Jumping Lines: Maisin Art and Rainforest Conservation
University Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive
April 19 - July 2, 1995

Background Paper on the Maisin of Papua New Guinea


John Barker
University of British Columbia
March 17, 1995

Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea is a country of immense geographic and cultural diversity. Lying wholly within the southern tropics, about 100 miles north of Australia, the country includes the eastern half of the island of New Guinea as well as innumerable offshore islands. The terrain ranges from snow-capped mountains and volcanoes to extensive rivers and swamps. The rain forests and coral reefs are home to many of the world's rarest plants, fish, insects, and birds. Papua New Guinea's four million citizens speak more than 700 distinct languages and take great pride in their many cultural traditions.

Colonized at different times by Britain, Germany, and France, Papua New Guinea has been an independent democracy since 1975. The national economy is based mainly on the extraction of natural resources--especially gold, copper, wood, and fish. In addition, Papua New Guinea produces large quantities of coffee, palm oil, copra, and cocoa for the world market. Despite a challenging terrain, the country is linked by an extensive infrastructure of airstrips and roads, and by government services in support of schools, hospitals, and local businesses. All the same, most Papua New Guineans are subsistence farmers living close to the land as did their ancestors.

The leaders of Papua New Guinea face several challenges. They are attempting to forge a unified country out of the most culturally diverse group of people in the world. They are also seeking ways to participate in the world economy without introducing the social cleavages that have been the lot of so many "Third World" countries. Papua New Guinea's wealth of natural resources has been both a blessing and curse in this regard. Selling off natural resources to offshore companies has allowed the government to quickly amass sums of money but at the price of considerable tension between the government and local landowners, and untold environmental damage. Disputes over who should receive the moneys for resources has led to riots and the outbreak of a civil war in one of the country's provinces. Moreover, scientists are increasingly reporting horror stories of river systems killed by mine tailings, uncontrolled fishing (often by illegal foreign boats) that threaten fish stocks, and some of the worst logging practices in the world. Foreigners control the vast majority of companies exploiting Papua New Guinea's riches. Some are investing for the long term future of the country, but most are not. While the government says it is committed to protecting the environment and the sustainability of its resource base, it often lacks the political will, funds, and personnel to regulate the mining, logging, and fishing companies that have rushed into Papua New Guinea in recent years.

The Maisin People
Between 2500 and 3000 Maisin live in their ancestral lands on the northeastern coast of the island of New Guinea and in cities around Papua New Guinea. Colonial administrators first contacted the Maisin in 1890. Within a few decades, most Maisin had become Christian and many worked on and around white-run plantations. Maisin men served with American and Australian troops during the bloody campaign in 1942-43 to drive the Japanese away from Port Moresby (the capitol city) and Buna. As the Australians worked with the Papua New Guineans to prepare the country for independence after World War II, Maisin were among the first to send their children to the new high schools and universities, and to take up positions in the expanding government and private sectors. By 1980, almost a third of the Maisin were working in medicine, education, or the Anglican church. People remaining in the villages had come to rely upon money and gifts of clothing and other commodities from relatives working in the cities. For their part, urban Maisin, looked forward to holidays and eventual retirement in their home villages.

Like most Papua New Guineans, Maisin inhabit two worlds. They participate in the world of business, government, money, and bureaucracies. At the same time, their villages retain a traditional face. The villages lie far from roads and shipping lanes. Villagers continue to garden, fish, hunt, and gather wild foods and materials using the techniques of their ancestors. A few men have amassed enough money to buy an outboard motor or an iron roof for their house, but the vast majority rely on outrigger canoes and houses constructed entirely out of bush materials. Maisin take pride in customary activities such as the initiations for first-born children, marriage exchanges, the elaborate facial tattooing of adolescent girls, and the making of beautiful tapa cloth. They even give adopted customs a strongly Maisin flavor. The celebration of St. Thomas Day in Uiaku village, for instance, is marked by all-night traditional drumming and dancing, lavish feasts, and large exchanges of tapa cloth and shell wealth.

Tapa Cloth and the Rain Forest
The Maisin live on the edge of a rain forest. It is the source of much of their daily needs and the home of the spirits of their ancestors. Over the past fifteen years they have been approached by both forestry officials and representatives of foreign logging interests to consider selling the rights to this land. Villagers at first flirted with this idea, but soon Maisin in other parts of the country began to call for caution. They had seen the devastation caused by industrial logging in other areas, and had seen several companies renege on payments and agreements to invest in local infrastructure and development. They were also concerned about rising levels of alcoholism and violence in these areas. After extensive consultation in the villages, Maisin leaders last year declared their unwillingness to allow extensive logging on their lands. Instead, they are asking the national government to declare part or all of the area a national park.

The Maisin face two types of pressures. The first is economic. The village population is growing but there are fewer and fewer paying jobs available. As money becomes scarce, the Maisin are looking for other opportunities. Their villages are too far from markets for cash-cropping to be viable. Instead, they are hoping to increase the market for tapa cloth. Made from the pounded inner bark of the paper mulberry tree, tapa cloth is a traditional item of clothing and wealth made across the Pacific. Maisin women make the finest tapa in Papua New Guinea. This exhibition at Berkeley's University Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive provides the Maisin with an opportunity to introduce this art form to a North American audience.

The Maisin and other rural Papua New Guineans are also under increasing pressure from foreign logging companies and their allies in the national government. The Parliament is currently considering legislation that would make it easier for the government to permit logging over the objections of local landowners. Having largely destroyed the rain forests of southeast Asia, loggers are now slashing the forests of Papua New Guinea and threatening the future of the communities who depend on these resources at a frantic pace. The Maisin are attempting to forge a different path which can be an example for Papua New Guineans and westerners alike. They bring the message that the future of their rain forest--and the rights of the indigenous peoples who live in them--should concern every one of us.