Social Evaluation Study for the Milne Bay Community-Based Coastal and Marine Conservation Program png/99/G41 Jeff Kinch April 2001 unops contract for Services Ref
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Table 60: Freehold Status of the Conflict Group (CBMMCA 2) (Source: Kimas, 1986)
In 1985, Ian Finley planned to build a tourist resort called Club Calvados at the Conflicts. A Panaeati man who worked for the Department of Policy and Planning opposed this. If the present proposal goes ahead, this will mean, cutting off income and total destruction of their traditional area of livelihood. This will be against the traditional culture of the people, the rightful owners of resources (George, 1983). CBMMCA 3 Of highest significance to the MBP is the major dispute between Ware and Brooker over the Bramble Haven/Long Reefs (see Kinch 1999; Kinch 2000e) and the Nabaina and Nagobi Islands. The current dispute has been going on for a considerable length of time. Brooker people told the author that it had been an issue at one time in the early 1950s. In 1950 Mr Cowell, a government officer from Bwagaioa, came to map the area and had Ware going to Guawana and Brooker going to Liwaus, causing an overlap. He had come down because Bob Bunton wanted to buy Enivala but Brooker had said no. Cowell had told people at this time that the government was the boss of the disputed area. The Department of Primary Industries in 1981 records that in one area of the Louisiade Archipelago people were arguing over reefs that were previously fished by anyone of that area. This was the Long/Kosmann Reefs area. The problem has escalated in the last ten years or so when the Brooker workboat 'Esowal' owned by the Sam family of Brooker started diving at Nagobi in 1987 (see Benjamin, 1998). The 1980s saw an increase in prices paid on beche-de-mer and a subsequent rise in harvesting and consequently a rise in disputes. Things finally came to a head in 1998 when Ware people with the help of Samarai Police confiscated nine bags of processed beche-de-mer at Nabaina. A total of 304.05 kg of beche-de-mer was confiscated and was later sold to Asiapac for 2405.15 kina (see David, 1998; Kinch, 1999, 2000e). In April 1999, Ware people came again to Nabaina to warn Brooker people away. This time they confiscated the engine handle off one of Nako’s fishing vessels which was purchasing clam muscle and crayfish from Brooker people. This incident finally led to some government intervention. A meeting was held in Alotau in May 1999 with the District Administrator from Misima, the Provincial Administrator, as well as elders from Ware. The Administrator’s office was to pursue the matter and a court order was to be placed restricting both parties from harvesting marine resources. In July and August 2000, and January 2001, Ware people came again to Nabaina to order Brooker people away from the island attacking people and canoes. Nothing has been resolved and the issue still festers, though now becoming more hostile and dangerous. Brooker people are mobilising mythological association with the area to validate their rights to the islands under dispute. Brooker people have two stories related to the area and a summary of these is given below. Other linguistic evidence and historical associations also support Brooker claims. The passage Liwaus that is designated by Brooker people as the traditional boundary is also a language boundary between the Misima and Ware (Tubetube) languages. Most named places to the east of this passage are in the Misiman language, those to the west are in the Ware (Tubetube) language. Historical association for Brooker people with the disputed islands goes back to the turn of the 20th Century when the European Nik the Greek took men from Brooker to the Nabaina and Nagobi Islands. They were made to stay there for the turtle nesting season harvesting hawksbill shell for the lucrative trade at that time. Moreover, historical accounts place Calvados Chain people thoroughly at home in the Duchateau islands in the mid-1880s. In July 1849, for example, when H.M.S. Rattlesnake visited the Duchateau Islands (south of Brooker), MacGillivray reported that canoes from the western Calvados frequently visited these islands. MacGillivray and his crew were able to barter for coconuts and yams, and some crops not previously seen such as Indian corn, ginger and sugar cane (MacGillivray, 1852). Ware people also have some more recent historical associations with the disputed islands which date back primarily to the 1950s and 1960s when numerous men worked with Boss Marigili on developing coconut plantations on the islands. Ware people are also claiming mythological association with the islands. Belshaw (1955) made two general distinctions in regards to tenure on Ware. One was land and distant islets, which are owned by clans, and the normal mode of access is inheritance through matrilineal succession. The second dealt with reefs, which are owned by the whole community rather than associated with clans as such, and the same applies to the surrounding reefs where most subsistence fishing takes place (see Hayes 1993). Belshaw’s (1955) account suggested the possibility of a complex distribution of rights to such land and marine resources. After noting that coconuts had been planted on a number of islands and islets including Panaman (Imbert), Tarikubwakubwa, Mwalalitabi, Mwelali, Tariwewai (Stuers Islands), and others of the Long Reef, which stretches to Sudest, he wrote: Ware people own and have planted most of these, though through kinship and co-operation people from other villages also have an interest. Some Ware people also have shares in plantations as far away as Motorina and in the Engineer Group. A number have been allowed to work plantations of the Samarai firm of Buntings, Ltd., but recently the firm announced it was planning to recommence operating them on its own account . . . Associated with the plantations are the nearby reefs, varying in resources, which the villagers use mainly for trochus shell fishing. On occasion special expeditions from Ware fish the reefs of Sudest. (Belshaw 1955: 32) The Ware association with Buntings was longstanding: plantations on Marigili and Imbert islands and on Panamau and Meilai in the Dumoulin islands east and west of Wari respectively had been planted originally by Bunting Brothers and were still owned by A. H. Bunting Ltd in 1940 (Lewis, 1996). R. Bunting had also established a plantation on Ware itself. This Company also owned plantations in the Duchateau Islands near Brooker (Lewis, 1996). Clearly, the association between Ware people and Buntings provided opportunities for widespread economic activity and certain legitimacy to the Barrier Reef area. In fact the government thought so to, as plantations close too Ware were returned to them in 1983. This is of specific interest because in the Calvados Chain (and Misima District) rights to reefs are reportedly claimed by whole island communities rather than by lower level units such as clans, lineages or families. This has been summarised by the author (Kinch, 1999), citing work by others (Stevens, 1994; Gerritsen and Macintyre, 1986; Alu and Mee, 1979). In contrast to such community level claims, there are reports from the Trobriands where, although a whole village community normally holds rights to marine resources, there are exceptions such as the village of Kevatariya (Kavataria). Here the reef is divided into distinct clan and family claims (Williamson, 1989). There is a similar report of such lower level claims to reefs from Sudest Island (Kinch, 1999), and from Tubetube nearly a century ago (Seligman, 1910). Recent talk at Brooker has suggested the extending of island claims to the surrounding reef to the depth of where a canoe pole can touch. Table 61: Islands Around Brooker (CBMMCA 3) and Their Clan Ownership (Source: Kinch, 1999 PhD Field Notes)
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