REMEMBERING GIZO

From happiness to sadness. Sincere heartfelt condolences to the families on the loss of their love ones. Pictures SISI fb page.

THE GIZO TRAGEDY

By BIG PAT in Port Moresby 

The Shortland Islands lie just on the border with Bougainville. 

They form the Western-most part of Solomon Islands.

These islands are referred to politically as Western Province.

If my geography and political awareness is correct, it was the Western province people who surrendered their marine rich fishing ground - Pocklington Reef - as an Independence gift to Papua New Guinea in 1975.

Gizo is a much smaller island to the south west of Shortlands. It is in the New Georgia group laying just next to Vella Lavella which are all part of the Western Isles.

The distance from Gizo to Shortlands is a bit like from tip of New Ireland to Buka over open ocean.

SI shares a sea border with Bougainville and Milne Bay provinces in PNG. 

The last moments of mother Joy (green singlet) and her daughter Ruta. Joy's body has been recovered. 

This week, our Melanesian relatives over in Gizo and Shortlands have been in deep mourning over the loss of 14 people, mostly women and their children.

The 14 were on a 23 foot banana boat powered by a 75 horse powered engine heading from Gizo to Shortlands on New Year's day when disaster struck.

Inter island travel is common among Pacific islanders on motor canoes or fibre glass banana boats.

It's in our DNA. Our fore fathers were great sailors who conquered the vast Pacific on huge sailing canoes.

Sori tru ol wantok.

On New Year's day, everything seemed normal. The day dawned with fine weather. 

The Gizo women and their children, captured in their last moments on camera, are happy and vibrant in their preparations.

Smiling and happy. You can see the excitement in their faces. The women are all relatively young with six young kids.

There is only one elderly man on the boat and the operator.

We don't know how old the boat is or it's ability to withstand the power of nature. How long has the engine been in use? Was there any mechanical fault with the use of the engine. The experience of the operator also has to come into play.

This is open ocean journey. Two boats including this one start the journey.

Last photos. The boat that never arrived.

Only one arrives. The children off Gizo don't and that is the tragedy that has enveloped Solomon Islands and PNG, Fiji  and Vanuatu.

It has to be a national tragedy. We are all connected by this vast Pacific Ocean. How can this tragic loss not touch 💔 😢 us?

Every year in Papua New Guinea 🇵🇬, small boats like the one that is missing, take chances in our waters.

We have taken chances in Manus, New Ireland, New Britain, even Bougainville waters and also suffered and mourned our losses. The sea is our graveyard. The ocean is a ruler of the islands.

Our fate is written in the sand and gently washed away by the Pacific Ocean. 

This week, the body of Joy was discovered. Parts of the boat and its cargo are washing up on distant shores.

We are waking up to the sad reality and the tragedy of the situation.

It is now coming to light that both boats were struck by extremely bad weather.

Think of the mothers on the ill-fated boat. Their first reaction would have been to go for their precious ones. Their children.

The sad reality in SI as it is in PNG is that maritime laws are passed to protect and safeguard our people who use small craft for inter island travel.

However enforcement of these laws are poor.

Some years ago the small craft act was passed in the PNG Parliament making it compulsory for small craft to be registered, life jackets to be mandatory, and emergency position beacon (gps) be installed on all small craft.

This has never been enforced and we continue to lose boats and lives.

I hope our leaders at the next MSG meeting make it a priority to discuss this issue of small craft and inter island ferries to safe guard our people.

If you stand on the beach on the southern tip of Bougainville, you can see Shortlands simmering in the distance. 

Bougainville and Shortlands have a close relationship and traditional border crossing is recognised and allowed. 

Families can only hope and pray against all hope for their loved ones.

We in PNG join our SI brothers and sisters in mourning the loss of the Gizo 14.

Shortlands just off the south Bougainville coast where the ill-fated boat was heading.