ABSTRACT
Set on a rugged, high island geography in the southwest Pacific, the sovereign state of Papua New Guinea (PNG) governs the eastern half of the island of New Guinea ( Figure 9.1 ). Its people, known as Melanesians, arrived over land bridges from the north in several waves of prehistoric migration some 60,000 years ago and then by outrigger canoe as recently as 4,000 years ago. They lived in domestic, kinship-based groups who practiced various forms of subsistence production while secret warrior societies defended their territories against neighboring tribes. Although the inhabitants began to have intermittent contact with European explorers as early as the sixteenth century, Germany and Great Britain did not colonize the eastern half of the island until the late 1800s. After the outbreak of WWI, their two colonies became an Australian protectorate until PNG was granted independence in 1975 under the leadership of the nation’s “founding father,” Sir Michael Somare. Today, PNG is a vital, relatively stable, parliamentary democracy with a Westminster-style system of government and 20 provinces, each with its own government, and each with district-and locallevel leadership.
