Mining narratives and multiple geographies in Papua New Guinea: Ok Tedi, the emerald cave and lost tribes

Abstract

Mining in Papua New Guinea has been accompanied by an efflorescence of origin tales that often serve as justifications for local claims to land rights or benefits arising from specific projects. While many of these narratives or myths have a clear instrumental function, there are many other elements of these tales that cannot be accounted for in these terms. In this article the author describes a recent origin story that emerged around the Ok Tedi mine, and places it in the context of traditional mythology, a changing system of regional relations, and circulating evangelical discourses. He argues that the story is best interpreted as an attempt to articulate a local position in relation to multiple geographies in which mining and Christianity are linked across scales ranging from the regional to the global.