NEM BLO MI MARTHA

Late Martha Mosipai and her daughters. In her old age, she was still very strong, fearless and remained steely eyed. Picture courtesy of GEORGE DIVA

MARTHA'S BRAVERY

BY PETERSON TSERAHA in ARAWA

There are many stories that make a legend interesting. 

This one is a true story. It did happen in Torokina some sixty years ago.

It is the legend of an iron willed woman, someone who was not willing to back down, a black woman, who stood up against white resource colonialists.

She singlehandedly forced giant exploration company CRA to leave her land at Karato in Torokina. 

CRA stands for Conzinc Riotinto Australia, the giant mining company that had a major presence at Panguna until the Bougainville crisis sent it packing.

And her name was Martha Mosipai.

Call it courage or cowardly, but Martha did something no-one has done in a lifetime on Bougainville. 

She was so blatantly courageous enough that she did something outrageous which many people might consider bold and foolish at the same time.

People still ponder what Martha did and why she boldly did so sixty odd years ago. They still hold her in high regard. They still wonder in awe at the name Martha.

Martha's star dimmed last December. On Christmas day 2021, Martha was gone.

But her persona, courage, fearlessness,  her rebuke of intruders, her no-nonsense approach to life, property rights, land rights, and civil rights will live on.

Her daughter lives as a testimony to the daring absurdity of Martha's legend.

"My mother picked me up and waved me at the CRA people and shouted at them that they would have to kill me and mum before they put any drill into her land," Martha's daughter recalled.

Thankfully for her, commonsense prevailed on that sunny day back in 1950s and she was spared the shovel.

Last November, she held her mother's hand as old Martha recalled her running battles with CRA.

A month later, brave old Martha, who was 85, passed on. All of Torokina celebrated her life and death.

Martha Mosipai was from the Karato area in the Torokina constituency and she will always be a legend.

She was an outspoken woman and stood out unique amongst the whole crowd because she was the only one who could speak fluent pidgin and a little English.

Martha was one of the very few girls who attended Tearouki Catholic Mission school back then.

Representing mothers at that time she was married and was with the third child when CRA arrived at Karato.

Martha took a rather bold stand. Wisely or foolishly, which ever way you look at it, she offered her baby to the explorers telling them to kill the baby before any drill could be put into her land. 

Her boldness and refusal to back down forced CRA to withdraw. It was a victory for women and land rights.

Last November 2021, a local resource owners company West Asiko from Karato visited Martha Mosipai in her hamlet and presented her K3000 cash with food stuff. 

West Asiko is a sister company to Karatapo Resource Owners Limited.

West Asiko Resources chairman George Diva said appreciating people like Martha is something a lot of Bougainvilleans lack.  

“We must all bear in mind that without people like Chief Michael Aite and Martha Mosipai we won’t be having resource companies like this and we won’t be driving around in cars because of alluvial mining,” Mr Diva said.

“None of these so called alluvial mining people have ever thanked and even visited the late Martha Mosipai but we have done it on behalf of the people of Karato,” he said.

Discovery of copper deposits in the 1960s led to the development by Conzinc Riotinto Australia (CRA) of the Panguna open cut mine – at that time the largest in the world. 

A CRA subsidiary, Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL) began building the infrastructure and facilities for the mine, which included a port, the town of Arawa, and a network of roads.

The company registered various traditional landowners of the Nasioi language group, but excluded women despite their position as traditional custodians of the land under the matrilineal system. 

The Australian government hoped that mineral wealth would fund future development in Papua New Guinea, and negotiations led to the Bougainville Copper Agreement in 1967.

Twenty years later in 1987,  an anti mining group led by former BCL miner Francis Ona blew up power pylons to the Panguna mine, sparking a rebellion that grew into a full scale civilian led revolt.

Panguna was shut down. Peace negotiations in 1997 restored normalcy and led to autonomy and a referendum for Bougainville to become an independent nation. 

Now Panguna landowners have agreed to reopen the giant mine. Martha is gone. And CRA is returning.