Habitat: Konawiru 2016

‘Habitat’ is a series of video installations by Taloi Havini that critically addresses the representation of conflicting interests over land in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, a group of islands east of Papua New Guinea. The earliest in the series, Habitat: Konawiru 2016 uses a dramatic sequence of images to document environmental degradation and evoke the sense of loss and displacement experienced by local landowners as a result of mining at Panguna, in Central Bougainville. The mine was operated by Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL), a subsidiary of Conzinc Rio Tinto Australia, from 1966 to 1989.

Beginning with footage of a raft navigating swamp land around the Jaba River, the work explores the catastrophic results of the disposal of toxic tailings from the mine via the diversion of the Jaba River and other waterways to the sea. This intervention caused substantial degradation of the fertile forest that once sustained the people who lived there. In Taloi Havini’s powerful work, we hear from local landowner Agata of the devastation and ongoing trauma that her people endure as a result of the poisoning of their custodial waterways and land.