Rural life in PNG

Papua New Guinea has the third most rural population in the world, with almost 85% living in remote highland areas and far-flung islands. It is difficult and costly to provide basic services and develop infrastructure, including electricity, telecommunications and roads. The capital city Port Moresby, for example, is not linked by road to any of the major population centres, and many villages can only be reached by light aircraft or by foot.

While this rural setting provides an idyllic backdrop, a picturesque simplicity to rural life, the extreme isolation is illustrated in many ways: lengthy travel times for agricultural inputs or other goods, limited access to health care and education services, limited local job opportunities, and limited communication. Many people have moved to the cities or urban spaces to find better opportunities, but connections to the village remain deep.

I have always felt that the villages of Papua New Guinea are a reminder of what life used to like, of how mankind survived for thousands of years living intrinsically connected to their environment. While life is undoubtedly hard in these rural areas, it is also somehow balanced, and its raw simplicity makes you wonder if modern society has it all completely wrong.

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Tufi, Oro Province, 2011. A group of men wait for the next flight to arrive at the Tufi airport

Kikori River, Gulf Province, 2012. Along the Kikori River.

Hides, Hela Province, 2012. A young girl plays in the garden.

Waru, Hela Province, 2012.

Hides, Hela Province, 2012. A small bridge leads to a doorway completely overgrown with plants, the entrance to a village homestead in the mountains.

Waru, Hela Province, 2012. A wooden bridge crosses over a Huli ditch, connecting the road to a small store selling day-old chickens.

Kikori River, Gulf Province, 2012. A young girl peers out of the door of her stilted hut. Hides, Hela Province, 2012. Drum ovens, fueled by wood collected from the forest, are a common way of preparing food in the village.

Hides, Hela Province, 2012. Drum ovens, fueled by wood collected from the forest, are a common way of preparing food in the village.

Kikori River, Gulf Province, 2012. A typical stilted hut along the banks of the Kikori river.

Kinumere, Gulf Province, 2012. In the remote villages along the Kikori river, there is little access to modern technologies or even electricity. In Kinumere village, a local shop owner installed a television, run on a generator and kept in a large cage to protect it from on-lookers.

Hides, Hela Province, 2012. The Huli tribe is known for digging a long and steep ditch around the perimeter of villages or homesteads as a means of protection. The ditches take days to construct and can only be crossed by using a thin bridge

Kinumere, Gulf Province, 2012.

Mendi, Southern Highlands Province, 2012. Young boys catching a ride along the Highlands Highway, the main land highway in the country.

Mendi, Southern Highlands Province, 2012.

Mendi, Southern Highlands Province, 2012. One of the most common forms of travel along the Highlands Highway, the country’s largest land route, is catching a ride in the back of a truck headed for the main town of Mendi.

Mendi, Southern Highlands Province, 2012. A boy and his dog sit along the side of the road.

Hides, Hela Province, 2012.

Mendi, Southern Highlands Province, 2012. At an informal market outside of Mendi, a woman sells peanuts to people starting their journey along the Highlands Highway

Hides, Hela Province, 2012. A long and narrow bridge made from poles crosses over a Huli ditch.

Angore, Hela Province, 2013. Villagers peer in through the windows or a newly built community centre.

Papa, Central Province, 2013. Local clinics, such as the Papa Health Clinic, provide vital health needs to people in local communities.

Port Moresby, Central province. On the streets of Port Moresby

Moro, Southern Highlands Province, 2013. Women walk down the road through the thick forest on a rainy morning.

Nogoli, Hela Province, 2013. An HIV/AIDS centre in the rural village of Nogoli.

Hides, Hela Province, 2013

Sodiobi, Western Highlands, 2013. Women sit on the veranda after a long day of working in the garden.

Sodiobi, Western Highlands, 2013.

Sodiobi, Western Highlands, 2013

Tatere, Hela Provinve, 2014.

Tatere, Hela Provinve, 2014. Washing day.

Tatere, Hela Provinve, 2014. Women lay out their freshly made breads, baked in a locally made drum oven.

Tatere, Hela Provinve, 2014.

Mabuli, Hela Province, 2014. Tai Himu stands in front of a hut that she uses as a birthing clinic in her village of Mabuli. With little access to medical facilities and with only basic training herself, Tai has helped birth more than 100 babies from around the area.