00:00:00 – 00:01:05 Thomas Yoywa (English subtitles)
I want to talk now. I will talk about the problems of our land.
Machines have caused great damage, and I now drink water that is no good. Why?
The company comes and takes the money, runs away and makes changes in its own country.
How? Where do they get the money?
They take it from my land, they come and steal it from me.
Now I’m totally destroyed. Why is this?
As I am talking now, do you hear me?
From our ancestors to our fore-fathers, to our fathers and us their sons, the same things are happening, nothing has changed.
Now I am so poor, I am not happy at all.
Others also think the same as me, all of the communities think the same as I am saying, all the same.
Our hearts are the same, our minds are the same.
Services have never come, many expected changes have not taken place.
We are just like we were before, in darkness …
00:00:15 – 00:01:13 Film Title
Big Damage
00:01:14 – 00:01:20 Name Super
Vanimo, Sandaun Province. Papua New Guinea.
00:01:14 – 00:01:20 Narration
Less than two hundred kilometres from the northern tip of Australia,
Papua New Guinea is home to one of the richest rainforests on earth.
00:01:36 – 00:01:51 Narration
This film reveals the human face of logging in Papua New Guinea.
It is the story of the exploitation of people, who find themselves forced into dealing with the problems of a world that they never really chose to be a part of in the first place
00:02:03 – 00:02:09 Title
A film by David Fedele
00:02:09 – 00:03:03 Jonathan Imoi (English Subtitles)
Ok, one day, some people came.
They came with a pen and they showed us a book, and they said “you must sign”.
But they would sign it themselves.
Either government workers or forestry officers, they themselves signed.
Our fathers didn’t know because they had no education, why these people came and what they wanted to do.
We were children so we were small, and didn’t know what our fathers were doing.
Time passed and education has come, knowledge has come and grown.
And we now know the damage that the company is doing.
00:03:04 – 00:03:14 Narration
While under Australian administration, agreements were signed in the 1960’s between traditional landowners and the State. Customary landowners gave up rights to the trees on their land.
00:03:15 – 00:04:34 Daniel Ple (English Subtitles)
They used a tape measure – I pulled it.
I was just a young boy. I pulled the tape to the end and then a white man arrived.
Some people were afraid, because the war had just finished.
Some people thought they wanted to fight, or would take them away to join the army.
Some of our fathers were afraid, so they said “we’ll sign”.
After that they said “you’re going to get some money now”.
I was just a young boy, walking naked and they said “here’s 1 kina for you, 50 toea for you …”
Our mothers got 10 kina, or 5 kina. Men got 10 kina, that’s all the money we got.
I got 1 kina, or if not 50 toea.
Time went on and on and they said “you’ve eaten all of the money already, now we will cut the trees”.
Now after cutting and selling all of the trees, not even one good thing has changed in all of these years.
Some of us are confused now. Some people went to school and when they came back they said “they’ve taken all of our trees and destroyed our land”.
The land and everything we Papua New Guineans care for,
Not the Malaysians …
00:04:35 – 00:05:15 Narration
Papua New Guinea gained independence from Australia in 1975.
In 1990, logging rights were sold to Malaysian interests in a controversial agreement.
These original agreements have now expired, however many subsequent and similar agreements continue to be signed, and logging permits issued.
Kwila, commonly known as merbau, is the dominant timber species for export.
Logs are mainly exported to China, where they are sawn and processed.
Over 50% of all kwila harvested in Papua New Guinea is eventually shipped to Australia.
00:05:20 – 00:05:26 Name Super
Maka Basecamp
00:05:26 – 00:05:39 Narration
Logging is controlled by the Papua New Guinea Forest Authority, and today all logging in Sandaun Province is understood to be undertaken by various Malaysion-owned companies, generally referred to as “The Company”.
00:05:40 – 00:05:46 Name Super
Jacqueline Paul
Monitoring officer
Papua New Guinea Forest Authority
00:05:40 – 00:06:02 Jacqueline Paul
Well I’m here, I’m actually doing the monitoring and inspection of logging that is being carried out in the field.
So in this map, what actually is laid out here is just the logging, the current setups that have been put out by the logging crews, the company that’s going to do the logging.
And the green areas are the current logging operations.
00:06:10 – 00:06:22 Abraham Wasura (English Subtitles)
They both come from the same village, Fas. They are local boys employed by the company, and they work for the company as chainsaw operators.
00:06:22 – 00:06:33 Jacqueline Paul
Chainsaw operators when they’re out in the field, they have to have basic, let’s say earmuffs, they have to know how to use the chainsaw.
00:06:41 – 00:07:04 Jacqueline Paul
The operators have to be licenced. So there are no operators out there who actually have no licence, that’s a requirement. So if you see all of these operators here, they actually have to have certificates to be certified that they’re actually operators out there. Just to make sure that they know their job and there are no accidents that happen out in the field. We don’t just get anybody that’s out there to hold a chainsaw.
00:07:07 – 00:07:12 Narration
But in reality, operations are crude, and operators poorly trained.
00:07:15 – 00:07:18 Voice in Background (English Subtitles)
It’s coming, it’s coming.
00:07:18 – 00:07:20 Man wearing hat (English Subtitles)
Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up.
00:08:04 – 00:08:09 Name Super
Dennis Wairon
Community health worker
Maka Basecamp
00:08:04 – 00:08:09 Dennis Wairon
In Maka Basecamp
00:08:09 – 00:09:26 Dennis Wairon (English Subtitles)
The main health problems here are especially malaria and diarrhoea. Malaria is most common, but diarrhoea also … I see a lot of people everyday with diarrhoea diseases.
People usually drink and cook using the big river, there are no water tanks. That’s why people always use the big river to drink, and cook and wash …
At the head of that river, there is a company camp, Amanab 56, at the top of that river.
They usually dispose of waste, oil and waste of diesel, usually spoil that river. And most people live along that riverside
00:09:49 – 00:09:55 Name Super
Amanab 56 Basecamp
00:10:39 – 00:12:01 Dennis Wairon (English Subtitles)
Malaysian people live on their own, they have their own house. They have tanks, proper tanks for cooking and eating, and showers …
This letter was written to the health inspector, Vanimo Green District Health Services.
Complaints were raised during a health talk on cholera, during the integrated health patrol in May, concerning the inadequate and poor toilet conditions at Maka Basecamp, and inadequate safe drinking and cooking water.
The company workers claim they have been using nearby bush as toilets, since the only two toilets are not enough for the total of 60 families living at Maka Basecamp, and its poor condition.
I am therefore forwarding this matter to your office for a proper course of action to address the matter. Thank you.
The company has already been notified about the problem but they have done nothing.
00:12:06 – 00:12:14 Name Super
Lynette Baratai-Pokas
Environmental and human rights lawyer
00:12:06 – 00:12:47 Lynette Baratai-Pokas
A lot of companies have come in to do logging activites, have taken advantage of the people, the very simpleness of the people. Because of their remoteness, because of their, probably their literacy levels, their levels of interaction with outside, their understanding of certain things, maybe just very simple, very simple. You tell me that you are going to, you are going to come and cut a tree and pay me money, that’s how it’s going to be, and I accept it as being that. If you are going to build a bridge, I assume that you will build a bridge and not destroy the water below which you build the bridge. But of course, that’s not necessarily the case.
00:12:48 – 00:13:07 Narration
As the government of Papua New Guinea, continues to neglect the needs of its people, they must rely on the empty promises of the company to provide essential services such as health, roads, fresh water and education. Customary landowners continue to be forced into signing documents that they don’t understand.
00:13:08 – 00:14:00 Tom Wonu (English Subtitles)
When the asians came, they forced me to sign. I don’t know what was written on the paper inside. Like this, they just came and forced me with their own thinking and knowledge. I don’t know anything.
I don’t know the number of trees. I don’t know the value of the trees.
How the money will come also I don’t know. The form of payment, I don’t know, I am just a simple man.
I never learnt English and I also never learnt pidgin.
I only know a small amount of pidgin, to sign that’s all …
This surveyor boss came and forced me to sign. I just did what he said.
00:14:02 – 00:14:15 Lynette Baratai-Pokas
You know we go into communities and we ask the question of “Did you understand what is in the Project Agreement or in the FMA?”. And we are told that
00:14:15 – 00:14:23 Lynette Baratai-Pokas (English Subtitles)
“No all the writing was in English, we didn’t understand anything. They just told us to sign”.
00:14:23 – 00:14:29 Lynette Baratai-Pokas
So it’s like “they come in with English documents, and they just tell us to sign”.
00:14:29 – 00:14:50 Jacqueline Paul
This FMA is signed between the PNG Forest Authority, the Company, and the landowners. So you have the Forest Management Agreement between Amanab Blocks 1 and 2 Forest Management Area, the Forest Authority, and the land groups. That’s PNGFA and the land groups.
Um, they’re all written in English.
00:15:03 – 00:15:42 Lynette Baratai-Pokas
It’s about ensuring that the people understand that signing on an FMA, means they do no longer have rights to a particular tree, to the kwila on their land. They’ve now passed it on to the Government who will then go on to find a company who will log the area. And sometimes that’s not being done. And that is why people do not understand why a company has moved in with its machines. All they know is ok when the company comes in they bring a bag of money.
00:15:56 – 00:16:02 Name Super
Vanimo Town
00:15:57 – 00:16:29 Narration
Papua New Guinea is one of the few countries in the world that continues to allow the export of raw logs.
The World Bank estimates that 70% of all logging in Papua New Guinea is illegal, although most unofficial sources put the rate even higher than that.
An estimated 2 – 3 million cubic metres of timber is exported from Papua New Guinea every year, but while logging companies and corrupt politicians get rich, the local people suffer.
00:16:31 – 00:17:48 Reysie, Eva, Raymie & Emily
There are plenty of children, some children go to school, some don’t have school fees so they stay back in the house.
If our fathers don’t work or get enough hours, there is no money so the children don’t go to school, and there is no food.
Some of them give money, they give money to some young girls to bribe them just to sleep with them.
They give them a baby, leave the women and go back to Malaysia.
These days, young girls need money to live.
When the asians or Malaysians come and show them the money, they just go and give their body to the asians, and take the money.
Or even some of the wives of the workmen, because there is not enough money, the company did not pay the husband enough to give money to his wife to buy food and other things.
So the woman must go back and find ways to make money to look after the children, herself and her husband.
So sometimes they go to the asians to get money to look after the family. Later they get children from the asians.
00:17:50 – 00:18:21 Narration
The only supermarket in Vanimo town is owned by “The Company”.
Company workers come from the logging camps to town every fortnight to collect their pay cheque.
A nation, that until recently relied on its forest for food, drink and shelter, has become dependent on a diet of rice, tinned fish and beer.
00:18:32 – 00:18:53 Kenz Wasa (English Subtitles)
They get their money, and they come and shop in this same store. The money goes back to Malaysian people again.
The same money the company pay them, goes back to Malaysian people …
00:19:06 – 00:19:13 Name Super
Vanimo Town Dump
00:19:31 – 00:20:33 Jonathan Nai
They come everyday to collect tins, only tins.
When they see good food they get it, no goods, they get only tins.
First they smash them, and then they pack them in a bag ready for a seller to come and buy them.
Their parents, not enough money to pay school fees, and clothes …
Some they wear only one clothes, and they use them wisely.
00:20:49 – 00:22:05 Philip Taleng
People of Sandaun Province, we are very poor. We are very poor.
On our own land and our own resources.
As a citizen of this province, I see that these foreigners are making millions and billions, then why do we the people of Sandaun Province still live in these kinds of houses?
Our roads are no good, road access is no good.
We have our own law for our timber, gold and everything, but still we are being deprived by this foreigner. We are being cheated.
All of us sitting here. We’ve got nothing.
They say they’ve got no money, the government say they’ve got no money.
Then where is the money? Where is the money?
All of our resources have gone, but where is our money? Where is our money?
00:22:08 – 00:22:19 Narration
Agreements continue to be signed and logging permits issued, in order to satisfy the worlds’ appetite for tropical timbers.
For the people of Papua New Guinea, the struggle continues.
00:22:20 – 00:22:54 Preacher
You see inside this place hell, it’s a place of crying. People are crying in there.
Listen well. Don’t think that you will laugh and be happy, and smile and shout. No. People are crying in hell, they are crying in hell.
There is a man in the Bible, he cried and said “Father Abraham, have mercy on me”.
Not only is it a place of crying, it’s a place of no mercy. Listen well, it’s a place of no mercy …
00:23:04 – 00:23:09 Title
produced, filmed and edited by David Fedele
00:23:09 – 00:23:15 Title
Dedicated to the many people of Sandaun Province who shared their stories and were involved in the making of this film.
00:23:15 – 00:23:29 Closing Credits (Rolling)
Thomas Yoywa – opening voice
Daniel Ple – customary landowner
Jonathan Imoi – customary landowner
Samuel Baie – customary landowner
Jacqueline Paul – forestry officer
Douglas – chainsaw operator
Julius – chainsaw crew
Dennis Wairon – community health worker
Lynette Baratai-Pokas – lawyer
Tom Wonu – customary landowner
Reysie, Eva, Raymie & Emily – children of the company
Kenz Wasa – boy outside supermarket
Jonathan Nai – boy at dump site
Philip Taleng – man at public meeting
Special thanks to Abraham Wasura, fixer and translator
00:23:04 – 00:23:09 Closing Title
copyright David Fedele 2011 www.david-fedele.com