The building of the giant open-cut copper mine on the island of Bougainville brought profound change to the locals. Despite royalties, training programs and extensive development, their concerns eventually escalated into conflict, which resulted in the closure of the mine in 1989.
These issues are already clearly evident in "My Valley is Changing", which was made shortly after the mine opened in 1970.
I spent altogether three years on the Bougainville Copper Project, on three different occasions and with three different employers, and the experience gained during that time set me up for the many and varied jobs in a dozen different countries afterwards, and I shall always look back on my time on Bougainville Island as my most formative years.
Lukim bihain yu, puk puk! (See you later, alligator!)
