It has often been assumed that Australia was essentially isolated until 1788. But research into the seagoing trade on the south coast of Papua New Guinea suggests otherwise.
Deep sea mining could supply valuable rare minerals to green technology, but one project in the south-west Pacific is invoking the wrath of local spirits.
A medieval engraving of the persecution of witches: historians are increasingly demonstrating that belief in witchcraft survived in Western Europe well into the 18th, 19th and even 20th centuries.
Wikimedia Commons
Fresh earthquakes and aftershocks hit parts of Papua New Guinea following February’s deadly quake. It’s Australia’s slow push north that’s part of PNG’s seismic activity.
A magnitude 7.5 earthquake took place on February 25, 81km southwest of Porgera, Papua New Guinea.
US Geological Survey
Why is Papua New Guinea so susceptible to landslides? Steep terrain, earthquakes and aftershocks plus recent seasonal rains have created an environment that is prone to collapse.
Australian artist Elizabeth Durack became infamous for her use of an Aboriginal nom de plume in 1990s. But in the 1960s, when the country was striving for independence from Australia, she portrayed Papuan women with sensitivity.
It was long thought that humans everywhere favor pointing with the index finger. But some fieldwork out of Papua New Guinea identified a group of people who prefer to scrunch their noses.
By preventing Australians from visiting a ‘sacred place’ like the Kokoda Track, it is more likely that local landowners grievances will be met.
ABC News/Eric Tlozek
An exhibition at the Melbourne Museum tells the history of colonialism in East New Britain, PNG, from the perspective of the local people. This is history from the ground up, told through film, art and music.
COP 22 President Salaheddine Mezouar from Morocco, right, hands over a gavel to Fiji’s prime minister and president of COP 23 Frank Bainimarama, left, during the opening of the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany, Monday, Nov. 6, 2017.
AP Photo/Martin Meissner
Although climate change threatens the world’s small island nations, many can find ways to adapt and preserve their homes and cultures – especially if wealthy countries cut emissions and provide support.
(From L-R) researcher Margaret Embahe, interviewees Angela Arasepa and Alberta Doiko, and researcher Mavis Tongia.
Author supplied
In stories about the Pacific War and the Kokoda Track, women’s stories were often overlooked, but they provide an important perspective on a pivotal moment in history.
A new study, recently published in the journal Bird Conservation International, will help inform the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.
Rob Davis
A team of researchers led by Edith Cowan University have surveyed the PNG island of New Britain to see how the bird population is faring. There’s good news and bad news.
$70 million is tiny sum in the scheme of the federal government’s expenditure to manage asylum seekers who arrive by sea.
AAP/Eoin Blackwell
The case provided a platform to lay bare the ugly reality of conditions in detention, and the role of the Commonwealth and its contractors in producing and sustaining those conditions over many years.
By committing ourselves to understanding how interventions work on the ground, we have the opportunity to save the millions who die unnecessarily each and every year.
The country is now compelled to send its army into an area where a major resource extraction project has failed to deliver on its promises to landowners.
Malcolm Turnbull touring one of Australia’s large LNG fields.
AAP Image/News Corp Pool, Ray Strange
The way Australia taxes companies for gas projects now lags behind our closest neighbour, Papua New Guinea, which has reformed its tax system to ensure it gets money sooner.
They might be certain, but they don’t have to be brutal.
Shutterstock
Tax systems in post-colonial Africa need to be reformed. For instance, there ought to be rebates for advancing moral good or educating future taxpayers.
Professor, Program Director of Health Security and Head of Vector-borne Diseases & Tropical Public Health, Burnet Institute; Laboratory Head, Walter & Eliza Hall Institute; Adjunct Principal Research Fellow, PNG Institute of Medical Research, Burnet Institute