as Melanesians come to terms with the effects of global processes on their traditions and other resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses a recent and popular rhetoric in academic literature that women are discriminated against, often in the name of 'custom', in the male-dominated village courts of Papua New Guinea. The rhetoric is interrogated with reference to academic research findings and reports since the early days of the legislatively introduced village court system, and to data from the author's own research in recent years. On the basis of these two sources, it is argued that the evidence does not support the rhetoric, and further that the latter does less than justice to grassroots women in Papua New Guinea by portraying them as relatively passive victims of village courts. On the contrary, fieldwork research findings indicate that women are confident and reasonably successful disputants and that village courts are a community-level resource which is becoming increasingly useful for grassroots women with limited avenues for seeking justice and recompense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the appropriation of a village court into community sociality and individual aspirations for status in an urban settlement in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Background on the village court system and its practical operation; Discussion on the urban context of the Erima village court; Role of village court magistrate Andrew Kaduello.

Argues that the structure of the traditional inhabitants Motu-Koitabu society called iduhu in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea was threatened by missionisation and colonialism. Reexamination of the nature of iduhu; Interpretations in the notions of leadership; Account of disputes that prove on iduhu resiliency.

Discusses the Village Court system in Papua New Guinea whose mission included the favoring of custom in the dispensation of justice. Binary notion on the relationship between law and custom; Case from a Port Moresby village court involving an accusation of attempted sorcery; Issues in the case.