EEP Crowned pigeon number 4

EEP STUDBOOK CROWNED PIGEONS
The area between the most southern hills of the basin and the Kunimaipa River used to be
occupied by the Kovio. Given their low population density and their emphasis on hunting,
fishing and sago, they probably had very limited impact on the natural environment. Although
they migrated from this area in the 1950s, they still return to hunt, often with shotguns, and
usually for large game, including cassowaries, wild pigs and crocodiles. The southern half of
the basin is still dominated by primary forests, although this report may have overlooked the
occupation by groups no longer resident in the basin, such as the Moveave (Filer and Iamo,
1989). The establishment of Kakoro in 1972 left the entire southern half of the basin
completely uninhabited.
Contemporary economic conditions
Most of the residents of the Lakekamu Basin currently live in villages close to the
government center at Kakoro, in the northern half of the basin. Several other villages are
located along the major river courses and in the mountains of the northwest. The name
Kakoro means "dried up" or "hungry" in Motu, the trade language used throughout Papua
New Guinea. Founded not only as in 1972, Kakoro has a school, a health centre, and an office
for a provincial, administrator, a guesthouse, a small market and a grass airstrip. The southern
half of the Lakekamu Basin remains largely uninhabited, although it is regularly visited for
hunting, fishing and for cutting timber and gathering other forest products. Furthermore is
Tekadu where also is an airstrip, a community school, an (almost always-closed) aidshop and
a shop. Of course the presence of a shop is closely related to the airstrip, because of the
deliveries. The largest school can be found in Okovai, where there also is a well-equipped
aidpost (because of the close distance to Port Moresby, the capital).
Housing
Most of the houses in the Lakekamu Basin are made of bush materials such as timber, sago
and bamboo leaves, ropes, palms etc. Only a few people can afford to use modern
materials to build their houses, such as iron roofing, nails and plywood etc. Because of the
bushmaterials used, the houses are not very durable and every five or six years, there has to be
build a new house. As soon as a boy is capable to build his own house, he will marry and
build a house for himself and his wife. But sometimes, the married couple will reside in their
parents's houses. A generation ago, a married couple used to sleep separated: the man in the
"manhouse", and the woman in the women-house. The missionaries told the people that a
husband and his wife should used to live in the same house. Many times a group of families
build a house together to live there, or whole families, including blood relatives and other
married relatives such as in-laws reside in the house. Sometimes a family has more houses,
especially if the gardens or the gold-mining camp are far away.
Food
The Biaru, Kurija and the Kamea plant large, swidden gardens, usually along the river banks,
in which they grow bananas (Pidgin: banana; scientific: Musa sp.), sweet potato (Pidgin:
kaukau; scientific: Ipomea batatas), two species of taro (the first species: Pidgin: taro tru or
tara kanaka; scientific: Colocasia esculenta var. antiquorum.
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