Having witnessed the damaging antics of carbon cowboys and, more recently, self-interested greenwashing industry in REDD+ forest projects in PNG, I was sceptical and intrigued about the notion of “high integrity” carbon. So, I went to the Solomon Islands to see what it looked like on the ground. This issue is one of the most … Continue reading
At the end of particularly gruelling teaching semester, I shot up to Canberra for the Australasian Aid and International Development conference hosted by the Development Policy Centre at ANU. Very grateful for this opportunity to reconnect with some Pacific and development experts and longtime ‘contacts’, and to think about issues in the region. This story for … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
I was lucky to make a couple of reporting trips back to PNG in 2022. One visit coincided with the 2022 election & produced a couple of pieces for The Guardian about women candidates and the push for women’s representation. I came back with lots of thoughts swirling on a decade of conversations on women … Continue reading
I returned to PNG in September – thanks to the Walkley Foundation/Sean Dorney Pacific Journalism Grant – to collect field reports and interviews for a forthcoming story for The Monthly on climate justice. But as always in PNG, I came across so many other urgent and important stories. This was one of them. I was … Continue reading
Belatedly catching up posting some of my recent work. This was the second report I filed for The Guardian during a reporting trip to PNG during the 2022 election. I was excited and gratified to be able to interview both the successful women – the new Central Governor Rufina Peter and MP for Rai Coast … Continue reading
It was great to get back on the road reporting in July, and even better to be in Papua New Guinea after three years absence. Nearly 10 years ago, I wrote a long reportage piece for Griffith Review on the push for female representation, and the formidable obstacles female candidates face. Then, there were three … Continue reading
As a serial ‘parachute’ journalist, dropping in & out of places not my own, I’m all too aware of the shortcomings of this model of reporting. Thinking out loud about how to tell truer, deeper stories of climate impacts in the Pacific in this critical moment, I’m grateful for the insights of Katerina Teaiwa and … Continue reading
Heritier Lumumba, who I hesitate to describe as a former Collingwood FC star given he is so much more, is much in the news at present. There’s a terrific long read on his campaign to call out racism today by the ABC’s Russell Jackson in which Heritier, in calling out the media more widely, gives … Continue reading
Several years ago, researching a story on land grabbing (tree stealing) near Kiunga on the PNG border, I ran into a PNG nurse and nun who was climbing into a dinghy to take a trip down the Fly River. She told me she was taking vaccines to children in the refugee camps. “What refugee camps?” … Continue reading
Notebook & Narrative by Jo Chandler 