Journal de la Société des Océanistes 125 | Année 2007-2
Spécial ESfO Marseille – 2005
«If you don’t believe our story, at least give us half of the money»: Claiming Ownership of the Ok Tedi Mine, PNG
Tony Crook
Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/jso/939 DOI: 10.4000/jso.939 ISSN: 1760-7256
Publisher Société des océanistes
Printed version Date of publication: 1 December 2007 Number of pages: 221-228 ISBN: 978-2-85430-010-9 ISSN: 0300-953x
Electronic reference Tony Crook, « «If you don’t believe our story, at least give us half of the money»: Claiming Ownership of the Ok Tedi Mine, PNG », Journal de la Société des Océanistes [Online], 125 | Année 2007-2, Online since 01 December 2010, connection on 02 May 2019. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/jso/939 ; DOI : 10.4000/jso.939
© Tous droits réservés «If you don’t believe our story, at least give us half of the money»: Claiming Ownership of the Ok Tedi Mine, PNG by
Tony CROOK*
ABSTRACT RÉSUMÉ
Reports of poor crops, bad tasting water and stories Depuis le début de 1984, des gens de la région de of an ancestral connection with the Mt. Fubilan mine- Ningerum font état de mauvaises récoltes, d’eau ayant site at Ok Tedi have been reported by people in the un goûtdésagréable et d’histoires de liens ancestraux Ningerum area since early 1984. In September 2000, a avec le site minier du mont Fubilan à Ok Tedi. En new generation presented a petition on behalf of the septembre 2000, une nouvelle génération présenta une West Ningerum Pressure Association. The document pétition de la part de la West Ningerum Pressure Asso- had very carefully screened out any traces of customary ciation. Le document avait soigneusement éradiqué explanation, and presented the case as if a manifest of toute trace d’explication coutumière et présenta le cas poor crops, unfruitful trees, poor water, sparse river life, comme si les mauvaises récoltes, les arbres qui don- dried out foliage, and rocks now slippery with moss were naient peu de fruits, la mauvaise eau, le peu de vie the measurable effects of the mine wastes believed to be fluviale, le feuillage desséché et les rochers couverts entering their river systems from underground. It also maintenant d’une mousse glissante, étaient les effets left out any trace of a tunnel used by spirits and the mesurables des déchets miniers que l’on soupçonnait people who would trade with them and by which fecund d’entrer dans leur système fluvial par des voies souter- water or blessings would flow into the landscape, and left raines. Il omettait également toute trace d’un tunnel out any trace of the second phase of claiming ownership utilisé par les esprits et les gens qui commerçaient avec over the entire mine deposit. This paper analyses these eux et par lequel de l’eau fertile ou des bénédictions events in terms of regional concerns with revelation and s’écoulaient dans le paysage et toute trace de la concealment ¢ as if a claim must necessarily comprise deuxième phase de revendication foncière sur la totalité both as halves to an equation ¢ and looks at how these du dépôt de la mine. Cet article analyse ces événements concerns are presented in ownership negotiations which en terme des préoccupations régionales, de révélation et depend on eliciting sympathy and recognition of a claim, de dissimulation ¢ comme si une revendication devait rather than putting demands into words. comprendre les deux moitiésd’une équation ¢ et étudie comment ces préoccupations sont présentées dans les K: West Ningerum, Ok Tedi mine, Papua négociations foncières, susceptibles d’éveiller la compas- New-Guinea, property, negotiation. sion et la reconnaissance d’une revendication, plutôt que d’être l’expression des demandes.
M- : West Ningerum, mine Ok Tedi, Papouasie Nouvelle-Guinée, propriété,négociation.
* University of St Andrews, [email protected]
Journal de la Société des Océanistes, 125, année 2007-2 222 SOCIÉTÉ DES OCÉANISTES
Revealing the problem 1988). The response to these tragic events brou- ght to the fore and demonstrated the skill with The Ok Tedi copper mine, situated in Papua which people across the North Fly region of New Guinea’s Star Mountains close to the inter- Western Province were able to perceive, elicit and national border with Indonesia, is well known disguise a division of interests between disputing for the chronic environmental impacts due to parties, and also the considerable force lent to mine waste and tailings disposal into the Ok Tedi relations by making one aspect of them absent. river (e.g. World Bank report, 2000), for the legal Indeed, as I have argued elsewhere (Crook, case pursued by the floodplain Yonggom people 2007), this aesthetic of presenting only «half» through the Australian courts (Kirsch 2006) and and in turn anticipating that there always for the debate it has stimulated over the position remains a hidden «half» ¢ such that the effect of of academic knowledge in what has been termed what is made «clear» is locally understood to be the «resource wars» (see Ballard and Banks, provided by what remains «hidden» ¢ provides 2003 for a summary). The court case was a defi- one part of the answer to why anthropology has ning moment for the operation and relations in long taken Min knowledge-practices to be quin- the area ¢ leading to the majority shareholder tessentially about «secrecy» (e.g. Barth, 1975, Broken Hill Propriety () signalling in 1999 its 1987). But rather than the familiar notion of a intention to exit the project, to the World Bank separate domain of knowledge providing social investigation and a government-led consultation solidarity to a separate domain of people (e.g. with mine-affected communities in 2000. Ulti- Herdt, 2003) my argument is that Min mately, in 2002, reached a settlement to knowledge relies for its effects on this form of transfer its 52 % equity in the project in exchange division whereby what is made «clear» depends for indemnity against liability for long-term on what is «hidden» (to provide a «base» for environmental damages, and the Ok Tedi 9th action), and whereby what is treated as «clear» Supplemental Agreement or Mine Continuation depends on what is treated as «hidden» (in that Agreement was negotiated with downstream moment, for that purpose). In other words, what affected communities. But even in late 2000, the has otherwise been taken as secret and non- impact of the Yonggom case on the project was secret components, is better analysed through such that when I arrived in Tabubil, one Ok Tedi Min idioms and as being relatively constituted Mining Limited () Environment Officer and context specific. told me that «everything has changed: there are This article develops and extends these argu- no more stories to tell about Ok Tedi». ments through a study of the West Ningerum My own engagement with the social impacts Pressure Associations petition (, 2000) for of the mine had begun in the mid-1990s during compensation for damages extending along the an ethnographic study of knowledge-practices, full course of two rivers which, although even- taro horticulture and male cult «secrecy» in the tually discharging into the Ok Tedi river (south Angkaiyakmin village of Bolivip, located some of Ningerum station, north of the Yonggom three days walk east of Tabubil mining township floodplain), have their headwaters in a geogra- (Crook, 1999), and when in the aftermath of two phically separate watershed south of the Mt. plane crashes became involved in the res- Fubilan mine site. The Petition resembles a cue operations only to see the mine operations scientific report, and is a remarkable document temporarily closed (Crook, 2000). Then, as in for many reasons ¢ amongst them are the forms what would become known as the Yonggom-led of evidence offered, the absences of any refe- «downstream compensation debate» (Banks and rence to a cosmological connection between Mt. Ballard, 1997), the awkward relations between Fubilan and the fertility of Ningerum lands, nor the PNG State as shareholder and regula- (as one of the authors was quick to point out) tor, and the corporation as de facto regio- any mention of the Petition’s primary ambition: nal government were deliberately aggravated by to ultimately claim ownership of the Ok Tedi local pressure groups attempting to make expli- mine site. Indeed, this absence was held to lend cit and pin down these shifting responsibilities. force to this initial compensation claim. The At the time, considerable effort went into mas- Petition was presented to and the PNG king local internal differentiation, and into pre- government and, as we will see, had been expli- cisely differentiating which particular facet of citly written with these actors in mind. My focus the government and company they wished to is on the actors who authored the text, activate and make responsible. their narratives about the design, content and In drawing forth one basis for action, then, year-long drafting process, on what they had to others had to be temporarily eclipsed (Strathern, say about their intentions and ambitions for CLAIMING OWNERSHIP OF THE OK TEDI MINE, PNG 223 presenting their case in this particular textual rain» (3.2.2), and «over-bank flooding» (6.0), form, and on their two-fold strategy that saw they hoped, by speaking the language of natural them eclipsing the full extent of the damages, science, that their complaints would be readily any reference to their own customary understan- understood. The «Petition on the demand of dings of the effects, and temporarily eclipsing a compensation claims» sets out its concerns in the planned follow-up move to sue for the ownership following terms: of the Ok Tedi mine itself. Alongside these «The Oktarim, Birim is one of the river systems that absences, I have elsewhere analysed an analo- has its source within Mount Fubilan in the Star gous tactic (Crook, 2004): one leader Mountain Ranges where giant Ok Tedi Copper Mine explained how he assumed it was enough to is operated.» silently present a troubled figure displaying his The Petition argues that: plight and rely on the authorities to recognize «The river system has never been authorized by the this, and to feel sorrow and think how they might State of Papua New Guinea and the business operator satisfy the people he represented. Of course, this () with due considerations and discussions with the can also look like no claims are being made, local river communities. Agreements of any sort were rather than a claim on the other party’s never considered and made by concerned parties to distinctly-human capacity to think and to feel cater for any pollution compensation claims that may sorrow. arise due to mining operations in the future». I am mindful of the caveats raised by Simet «The pollution effects as a result of the mining opera- ([2005], Director of the PNG National Cultural tions on this river system raised by this Association is Commission and involved in formulating cultu- a new and important issue that is worth consideration. ral and intellectual property rights legislation), Despite negative signs of scientific evidence of chemi- cal contaminants, especially that of copper and other in terms of the paradox of legal protection that trace metals including general water parameters such requires the revelation of resources that depend as pH, alkalinity, etc. recently carried out by Environ- on remaining concealed. Fieldwork was under- ment Department of the company only after physical taken in 2000-1, 2004, 2006-7: the first phase was changes that have occurred along the river system conducted as part of the «Property, Transac- since 1984.» (Typographical errors in original retained tions and Creations» project (Hirsch and Stra- to indicate an editing process at work) thern, 2004), and focused on how the Ningerum people were putting forward «evidence» for their The section concludes with evidence of an ff claims, and responding to new terms of apparently di erent kind: the times and dates on «ownership» coming into currency. By engaging which the Associations complaints were first ownership issues around a company mining- aired on national television and radio in June township, the research was widely regarded as 1999. The Petition goes to considerable lengths participating or intervening in a wider political to provide a complete description of the ways in process. The company struggled with its suspi- which the mine and mill operations work, as if demonstrating this knowledge were in itself part cion of the hidden intentions of anthropologists ¢ and its own rhetoric of «transparency». Some of the evidence rather than simply describing Min and Ningerum people interpreted the com- what already knows all-too-well. That is, pany’s responses to the research as evidence of one of the ways in which the Petition pursues its having touched upon important matters that objective is by revealing these descriptions in an were deliberately being keep «secret». In taking open document, showing that the workings of up the statement that «If you dont believe the operation are no longer hidden from them. ff ¢ our story, at least give us half of the money», At other places, the e ect of this knowledge the effects that the «pollution» has created in other then, I am interested in how the perceived ¢ and engaged the language and relations of «cul- people and thus gathered people into conside- tural and intellectual property rights», and in ration of one another, is presented directly: for how a capacity for respectful and reciprocal rela- example, section 6.0 «Physical Evidences of tions provides the un-stated assumption under- Contaminated/Polluted River System» conclu- pinning their campaign. des that: «The above evidence of physical changes along the river system has been observed and concerned raised What the Petition says by the following groups of people.
When the produced a compensation (i) The Yongoms demand in the form of a scientific report with (ii) The Awins numbered sections and sub-sections, and relied (iii) The Irianese on the language of «sedimentation» (4.0), «acid (iv) The Ningerums 224 SOCIÉTÉ DES OCÉANISTES
(v) The Missionaries () Kungim and Tarak- the soil and rocks in the affected area that in turn bits creates pathways for mine derived wastes contamina- (vi) The Missionaries ¢ Ok Ao ted streams and waters to flow through and out into Therefore the Association now lays down the other pristine river systems as described in sub-clause demand for the compensation claims for the pollution 3.1.1. Naturally, disturbed soils/grounds are flushed of Oktarim, Birim River system being caused by the out and into river waters in the same way.» giant Ok Tedi Copper Mining operations in the head waters on Mount Fubilan.» Section 3.2 concerns «Mill Operations», 3.2.1 «Waste Chemical Disposal» provides an account Presenting evidence of the effects that the pol- of how the Mill operates: «About 6 different lution has had in terms of engaging the interest chemicals are used in the milling process in the of a range of social parties might appear to be of flotation plant»; «these chemicals are added to an entirely different order to the language of aid in the recovery process of copper concentrate natural science employed elsewhere in the Peti- in two different circuits within the flotation tion. And yet, the proof of something causing plant» ¢ before again demonstrating knowledge the changes in the rivers is being ascertained here of the products the operation releases into the by the effects observable in the landscape, and environment: observable in terms of the knowledge it has crea- ted in other people (and the effects it has drawn «After the process is deemed to be completed, the out of them) ¢ and whose impartiality is drawn wastes is discharged together with the tailings. The upon as witnesses who, in many cases, would not untreated and not neutralized chemicals in the tailings receive any part of a compensation settlement. that flow into the streams than follows the same flow route as described in sub-clause 3.1.1.» The Petition also sets out possible causes of the pollution in Section 3.0. Section 3.1 concerns Section 3.2.2 concerns the «Lime Kiln Plant»: «Mine Operations», section 3.1.1 concerns «When Sulphur containing lime stones, are burnt in «Uncontrolled Mine Waste at Southern and Lime Kiln Plant, sulphur gases are released into the air Mosco Dump Sites»: and combine with water vapour that form weak sul- «The falling waste dumps that includes mostly phuric acid molecules. This product gets dispersed to waste rocks and other materials have covered or buried other areas by moving air particles and falls down as several streams that used to flow in this area before. rain droplets (acid rain) and settle on the river chan- This leads to raising an important question; ‘‘Have ging its chemistry and on plants that may cause their these mine derived contaminated streams escaped to leaves to turn yellow prematurely and fall off and other open river channels?’’ It is understood that soils eventually die. One could argue that this becomes an in mountainous and sloppy areas such as that of the issue only in more industrialized regions but this is still Star Mountain Ranges, (Mount Fubilan in this case) one of the important environmental pollution sour- sit on rocks that are loosely bound and have cracks ces.» that can allow water to flow through to other open river channels. This is one important system and com- Section 3.2.3 concerns «Uncontrolled Waste mon route through which water carrying mine derived Oil and Grease Disposal at Truck Stops»: wastes such as fine suspended solids and other mate- «When waste oils and greases enter the river system, rials to flow through to Oktarim, Birim River system they tend to cover the water surface like a sheet of and consequently affecting it.» blanket and makes impossible for sunlight and oxygen to get into the water columns to support the available Section 3.1.2 «Drilling and Blasting Opera- marine life (fish, prawns, etc.). This can lead to serious tions» suggests that «When dynamites explode, fish kill problems and overall reduction in the fish poisonous gases, fumes and dusts are released biomass and variety which has occurred along the into the air and cause pollution», and argues that Oktarim, Birim River system to date.» these are «drifted by moving air particles to uncontaminated sites and falls back and settles What the Petition does not say on water surfaces and plants causing consequent changes/impacts on the natural system». Fur- In the Petition, the presented their com- ther suggestions for the path the pollution and pensation claim through a carefully considered sedimentation may be following are detailed as form that was designed by its authors to be follows: effective as much by what it revealed as by what was concealed. They recounted how it had taken «[...] Note that there are lots of natural under- them a year of experiment and re-writing to find ground passages in this area through which under- the right form of words, and the right form of ground contaminated can flow out to other open streams and river waters.» the report itself to carry their intentions: «In addition, when the rocks are blasted, the earth «We can put it in our own way, but who is going to trembles and causes landslides and massive creaks in understand? ¢ they will not believe in my way of life.» CLAIMING OWNERSHIP OF THE OK TEDI MINE, PNG 225
In several respects the Petition, which was connection between the fecundity of the lands- deliberately presented to the recipient agencies cape and two spirits dwelling within Mt. Fubilan as a complete description of the ’s motiva- emerged: one was a creation ancestor, the other a ting concerns, was also deliberately presented by snake called mailim with whom people traded the as an incomplete account. There were (e.g. by becoming hornbills, by following an intentional ommissions ¢ and it should be no underground tunnel whose entrance lies behind surprise that these reveal a particular cultural a waterfall in the upper Ok Tarim river), and logic when analysed. One leader described who sent «blessings» (a fecund «water» called how, although had no belief in it themsel- okakana) carried by the breeze, by the rain, and ves, the (mainly Australian) managers of the by water which increased the growth and mine believed in the ability of «science» to «sweetness» of foods: measure everything real in the world: «There is an underground tunnel leading from «How can we give them facts and figures to prove inside Mt. Fubilan to the Ok Birim and Ok Tarim river our kastam?» systems. The tunnel is a spiritual route for people who «Its very difficult to put kastam into facts and figu- change themselves into birds and animals. The bles- res ¢ its invisible, a spiritual thing.» sings come invisibly.» «We didn’t put our history in because it is a different «Old people say blessings come from the ancestors. issue. We didn’t put these things about our kastam in Mt. Fubilan is the place where people collected shells because we were trying to find the best way [to com- and more blessing for healthy gardens, fish, people. municate our concerns]: if we were colonized by Arabs Now the spirits in the mountain have been disturbed. or Indonesians then we would be following others ¢ Other minor things ¢ like dont eat this, dont eat this here we follow the Europeans and Christianity, not [food taboos no longer practiced] ¢ of course, people Hindus. We are following the Western style of living. talk about these things. But now the people who have Putting our kastam inside the Petition would sound this knowledge are dying out. People in Ningerum useless to Europeans ¢ they want scientific results. villages will say that the source of blessings, the spirit Village people will talk about masalai [bush spirits], in Mt. Fubilan has been disturbed, killed.» but Europeans won’t believe them ¢ they will say «Now our parents believe that the mine waste tra- ‘‘where is the proof?’’. But our traditions are still vels along the spiritual tunnel. The spirit is angry ¢ there.» ‘‘why did you people let these people come and spoil «Even if the studies prove negative, the company the mountain?’’. Some people say that it is the spirit should at least give us half ¢ at least recognise that we who is sending the poison as a payback ¢ but its hard: don’t believe in science and that because of that they the old people think this, but which one are we going to should pay us something.» stand up on? Geologists have their own ideas.» The Petition then, leaves many things The accounts here, suggest that the effects of out, driven by a concern that these other eviden- sociality, food taboo and ritual are manifested in ces would not be comprehensible to .For the very condition of the landscape and the example, their concerns are not restricted to the condition for a good community life. The river systems, but extend to the fertility and described a «natural» landscape that changes its abundance of garden and forests foods, and to physicality depending on the behaviour of the flora and fauna generally: «the water has become people: just as the growth of plants and the tasteless», «skin becomes itchy after bathing», abundance of forest game is affected by ritual, «reduction in number of fish», «taro, sago, and the weather, so the growth of tree fruits, pigs, banana are unsatisfying», «plants and trees near plants and people are affected when sociality is water-ways are turning yellow», «marita panda- practiced in particular ways. It is not the case nus unlikely to produce much water». Some men here that effects in one domain are registered in also remarked that each generation were beco- another, but simply that they are the same ming smaller than the last (Clark, 1989). The domain. The comments about rocks beco- effects that the Petition details for fauna and ming slippery, and tunnels becoming hidden flora in or nearby to the two river systems are suggest (as several other aspects of the Petition extended in these accounts to include the quality suggest) that causes in the landscape have left and abundance of garden crops, pigs, marsu- their effects in terms of sociality, and that causes pials, birds, forest fruit trees and pandanus. The in sociality have left their effects in the landscape. contention is that the effects of «environ- As Burton has shown (1997: 41ff.), reports of mental impact» from the mine site extend to poor crops, bad tasting water and stories of an fauna, flora and the landscape in its entirety, not ancestral connection with the Mt. Fubilan mine- just those aspects immediately adjacent to the site have been reported by people in the Ninge- two river systems. rum area since early 1984. A steady flow of When researching these concerns, stories of a letters are received by claiming compensa- 226 SOCIÉTÉ DES OCÉANISTES tion for similar environmental effects from pla- were better. Convinced of the connection ces all over Western Province, and often far between Mt. Fubilan and the fertility and abun- removed from the river-systems carrying the dance of people and of the flora and fauna mine-sediments. But these «lay filed away in for- generally, the Petition attempts to detail gotten corners, noted and replied to not effecti- these «invisible and spiritual» connections which vely absorbed into the intelligence of the organi- are now bringing ill-effects instead of ancestral sation» (Burton, 1997: 52), and this suggests that blessing, in terms of a causality accessible to the ’s perceptions of the effects registered Western science. by their landscape of transformed relations pro- Consequently, the document had very care- duced by the mine operations are much more fully screened out any traces of customary expla- widespread. , it seems, knows this too for I nation, and presented the case as if a manifest of was repeatedly told that were they to pay out poor crops, unfruitful trees, poor water, sparse compensation for something there was no scien- river life, dried out foliage, and rocks now slip- tific evidence for to one group, then this would pery with moss amounted to the wider conse- open the floodgates to similar claims across the quences of the mine wastes believed to be ente- Province. ring their river systems from underground and The Environment Department’s res- along other scientifically measurable conduits. ponse to the ’s complaints and later the Accordingly, and although premised on a set of Petition came in terms of visiting the villages and cosmological connections, the Petition left out rivers in January 1999 and again in 2000 when all references to them. The words of their claim samples were taken from various places in the were only half the story. river valleys and then tested in Tabubil: the When the claimed that «If you dont results showing nothing out of the ordinary. believe our story, at least give us half of the have been monitoring the fish in the river money» they were expecting the respect they since 1983, and have acknowledged that there is gave in framing their compensation claim in some effect on migratory fish not being able to terms comprehensible to their adversaries to be reach into this river because of the sedimenta- appreciated as such, and to be reciprocated by tion in the Ok Tedi river (as the Petition’s section people able to recognize the ’s concerns, to 4.0 «Sedimentation in the OkTedi/Fly River sys- feel sorrow for them, and to think about how to tems» alleges), but no effect on fish resident in satisfy them. Rather than waiting until scientific the river. argued that there was simply no evidence of pollution thereby also produced evi- way that mine waste from the Fubilan pit could dence of a social relationship defined and cons- be washed down into the Ok Ma valley and then trained to a transaction of compensation, the climb over the watershed into the headwaters of took the existence of such a relationship the Ok Birim and Ok Tarim rivers. By way of an for granted: the Petition amounted to an attempt explanation, one manager used a pen and to have to acknowledge their own part in it, began drawing on his hand to indicate the lie of and did so by an acute understanding of how, for the land and where the rivers ran and in which the Australian managers, social relationships are directions, emphasizing that the rivers in ques- constituted by making a particular basis evident. tion were two water-sheds over from the mine For the , at least, there was more than a site. During the inspection visits, the officers matter of money at stake: its ambition was that from the Environment Department took a trip good relations and the benefits of «develop- around, looking at what the people wanted to ment» would begin to flow once again. The Peti- show them. Asked what the people were pointing tion represented a means to reveal to the to as evidence for their complaint, the manager very basis of their on-going relationship with said he thought it was just people jealous of them (and conveyed in ’s terms). If there others and wanting to get something for them- was also a hope that would recognise that selves. they had intervened and were now active partici- The Petition details, in language that pants in a set of cosmological relations (perhaps might be comprehensible to Western science, the even substitutes, allies or controllers of the spirit causal connections between the landscape and beings) that released various forms of blessings, Mt. Fubilan which might provide the conduits this was tempered by the knowledge that or paths by which the ill-effects of the mine are must already know about them in any case travelling. These ill-effects are contended to be because they obviously knew about the riches now travelling through the same spiritual tunnel contained in Mt. Fubilan and had clearly disco- that ancestral blessing used to pass through in vered the means to transact with the spirit times when the relations with the ancestral spirit beings. CLAIMING OWNERSHIP OF THE OK TEDI MINE, PNG 227
Claiming ownership of Ok Tedi the Ningerum peoples. Moreover, it was only in 1984 that the District Officer in Tabubil would At this point, we see again the working record that he had been informed (presumably with an assumption that what they were revea- by the Wopkaimin) that Mt. Fubilan was a ling was already known to . Clearly then, sacred site: and commented that its status had ff the act of revelation carried a di erentiated set not been registered by land investigations stret- of effects from simply knowing the knowledge- ching back fifteen years by that point. content of the revelation. The attention given to Equally, the recent appearance of the Ninge- the form of concealment and revelation suggests rum creation story, «History of the Ningerum that these knowledge-practices are motivated by adifferent aesthetic and a particular epistemo- tribe of Western Province», first compiled in logy. Were we to focus our attention on «mea- 1983 suggests an important story having been ning», what was and was-not known, then our kept deliberately hidden. In fact it had been kept comprehension of these relations would be locked away in a filing cabinet «in order to keep it greatly diminished and, I suggest, misconstrue strong», (the story of the origin and efficacy of the object of them. It is only by analysing the people and the land also held these capacities), conjunction of revealed and concealed «halves» and endangered them if allowed to appear in an that the effects of what we take as «knowledge» inappropriate, open form. For the government’s can be understood. part (in the years leading up to and beyond We should not be too surprised then, that the Independence when the administration was lar- ’s hidden ambition of claiming ownership gely staffed by Australian officers), matters of of Ok Tedi was itself rather well-known: ownership focused upon delineating the areas of amongst Wopkaiminroyalty recipients, amongst leases required for mining, and determining some other Min people and even amongst which groups (assumed then to be bounded units and PNG government officials. For example, the of culture, linguistics and territory) were occu- Executive Manger, Environment and pying the land. The investigations focused on External Relations told me that: establishing and reconciling «parish bounda- ries». What the government were not listening «In most big projects like this, they do thorough for, the Wopkaimin and Ningerums were not studies, genealogies and clan histories. But this was speaking about. Since before the mine began only the second mine, and I’m not sure, I mean I don’t know whether all the genealogies were done before Ok production then, an unwillingness to reveal Tedi started. It’s a very big problem and a very real extremely important stories, whose efficacy deri- problem and I really don’t know how we are going to ves from keeping them hidden, has been matched sort that out.» by an unwillingness to take such stories seriously. The Strategic Advisor, Consultation & Communication (who worked in the area as a Conclusion government kiap during the project’s initial pha- ses) said: The had taken a decision to divide its «When I realized that we had members of the same campaign into two separate parts: only the first clan either side of the boundary drawn for the Lease part «environmental impact» is detailed in the for Mining Purposes (), I knew that some day it Petition. The strategy derives from a contention would come back to haunt us.» that this was the immediate problem: «life has The Tabubil District Manager said: become very hard for our people», and that to bring in the second part of the claim would «I’d be surprised if those people over the ridge don’t «make the problem too big, and it would take ¢ have at least some stories about the mountain there’s too much time before something could be done probably something to their claims ¢ in any case, they have been missed out.» for our people». The second part of the claim (widely known throughout Tabubil) was And yet, because this knowledge had not been based on customary accounts, myth and ritual acted upon, had elicited no effect, it was treated practice, and contends that the ownership of the as though it remained hidden. But there is also a Mt. Fubilan mine site rightly belongs, at least in longer history here. For example, land investiga- part, to the peoples comprising the . tions were carried out in the 1970’s by govern- Convinced of the connection between Mt. Fubi- ment patrol officers and an anthropologist with lan and the fertility and abundance of people experience and good relationships in the area. and of the flora and fauna generally, the These land investigations did not register any Petition attempts to detail these «invisible and ownership claims to Mt. Fubilan itself amongst spiritual» connections which are now bringing 228 SOCIÉTÉ DES OCÉANISTES ill-effects instead of ancestral blessing, in terms the North Fly took the Company by Surprise, in of a causality accessible to Western science. Banks Glenn and Chris Ballard (eds), The Ok Tedi For the , their «environmental» claim Settlement: Issues, Outcomes and Implications, was bolstered by keeping the «landownership» National Centre for Development Studies, Pacific claim concealed ¢ not only by keeping the atten- Policy Paper 27, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Canberra, The Australian National tions of and the government undivided by ¢ University, and Resource Management in Asia- giving them only one thing to think about but Pacific, Research School of Pacific and Asian Stu- also by retaining «half» of the claim for themsel- dies, Canberra, The Australian National Univer- ves. Perhaps harder to understand is that the sity, pp. 27-55. ff e ectiveness of the «landownership» claim was C Jeffrey, 1989. The Incredible Shrinking Men: itself preserved by keeping it concealed: not only Male Ideology and Development in a Southern thereby strengthening the claim that was revea- Highlands Society, in Healey Christopher J. (ed.), led, but also becoming strengthened itself by Culture and Development in Papua New Guinea, virtue of not being made. Of course, it was also Canberra Anthropology, special issue , 12 (1-2). further strengthened by being put about in ver- Canberra, Australian National University, bal form ¢ informally to others, in settings osten- Research School of Pacific Studies, Department of sibly about other subjects ¢ whilst reserving the Anthropology, pp. 120- 143. knowledge, the document and the revelation for Canberra Anthropology, special issue , 12 (1-2). an appropriate moment. The had very C Tony, 1999. Growing Knowledge in Bolivip, carefully differentiated the form in which they Oceania 65 (4), pp. 225-42. made the knowledge available, and were thereby —, 2000. Disputing Resolution: Differing Responses still able to keep in reserve a particular and to Two Plane Crashes, in Banks Cyndi (ed.) Deve- potent set of effects, despite this «knowledge» loping Cultural Criminology: Theory and Practice in also being in circulation. At base, the Petition Papua New Guinea, Sydney, Sydney Institute of was an attempt to persuade to recognise Criminology Monograph Series 13, pp. 226-252. and acknowledge to the that they were —, 2004. Transactions in Perpetual Motion, in Hirsch indeed already «half» of a relationship with Eric and Marilyn Strathern (eds), Transactions and them. Creations: Property Debates and the Stimulus of Melanesia, Oxford, Berghahn Books, pp. 110-131. —, 2007. Anthropological Knowledge, Secrecy and BIBLIOGRAPHY Bolivip, Papua New Guinea: Exchanging Skin, Lon- don, Oxford University Press for The British Aca- demy. B Chris and Glenn B (eds), 2003. Resource Wars: The Anthropology of Mining, H Gilbert, 2003. 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The Gender of the Gift, laget. Berekeley, University of California Press. —, 1987. Cosmologies in the Making: A Generative W , 2000. Petition Approach to Cultural Variation in Inner New Guinea, on the Demand of Compensation Claims, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 27.09.2000. B John, 1997. Terra nugax and the Discovery W B, 2000. Ok Tedi ¢ Risk Assessment of Paradigm: How Ok Tedi was Shaped by the Way it Mine Waste Management Project, technical note, was Found and How the Rise of Political Process in Washington, D.C., World Bank.