A Bougainvillean poem that had me shedding tears

by Leonard Fong Roka

This poem is the cry and the voice of a Bougainvillean who ‘nature is designing his fate against his wishes’ to act i.e. migrate and let go his traditional cultures forwarded to him or her by her very apical forefathers.

This is a voice that makes me think, as mainlander of Bougainville: what have I in store for our weeping outer islanders? As Bougainville’s tomorrow’s political, economic and social decision makers, what is our design of Bougainville?

How are we to strategize and structure a Bougainville that will not be an umbrella of cultural genocide for our people in the atolls? How are we to make Bougainville a place where all cultures can harmoniously co-exist?

A beach on Carterets (asopa.typepad.com)

The realities of climate change

  BY BEATRICE TANEU

A poem for the sinking Carterets islanders

 Right before me, I see my island sinking;
My very own island- birth place- Carterets

My source of drinking water is inundated by the rising sea level.
Inch by inch, day by day, the beautiful shoreline erodes and disappears
Together with my rich island traditions
Bewildered and confused, I watch my island being claimed by the sea.
My very own island, my birth place
How do I explain all these to the future generations?

Hopelessness sets in
I will lose my island lifestyle
My source of provider -the sea,
The coconut-hatch house styles and patterns
The mangrove seeds and swamp taros
The care free island living without security concerns
Now all that I will leave behind

Will I maintain my diving and sea ferrying skills?
Will I ever wake each morning to see the horizon again?
Will I ever continue to build coconut hatch houses?
No more, they become useless on land
So how do I survive on new land with my island skills?

Will I have the same status and respect in a new land?
Will the respect and feeling of oneness be maintained?

I am now asked to relocate to a new land in Bougainville:
There, I will lose my culture and my tradition;
I will lose my identity and status;
I will lose my island lifestyle;
I will lose my birthplace;
Clans divided and families separated
The well embedded chieftain system;
The respect and feeling of oneness;

 Who am I in a new land?”
My future hangs on uncertainties
  Please assure me it’s all a bad dream
For I don’t want to lose my very own island
My birth place
My Carterets Island

Beatrice (29) is a Bougainvillean who works as a Port Moresby-based program coordinator with one of the Australian Catholic agencies for international aid and development.  She studied at Divine Word University in Madang and ahs since worked as a development officer with a number of non-government organisations

Retrieve from: Keith Jackson & Friends: PNG ATTITUDE (http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2011/08/the-realities-of-climate-change.html )

I did give the following comment to this poem:

My country woman, it's sad reading your poetry but that's our world and its a foolishness that you and I cannot avoid or reverse. Change is what humanity is all about.

My land in Panguna was changed by the mining that developed PNG and not our homeland. So, let's just accept what's happening all around us.

Retrieve from: Keith Jackson & Friends: PNG ATTITUDE (http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2011/08/the-realities-of-climate-change.html )

Our fellow brothers and sisters of the atolls are already calling on us, mainlanders not to waste time politicking but to prepare Bougainville for the inevitable negative impacts of global warming.

The same voice from Carterets can be heard in Mortlock, Tasman and Fead as shared by Raroteone Tefuarani from Mortlock in her essay Takuu-My Atoll, My home, place of my ancestors (http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2012/06/takuu-my-atoll-my-home-place-of-my-ancestors.html )  

In my part of Bougainville, the relationship of mainlanders to our fellow people of the atolls is so positive. Our outer islanders and fellow brothers from the rest of the Solomon chain add mix on the streets of Arawa; this is exactly what a ‘true’ Bougainville is.

The atoll people run businesses and even dominate some corners of Arawa that, one has to be mindful to bother them for they really do kick ass off.

And one thing, I for long have noted is our Bougainvillean used name for New Guineans, redskins. For us, we do not apply this name to our people for they are not aliens to Bougainville. This had really being a clear recognition from Bougainvilleans knowing who a Bougainvillean is.

Thus, respecting that identity and unity is now our duty into the future.