Journal de la Société des Océanistes 138-139 | 2014 Les mises en récit de la mine dans le Pacifique Mining narratives and multiple geographies in Papua New Guinea: Ok Tedi, the emerald cave and Lost Tribes Dan Jorgensen Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/jso/7117 DOI: 10.4000/jso.7117 ISSN: 1760-7256 Publisher Société des océanistes Printed version Date of publication: 15 December 2014 Number of pages: 23-36 ISBN: 978-2-85430-118-2 ISSN: 0300-953x Electronic reference Dan Jorgensen, « Mining narratives and multiple geographies in Papua New Guinea: Ok Tedi, the emerald cave and Lost Tribes », Journal de la Société des Océanistes [Online], 138-139 | 2014, Online since 15 December 2017, connection on 20 April 2019. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/jso/7117 ; DOI : 10.4000/jso.7117 © Tous droits réservés Mining narratives and multiple geographies in Papua New Guinea: Ok Tedi, the emerald cave and Lost Tribes by Dan JORGENSEN* ABSTRACT RÉSUMÉ Mining in Papua New Guinea has been accompa- L’exploitation minière en Papouasie Nouvelle-Guinée nied by an elorescence of origin tales that often serve a vu émerger de nombreuses histoires des origines, as justiications for local claims to land rights or bene- servant souvent à justiier des revendications locales its arising from speciic projects. While many of these quant au droit foncier et aux bénéices relatifs à des narratives or myths have a clear instrumental function, projets précis. Bien qu’une large part de ces récits et there are many other elements of these tales that cannot mythes ait une fonction clairement instrumentale, cette be accounted for in these terms. In this article the author dernière interprétation ne peut rendre compte de tous describes a recent origin story that emerged around the les éléments constitutifs de ces histoires. Dans cet article, Ok Tedi mine, and places it in the context of traditio- l’auteur décrit une histoire des origines récente, qui a nal mythology, a changing system of regional relations, émergé dans le contexte de la mine Ok Tedi. Il replace and circulating evangelical discourses. He argues that cette histoire dans le contexte de la mythologie tradi- the story is best interpreted as an attempt to articulate tionnelle, d’un système de relations sociales régionales a local position in relation to multiple geographies in en évolution, et des discours évangéliques qui circulent which mining and Christianity are linked across scales dans la zone. Il défend l’idée que ce récit doit être inter- ranging from the regional to the global. prété comme une tentative d’articuler une posture locale avec les géographies multiples qui relient exploitation Keywords: mining, myth, narrative, Christianity, minière et christianisme, selon des échelles qui varient Papua New Guinea du régional au global. Mots-clés : mine, mythe, récit, christianisme, Papouasie Nouvelle-Guinée «Claims based on ritual knowledge are their more limited function of providing further frequently heard at the District and Supreme evidence in support of rights to ownership, the courts in Papua New Guinea, yielding decisions mythology and cosmology of a community are as bewildering to the claimants as the subs- also creatively reconigured to account for dispa- tance of the claims must appear to the presiding rities in power and for changing circumstances.» judges. he perceived success of some of these (Ballard and Banks, 2003: 301) claims has played a part in the widespread revi- val of interest in the continuing communication he expansion of Papua New Guinea’s mining and enactment of this knowledge […] Beyond sector has had a remarkable efect on the * Department of Anthropology, University of Western Ontario, [email protected] Journal de la Société des Océanistes, 138-139, année 2014 24 JOURNAL DE LA SOCIÉTÉ DES OCÉANISTES production of indigenous narratives, which mining and «Christian Zionism» in the tale, and have proliferated as the minerals economy has the signiicance of the diferent geographies they grown. Often these narratives take the form evoke. Here I argue that much as traditional of origin stories brought forward to establish sacred landscapes linked local and regional land claims and secure beneits that may arise scales, so contemporary Christian geographies from such projects. hus, to take one example, link these to a sacred landscape that is global. Jacka reports that Ipili living in the vicinity of Put diferently, the argument is that the tale is the Porgera mine have pressed their claims by less about mines or mining per se than about invoking Kupiane, a spirit snake, as the source claims to membership in a world transcending of gold, while neighboring Huli make similar local horizons – a world in which local people but opposing claims by arguing that the snake’s were always already natives of a distant land2. head is located on their territory (2005: 647- Finally, I conclude by ofering some examples 648; Ballard, 1994). Elsewhere, tales about to illustrate the ways in which the story’s ancestors and their doings frame the positions of imaginary geographies assume tangible form in rival contenders over the Frieda mining project contemporary events. (Jorgensen, 1997). Many other examples of narratives linking mineral wealth to a landscape created by ancestors or populated by spirits can he regional context: mine, people, and be found, and taken together they have illed 3 out a signiicant part of the scholarly literature landscape on myth in PNG (e.g., Biersack, 1999; Brutti, 2007; Wardlow, 2001; Weiner, 1994). Ok Tedi was PNG’s irst post-independence Much of this can be explained in terms of mining project and remains the country’s largest securing rights or explaining the origins of mine today. Situated in the northwest corner mineral wealth, but as Ballard and Banks suggest, of Western Province, the mine has radiated there is always something more to these tales inluences throughout the North Fly District than that. One striking example is provided by and adjacent parts of Telefomin District4 for Crook (2007a) in his discussion of the eforts of over thirty years. he mine itself is located on the West Ningerum people to secure recognition of site of Mount Fubilan at the headwaters of the their claims to the Ok Tedi mine. Local activists Ok Tedi River, and is serviced by the township shaped their story for an intended audience of of Tabubil, which grew from an airstrip and base government oicials and the mining company camp to a town with a population now estimated by framing their argument in the language of to be about 20,000 (National Statistical Oice, compensation for damage, but consciously 2009). Tabubil is now the largest town in concealed other aspects of their tales that spoke of western PNG, and is surrounded by villages spirits and tunnels in a subterranean landscape. whose populations have grown with inluxes heir reasoning was that these portions of the of migrants seeking employment or informal account would not gain credence with the economic opportunities. he population of authorities, rendering them superluous to their Tabubil and environs consists, therefore, of a mix practical goal. of local landowners, mine workers, employees In this article I discuss an origin narrative in retail sales, banking, and transportation, and also concerning itself with the Ok Tedi mine1. a luctuating number of market gardeners and hough brief, the story is complex, especially gold-panners. A purpose-built highway connects in its spatial referents, and much of my account Tabubil to the river port of Kiunga, but there is devoted to interpreting it in the light of are no outside road connections for either town, traditional mythology, shifting regional relations, and the only links to the rest of the country are and the recent history of the area. Many aspects by air. of the story make sense in such terms, but far People from many parts of PNG live more remains unexplained – in particular, why in Tabubil, but most originate from the it seems important to claim descent from Israel’s surrounding hinterland, where Min peoples Lost Tribes. he remainder of the article shifts predominate (Jorgensen, 2006 and Gilbert, focus to understand the connection between 2012 for details). Min trace their origins from a 1. I have discussed the strategic use of myth in claiming mining rights in detail elsewhere (Jorgensen, 1997, 2007); for an account from the perspective of evolving cosmological views, see Jorgensen (1998). 2. Although I do not have the space to develop it here, this point owes something to Sahlins’ recent work on alterity and authochthony (2012), in which the alien origins of local people assume a critical role in both internal and external relations. 3. In the following discussion I omit reference to the downstream landscape, which has been the subject of its own literature (see Kirsch, 2006). My concern here is with the mountainous zone that is the home to the Min peoples. 4. In neighboring West Sepik Province. MINING NARRATIVES IN PNG: OK TEDI, EMERALD CAVE AND LOST TRIBES 25 Figure 1. – Map of Papua New Guinea common ancestress known as Afek, and inhabit people he had never seen before; unbeknownst the mountains of the Fly and Sepik headwaters to him, they were the lying fox people, who straddling the boundary between Western and killed him and sent him home to die. Stories West Sepik Provinces. Afek came from east of about Ataanim, the Sun, tell how he travelled the Strickland River and journeyed through this underground from west to east at night to begin country, establishing the various groups along a new day on the far side of the Strickland Gorge. her route or at her village of Telefolip, where More recent tales explain the disappearance she ended her travels.