The languages of the indigenous communities have a
direct link to the cultural explanations and understanding of the natural and
social world. In the Waria River area of Morobe Province in Papua New Guinea
the older generation of villagers complained that the younger generation was
unwilling to learn the names and knowledge of medicinal plants used in the
area. The younger generation complained that fewer older generations were left,
but were unwilling to teach the younger generation of the knowledge of
medicinal plants.
This dilemma emerged as a result of voluntary shift
of younger generation to urban centres or away from home as students in
educational institutions or as employed workers in urban centres. The older
generation left in the village pass away without imparting their knowledge to
the younger generation.
The link between language and culture is an
intricate network of knowledge woven together. It is hardly surprising to learn
that the world of the traditional healers and medicine men and women is linked
neatly to their languages. The naming of plants has an important part in the
delivery of the powers of plants used in traditional medicine.
Ethnobotanist Wade Davies (1992) describes language
as the “filter through which the soul of a people reaches into the material
world”, especially in his consideration of the Penan of Sarawak rainforest: “In
Penan there are forty words for sago, and no words for goodbye or thank you…
For the Penan, land is a living entity, imbued with spiritual meaning and
power, and the notion of ownership of land, of fragile documents granting a
human the right to violate the earth, is an impossible idea.”
Biolinguistic diversity is linked to the
biodiversity and the indigenous knowledge systems of Papua New Guinea. The link
between indigenous knowledge and scientific knowledge systems is so important. Development
discourses and planning must consider the dynamic biolinguistic diversity in
Papua New Guinea.
The old people in the villages are unable to carry
out their responsibilities to educate the younger members of their communities
about their cultural knowledge systems. Linguists Daniel Nettle and Suzane
Romain (2000) make the point that “development practices have tended to
suppress indigenous ways of life and the languages that they sustained, by
displacing people, liquidating their resources, and changing their patterns of
production and exchange, rather than sustainably improving their standard of
living.”
Traditional knowledge is sacrificed for the sake of
modern change. Traditional medicinal plants and cultures are inseparable from
each other in many cultures. This inseparable relationship is a dynamic part of
the economic, political and cultural way of life.
In 1982 J. M. Powell writing on traditional
management and conservation in Papua New Guinea observed that conservation and
management practices include tending and maintenance of plant populations,
growing of plants, and fallowing in garden areas.
Researchers have long warned that we need to
understand how we use and manage our biological resources. Access to land is
limited to certain individuals and small groups of people: “Only they are
permitted to harvest particular plants or products—for example, those needed
for ritual or magical purposes, medicinal plants, tree old for trading,
building materials for religious structures etc” (Powell 1982).
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| Medicinal Plant on Budibudi Is, Woodlark. |
In traditional societies harvesting of plants is
restricted in some areas: “Although some species may flower and fruit over a
relatively long period of time, harvesting is carried out at a certain time
only…In some areas certain plants may only be used at a particular stage of
their life-cycles. Villagers’ knowledge of plant life-cycles is important here.
For example, only sago plants about to flower are cut for food; the starch is
at its greatest concentration at this stage and hence more economic to extract.
Selection of trees for canoe-building is based on size, girth, length and
straightness of bole, and only mature trees will be cut. Sometimes only plants
growing in particular habitats can be used. With some fibre plants (Debregeasia),
only those growing in most shady conditions are suitable for fibre extraction,
and only mature plants will be used” (Powell 1982).
Ethnobotanist Randolph Thaman, of the University of
the South Pacific, observes that “the use of plants, particularly wild plants,
is so clouded in antiquity and so intimately associated with cultural origins,
ethnobotanical research can shed considerable light on the origin and virtue of
pre-European contact among Pacific Island societies and their scientific
heritages.”
Extensive research on the use of, impact on, and
plants that sophisticated horticultural and maritime societies must have
brought with them or used upon their arrival in the islands, is required. The
need to investigate traditional medicine for its economic potential, medicinal
value, and functional relationship to human society and the natural world is
called for: “Because of the ecological and cultural importance of coastal
plants their impoverishment and the loss of ethnobotanical knowledge constitute
an ecological, economical, and cultural disaster,” says Thaman (1994).
Thaman suggested that practical immediate activities
such as coastal reforestation and protection of coastal vegetation, coupled
with rejuvenation of traditional ethnobotanical knowledge, could be among the
most direct, cost effective, self-help orientated, and culturally sensitive
strategies for addressing both the short and long term obstacles to sustainable
development.
The tragedy in Papua New Guinea is that many
communities want developmental projects such a rubber plantations, logging
operations, mining, oil, and gass extraction, but have not sat down and
considered the harm to their cultures and biolinguistic diversity these
developmental activities will bring about. Even the government and
international companies ignore the unreversable damages these projects will
bring about in future.
Current developmental perspectives in PNG need to
take into account the effect various kinds of development have on our people
and communities.
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