Cultural icon neglected

The National Weekender

By JOSEPH KETAN
THE Kuk Early Agricultural site (with evidence dating back 9,000 years ago), near Mount Hagen, was inscribed on the World Heritage List because of its outstanding universal value. Kuk represents a significant development in the history of humanity – the leap from hunting and gathering to permanent settlement based on agriculture. Important global economic crops (sugarcane and bananas) and Pacific staples (taro and yams) were first planted at Kuk.
Cultural practices (ceremonial exchange) and socioeconomic systems (clan, tribe, big-man leadership) arose from developments at Kuk.
Textbooks across the globe had to be re-written because of the new evidence from Kuk.
The inscription of the Kuk Early Agricultural Site (UNESCO ID 887) on the UNESCO World Heritage List in July 2008 came with specific recommendations and requests from the World Heritage Committee. It was recommended that the State Party (PNG Government) submits by
1 February 2009:

  1. the completed Management Plan and confirmation of its approval by the Kawelka landowners, and of its implementation;
  2. progress with the establishment of Organic Law;
  3. progress with designation of the property as a Conservation Area, and of the associated formal land management agreement with the local community for aspects of site management;
  4. progress with the establishment of a formal memorandum of understanding between relevant national, provincial and local government authorities and other stakeholders concerning management responsibilities on the ground and reporting lines;

In addition, the World Heritage Committee requested that the State Party provide a commitment to:

  1. resource heritage management training for local people and appropriate local, provincial and national government officers;
  2. putting in place planning policies to protect the wider setting and to extending the buffer zone as land tenure issues are resolved.

I wish to report that there has been limited progress on the key recommendations and requests.
The statutory agency responsible for implanting the World Heritage Convention in Papua New Guinea, the Environment and Conservation Authority, has failed to implement the UNESCO recommendations and requests.
The Management Plan has NOT been completed. A draft management plan was presented by Department of Environment and Conservation officials at Rondon Lodge in 2013, without communitywide consultation, and was NOT approved by the Kawelka landowners.
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre website has a 6-page concise management plan, which is inadequate and poorly constructed.
The basic principles of the management plan have NOT been incorporated into an Organic Law.
The site has NOT been designated as a Conservation Area and a formal land management agreement has not been devised and approved by the Kawelka landowners.
Memoranda of understandings, or equivalent, have been devised between DEC and the Western Highlands Provincial government and with principal Kawelka landowners.
There has been NO training for local Kawelka landowners.
There are NO planning policies in place.
As a result, PNG’s only world heritage property is now in danger of being de-registered from the UNESCO protected list of cultural landscape properties.
To prevent Kuk from being deleted from the World Heritage List, the local landowner clans of the Kawelka tribe have formed cultural associations for each of the four clans, with an umbrella organization (the Kuk World Heritage Development Association) to coordinate the activities of the respective clan associations.
The aim of the development association is to establish infrastructure for service delivery, as well as to help the PNG Government to draft and implement a site management plan.
The Kuk World Heritage Development Association, under the leadership of a pre-eminent Kawelka big-man, Nicklais Namba, and his deputy, Simon Koi, have worked tirelessly, without government support, to prepare two publications:

  1. a profile of Kuk outlining the significance of Kuk; and
  2. a site management plan. The management plan aims to protect the integrity of the scientific evidence of early agriculture (9,000 years BP) beneath the soil; to promote cultural activities; to promote traditional methods of gardening; and to establish a cultural heritage centre at Kuk to coordinate all world heritage related activities there.

The clan-based associations will be responsible for implementing sections of the management plan. One clan, for example, will be responsible for planting a particular indigenous crop, while another specializing in traditional Melanesian art and craft, whilst yet another take charge of dance and songs.
In this context, it is pleasing to report that one clan (Kurupmbo), for instance, is working in partnership with the owner of Rondon Lodge (Bob Bates) to set up an information centre at Kuk-Raiorong to promote tourism. A busload of tourists from Germany visited Kuk this month during the Mount Hagen Show weekend. This is a step in the right direction, but tourism needs to be managed in a sustainable way, with visits to Kuk coordinated with the consent of the local community leaders, through the Kuk World Heritage Development Association.
It is worth noting here that Kuk is bigger than the Kawelka, or the Dei District Development Authority, or the Western Highlands Provincial Government. It is a cultural icon of universal significance. The agricultural developments at Kuk and associated cultural developments led to the development of Pacific agriculture and the cultural complexes of the South Pacific. Kuk is one of only three places in the world where agriculture originated independently. The evidence from Kuk suggests that Papua New Guineans were among the earliest gardeners. Our ancestors at Kuk were living in houses and growing crops from 7,000 to 10,000 years ago when people in Europe, Africa and the Americas were hunting and gathering for their survival. The other two early agricultural sites are Mesopotamia in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East and the Yantze basin in China.
Admittedly, PNG is struggling to manage other more pressing issues of social and economic development, but the PNG Government would do well to invest in culture and tourism, starting with the establishment of the Kuk Cultural Heritage Centre.
The stakeholders of Kuk are the Kawelka landowners, the Dei District Development Authority, the Western Highlands Provincial Government, the Environment and Conservation Authority,
the National Museum and Art Gallery, the National Cultural Commission, the Tourism Promotion Authority, the PNG National Commission for UNESCO, the University of Papua New Guinea, the Australian National University, the World Heritage Centre and UNESCO.
What is required, urgently, at this stage is for an enlightened national leader to champion the cause of PNG at the national level, as started by the Minister for Culture and Tourism, Tobias Kulang, who has pledged to support the local community in implementing the post-nomination requirements.
In closing, I wish to acknowledge, with gratitude, the contributions of the Western Highlands Provincial Government (under Fr Robert Lak and Tom Olga), National Museum, DEC, NCC, UPNG, ANU and other stakeholders in preparing the nomination document for Kuk.
Dr Joe Ketan is a PNG anthropologist/ political scientist. He is a co-author of the nomination document for Kuk.
He is helping the Kuk World Heritage Development Association to write and publish documents on Kuk, including the site management plan, in attempting to promote the significance of Kuk, locally and internationally.