Beautiful Bougainville by Steven Mago

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Not many Papua New Guinean care to trace their history to find out why their beautiful, unique and beautiful country came to being. Think of the many place names that Papua New Guinea has from Port Moresby to the Markham Valley, Milne Bay to Mt Hagen and Madang’s Astrolabe Bay to Rabaul’s Simpson Harbour.
Do many Papua New Guinea know how these places got their names?

I am more interested in the North Solomons Province and especially the province’s large island of Bougainville. I am deeply fascinated with the history of Bougainville because of an emotional attachment that I have to the place - I attended high school at Arawa from 1978-1981 and later returned to work there as a journalist for the Arawa Bulletin, and at the height of the Bougainville Crisis, I was reporting from there for Kalang FM Radio in Port Moresby.

Aerial View of Buka :

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Formally known as the North Solomons Province, today it is commonly referred to as Bougainville, although Bougainville is the biggest island in the North Solomons.

It was named after Louis Antoine de Bougainville, a French navigator, who, accompanied by naturalists and astronomers, made an historical voyage around the world (1767–69), visiting Tahiti in the Society Islands, the Samoan group, and the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), and rediscovering the Solomon Islands Group, the largest of which was Bougainville.

The Frenchman’s name is also given to the strait between Bougainville and Choiseul Island, to a strait in Vanuatu, and to the bougainvillaea vine.

Going back in history, the German New Guinea Company began trading with North Solomons people in the late 1800s. It recruited men for its plantations and its police force in other areas. Catholics (Marists) started a mission at Kieta in 1901. Methodists started at Siwai in 1920 and Seventh-day Adventists at Lavelai in 1924.

Buka Airport :

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To many Papua New Guineans, anyone who comes from North Solomons is a “Buka” or comes from Buka but this general reference is incorrect because Buka is the smaller island to the north of Bougainville and “Bukas” are slightly lighter-skinned than their counterparts from Central and South Bougainville. Central and South Bougainville are situated on the larger Bougainville Island, which is separated from Buka by the Buka Passage.

Before the Bougainville secessionist uprising in 1989, North Solomons Province was a thriving province, in fact the province of PNG that enjoyed considerable prosperity due to the Bougainville Copper Mine at Panguna.

North Solomons also has a big place in PNG history in 1974, it was the first province of PNG to been granted a provincial government. North Solomons in the 1960s and early 1970s was the centre of movements to break away from the then Australian colonial administration. These movements came to a head in disputes over land for the Bougainville Copper Mine at Panguna
and the port facility and harbour at Loloho. The landowners' were asking for the right to a share of the rmine's profits and a compromise was later reached and the project went ahead.

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North Solomons was also well-known at the time for its huge tourism potential. Before the crisis, it was a hugely popular tourist destination, and the former administrative capital before Arawa, Kieta, was a popular port of call by cruise ships.

Among many tourist attractions was the province’s many islands with white-sandy beaches and pristine coral reefs which was popular with visiting yachts and scuba divers. Among the islands’ most famous tourists attractions was the Arovo Island Resort, which on record is PNG’s first ever, truly resort-style island and was even popular with the local residents as a day-tripping destination.

On the beachfront at Buka :

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The scenery all over the island was magnificent from lush tropical rainforests teeming with unique avifauna, rivers, waterfalls, and caves, volcanoes in Mt Bagana and Mt Atamo and remnants from the war. Japanese soldiers took over North Solomons early in 1942, at the outset of World War II. American troops recaptured Torokina on 1 November 1943. They used it as an air base to bomb Japan's headquarters at Rabaul.

Buka itself on the tip of the island group was a perfect destination for long-distance scenic drives. I remember the many weekend drives we used to make to Buka on special weekends like Queens Birthday, Easter, Christmas and New Year. Along the way, we would stop by places such as Numanuma, which on record is the biggest coconut plantation in the Southern Hemisphere, Wakunai River and Asitavi Catholic Mission. The fun of these trips was driving through coastal villages and stopping to buy fruits and smoked fish and sago, racing to collect orchids from coconut tree trucks and cocoa trees and driving through raging rivers.

Famous Buka Baskets :

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The people of PNG should be thankful to Buin for an aspect of its culture that has been “borrowed” and is proving successful everywhere in PNG. There was no such thing as “Ialibu” and “Lufa” baskets and trays as we know today. This traditional craftwork originated in Buin from what PNG knew as “Buka baskets.” Someone learnt the skill, went away with it and today, PNG only knows Ialibu and Lufa baskets. Buka baskets are a thing of the past.

With normalcy returning to the island and Buka being redeveloped as the administrative capital and provincial gateway, North Solomon’s’ tourism potential is slowly being opened up again. There are already signs of progress in tourism development as evident by the number of accommodation facilities that have been built in Buka and Arawa.


Buka - Kiri Village Resort :

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It’s a slow process; the future is unpredictable but one thing is certain – the tenacity, resilience, courage and hard-working nature of Bougainvilleans will shine again one day.

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Cabins at the Kuri Village Resort :

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Buka Bakery :

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Buka Wharf :

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Buka Textiles :