Last month, a Queensland archeology professor and his three PNG colleagues, all women, were kidnapped from their field site in remote Western Province and held for ransom. PNG Prime Minister James Marape described the hostage-taking as unprecedented, a “random, opportunistic crime”, but there’s rather more to it. The backstory is interwoven with political, economic and cultural realities, modern and age-old, that deserve exploration. After the hostages were safely released, I explored some of these threads in this article for The Saturday Paper. Thanks to the people who spoke to me, on and off the record. Link to story here.