POST
PRODUCTION
SCRIPT
FOREIGN
CORRESPONDENT
2016
PNG
– Family Matters
27
mins 56 secs
©2016
ABC
Ultimo Centre
700
Harris Street Ultimo
NSW 2007
Australia
GPO Box
9994
Sydney
NSW 2001
Australia
Phone: 61 2 8333 4383
Fax: 61 2 8333 4859
e-mail thompson.haydn@abc.net.au
Précis |
The last time filmmaker Bob Connolly was in PNG’s Highlands he was caught up in one of the bloodiest and most destructive tribal wars in the region’s recorded history. |
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Now 25 years on, Connolly returns to the Highlands for Foreign Correspondent to catch up with key characters from the masterful trilogy of documentaries he made with his late partner Robin Anderson: First Contact (1983), Joe Leahy’s Neighbours (1989) and Black Harvest (1992). |
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At the heart of it all is Joe Leahy, the son of an Aussie gold prospector who was the first European to make contact with the local Ganiga tribe, and a Highlands woman. As Connolly puts it: “Western-oriented, mixed race coffee millionaire surrounded by tribal subsistence farmers – fertile ground for a clash of values.” |
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Joe Leahy had big dreams for his coffee plantations. So too did the Ganiga people who wanted to grow rich from them. That was until the coffee price suddenly tanked and a tribal war exploded, scenes dramatically captured in Black Harvest, the last film in the trilogy. |
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Fast forward to 2016. Coffee prices have recovered and a quarter century has passed. So by now, surely, war will be a distant memory, and Joe Leahy and the Ganiga finally will be reaping their shared riches? That is the rough scenario Bob Connolly hopes he will find as he drives into the Highlands to pick up with Joe Leahy and Ganiga leaders. |
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But from day one the signs are bad. It’s harvest time. There are 60,000 coffee trees but only two pickers. |
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“Why do I have to give them money and all these things?” Joe is railing against the Ganiga. “I’m sick of it now.” |
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But Joe, now 77, can’t bring himself to leave the plantation, despite pleas from his son Jim. In turn Jim is resisting pressure from Joe - to take over when Joe dies. |
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“I don’t want to be Joe Leahy when I turn 80,” says Jim. “He’s angry all the time and I don’t want to be like that.” |
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Wrangling over the succession is imperilling the Leahy coffee
dynasty - but what’s left anyway? As Connolly digs deeper it becomes clear
that the old tribal war is still playing itself out, with insidious effect,
long after the last arrow flew. |
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Long grasses |
Music
|
00:00 |
ARCHIVAL. Men run through grass
carrying weapons |
|
00:09 |
Long grasses/Feet walk
through burnt ground |
|
00:16 |
ARCHIVAL. Men run through
grass carrying weapons. TITLE: FAMILY
MATTERS |
|
00:20 |
Connolly walks through burnt
grass/ Connolly standing in burnt field |
BOB
CONNOLLY: Twenty five years ago this valley was a war zone. These days they
burn the long grass before planting sweet potato. |
00:36 |
ARCHIVAL. Men with weapons swarm over field |
Back
then, the warriors burnt it so their enemies couldn’t hide. And nor could we.
I was here filming the fighting, until it got too dangerous. |
00:49 |
Connolly in field |
And
now I’ve come back to find out what happened after I left. |
01:13 |
Joe Leahy |
And
to catch up with a man I got to know well, a coffee grower named Joe Leahy. |
01:21 |
ARCHIVAL. Joe with workers
at Kilima |
When
I first met Joe his coffee plantation, Kilima, was a thriving concern with
100,000 trees and an army of pickers. |
01:32 |
Female plantation workers/ |
These
days it’s a very different picture. |
01:44 |
Joe assigns workers |
JOE
LEAHY: [assigning a couple of workers] “Okay, you two go to the back block”. |
01:51 |
Woman picking coffee.
Connolly picks coffee |
BOB
CONNOLLY: While it may be the tail end of the season, there are just two
pickers. Out here among the trees, it’s not hard to see why. |
01:57 |
Women pickers |
[talking
to the pickers] “When I was filming, the trees were laden with cherries”. WOMAN
PICKER: “Now the trees are old”. BOB
CONNOLLY: “Old?” WOMAN
PICKER: “They went bush”. BOB
CONNOLLY: “During the war?” WOMAN
PICKER: “Yes, we lost them in the war”. |
02:10 |
ARCHIVAL. Women picking
coffee |
BOB
CONNOLLY: It’s a far cry from the glory days when Kilima was a licence to
print money and Joe was a millionaire. I know because I was there. |
02:27 |
Photo. Connolly and Anderson |
With
my partner Robin Anderson, I spent years at Kilima, |
02:41 |
Photo. Connolly with tribal
man |
documenting
the relationship between Joe Leahy and the |
02:45 |
Photo. Joe Leahy. Tribal
people in b/g |
Ganiga
tribe, traditional owners of Joe’s plantation land. |
02:48 |
ARCHIVAL. Line of Hageners walking past camera |
But
there’s more to Joe Leahy than coffee. |
02:53 |
ARCHIVAL. Michael Leahy with
young tribal woman |
His
father was the Queensland gold prospector Michael Leahy, the first European
to enter these densely |
03:01 |
ARCHIVAL. Hageners pass
camera. Super: |
populated
valleys in the 1930s and make first contact with their people. In our film,
First Contact, |
03:08 |
Michael Leahy with local
people |
the
highlanders relate how they took the strangers to be spirits. But not for
long. |
03:16 |
ARCHIVAL. Women talking
about sex with white men (from First Contact) |
WOMAN:
[from First Contact] “We had sex together, then we knew they were men. That’s
right. Not spirits, just men”. |
03:23 |
ARCHIVAL. Joe Leahy. (from
First Contact |
JOE
LEAHY: [from First Contact] “They’re lucky to have me in this bloody place.
They need me, I need the bastards. They need me”. BOB
CONNOLLY: Although never recognised by his father, |
03:35 |
ARCHIVAL. Joe with workers |
Joe
prospered and when we met in 1980 the coffee planter was successful enough to
be having trouble with the tribe who’d sold him his land and still lived all
around him. |
03:42 |
ARCHIVAL. Madang. Super: |
MADANG: “He never gave us 50%. It all belongs to
him. Say he’s made 800,000 profit. Well, now we’d like to make 800,000”. |
03:55 |
ARCHIVAL. Joe and Popina at
Kaugum (from Joe Leahy’s Neighbours) |
BOB
CONNOLLY: So Joe helped them start their own plantation. |
04:15 |
|
JOE
LEAHY: [from Joe Leahy’s Neighbours] “With good prices you’ll be up to your
necks in money”. |
04:20 |
|
POPINA:
“My tribe will be rich and they’ll have us to thank”. JOE
LEAHY: “True!” |
04:24 |
ARCHIVAL. Warfare. Super: |
|
04:30 |
|
BOB
CONNOLLY: But on the eve of the harvest season – catastrophe. The coffee
price collapsed, the Ganiga were caught up in a vicious tribal war and a
fortune in unpicked coffee rotted on the trees. |
04:34 |
Joe Leahy interview (from
Joe Leahy’s Neighbours, crying]) |
JOE
LEAHY: “My people, my land. You don’t know how much it’s hurting me”. |
04:50 |
ARCHIVAL. Wrecked Kilima
shed (from Black Harvest) |
BOB
CONNOLLY: Finishing on this tragic note, Robin Anderson and I returned to
Australia. |
05:03 |
Connolly returning. View
from plane/Connolly on tarmac/driving through town |
Twenty
five years later, I’m back to find out what’s happened since. I’m told the
war went on for years with far reaching consequences for both Joe Leahy and
his neighbours, the Ganiga. JIM
LEAHY: [driving through town] “And then that riot came through and all |
05:13 |
Connolly with Jim Leahy in
car driving through town |
the
windows, you look at all the shop windows, the ones that didn’t have metal
grills, all gone”. |
05:29 |
|
BOB
CONNOLLY: My first point of contact is Joe’s son, Jim. JIM
LEAHY: “This is our little place”. |
05:39 |
Jim Leahy interview |
BOB
CONNOLLY: “What’s his life been like since then?” JIM
LEAHY: “Hard. Bloody hard. It’s been a struggle. The glory days and the young
days when you saw the coffee, you know, flowing through the mills and that,
it’s never been that again for Dad. It’s just been a continuous struggle”. |
05:47 |
Jim with children |
BOB
CONNOLLY: At school in Australia when I was here last, Jim works in PNG’s
natural gas industry and lives in Mount Hagen with his wife Rita and
children. |
06:06 |
Jim and Connolly driving to
plantation |
JIM
LEAHY: [driving along road] “This was a beautiful valley Bob, a beautiful
valley”. BOB
CONNOLLY: He’s driving me the 35 kilometres out to Joe’s plantation in the
Nebilyer Valley. |
06:24 |
|
“So
this was basically a war zone for 10 years?” JIM
LEAHY: “Yeah”. |
06:34 |
Man on side of road |
MAN
YELLS FROM ROAD: “Bob Connolly!” JIM
LEAHY: “There you go, Bob Connolly”. BOB
CONNOLLY: “Did he just say that?” JIM
LEAHY: “Yes he did”. |
06:38 |
Connolly greets locals |
BOB
CONNOLLY: Robin Anderson and I spent a total of two and a half years living
among these people, in good times and bad. |
06:45 |
|
[greeting
the locals] “You’ve always been in my thoughts… and in my heart. [cheer
from locals] |
06:59 |
Driving. People waves from
side of road |
Music
|
07:08 |
Driving. Crossing river |
[man
yells greeting from side of road] “Someone knew me. [driving
on unstable road] The road’s not for the faint-hearted. |
07:16 |
Paraka greets Connolly |
BOB
CONNOLLY: “Morning. Yeah Paraka!” Paraka’s
brother, Joseph Madang was killed in the fighting. |
07:23 |
Connolly and Paraka hug at
car |
PARAKA:
[hugging/crying] “Happy to see you”. BOB
CONNOLLY: “Sorry about Madang. Thinking back to all those old times, eh?” |
07:35 |
Connolly greets Joe at wife |
We
finally catch up with Joe at the old house. |
07:50 |
Pig feast |
He’s
killed a pig in our honour. Jim’s the only one of Joe’s immediate family to
stay in the highlands – the rest settled in Australia. |
07:58 |
Connolly and Joe Leahy in
coffee plantation. |
Music
|
08:26 |
|
BOB
CONNOLLY: After lunch, Joe takes me on a tour of the plantations. Coffee’s a
high maintenance crop and this is what happens when a plantation is neglected
for 25 years. JOE
LEAHY: “Now look it’s just full of rubbish and all this, but what can I do? |
08:34 |
|
Because
once upon a time this was all loaded, back in ah… you remember Bob? Now look
at all these scungy trees. But I can’t afford to put fertiliser on them”. |
08:56 |
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BOB
CONNOLLY: Even though the coffee price has gone up, the Ganiga have done
nothing to re-establish their plantation. After the war, |
09:11 |
Abandoned vehicles |
no
bank will touch them - and the same applies to Joe. |
09:22 |
Connolly and Joe Leahy in
overgrown coffee plantation. |
[breaking
through the bush] “Gee it’s a long time since you’ve been back to it”. Hidden
here somewhere is Joe’s wet factory, where the ripe cherries were crushed to
produce beans. “Oh
Joe this is sad. Hey? I filmed you standing right here. I remember. |
09:26 |
ARCHIVAL. Joe Leahy at
plantation. Wet factory. |
Remember
that great you know five tonnes of cherry going in. Do you remember? Yeah
because I remember this, this was an absolute hive of activity”. JOE
LEAHY: “Do you remember all this? |
09:46 |
Present. Joe Leahy with
Connolly at abandoned wet factory |
The
vat was all full all the time during the coffee season”. |
10:03 |
|
BOB
CONNOLLY: This was once the beating heart of Kilima. JOE
LEAHY: “After how many years? |
10:11 |
|
Twenty
five years and all gone bush now”. |
10:17 |
Joe and Connolly walk to
church |
[singing] |
10:21 |
Church service. Singing |
|
10:37 |
|
BOB
CONNOLLY: With Kilima moribund very few Ganiga seem to be working these days,
but they have been busy building fundamentalist churches – 11 of them to be
exact. |
10:50 |
|
This
one’s located on Kilima, with Joe’s blessing. |
10:59 |
Church singing. George in
church |
One
regular among the congregation is George Pintabea, a member of the Kulga Poi
Penambe tribe, traditional enemies of the Ganiga. It was George’s axing while
he was working for Joe that sparked the tribal war between the Kulga and the
Ganiga. |
11:03 |
ARCHIVAL. George bandaged in
hospital. (from Black Harvest) |
Back
then we filmed him recovering from emergency surgery in Mount Hagen Hospital. |
11:27 |
|
GEORGE
PINTABEA: “As I realised that they were gathering to kill me, I tried to run
away but I was chopped in the leg which made me a… which crippled me and I
couldn’t run, so I fell to the ground and that was followed after about
another ten more chops by axes”. |
11:34 |
George shows Connolly scars |
BOB
CONNOLLY: Twenty five years on, life hasn’t got any easier. |
11:57 |
|
GEORGE
PINTABEA: “That’s right, they chopped my kneecap off”. BOB
CONNOLLY: [showing his scars] “Oh that’s the scars. They chopped your kneecap
off”. GEORGE
PINTABEA: “Yeah they chopped the kneecap. It was smashed”. BOB
CONNOLLY: “Oh God”. GEORGE
PINTABEA: “That’s why it disables me. |
12:03 |
|
There
were two axes in the chest, the chest also, the sides, the ribs”. BOB
CONNOLLY: The Ganiga eventually paid George compensation for almost killing
him but the scars go deeper than the ones we can see. |
12:17 |
|
GEORGE
PINTABEA: “But I wish I was dead”. BOB
CONNOLLY: “Do you really?” GEORGE
PINTABEA: “Yeah I wish I was dead. |
12:32 |
George and Connolly |
I
feel like killing myself or hanging up, but then I think of the kids and...
no… life is really worthless for me with all these problems. Everybody, when
I go around they said oh because of him being axed we lost these men and we
lost our properties and all that”. BOB
CONNOLLY: “What they blame you for being axed?” GEORGE
PINTABEA: “Yes, that’s what’s happening all around this place”. BOB
CONNOLLY: “They blame you because the Ganiga attacked you”. GEORGE
PINTABEA: “Attacked me. Because you were chopped, the fight started and we
lost lives”. |
|
George and Connolly
continues |
BOB
CONNOLLY: “Well when are they going to let it go?” GEORGE
PINTABEA: “They will never… until I die. Until they don’t see me any more”. |
13:11 |
George departs |
BOB
CONNOLLY: Now just so we’re clear, George says that when the Ganiga
compensated him, the Kulga and Poi Penambe – his own people – took most of it
from him because his axing brought them misfortune as well. |
13:22 |
ARCHIVAL. Bodies...wounded
man/ Young boys painted white and crying/ Man with mother |
The
war set off by the attack on George didn’t just spell the end of the two
coffee plantations, it condemned the whole valley to ten long years of
bloodshed and mayhem. Aid posts, government offices, schools – all destroyed.
A whole generation of children missed out on an education. |
13:42 |
Primary school exterior and
teacher in classroom |
But
here’s a positive sign. In 2016 the Ganiga had their first ever primary
school, built with Australian aid money, staffed by a trained teacher.
There’s just one problem. |
14:13 |
Connolly with teacher |
BOB
CONNOLLY: “Now I’ve heard that you haven’t been paid for a long time”. TEACHER:
“No I haven’t been paid. |
14:33 |
|
It’s
because of the government’s… like we are trying to put in papers, but the delay
in the payroll system, that’s delaying us for some good number of years, |
14:37 |
Kids in classroom |
like
two to three years”. BOB
CONNOLLY: “Three years?” TEACHER:
“Three years”. BOB
CONNOLLY: “But you kept on teaching”. TEACHER:
“I kept on teaching because of my students here and it is my community and I
have to serve it and that’s what I have to do. |
14:46 |
Connolly with teacher |
And
there is no money for us. Like we haven’t got any chairs here or desks to sit
down the students here and they are sitting on the floor and as a teacher I
have to have a lot of books to support me for my teaching”. BOB
CONNOLLY: “You buy them yourself?” TEACHER:
“I buy them myself. They cost me a lot of money, like two to three thousand
Kina”. BOB
CONNOLLY: “Where do you get that from?” TEACHER:
“That’s my own money which I have saved. My own savings. |
14:59 |
[continues] |
It’s
really bad”. BOB
CONNOLLY: “Yeah. All due to the fight?” TEACHER:
“Due to the fight, yeah”. |
15:28 |
Connolly greets Thomas
Thyme. They walk along road |
BOB
CONNOLLY: Thomas Thyme was our interpreter in 1990 and one of the few back
then with a secondary education. He’s now a clan leader of the Ganiga, and
like most people I meet this time, he’s also unemployed. |
15:34 |
|
Even
the people who were successful back then, don’t seem to have jobs any more. [walking
along the road] “This is very nice putting flowers, |
15:58 |
Walking along road |
you
know, along the roadside and that makes the road look pretty, but where are
the businesses after twenty five years? Where are the workshops, where are
the… you know where’s the, where, how are people earning money? I don’t see
it”. |
16:06 |
[shot continuous] |
THOMAS
THYME: “Well we can put workshops, but there’s no vehicles in the village to
come to the workshop and also to operate the workshop, there’s no power
coming through. So how can we operate the workshop |
16:21 |
|
when
we have no electricity and basically we don’t have government services so…
that lets us no opportunity for us to do business”. |
16:32 |
Walking continues |
BOB
CONNOLLY: “Why hasn’t the government helped you? I mean 25 years later, it’s
exactly the same as when I left”. THOMAS
THYME: “Yes”. BOB
CONNOLLY: “No water, no electricity, no sealed road, no school or at least,
you know, the school they’ve got no money. So what’s happened?” |
16:40 |
[shot continuous] |
THOMAS
THYME: “That’s a very good question”. BOB
CONNOLLY: “Millions and billions of dollars have come into Papua New Guinea”. THOMAS
THYME: “That’s a very good question”. |
16:58 |
White van down road |
BOB
CONNOLLY: In 25 years no government services, no bank money for development,
no one apparently working. |
17:05 |
Joe Leahy greets children |
And
at 77, the once indomitable Joe Leahy a spent force. |
17:15 |
Jose in kitchen |
JOE
LEAHY: “There’s two different worlds I’m trying to bring together and the
white man’s ways were different and |
17:25 |
Joe Leahy and Connolly in
kitchen |
these
black man’s ways were different too. So I was just the meat in the sandwich
and that’s how I lost everything”. BOB
CONNOLLY: “So you had no money”. JOE
LEAHY: “No money! Nothing at all”. |
17:34 |
|
BOB
CONNOLLY: “And you used to be a multi-millionaire”. JOE
LEAHY: “I was once, once upon a time, but then everything just cut off”. |
17:47 |
Joe and Connolly overlooking
Kilima |
BOB
CONNOLLY: Many years ago Joe fell seriously ill and fearing the worst,
invited his son Jim to take over Kilima. JIM
LEAHY: “So we put everything we had into it and then he realised he actually
was not going to drop dead and it came to a header one day and he just came
down to me |
17:54 |
Jim Leahy interview |
one
day and said look, you know Jim, you know, basically I want this place back…
you know, I’m not dead yet. And I said well I know you’re not bloody well
dead you know, you’re still bloody here giving me a freakin’ headache”. |
18:14 |
|
BOB
CONNOLLY: “So you’d put how many year’s work into it?” JIM
LEAHY: “Oh we put, put a few good years into it”. BOB
CONNOLLY: “And how much money?” JIM
LEAHY: “We would have put, you know all up I can say I reckon I put in about
a hundred thousand”. |
18:27 |
[shot continuous] |
BOB
CONNOLLY: “Did he pay you back?” JIM
LEAHY: “Of course he’s not going to pay me back, Bob”. [laughter] |
18:37 |
Jim and Joe on porch |
BOB
CONNOLLY: “So it hasn’t affected your relationship with him?” |
18:42 |
Jim Leahy interview |
JIM
LEAHY: “No, in fact it actually gave me clarity Bob, because when I walked
away I realised that I treasure my relationship with dad more than I do the
money, so the one thing that’s really driving him crazy is I won’t go back
out there and help him.. because I said, ‘Dad, we can’t work together.’
That’s the bottom line. We will never be able to work together, so you know I
love you and I’m going to work on my relationship with you”. |
18:48 |
|
BOB
CONNOLLY: “What’s the future of a place like Kilima?” |
19:15 |
Interview continues |
JIM
LEAHY: “Yeah I don’t like answering that too much because I’m the only one
here from the family, I’m the only one left here with dad. Do I want that
obligation? Do I want to go back and continue what... what dad did out there?
You know, it’s very hard to answer that right now, Bob”. |
19:19 |
ARCHIVAL. Arresting coffee thief. (from Black
Harvest) |
BOB
CONNOLLY: Running a coffee plantation in the New Guinea Highlands is no job
for old men and my friend Joe Leahy has grown old. JOE
LEAHY: (young Joe after catching thief) He steal the bloody coffee...! The
same mobs, last year and this year. |
19:38 |
|
BOB
CONNOLLY: Back in 1990 this is how he dealt with a thief, bundling him off to
prison. JOE
LEAHY: [young Joe, shoving man into car] “Get in and hold the thief”. |
19:53 |
Joe with workers about pig
theft |
JOE
LEAHY: “Get the thief to return my pig and we’ll talk”. BOB
CONNOLLY: These days he doesn’t seem to have the same authority. |
20:05 |
|
JOE
LEAHY: You’re saying I should go and look for this thief? He’s here working
with you and he’s stolen my pig. So what am I supposed to do? If you want to
support this thief, go ahead. I’m fed up with you. |
20:12 |
|
Fuck
the bastards. I’m sick of it now. |
20:33 |
Joe walks off down path |
I
will fucking leave. Whoever wants to buy this, can buy it. There’s no law and
order |
20:39 |
|
and
I’m getting old. I’m 77 now. Won’t be long. I’ll be… I think I give up. I
just wash everything out and I just… because the tribal fighting was there.
I’m a businessman and the government didn’t help and all these people didn’t
help so why should I worry about all this? I’m not the prime minister running
this country”. |
20:48 |
Jim Leahy interview |
JIM
LEAHY: “It’s getting a lot tougher down there. It’s getting a lot harder |
21:23 |
Joe in chair on porch |
and
when you’re in a tribe, everyone feels like they have ownership of what we
own. Everyone says it’s still part of theirs you know?” |
21:27 |
Jim Leahy interview |
BOB
CONNOLLY: “So it’s tribal”. JIM
LEAHY: “Tribalism, yeah. It’s hard, mate. You’re
forced to live in two incompatible systems of rule |
21:40 |
|
or
law and that’s the element of confusion that we’re living in right now. |
21:48 |
Je addressing workers about
pig theft |
I
don’t want to be Joe Leahy when I turn 80 you know? And the fire’s been taken
out of his sail down there, you know? You know he’s angry all the time and
he’s upset and I don’t want to be like that. I want to give my kids a better
opportunity and I believe we could be the last of the Leahys in the Nebilyer,
you know my generation – there’s a high probability of that”. BOB
CONNOLLY: “Are you happy to live out the rest of your days |
21:54 |
Joe Leahy interview |
here
at Kilima? Is that what you want to do?” JOE
LEAHY: “Well I... I established it, and I can’t leave this place. I can’t”. |
22:25 |
Kitchen |
BOB
CONNOLLY: “You can’t leave this place? JOE
LEAHY: “No, I won’t”. |
22:35 |
Rita and Jim talk to Joe in
kitchen |
RITA
LEAHY: “See we all want you to spend the rest of your life... not fighting
here”. BOB
CONNOLLY: For a long time now, Jim and Rita have been trying to persuade Joe
to leave Kilima |
22:42 |
|
and
spend the rest of his days with them. RITA
LEAHY: “Are you happy Dad, where you’re at right now? Are you happy?” JOE
LEAHY: “Yeah, I am. Yeah well… what else can I do?” |
22:52 |
|
RITA
LEAHY: “Do you feel like they’re looking after you as much as you’ve given
back to them?” |
23:04 |
|
JIM
LEAHY: “You’ve got to give yourself a rest Dad, you’ve got to give yourself a
break, you know?” JOE
LEAHY: “Well maybe… yeah it’s just okay for me, but here, I think the place
itself is keeping me going. At least I’m doing something”. RITA
LEAHY: “It gives you purpose”. JOE
LEAHY: “Yeah, it gives me something to live for and doing something”. |
23:10 |
Rita and Jim talk to Joe in
kitchen continues |
JIM
LEAHY: “You’ve got to find peace with yourself Dad. I think that’s the main
thing that we’re all worried about, is if you don’t find peace with yourself.
I think that’s what would make us happiest. You’ve got to stop fighting mate,
you’ve just got to stop fucking fighting and do something for yourself. |
23:29 |
|
And
Dad, all we want to tell you is we love you. That’s it. We, we want you more
than Kilima wants you [upset]. Kilima wants your life, but we just want you”. |
23:49 |
Koropen |
BOB
CONNOLLY: “If Jim doesn’t take over from Joe, could an outsider buy Kilima?” KOROPEN:
“No outsider could come here. There’d be trouble”. |
24:03 |
Connolly with Koropen on
porch |
BOB
CONNOLLY: This is Ganiga Koropen. His father was the original land owner of Kilima.
|
24:25 |
|
“But
listen Koropen, Joes got a 99 year lease. There’s 50 years left. Now in
Australia and everywhere else, if you’ve got a 50 year lease, you can sell it
to whoever you please. But you’re saying, ‘Not here’? |
24:31 |
|
KOROPEN:
“No outsider. When the father dies, the son takes over. That’s the way it
is”. BOB
CONNOLLY: “And custom”. KOROPEN:
“Custom”. BOB
CONNOLLY: “And law?” KOROPEN:
“Law also”. |
25:04 |
[shot continuous] |
BOB
CONNOLLY: “But it’s not the law of Papua New Guinea. It’s your own law. The
law of Papua New Guinea says that I can sell Kilima to whoever wants to buy
it. |
25:18 |
CU Machete |
That’s
your nation’s law”. |
25:36 |
Connolly and Koropen on
porch continues |
KOROPEN:
“If the big tree Joe falls down, the little tree Jim takes his place”. BOB
CONNOLLY: “So people still believe this?” KOROPEN:
“Yes”. BOB
CONNOLLY: “Everyone in the Highlands?” KOROPEN:
“Everyone”. |
|
ARCHIVAL. Ganigas |
BOB
CONNOLLY: Two incompatible systems of law – one imposed by outsiders within
living memory, the other thousands of years old. That’s how long the
highlanders had been farming these fertile grasslands |
25:54 |
Kilima GVs |
before
Jim Leahy’s grandfather arrived on the scene. They will continue to farm them
and in so doing, help underpin the nation’s uncertain entry into the modern
world. “When
you look at Papua New Guinea and the future, do you see a glass half empty or
a glass half full?” JIM
LEAHY: “I see a glass |
26:11 |
Jim Leahy interview |
that’s
overflowing… but too many bloody straws in there. [laughter] |
26:34 |
Aerials/ Faming GVs |
And
that’s why we can keep going. That’s why Papua New Guinea can keep going,
because it’s so damn wealthy. This place is so beautiful. We’ve got
everything. You know you walk around and drop a seed and it grows. Never say
Papua New Guinea’s half empty. It’s not. It’s overflowing. It hasn’t stopped.
Papua New Guinea hasn’t stopped giving to its people”. |
26:40 |
Connolly with Joe/Connolly
looking out over Kilima |
BOB
CONNOLLY: The saga of Joe Leahy and Kilima may end with Joe, but the Ganiga
will still be here, growing their own food, building their own houses – a
self-sufficiency that has always cushioned them in times of war and peace |
27:11 |
|
Music
|
27:33 |
Credits: |
Reporter:
Bob Connolly Executive
producer: Marianne Leitch ©
ABC 2016 |
27:39 27:56 |