An Australian Broadcasting Corporation production. "When the NZ led mission went in, what it did was it created space. In 1997, after 14 failed peace agreements, the New Zealand army stepped into the conflict with a radical new plan - instead of bringing guns, the unarmed soldiers took guitars. The Bougainville conflict, also known as the Bougainville Civil War, was a multi-layered armed conflict fought from 1988 to 1998 in the North Solomons Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG) between PNG and the secessionist forces of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA), and between the BRA and other armed groups on Bougainville. It wasn't just the "ambassador." Other than a few close friends, I have kept pretty quiet about the documentary project I started work on in 2014 ().After a 10 year civil war with the Papua New Guinean (PNG) Government, the Autonomous Region of Bougainville will vote for independence between 2015 and 2020 and my goal is to document what life is like there, through my photography, during this period. He set up the Bougainville Interim Government (BIG), but it had little power, and the island began to descend into disarray. Curriculum Focus top. Alexandre Berman is the co-director of the documentary, Ophir, which took the top prize at the 2020 Tahiti Film Festival. The Coconut Revolution relays the academically underexposed Bougainville Civil War, in Papua New Guinea. New feature film Soldiers Without Guns, directed by Will Watson, tells the story of how New Zealand stepped in to resolve the Bougainville civil war. When you look at the fundamentals of this story, this revolution, it connects to every part of the world. What is also unique is the fact that the revolutionaries, as some call them, won the war.". A film-maker says Bougainvilleans' ongoing struggle to protect their land and rights is an example that the world should take note of. Photo: Supplied, Marshall Islands fisheries revenue expected to drop 20 percent, Rogue yacht looking for fruit ordered to leave Niue, RNZ Pacific Xmas: 'A tribe without its chief', Number of people joining gangs increased by at least 13% this year, police data shows, Brexit: EU diplomats briefed on Brexit trade deal, Holiday commuters warned of congestion hot spots, Explosion in Nashville 'intentional act', police say, RNZ's pick of best New Zealand pictures of 2020. Last night I was on edge. Kiwi filmmaker Will Watson has been working on his documentary Soldiers Without Guns since 2005, and it's finally making its big-screen debut. It's a struggle that we seldom, if ever, heard of here in the States. He came to wider attention in the documentary film, The Coconut Revolution, which sought to portray the BRA as a band of convivial guerrillas in pursuit … The NZ Defence Force's use of guitars, waiata, and wāhine to help bring peace to Bougainville at the end of a bloody decade-long civil war is explored in a new documentary Soldiers Without Guns. A peace agreement resulted in the creation of the Autonomous Bougainville Government. The command structure set up by the BRA seldom had any real control over the various groups throughout the island that claimed to be part of the BRA. … "The way we (he and co-director Olivier Pollet) wanted to work with the people was in collaboration, giving them the space to tell their story with their own eyes.". "It was not only for themselves. Bougainville: island of scars The wounds of war are a long time healing. On Bougainville, where thousands died during the Pacific’s bloodiest conflict since the end of the Second World War, the fighting is over—but the task of rebuilding has only just begun. It wasn't until ten years later that he got funding from Māori Television, that he finished it off. A number of raskol(criminal) gangs that were affiliated with the BRA, equipped largely with weapons salva… By 1988 the tensions had led to violence, guerilla rebels shut the mine down and people started taking sides. Conflict over the Panguna mine became the primary trigger for the Bougainville Civil War (1988–1998), which resulted in the deaths of up to 20,000 people. They included more women in their troops than usual because Bougainville is a matrilineal society: land is passed from mother to daughter. During the colonial era Bougainville was occupied by the Germans, Australians, Japanese, and Americans for various periods. It was a fight for the world. But when a distributor came to Watson and said that he thought it should be extended into a feature film, he couldn't say no. Last year Ona claimed to have been made King of Bougainville in a coronation ceremony, and is now making another bid for political power. The Australian government has estimated that anywhere between 15,000 to 20,000 people could have died in the Bougainville Conflict. Cassidy says that when she returned to Bougainville 20 years on, it was like nothing had changed. He took another trip over with Fiona Cassidy. Kirsten Johnstone spoke with Will and one of the major players in the film, Fiona Cassidy. We were able to get their trust to such an extent that they handed in their guns, and they would talk to each other. Part of Cassidy's role was to facilitate community discussion. With the mine shut, the Papua forces left and the country spiralled into a brutal civil war that over a decade would kill 20,000. Fiona Cassidy, a Major and public relations manager in the Army at the time, says that the peacekeeping (or Truce Monitoring Group) mission in Bougainville in 1997 was unprecedented and unusual in many ways. The bulk of its quarter of a million people reside on the main Bougainville Island, which is roughly the size of Jamaica. By 2007 he had a film crew in Bougainville, and Brigadier Mortlock, who had announced and supervised the unarmed mission was on board. According to him, it is important for people in other countries to see Ophir, as the world looks for solutions to the collapse of environmental and cultural systems. Fiona describes seeing the debris of war as they flew into the island. It was also a sharing of culture. The countryside was flattened, the towns were a mess, and there were communities of women and children hiding out in the jungle. Bougainvillean separatism dates to the 1960s; conflict over a contentious mine became the primary trigger for the Bougainville Civil War, which lasted a decade and concluded in 1998. Photo: still from Soldiers Without Guns. Ten years of fighting for autonomy from Papua New Guinea and a brutal civil war ravaged the country in the 80s and 90s. The NZ Defence force was asked by the Bougainvillians to lead the operation, bolstered by soldiers from Fiji and Vanuatu. He said the film of Bougainville through its civil war and struggle for sovereignty aimed to highlight a unique case of indigenous people fighting for something greater. The recovery process has been slow though, and there will be a referendum to decide whether Bougainville should become fully independent from Papua New Guinea in October this year. There's a lot more archival footage in Soldiers Without Guns, and it helps form a bigger picture of the conflict. Following a period of anarchy the PNG forces returned to areas of Bougainville where they had local support. The war has been described as the largest conflict in Oceania since the end of World War II, with an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 Bougainvillean dead. There's footage in the film of the Army performing 'Ka Mate' and Cassidy says they deployed well-known songs: 'Pokarekare Ana', and 'Ten Guitars' too. The Bougainville Civil War, also known as the Bougainville Conflict, was an armed conflict fought from 1988 to 1998 between Papua New Guinea and the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA), who were fighting for independence. It actually was hostile. Cassidy says it changed the whole culture and tone of those talks. That resulted in an hour-long TV Documentary Haka And Guitars, which won six international awards. "And once you've got a bridge, you can start talking.". Cast & Filmmakers NZ documentarian Will Watson (Haka and Guitars) tells the story of how the 10-year Bougainville Civil War was ended by some guitar-toting Kiwis. So it was a little bit scary thinking, 'Okay, we're going to a country which has been at war for so long, it still isn't stable, and we're going in unarmed.'". "When you looked at the country brief, you knew that you were not going into a benign environment. A recently released film Mr Pip - which is set during Bougainville's civil war period - has also generated global interest in the island. An estimated 15,000 to 20,000 Bougainvilleans died as a result of the conflict. One month on from the Christchurch terrorist attack, director Will Watson's film comes at tragically perfect time. The New Zealand-born director - … "The Bougainville crisis is unique in that way as well as it gives you very profound keys to address this question, I think. This film is set during the 1990s when the island of Bougainville was locked in a civil war against Papua New Guinea over their copper rights. A peace agreement resulted in the creation of the Autonomous Bougainville … Bougainville Revolutionary Army leader Francis Ona, barefoot and wearing a bush hat, in 1994 during the decade-long civil war in the archipelago. An estimated 15,000 to 20,000 Bougainvilleans died as a result of the conflict. Will Watson had been keeping a close eye on the conflict as a young journalism student, and in 2005 he decided he wanted to document the story. The tiny island of Bougainville, a province of Papua New Guinea, could become the world’s newest nation, more than 20 years after a brutal civil war killed thousands of people. Much of what I'd read about Bougainville before arriving painted a picture of a troubled and unstable country. And those peace accords that NZ ran were the starting point, but we as service men and women, taking a totally different approach, provided a bridge. Understandably, it made Cassidy a little anxious. And they wanted it stopped. "They had been at war for so long that they were killing each other, brother on brother, uncle on uncle, village on village. Rebuilding Bougainville is an excerpt from the two-part documentary Paradise Imperfect made in 2000. Up until then, women had not been invited to any of the peace talks. And that's quite unique. An anti-war movement evolved on Bougainville during the mid-1990s, spearheaded by womens’ groups, NGOs, and the church. And I think war and all its dynamics is ugly and harsh, but how do you stop it? There had already been 14 failed peace agreements. In a journal article ‘The Gangs of Bougainville’ by Stan Starygin, Toroama was portrayed as a ‘Rambo’. The BRA is the main separatist force in Bougainville, declaring independence from PNG in 1990 after PNG forces withdrew from the country. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. The conflict was described by Bougainvillean President John Momis as the largest conflict in Oceania since the end of World War IIin 1945, with an estimated 15,000–20,000 Bougai… She saw the same faces and was greeted with the same warmth and familiarity she experienced in 1997. Alexandre Berman is the co-director of the documentary, Ophir, which took the top prize at the 2020 Tahiti Film Festival. When war on the remote Papua New Guinea Island of Bougainville ended, the combatants invited the international community to send in a peace-keeping force on one condition: they come unarmed. For much of the civil war, Phillip has been broadcasting programs with music and news from a Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) perspective. There was also an influx of workers from Papua New Guinea and Australia, who the locals resented. Instead, they packed music and culture. This film tells the story of how he worked with music and humour to help the people of Bougainville find the courage to untangle themselves from the web of a bitter civil war. A Papua New Guinea Department of Defence planning document compiled in early 1990 predicted that the significant suffering produced by the blockade would turn the north and south of Bougainville—who were more distant from the mine and the harms it generated—against central Bougainville, creating a civil-war situation. It has been deemed the world’s first successful eco-revolution, and even influenced the basic of the plot for the blockbuster movie Avatar. NZ Defence Force Haka The Bougainville Civil War, also known as the Bougainville conflict, was a multi-layered armed conflict fought from 1988 to 1998 in the North Solomons Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG) between PNG and the secessionist forces of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA), and between the BRA and other armed groups on Bougainville. Bougainville: The World’s Newest Nation? "It was the first time women were engaged, from their society, in their decision making.". Opened in the 1960s, it was polluting waterways and making land unusable for farmers in the area. In May 1990, Papua New Guinea imposed a blockade on Bougainville. Photo: supplied. Berman's film is being run later this month at New Zealand's Documentary Edge Festival. WATCH: Anna Coddington celebrates album release with exclusive live performance. And they didn't take guns. Peace has held on the Island. When the Panguna copper mine opened in central Bougainville in 1972, existing processes of social change were soon amplified by the social impacts of the mine. Paradise Imperfect In 2000 the ABC’s Pacific Correspondent Sean Dorney travelled to the war zones of Bougainville to look at the impact of the nine year secessionist conflict and the fragile peace process. Francis Ona responded by unilaterally declaring independence. Soldiers Without Guns is a documentary about how the NZ Defence Force helped bring peace to Bougainville at the end of a bloody decade long civil war, armed with guitars, waiata, and wahine. The BRA fought a savage civil war for independence against the PNG government during the 1990s. The movement is described as the "world's first successful eco-revolution" and has drawn parallels with the conflict depicted in the 2009 film, Avatar. It was a fight for fundamental things somehow. Featured Documentaries. To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: , for easy access to all your favourite programmes. This gave rise to a local resistance movement that eventually forced the closure of the mine in 1989. The NZ Army has had a very strong Māori culture since WW1, and so they included haka and waiata. Ten years of armed conflict ensued, and an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 Bougainvilleans died. The Bougainville civil war ran from 1990 - 1998 and was one of the most brutal conflicts our Pacific neck of the woods has ever seen, with an estimated 15,000 people (Bougainville's entire population is around 160,000) killed and many suffering human rights abuses at the hands of the Papua New Guinean army. That's one-sixth of the entire population. Renowned for his role as a commander in the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA), Tororama was at the forefront of much of the BRA’s decade-long civil war against the PNG government. Bougainville should become fully independent from Papua New Guinea in October this year. MAKING Mr Pip, a film set on the island of Bougainville during the 1990s civil war, represented something of a homecoming for Andrew Adamson. Assisted by moderate leaders on all sides, Bougainville’s burgeoning civil society was able to slowly develop a framework for peace. Few events have rocked the Southwest Pacific like the brutal civil war on Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The Bougainville conflict started over an enormous Australian-owned Papua New Guinean-run copper mine. The Coconut Revolution is a 2001 multi-award winning documentary film about the struggle of the indigenous peoples of Bougainville Island during the Bougainville Civil War. The movie is based on a novel by New Zealand author Lloyd Jones. The Panguna Mine - then the largest copper mine in the world - was closed, and remains closed today. 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