A semester in Papua New Guinea 🇵🇬
By Hannah Brimstone, 2019 New Colombo Scholar (PNG)
In July 2019, I embarked on a life changing adventure. It sounds cliché, hyperbolic, but I mean it. Sitting at the Adelaide Airport, waiting for my flight to Port Moresby (POM) via Brisbane, I started to panic. What was I doing? I knew almost nothing about the country I was about to spend 6 months in. I had only recently learned that Papua New Guinea was Australian territory until 1975. What was the food like, the weather, the people?
My adventure to PNG was made possible by a New Colombo Plan scholarship. In the lead up to applying for this scholarship, I reached out to the PNG Association of South Australia. I met some of the diaspora and attended an Independence Day celebration at one of the pubs in town. I met my now good friend Angela, whose husband lived in POM, and spoke to some of the Australia Awards scholars who were studying at Flinders, including Marlene and Rose. I felt excited. After I received the scholarship, I talked to some older Australians who had worked in PNG. They told me some horror stories, gave grave warnings, and instilled in me a deep sense of distrust, so that when I landed in POM I was terrified.
My first moments in PNG didn’t help quell my fears. I was picked up by an armoured security car, taken to their head-quarters and given my first of several safety briefings. I saw red stains all over the roads, and my heart started to beat fast. I soon learned about chewing buai (betel nut), and the red spit that’s produced when you combine it with daka (mustard) and kambang (lime). I now laugh to myself about how I felt that first week. PNG has a bad reputation in the media, but as I quickly found out, there is so much more to our closest neighbour.
After an overnight in POM, where I finally met Alois and Dan – Angela’s husband and son, I flew to Madang, well almost. We got ¾ of the way there when I woke up to the pilot’s announcing the hydraulic pump had failed. After a mild panic attack, an emergency return to POM, and a second flight, I landed in Madang.
The first thing that struck me about Madang was the abundance of NSW and QLD flags. Blues and maroons merch everywhere. It was State of Origin and I was in a state of confusion – had I actually left Australia? That was my introduction to PNGeans love of rugby league, the country’s national sport, a topic that needs an article all to its own (stay tuned).
I lived on campus at Divine Word University, in the girl’s dorm. I am not religious so was completely out of my element when greeted by a catholic nun in full habit (but wearing thongs), who took me for a spin around town to buy some basics. Both campus and many of the businesses lie behind barbed wire fences. The girl’s dorm was inside a second fence with a strict curfew of 9.30pm - arrive late and you’re locked out. It was a bit confronting at first but it wasn’t long until I got used to it.
I ate at the student mess – except for breakfast because 5.30am is too early. After standing in a long line, you handed over your Tupperware container, and waited for a surprise. Classic meals were car bump (chicken stew), ox and palm (bully beef), sausage (my favourite), and pork (unless you were seven-day Adventist) accompanied by rice and kaukau (sweet potato). I was the only exchange student at the Uni and stuck out (Australian winter had done nothing for my tan and my excessive use of sunscreen and mozzie repellent earned me the nickname ‘shiny face’). I put an Aussie flag sticker on my container and started getting special treatment: boiled eggs, extra slices of watermelon, once I got a doughnut.
I studied PNG Studies and International Relations. Highlights from my classes include learning about tribal religions, sorcery and magic, still practiced today with incredibly serious implications. The PGIR cohort was small, about 25 of us in 4th year, and very quickly they became like family. On the first day of class, my classmates took me to the store on campus for lunch - meat pies and coke. Even though PNG is so different in many ways, at times I really felt like I hadn’t left home at all.
In addition to studying, I squeezed in so many adventures. I went to Lae in Morobe province a couple of times to meet up with fellow NCP scholar, Dylan. He had interned with Wafi-Golpu Joint Venture, so I was welcomed into that family too, and was given the responsibility of handing out chocolates at the Cocoa and Morobe shows. I spent the semester break in POM, and saw everything from Sogeri national park to a private tour of Parliament House. For Independence Day weekend I road tripped to Goroka with my classmates, Annie, Charmarich, Obed, Sebastian, Zelda, Zannah, and Irene. We stayed in Massi village and went to the Goroka Show, the country’s biggest cultural show. Obed’s family cooked traditional food for us, I was taught how to carefully place veggies and meat in giant hollow bamboo stalks, to be roasted over an open fire. The day we returned to Madang, we were gifted with bilums (string bags). I didn’t want to leave.
One of the other highlights of my semester was participating in the Divine Word University cultural show. I was invited to join the Central provincial group and every night in the weeks leading up, we practiced singing and dancing. The night before the show we camped out at the province leaders house and stayed up all night preparing the bilas (traditional costumes). My friends’ mum had travelled up from POM for the show and was kind enough to spend time explaining to me the different parts of the bilas. I was exhausted come morning but managed to remember the all words and moves. One man from the crowd was so excited to see me singing in tok ples (local language), that he jumped the barricade and put his camera right in my face.
Leaving DWU was so difficult - I cried for about 9 days in the lead up. Thankfully I had an internship with Newcrest Mining in POM to look forward to. I interned in the Government Relations and Social Investment team. In addition to everything I learned about the resources industry, one of the biggest perks was Newcrest sponsoring the Oceania Cup - the big international Rugby league matches between the PNG Orchids and Great Britain Women’s team, and the PNG Kumuls and Great Britain Lions. Hello prime seats. I became incredibly attached to my Newcrest POM femili in those short 5 weeks, that I cried almost as much at my farewell.
PNG is such a special place. Diverse, rich culture, paired with an incredible sense of community. I have never felt more welcomed or connected with a place as much as I have with PNG. Even now, almost 1.5 years since leaving, I still talk to my wantoks (family) every other day. I can’t thank the New Colombo Plan and Newcrest Mining enough for the opportunity and I encourage every Australian to visit and engage with our closest neighbour.
Em tasol.
