John Siune’s Bikpela pait istap yet long Bougainvil (There is still a war going on in Bougainville) responds to the Papua New Guinean defence forces’ use of Iroquois military helicopters, supplied by the Australian government in the late 1980s, in its conflict with the BRA (Bougainville Revolutionary Army). Ignited by local concerns over the environmental consequences of the Panguna mine and the distribution of royalties, the decade-long conflict (1988–98) claimed the lives of thousands of residents of Bougainville, together with many Papua New Guinean soldiers. In Siune’s painting, the disparity between the two forces is emphasised as is the need for independent documentation of the conditions on the ground. Siune, in the guise of the EM TV camera, depicts the BRA in villagers’ clothes, barefoot and largely unarmed, while their better-equipped ‘redskin’ opponents attack in force; ‘redskin’ is the name given to other Papua New Guineans by those living in Bougainville.