It's now twenty years ago when I launched my Bougainville Copper Project website on an unsuspecting world. The response was overwhelming with emails, even phone calls, coming in from all over the world. For some of the comments, click here and here.
Again and again, I was told by those who stuck it out in the rain, the mud, the dust, the heat, and the boredom on the island, how life-changing and transformative this experience had been for them. They had deep and lasting memories of what was then the biggest construction project in the world. But deeper in their consciousness was another feeling, almost of pride, that they had been part of a tremendous and exciting adventure. That they had been pioneers.
Did you spend some time on the Bougainville Copper Project in the sixties and seventies? If you did, I want to hear from you! There aren't many of us left and it would be good to hear from those who lived with us in the camps or in Arawa or Kieta and shared with us the experience.
John Hildebrandt, who shared his experience with me, expressed it better than most when he wrote, "In my opinion, the difference between Bougainville and ‘the rest of the world’ is that there existed on the island a sense of joy, excitement, action and that little twinge of danger added as a spice. One was alive and to really feel alive is something one can never forget. It incites a craving that, unfortunately, can never be stilled again. Like-minded people met. There was peace. To go back there now, I feel, would be too sobering for me and anger could dominate and destroy my good and creative memories."
It is perhaps not surprising that after all these years the Bougainville website is dying a slow death. However, as the numbers of ex-Bougainville employees are diminishing, it puts an even greater responsibility on those who are left to keep recording those times which were important to us as well as to the island of Bougainville.
As another contributor put it so aptly, "You only have to scratch the surface and you bleed PNG ..." So next time you bleed a little and feel a bout of 'Bougainvilleitis' coming on, share your thoughts and memories with me. I very much look forward to hearing from you and any of your mates who may have spent time on the Bougainville Copper Project.
Email me at riverbendnelligen[AT]mail.com.
