User Reviews

---- Some spoilers but this is a documentary with a story.... -----

Excellent documentary about a "forgotten war". One wanders how the makers heard about what happened on a tiny island near Papua New Guinea. Even more: it's amazing a documentary was made about it all!

This documentary tells the story of a Pacific island's population that rose up in arms against a giant mining corporation named "Rio Tinto Zinc (RTZ)". Grace to their creativity and string bound they won their autonomy and this despite a military occupation and a blockade of their island.

When the mining company RTZ decided to step up production at the Panguna Mine on the island of Bougainville, they got more than they bargained for. The island's people had enough of seeing their environment ruined and being treated as pawns by RTZ.

Not a moment the RTZ Company thought about providing the islanders any compensation of the destruction and pollution made. This although huge profits were made by their mining activity. The people decided it was time to put an end to outside interference in the island's affairs. To do this they concluded the mine had to be closed down.

The Papua New Guinea Army (PNGDF) were mobilized in an attempt to put down the rebellion. The islanders fought back with bows & arrows, and sticks & stones. Against a heavily armed adversary they still managed to retain control of most of their island. Realizing they were beaten on the ground, the government of Papua New Guinea imposed a blockade. The islanders became very creative in running their own island and realizing their own destiny. They managed to produce 'green' electricity and even developed their own fuel in order to keep some cars running. Their military fight for freedom deepened as it became as well an environmental and spiritual revolution. The ruins of the old Panguna mine where being recycled to supply the raw materials for the world's first eco-revolution.

A David and Goliath story of the 21st century. An amazing success story. So many cultures and people have been wiped out by colonialism and for cooperate profit. Not those of Bougainville island.

Many viewers might find inspiration in how those people work together to build a society that is conscious about ecological matters and socially more just.

Bougainville – 'Our Island, Our Fight'

Max Bourke

In the early 1990s attempts were made to raise public awareness about Australian complicity in the tragic events occurring only a few hundred miles off-shore in Bougainville. In an age driven by images there were none to portray the effect that continued attacks and a blockade were having on Bougainvillian. They were rendered invisible by a lack of information. It could be said that the denial of media access has been as detrimental to the people of Bougainville as the blockading of food and medical supplies, which is why Wayne Coles- Janess' film is an important and courageous production. It is also highly acclaimed, boasting awards from several festivals, including the Houston and Flagstaff International Film Festivals.

Smuggled by banana boat across the PNG patrolled border, Coles-Janess visited Bougainville several times in the mid 1990s to make the only documentary filmed during the conflict. His task was made none the easier by the lack of broadcaster support that his early proposals met. In the end he covered the production costs himself, financing the project by shooting current affairs stories for the ABC's Foreign Correspondent whenever he visited the island. His persistence paid off: as the video slick proclaims, this film is 'the only record of life for refugees in the jungle and dramatic front line footage of Bougainville's fight for independence'.

Coles-Janess drops us in at the deep end from the start: 'I didn't recognize the body that was lying there. It was all squashed up like a pig that's been cut'. These words come from a survivor of Papua New Guinea's ten year civil war on Bougainville, backed by explicit still images of the carnage. Throughout the programme the violence of this war—a visit to an over-attended makeshift clinic treating victims of military attacks among the more arresting scenes—is presented with the same understated frankness as the interviews; not sensationalized, but shocking images of a shocking reality.

Released from Australian administration in 1975, Bougainville came under Papuan control despite a vigorous independence movement. Archival footage at the start of the film exposes the colonial attitudes of an Australia oblivious to the warning signs of trouble to come. Mineral exploitation profits from the Panguna copper mine, established and run by Australian multinational CRA (now merged with RTZ and known as Rio Tinto) have earned PNG billions of dollars, while delivering little compensation to the locals whose land has been taken or devastated by pollution. The BRA (Bougainville Revolutionary Army) was formed, fighting a guerrilla operation to shut down mining operation and later, under PNG counter-attack, broadening their scope into an independence war. Unable to regain control, the PNG military enforced a ten year economic and communications blockade of the island. According to the film the result has been 14,000 deaths—from a population of only 160,000.

Coles-Janess speaks with a wide range of Bougainvillians, from villagers displaced by fighting to Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) soldiers and the President Francis Ona of the Bougainville Interim Government (BIG). These interviews, many of them relating the horrors they had personally witnessed at the hands of the PNG army, are the meat of the film. The directness with which the characters discuss the morbid and personal realities of war manage to cut through news-hardened defences to land emotive blows.

A sparse narration ties together these interviews and several observational sequences, with additional exposition in the form of text plates. Even so, the story sometimes wanders and risks losing the thread of the narrative. Fortunately the subject matter is compelling enough to carry the film; in fact you would be hard pressed to look away.

The observational sequences bring home the reality of life on Bougainville. The filming of an abandoned coastal village is cut short by the arrival of a PNG military helicopter. A shot of the aircraft passing overhead cuts prematurely and is followed by an erratic point-of-view scramble through thick grass and undergrowth. In the background the noise of the chopper turbine is interspersed with machine-gun fire. The camera weaves through bracken, then drops to the deck briefly before continuing on.

One of Coles-Janess' two companions—both unarmed—was wounded in the attack. Their flight continues with this man piggy-backed by the other, Coles-Janess and camera bringing up the rear. When they stop Coles-Janess has the foresight to place his camera strategically, capturing the scene as he and his companion dress the wounded man's arm before moving on. Another observational scene shows a Chiefs Meeting in South Bougainville and here a tension hinted at in some of the interviews becomes explicit. 'Yes, we'd all like independence,' says one impassioned speaker. 'But by the time we get it we could be dead.'

But Francis Ona is insistent on independence as the only lasting solution for Bougainville and he has a message for the Australian audience. Australia, he says, is supplying PNG with helicopters, ships, weapons, ammunition and training. Shots of empty munitions cases stamped with Australian government identification back his claim. 'Australia is fighting this war,' he says. 'Without Australia we can beat Papua New Guinea.'

Bougainville – 'Our Island, Our Fight' is an eye-opening tour of a conflict that has otherwise been almost invisible to the outside world. And for Australians it is a poignant reminder of the politically bound nature of foreign aid. Seeing the brutal effect of our own war machinery, albeit in the hands of a neighbour, makes the impact of this film very visceral indeed.