EEP Crowned pigeon number 4

EEP STUDBOOK CROWNED PIGEONS
The Kurija currently live in two villages, Totai and Mirimas, along Biaru River just south of
Kakoro. They make their gardens in the floodplain of the river and along several of its smaller
tributaries. The Kurija are concerned about large-scale development or resource extraction
projects. They are opposed to large mining projects because of the chemicals ("marasin" in
tok pisin) that are released into local waterways, which can poison the fish and other riverine
life, which makes it also impossible to drink the water from the rivers. Furthermore they are
concerned that the noise from generators and engines would scare off the wildlife and ruïn
their hunting. They also fear that the people brought from the outside to work on these
projects might cause trouble and disrupt their way of live ("bagarapim ples" in tok pisin).
They opposed having large corporations operate in the basin, although they were supportive
of smaller-scale development projects that would not harm the natural environment ("spilim
ples" in tok pisin).
The Kamea living on the edge of the Lakekamu River have close ties to the communities in
the Kaintiba and Kamena regions of the Gulf Province. Tekadu and Nukeva are the Kamea
villages located closest to the basin. Their exchange relations were oriented towards other
Kamea communities living at higher altitudes, to which they traded lowland products. As a
consequence, the Kamea had no pre-contact social relations with their neighbours in the
Lakekamu Basin.
The Kamea village of Iruki was established by the residents of Nukeva and Tekadu after
Kakoro was founded in 1972. After primary schools were built in the mountain villages, most
of the Kamea living at Iruki returned home. To maintain their settlement at Iruki, and to
protect their rights to nearby land and resources, the Kamea invited people from outside of the
basin to settle in Iruki in their place. Most of the inhabitants of Iruki came from Kamena and
Kaintiba in the mountains. Few of the people living in the village have local land rights,
because they are "place-holders" for the residents of Nukeva and Tekadu. Although they have
permission to exploit the resources of the basin themselves, they do not have the right to
decide its fate with respect to development or conservation projects.
The Kovio live in three villages (most of them in Okovai) at the western edge of the
Lakekamu Basin, and in urban areas of Gulf and Central Province, including Kereman and
Port Moresby. The Kovio claim that they have strong cultural communities with the
neighboring Mekeo, including the ritual body and face-painting style that has made the
Mekeo famous throughout Papua New Guinea. They number less than 500.
The Kovio live in the flat, swampy lowlands along the southern tributaries of the Kunimaipa
River until they moved north to the junction of the Kunimaipa and Biaru Rivers, probably in
the 1950s. When this settlement was flooded, the Biaru moved further west to the land
adjoining the Kunimaipa and Tiveri Rivers, the current location of Okovai village. Urulau
village is west of Okovai, near the border between Central and Gulf Provinces, and Ungima is
a new settlement closer to the Mekeo. Unlike their neighbours, they have no village in the
immediate vicinity of Kakoro, although several Kovio are civil servants employed at the
government.
The Kovio claim ownership of most of the land in the Lakekamu Basin. Given the friction
between the Kovio and the Kamea in pre-colonial times, it is not surprising that the boundary
between them remains in dispute. The Kovio were strategically located along a major
waterway between the coast and the mountains and they acted as intermediaries through
whom the products of the sea and the mountains passed both ways.
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