THE PANGUNA EXPERIENCE
At the end of November 2010, I was waiting for a PMV at Arawa to head up to Panguna.
I was a bit worried about getting past the much talked about No Go Zone at the Morgan Junction a few kilometers outside of Arawa town.
The No Go Zone is an erected barricade on the road to Panguna set by the late Francis Ona’s Mekamui Organization.
The Morgan Junction is the intersection where the traveler is given three options.
Option 1. They could travel south and end up in Arawa and go onto Buin.
Option 2. They could travel east and end up in Kokopau and catch the boat to Buka, or;
Option 3. They could travel north, 29kms up a winding road and end up in Panguna, location of the Bougainville Copper Mine pit and former mining town.
Zhon Bosco, a former combatant who is now a tourism operator of Bougainville Experience Tours told me that it would be ok. He said it with a typical Bougainville assuring smile so I had bit more confidence.
And off we went. It’s K10 per person to catch the PMV at the Arawa Bus Stop to Panguna and it takes about 10–15 minutes to get there from Arawa.
We passed through the No Go Zone roadblock without much commotion, the guards and the PMV driver and passengers shouting out to each greeting and having a laugh.
I learnt that they often charge a fee to visitors to go past the No Go Zone; the fee itself varies between K100 and K200.00.
As we began the climb up, the passengers began to point out places where there were buildings before including large landowner houses that were burnt down by PNG police and armed forces just before the crisis escalated as well as BCL property that was destroyed by the BRA and others fighters.
It was an interesting experience. The road was in superb condition as we drove up to the highest point and rested. I couldn’t get a clear shot of the view up there because of dense cloud cover so if you go you may have a better day then me.
The place is heavily forested with a lot of wild jungle orchids growing there and more.
After the brief pit stop, we began to descent down to the Panguna Mining Town. All along the road, once could see wrecks and rusting hulks of disused BCL vehicles and machinery as well as pillars and posts etc.
Up on the hills, alluvial mining was taking place by the locals who had dug a series of holes that network through some of the hills.
We drove all the way down to what I believe was one of the Mine’s mills, where a large metal salvage operation was underway.
I could see some white expatriates admiring one of the giant BCL Ball Mills and the passengers told me they were negotiating to buy it from the locals.
After dropping of a passenger, we drove back up and took a right hand turn and onto Panguna, the Mining Town.
Before the crisis, this town supported 3,500 people, married and single that worked at the mine.
Facilities included supermarkets, post office, banks, schools, medical center, chemist, schools, cinemas, gymnasium and sports equipments, taverns and more.
Staff was housed in either the married quarters or the single quarters depending on their status.
Zhon told me how when he was younger, they would all visit the cinema to watch the latest movies from Hollywood and come down to watch sports games under lights.
He said many of the workers had motorbikes parked outside the apartments and when they passed, they could lots of rock and heavy metal music being played on speakers.
He said the place was always filled with people.But all that is just a memory now.
Panguna is very quite place now with a lot of large ruined buildings and two lane paved roads with no cars and hardly any foot traffic.
But it is not a silent place. You can hear the sound of nails being hammered and timber being sewn and the chatter of local kids as they cycle up and down the wide streets of this town.
The late Francis Ona’s Mekamui Government organization and the Autonomous Bougainville Government have entered into a partnership to bring back services to the area at the center of the Bougainville conflict.
The ABG offices including health facilities are housed in one of the old, destroyed apartment blocks.They have reclaimed the building and built offices on top as well as a clinic on the bottom floor.
At Panguna you can hear the sound of hammering all through out the day as the locals turn the ruins in accommodation for their families.
The structure of these buildings are still pretty solid with sewerage lines and pipes still intact, they are just missing roofs and walls.
There is even a transit house up built on two levels of one of the accommodation buildings where visitors can stay.
The rate is K30 for Nationals and $50 dollars (any currency) for expatriates.
The transit house is run by Philip Takaung an ex-militant and a member of the Mekamui Organization.
There are three stores here, including Panguna’s own Stop and Shop, Jared’s ‘Custom’ Store and Chris Tarusis’s Trade store.Chris also has a great little coffee shop as well.
The stores are all built on the foundations of all buildings that were destroyed in the conflict. Where Chris’s Tuckerbox is located was the old Court House and I think Jared’s Custom store must have been some sort of Government office.
After having a chat with Chris, we wandered up into the hills to get a good view of the giant Panguna mine.
Before we got to the mine, we wandered through the streets, passed the old gymnasiums and messes, past the giant Panguna swimming pool and the sports fields with stadium lights that don’t work anymore.
We climbed up the hill to get a good look at the Panguna Mine.
It was such an awesome experience seeing it.
Its massive hole in the ground where once there was a mountain and small flat plain I was told. I could see water cascading down the sides into the pit floor where the water emptied out through the drainage at the bottom that leads to the Jaba River.
There were sky-blue ponds in the pit and slopes, no doubt caused by the copper in the water exposed to air.
Old giant mining trucks were eerily still, silent and rusting in one long line in the distance.
Drill machines and giant BCL electric excavators could also be seen lying idle on the ridges, rusty relics that hint at a past that was full of activity.
Surrounding the mine was thick jungle upon which a blue haze seemed to permanently linger over.
I would probably count this as one of the most amazing moments of my life.
We returned back to Panguna town and had a chat with Chris and the some of the others before Zhon caught the bus back and I stayed back for the night.
I wanted to stay at the guesthouse, but the wife of the local man responsible for education here insisted I should stay with them at their place so the old man and I could chat.
It turned out to be a good decision. Patrick ITA is the Panguna District Education Officer responsible for roll out of education services here.
Panguna, during the crisis did not have any schools etc so many youths here cannot read and write. With peace comes the opportunity for education, which Patrick, a teacher and a former BCL trainer, believes is important for Panguna.
Patrick is an interesting man, a musical man — whose life and the lives of his family are intertwined with the past and the future of Panguna, just like everyone else in Panguna.
Patrick and his wife, some of his children and extended family live in a really nice residence in one of the disused ‘destroyed’ buildings. The walls are thatched and it has like an open-air lounge with a great view of Panguna.
It even has proper toilets. The buildings sewerage system and pipes are still in place so they just connected a toilet bowl with flushing system for modern convenience.
I chatted with Patrick for most of the day and into the night.
He played the Dominic, a musical number on his accordion for me, to the delight of the young kids in the area who came to watch him play. I made a video which I will share later.
After dinner I left him and headed down to see Chris Taurusi at his coffee shop. Chris is an interesting character, full of humor and insight, a former fighter with shrapnel still stuck inside one of his legs… but more on him in a later post.
Later that night, I head back up the stairs to Patrick’s place. The place was cold and refreshing, the perfect climate for any wearing traveler to rest in.
I sat down on the edge of his lounge looking out into the darkness as one of his sons played awesome solo renditions on guitar on the floor just below me.
I sat there thinking this has been such an experience; there was so much music and color here, so much hope for the future, so much laughter.
I kept thinking that every Papua New Guinean, every young Papua New Guinean should make the journey out here. They should make the pilgrimage to Bougainville, to Buka, to Arawa, to Panguna to learn and be humbled. Cause we never fought for Independence it was handed to us. Here, in this community, is the spirit of survivors starting again. Not sure if it’s the are heading the right way or the wrong way, but in Patrick Ita’s words they must move ‘always in forward gear.’
For me, as amazing as it was, it was also extremely humbling.
The next day, I rose early in the morning, had a breakfast of fresh ripe Panguna bananas before having a chat with Jared about his ‘Custom Store’ and Patrick Takaung about his transit house.
More on both in later posts, but Jared is interesting because he acts like a middleman, he buys items such as baskets and other traditional items from the Panguna locals which he sells in his store making a small income. That’s why it’s called the custom store.
After taking more picture, especially of the people, I hopped into a PMV that pulled up and head back to Arawa.
My adventure of a lifetime was over. But not the lessons learnt.
If you would like to visit Panguna and stay at the transit house, give Zhon Bosco a call or email him. This is his contact. Zhon gave me a lot of help getting to Panguna and he is the contact for many of the persons I spoke to and those who helped me.
If you have any memories or thoughts on Panguna, please share.
