Development or dependence?: forestry development and indigenous people in Madang, Papua New Guinea

Abstract

The subject of this study is social change and economic development in the rural community of Wasab, Madang, Papua New Guinea. It traces the changes in this community since contact with Europeans to the present. The methodology applied in the collection of data for this study involved the use of historical method combined with fieldwork. Data was collected from historical sources held in the Papua New Guinea National Archives, the New Guinea Collection of the University of Papua New Guinea Library, the Papua New Guinea Collection of the National Library (all in Port Moresby) and the Public Library in Madang. The fieldwork component of the study was carried out in two periods between December 1990 and October 1991. Data collected in an earlier period (April 1989) was also used. Various surveys relating to socio-economic activities and change were carried out in the village during fieldwork. The method of analysis was basically social historical. It aimed to find out how the present socio-economic conditions of the Wasab people came about so that deliberate and purposeful actions can be taken to bring about changes to ameliorate these present conditions. The argument of the study is that the practice of development employed by the colonial state, and which was adopted and still used by the post-colonial state, brought about uneven development. This top-down approach created underdevelopment and dependence in peripheral areas like Wasab village. Dependence is an essential element of underdevelopment. In Wasab this dependence was compounded by subsequent forestry development activities which were supposed to bring about "development" although the people were never asked about the problems they faced and what they wanted as development. They were never consulted. I have compared them to the chorus in Euripedean tragedy where the chorus are described as "idealised spectators" who give the main characters reason to act and serve only as a background against which the actions take place. The conclusion argues for a more participatory approach to development. Any development project that would affect the lives of indigenous people must involve popular participation in the initial stages of planning and design through implementation to evaluation. It goes further to argue that popular participation must be given an ideological status. Ideology is understood here in a more positive Gramscian sense. Such an ideology of development can create consciousness among the masses and make them aware of their right to participate in the whole project cycle of any development project that would affect their lives.