Select Views of Papua New Guinea – Photos by Daphne Fautin

Selected Views of Papua New Guinea:

Photos by Daphne Fautin

Daphne Fautin, a marine biologist specializing in sea anemones, made a number of research trips to Papua New Guinea (PNG) in 1974-2002. Bob Buddemeier accompanied her in 1987 and 1988. PNG is a fascinating place in many regards. It is tropical, close to the global center of biodiversity , and its position at a tectonic plate boundary produces earthquakes, volcanic activity, and dramatic land- and sea-scapes. Stone-age tribes living in the steep mountain valleys were “discovered” only in the 1930s, and the history of multiple cultures and intertribal warfare still complicates society. PNG is beautiful, exciting – and sometimes dangerous. The pictures below are selected to illustrate some of the interesting features seen 20-40 years ago. The first panel illustrates PNG’s violent geology — and some of its also violent human history as well. Some of Daphne’s research subjects (plus an attention-getting vertbrate) are also shown.

Map, PNG – Cape York — Map of Papua New Guinea

Manam, smoking – Copy — Manam I. -- active volcano

Quake — Earthquake uplift terraces Madang, PNG

Quake2 — Each of these 5’-6’ terraces was thrust up by a single subduction zone earthquake – the kind that occurs along the Oregon coast about every 300 years.

Huon Peninsula, PNG — Raised reefs document >200,000 yrs of tectonic uplift and sea level change

Wahgi Waterfall — Wahgi waterful steep terrain

skull cave – MBP PNG Aug 95 — Tribal warfare and some cannibalism were common in New Guinea

Skull cave – MBP Aug 95 — Flowing water cements skulls into the limestone.

Japanese wreckage — Modern warfare -- Allied raid on Japanese bomber base

Bomber and Bob — Permanently grounded since 1944

Bomber wreck, Alexishaven — WWII Japanese bomber wreck, Alexishaven

Lynn Parenti and bomb crater, Alexishaven — Bomb crater -- human for scale

War Cemetery, POM — Australian war cemetary, Port Moresby

DSCN0002 — Fruit bats = flying foxes = "black bokis"

The second panel focuses on the human dimension of PNG. Although divided into many tribes (with almost as many languages) by the steep mountain valleys, the Melanesian natives share a fondness for personal decoration. Market days are a major social and economic event in the villages and towns, and stimulate dress-up. Woodcarving is a traditional art-form and served as a way of transmitting information in pre-literate times. The area was a German colony 1884-1914, and then an Australian colony until independence in 1975.

The multiple languages among the natives and the varity of colonial governments in the SW Pacific drove the evolution of the neo-Melanesian Pidgin language (“Tok Pisin”) as the common medium of communication. With its own unique grammar and a vocabulary of modified English words flavored with bits of German, Malay and Spanish, it is an interesting challenge for the visitor.