Bagelam

I wake up every morning and wonder why I am here, or there, or wherever. I look on facebook and twitter, the news sites, and all of those other internet sites that I go to regularly and think that I shouldn't bother. All I want to do is live on a tropical island, eating coconuts and fish, wearing loose fitting clothes and enjoying life, but instead I'm stuck in a mild wintered hell with useless ephemera engulfing me.

I have been researching Papua New Guinea for 4 and a half years. It took me a long time to realise that I will always be fascinated by the country, that no other region outside of Melanesia would ever be as interesting. While I have a politics background, I am much more interested in the ethnographic research that has been done there. I really enjoy reading about secret cults and their practises, and especially folklore/cosmology/ancestor beings/masalai etc. Although my research has focused on something more tangible and western (planning for mine closure, and sustainability) I believe that I will probably go back and do more research around the Star Mountains and encounter more interesting things from remote communities, rather than those located directly in the footprint of a 30 year old mine. It really is an amazingly complex social and cultural landscape, and I have been very privileged to spend so much time there hanging around, listening to stories, looking at things, spending time with people who are now dear to me.