Bougainville Arts
Old, New, Future
Bougainville
OVERVIEW
Bougainville is the largest of the Solomon Islands in the southwestern Pacific. It has an estimated population of 190,000, almost all of whom are melanesian with 21 different languages. It is approx. 190 kms long and 60 kms wide, rising to 2743m at Mt Balbi. It is mostly covered in tropical rainforest with cleared areas for villages, towns, gardens, plantations, and mining. It is rich in natural resources.
EARLY HISTORY AND NAME
Little has been documented about the early history of the island with archeologocal evidence suggesting habitation between 28 to 30 thousand years. French navigator, Louis-Antoine de Bougainville sailed close to the island in 1768 during a scientific voyage of exploration commisioned by the French government. Later, Napolean 1 named the island after Bougainville as well as the Bougainville Strait and the South American shrub bougainvillea. Another name now being used in some parts of Bougainville is Me'ekamui which means "God's chosen island".
MODERN HISTORY
Although Bougainville belongs to the Solomon Islands group, it was politically divided from the southern islands by a Britsih, German and United States trade-off known as the Anglo-German treaty on Samoa in 1898, in which Germany kept administration of Bougainville and the north east quarter of New Guinea. Bougainville was occupied in 1914 (early in WW1) by the Australian forces becoming an Australian mandate. In 1942 (WW2) the Japanese occupied Bougainville before the U.S. forces overtook it in 1944 after which it was made a part of the U.N. Trust Territory of Papua New Guinea and returned to Australian administration. By the time PNG achieved independence in 1975, Bougainville had already made claims of self-determination, but accepted a North Solomons Provincial Government with greater autonomy within the PNG constitution.
Arawa became the administrative headquarters, although Kieta supported much commercial enterprise. Copra, cocoa and timber became major exports. meanwhile, however, the majority of people lived a subsistence way of life.
In 1965, huge quantities of copper were found at mountainous Panguna. Bougainville Copper Limited was formed with Conzinc Tinto (CRA) owning 53% and the PNG government 20%. In 1969, the Bougainville women protested against the loss of their land by lying down in front of the earth movers and were forcibly removed. Production begain in 1972 and by the 1980s the Panguna copper mine accounted for 40% of all of PNG's exports and 19% of state revenues.
BOUGAINVILLE CRISIS AND PEACE
In 1989, the Bougainville people, lead by Francis Ona destroyed pylons to the mine effectively closing it down. They demanded 11 billion dollars compensation from BCL. The PNG government responded by sending in the police, and as trouble escalated, they also sent in the PNG Defense Force. Bougainville was without an effective fighting force and both the PNG and Australian governments assumed that the trouble could be resolved relatively quickly.
However, lead by General Sam Kauona and other military leaders such as Ishmael Toroama, Bouganvilleans created a Revolutionary Army (BRA) and began a number of successful campaigns against the PNG DF. A long and bloody civil war ensued during which an estimated 10 to 20 thousand Bougainville people died through direct combat or preventable illness as the PNG government enforced a blockade around the island. An estimated 70,000 people were displaced in care centres or camps located in Bougainville and the nearby Solomon Islands.
In July 1997, parties met in New Zealand and by October had agreed to an immediate Truce. 250 unarmed Truce monitors from Australia, New Zealand, Fifi and Vanuatu were deployed. On 30 August, 2001, a peace Agreement was signed in Arawa. On 21 december 2004, an agreed Constitution for the Autonomous Region of Bougainville was gazetted by the PNG government. In May 2005, elections began and on 15 June 2005, the first Bougainville President, Joseph Kabui, and the members of the Autonomous Bougainville Government were sworn into office in Buka. There is provision for a referendum on full independence which may be held between 2015 and 2020.
