Hope dawns on ‘back page’

THE Nete Lyaim region in Lagaip-Porgera District of Enga is seeing light at the end of the tunnel after 45 years of “darkness.”
Since Papua New Guinea gained independent in 1975, this part of the country has not seen agents of any government department or agency set foot here.
Even their elected members of Parliament have never visited nor initiated any projects, programmes or activities which would usher in change and in their lives.
The region and its inhabitants were long forgotten, and labelled as the ‘back page’, a risky war-torn zone. People were said to have no regard for each other and that nothing good was expected to come out of there.
The region has no school, health facility other government vital services like road networks, bridges, etc. It is one of the tribal fighting regions in the highlands. Women, children and the elderly have been longing and hoping that one fine day the good Lord would hear their cries and prayers from heaven and some to their rescue.
Finally, they are seeing a glimpse of light at the end of their long and dark tunnel. The National Cultural Commission (NCC) which has a mandate to go right down to the village level, is making small wonders for the people in the region.
The opportunity to intervene came about when staff of the NCC picked up pictures of people clearing bushes around the long-abandoned Yalum rural airstrip posted on the Facebook by one of the sons of Nete Lyaim, Miok Ala Michael.
Taking the initiative
He graduated with a Bachelor of Mineral Processing Engineering from the Papua New Guinea University of Technology (Unitech) in Lae this year.
Michael is putting aside his degree to serve his Nete Lyaim people. He organised young and energetic boys from the region to help clear up the region. A footpath was cleared and steps fixed from the main highlands highway at Mulitaka all the way to Yalum rural airstrip.
The very first thing they wanted to do was to celebrate their traditional cultural heritages. With this in mind and for the first time in the history of this part of the Lagaip-Porgera district and Enga as a whole, the 10 ward councilors and women’s groups from the region formed a committee to host a cultural festival.
They did not know that the festival would become one of NCC’s annual cultural events. When NCC staff picked up the pictures the connection between Michael and NCC was built. And everything else is history.
Preparations for the festival and the launching and presentations of a certificate for the Nete Lyaim Community Cultural Center got underway.
The dates for what would be for the entire Nete Lyaim region a most historical and memorable event were set, and preparations began.
When the dates finally arrived, the NCC advance team led by a senior cultural development officer, Bola Noho set out from Port Moresby to the region on Dec 3, 2020.
TPA team
But before the team left Port Moresby forEnga, another team from the PNG Tourism Promotion Authority (TPA) was already in Laiagam getting ready to trek into Nete Lyaim.
The NCC team arrived in Wabag via Mount Hagen, rested for a night and on the next day, Michael, who is also the chairman of the Nete Lyaim Cultural Festival, was on hand to pick them up and off they drove up the highlands highway into the mountains of Enga.
The team arrived at Mulitaka where a large group of people from Nete Lyaim was waiting to greet them with traditional welcome.

Trekking from Mulitaka
It was there at Mulitaka that the young energetic people who acted as potters off-loaded all their cargo and led the way into the mountains of Nete Lyaim.
The bush track leading into the region is more than 10km, 13-hourwalk from Mulitaka into the thick jungles, steep mountains and across fast flowing rivers to the festival village at Yalum.
It was really a walk for culture therefore all the youths who walked with NCC team into the region were given a piece of uniform each including a t’shirt and a cap with the NCC logo and PNG emblem printed on them.
The track into the region crosses Lagaip River and other smaller waterways.
By the time the NCC team and the group of potters arrived at a location three hours walk to the Yalum Rural Airstrip, time caught up with them. The team arrived there at about 8.30pm and could not walk any more so they rested there in a newly built Nete Lyaim Community Cultural Center.
On the next morning, Noho and Michael launched the culture center by cutting the ribbons and the team started walking again for the festival site at the air strip.
They set out at about 6am and by the time they arrived at the festival village at Yalum was around 9am.
A traditional welcome was arranged there so at about 2pm the welcome was done and the team settled back at the village.
Not only the cultural festival was organised for the people; a week-long church convention or a gun disposal and land dedication crusade was arranged and hosted by the council of churches from Enga.
The gun disposal, land dedication, reconciliation and flags raising ceremony coincided with the cultural festival.
In the history of Nete Lyaim and Enga, this has never happened before. It was history in the making; the cultural festival hosted by NCC in partnership with the communities in Nete Lyaim created the pathway for other government services and development to reach the people in the region.

Historic event
The Dec 7, 2020 event went down in the history of Nete Lyaim when the tribes who had been in at war for four decades ended their hostility towards each other. The bullying and threatening ended in a mass surrender.
The burning of guns, arrows, bows and even the uprooting of mature marijuana got underway. Marijuana had been used in illegal trade for firearms needed for tribal fighting and intimidation in the region.
After the destruction of guns and dedication service, the next day was a cultural festivity and 46 groups from within the region took to the dancing arena and really danced to the beat of their hand drums.
For the first time the enemy tribes held hands together and danced in circles with their traditional attire on.
And the next day was superb when the executive director of NCC, Steven Enomb Kilanda arrived at the packed festival village in a charted helicopter.
The formalities of the festival began and the official opening and the closing was done with the presentation of the cultural certificate for Nete Lyaim Community Cultural Center.
Kilanda told the warring tribes who had just surrendered their guns that they should leave behind fighting and weapons, and promote their culture for a change in life.
He said because of the fighting among themselves it had been really difficult for basic government services to reach them.
Kilanda said NCC was the only government organisation that really went down to their level to try to assist them.
He said after 45 years Nete Lyaim was beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel and NCC would always be there to see to it that government services reached them through culture.
He said culture bound families, clans, tribes and communities therefore they should leave behind all the fighting and take up their cultural heritage and preserve, safeguard and promote it.
Kilanda committed K10,000 for the festival and another K10,000 for the completion of the community cultural center.
The festival chairman and the 10 councilors really appreciated Kilanda and his NCC team’s entry into their region.
They warmly welcomed them and assured that they would not fight anymore but try to embrace the changes unfolding.
Festival chairman Michael emotionally told Kilanda and his team from NCC that they have been waiting for such a service into the region for years now. He said they were grabbing the opportunity with both hands and would not let it pass because they needed it most.

Health and education needed
Michael said their children needed schools and women and young girls needed health facilities in the region.
He said they were already fed up with fighting and other illegal activities like growing marijuana for illegal trading.
Michael said now that they were beginning to see intervention by government agencies, they would do everthing possible to allow basic services to reach the most neglected and forgotten people of Nete Lyaim region.

– Story and pictures from the National Cultural Commission.