PAPUA NEW GUINEA (Commonwealth Union) _ On the north coast of Papua New Guinea, between the Adelbert Range and the Bismarck Sea, close to the settlement of Suburam, a bulldozer started clearing a logging road into an area of completely unexplored rainforest.
Huge kwila trees were among those allegedly cut down by loggers, according to locals. This highly prized species produces the deep crimson wood known as merbau in Australia.
Local landowners claim that they have never historically cut these trees down. The indigenous Tivia clan claims they only use the hardwood when the trees are “gifted,” or fall organically, and refers to them as ancestors. Lawrance Omben, a clan chief from the village of Arenduk, explains why Tivia means “blood”: “Blood because it is crimson – the tree sap is red.”
Locals claim that 100 mixed hardwoods and 18 kwila were toppled by the bulldozer. They claim that the bulldozer also destroyed a sacred spot, a matmat, which was encircled by tall kwila that were the offspring of the clan’s mother tree and served as the final resting place for five generations of leaders from three clans.
Bryan Lavate, a different Tivia member, explains their conviction that “people” emerge from that sap when the masalai [spirits] touch it. It was developed by our clan.
One of the village chiefs claims that after learning what had happened, he went to bed in his hut and remained there for days. Others instructed the clans’ young men not to take violent revenge. Instead, on May 19, Lavate, the secretary of the Yikmol Landowners Association, a group of regional clans, delivered a letter to the loggers warning them that they had damaged the perimeter of a designated conservation area and should leave immediately. They did, too.
A chief from Suburam named Sandu Ovot tells that kwila timber is endowed with spiritual qualities and may be used to make remedies and digging implements for planting garden crops. Sandu Ovot’s great-grandfather was buried in the matmat that the loggers levelled. Logs are only utilised for construction when they are supplied to us naturally when trees or branches fall. They are subsequently changed into ancestor-powered weaponry as well.
The logging teams at Suburam have left, according to Omben, the leader of the nearby Arenduk village, since receiving the letter in May.
The Tivia landowners, however, claim that they have been coping poorly with the consequences. According to Lavate, this has harmed people’s physical and mental health because the setting of their creation narrative has been desecrated and the corpses of the chiefs of three tribes have been disturbed. Lavate claims that the Tivia would never receive compensation for their loss, but they have persisted in fighting back and demanding some form of justice. To share their story, a delegation of 21 men—including seven chiefs—walked for hours through the night when they learned a writer from the Guardian was in Madang town.
