Sepik River PNG

Every time you travel somewhere new it changes you in some way, it may be cliché but being exposed to different ways of living gives you perspective that is hard to gain in any other way.

A few years ago I was booked on a shoot to the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea, it was my first time in the region but at the time I felt like it was already familiar to me. My Grandparents had worked on Bougainville and my Mother and uncles had all spent their summer holidays on the Island, I’d even been myself when I was one year old but I can’t remember that. Growing up I’d marvelled at the artwork they had, the intricate designs woven into the grips of spears and bows, or the skilfully carved dark wood story panels that hung on the wall of my grandparent’s house. The story’s that I can remember about that time made it seem like something out of a fairytale, and maybe from the perspective of my family it was like that, but my own trip and involvement in the project would show me another side to those stories.

Learning about the impact colonialism and resource extraction has had and still has on PNG gave me a different perspective on the idyllic stories I was told as a kid, for starters Bougainville and mainland PNG may be the same country (currently) but they are very different, something that wasn’t immediately obvious to me as a 10 year old. The two dimensional viewpoint was blown apart and replaced by something more nuanced, more complicated, and more challenging, which I guess is what happens when you start to consider things from multiple perspectives.

Hopefully I’ll visit again, I’d love to keep learning more, it’s a remarkable place.