Andrew Jackson of Tanah Merah in Queensland emailed me a week ago, "Hello, my family lived in Bougainville for a 10-year-period and my dad worked for Bougainville Copper during that time. We have a fairly old video tape which has documentaries about the Bougainville Copper Project possibly filmed in the 1970s. Because of the age of the video tape, I'm not sure they will be watchable."
I suggested he send it to me so that I could transfer it onto DVD and later convert it into a suitable YouTube format. I have just received the tape. It is old and the colours are faded but still watchable.
It contains the documentary "My Valley is Changing" about Panguna Valley and its Moroni people and a mine documentary by BCL "starring", amongst others, Bougainville's local representative Paul Lapun, the local Mine Union Leader Henry Moses, Arwa Plantation's manager Kip McKillop, geologist Ken Phillips, BCL's Colin Bishop, environmentalist Alan Hartley, and Jules Powell, a marine biologist.
It also has a series of clips of cultural dances and music and local choirs and some great aerial footage of the island's interior and its coastline, including Kieta and Arawa and Loloho. And a copy of PARADISE LOST as well as a doco of how the Panguna copper deposit was discovered and evaluated. Something for everyone!
Watch this space for a link to YouTube! (although it will take a while as the process can be slow and painful ☺)
P.S. A commercial copy of MY VALLEY IS CHANGING can be purchased here.
