'Lifting the traditional mining moratorium - The mining curse on Bougainville.'

‘Lifting the traditional mining moratorium,’ is a short documentary film that features the life of one of Bougainville’s traditional chiefs, Mr Fabian Tonepa, who hails from the Eivo area in Bougainville Island. Mr Tonepa was a colourful and charismatic leader back in the 1950’and 60’s, who fiercely protected his peoples land and environment from foreign expropriation. He built the first parliament house at Amatato and opposed mining exploration on his land and cursed the lands of Bougainville and Papua New Guinea as a whole by saying that ‘if mining does happen, then many problems will follow after, and money from these mines will never benefit the land owners, but be enjoyed by foreigners.’ He sealed the curse with the sacrifice of his young niece. His curse was a ‘traditional mining moratorium,’ which could only be denounced and lifted by him or his successor. He said this will only happen when Bougainville becomes a sovereign nation. Now that Bougainville is preparing for independence, she needs impact projects that can bank-roll her independence. The Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) identifies Mining as a sector that can make this happen. However it has not been easy, and exploration companies coming to the island are always face opposition/mishaps. Seeing all this, and eager to help the ABG, the relatives of late Fabian Tonepa, led by his nephew Mr Alphonse Sinau, have taken it upon themselves to reverse the curse and lift the ‘traditional moratorium,’ so that exploration work can happen on their land and on Bougainville