Bougainville carver seeks closer links with New Zealand

Bougainville wood carver Joe Dutuona spent April in New Zealand, learning a little about the country and introducing local artists to Bougainvillean culture.

He was brought to New Zealand as a guest of Volunteer Service Abroad, with the featured event being a symposium on indigenous art in Thames.

Dutona spoke with RNZ Pacific about art, the Bougainville efforts to make money, and the ongoing quest for independence.

He began by talking about staying with friends in Rotorua whom he had hosted in Bougainville.

(The transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.)

Joe Dutuona: And I went and stayed with some of the people there. They used to stay in Bougainville. I always looked after them, and then they wanted me to go and stay with them.

Then I was going around visiting the sites for the Māori history things before the exhibition. I just visiting the sites. I went and visited some of the artists in different places. It was really interesting to get some ideas, because it is all about our culture.

Don Wiseman: What sort of artists?

JD: I think they carve, like wood and then stone. Back home, we carve only a wood.

DW: So at the carving symposium itself, how was that?

JD: Before I left Bougainville, I got just a few chisels with me. I think five of them. I could not bring everything because I do not have money to buy access [weight], so I have five to make it lighter.

I just worked with these five chisels at the symposium. They helped me with grinders. They asked me, 'just when you need something because you do not have anything. So you can borrow things from us'. So, I just borrowed a grinder.

DW: What's it like working in New Zealand wood?

JD: Oh, the wood. They call it totara. It is really heavy, and it is tough, strong, and it is really hard to lift it up by yourself. So you need somebody to carry the wood.

DW: And you visited other artists. What have you learned?

JD: I just go and visit. We got the same thing, like they got this marae, then back home, we got the same buildin, but we call it karakeni. It is sort of the same building.

They made the carving. They carved the poles and everything. I got the idea from here now. So if I go back home, I can tell the local people or the clan because we always go with a clan. Our culture is based on our clans.

And then we have to do these things again because it starts to die out. We must start and build this thing again.

DW: You're from a part of bougaville that's been at the centre of the upheavals of the last 40 or so years. How's it been for you?

JD: Because we are going through this crisis from the mining so we got a hard time there.

We just try to build something again and just coming up very slowly, not really fast, but we are coming.

I think we are going to come up sometime.

DW: Well, I know there's still opposition to a reopening of the Panguna mine, but the government itself is very determined to reopen it, and sees it as the solution to the economic issues facing Bougainville. How do you feel about that?

JD: It is true about economy. But we got something - like it is not only mining. We [have] got everything on our land that we can make money with it.

Why talk [only] about mining every day? We got agriculture there. We got everything. We can run tourism [industry].

It is not all about mining, because [by] mining we are going to destroy our land; we have cultural people, and then we are living with our environment. Money is not mining. Money is everything. We can just rebuild the plantation.

Back, before the crisis, plantations were working really good. But now, nobody is looking at it and they are talking about mining. We have to plant these things back to try and build our economy.

DW: The classic example, of course, right at the moment is cocoa and how the price of cocoa shot through the roof last year. And we heard stories of people having so much money they almost couldn't believe it.

JD: Yeah, cocoa farmers, I think now they are making lot of money now because of cocoa. You can see lot of people buying Land Cruisers and all this.

DW: What about the political situation? Bougainville is planning independence, and it wants its independence in a little over two years time. How important is that to you?

JD: It is all right. Independence, it is all about money, how we can make money, and that is why they were talking about mining.

And then I said, it is not all about mining. It is agriculture and tourism. They are really important things. It is on the ground. Save our environment. I think politically, independence, it is alright. But we have to find a way to make money, like we got so many things, such as like war relics and then beautiful beaches, and we need sites to advertise it, and then people see and come, like [for] tours.

DW: In your time in New Zealand. Will that change how you look at art now, when you go back?

JD: Back home now young kids they just staying doing nothing back home. I have to go and maybe I start down South and then come to Central, and then then down to North Bougainville, because young people now, they do not know what to do.

The young generation, they grew up in a crisis, because they do not know what law and order looks like or feels like.

They do not know what to do, drinking and smoking drugs, or we call it, jay jay [jungle juice] drinking, and then somebody should go and teach them what to do, make them busy, instead of just staying there and then drinking jay jay.

DW: How do you make them busy?

JD: Just give them something to do, tell them what to do, and then you stay with them, make sure they earn money, and then they will see that. This is the thing where I can [help] when I get married or something, I can look after my family.

DW: When you were in Thames you were exposed to all these other artists, and they were all indigenous artists. So to what extent did you intermingle with them? Did you relate to them?

JD: When I arrived there, I think they already knew me, who I am, and then they saw me because I am black.

I [was] surprised to see the ladies who also welcome me, the artists, because we never really see the ladies carve something. And then during the session, while we are doing this carving thing, the ladies were carving the stone, where some of us were carving the wood.

We were talking about our culture, my culture, and their culture, because we are multicultural people. We were sharing these ideas, how they carve, and then what I do. And I said, because I am from a clan, from the Hornbill [Kokomo] Clan. And I tell them I always carve Hornbill. I also carve Eagle. Eagle is another clan. And then cockatoo. We carved the birds. They carved the stone And they told me that this one is this, and this one is that, and then how we go to the heaven, or when we die, or all these sort of things.

And then they will l go, I wake up the animals, because of our clan, I carved the totem pole, I think one totem pole in Buka Courthouse, and it is still there. It is about the clan, it is all of the birds. And then while we were there, I carve one eagle, and then three turtles, and one [indistinct] and then, and then a stingray. And then I was bending them. And then they come and saw me while I'm doing this, and they talk, 'oh, it's another idea. Again, you're showing us the you know, we never do this thing.'

People are using the blow torch to bend the wood, and then they said, 'oh, you're teaching us the new thing.' It is okay. It is good because you already told me something too. So you give me idea. I'll give you ideas. So that is all about it.

DW: Can you envisage that it would be beneficial to have more of this sort of contact?

JD: I think that I want our government, like New Zealand government or Bougainville government, make us artists, all artists, we can share. If we have an exhibition in Bougainville, we can get some [artists] from New Zealand to go down and we can carve there, because we never carve the stones, they can carve the stones. We [have] got so many stones there. We got so many scrap metals from the mining, because some of [New Zealand artists are] doing scrap sculptures.