With
the expansion and development of Lae, traditional Ahi villages are being forced
to accept new changes and influences. MALUM NALU reports
SINCE
the inaugural Ahi Festival in Lae in December 2010, there have been so many
changes in Lae, Morobe province.
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| Miss Yanga Aito Aiten leading her villagers during the opening on Thursday, December 13.-Pictures by MALUM NALU |
The
2012 festival – backed by major sponsor Riback Stevedores, National Gaming
Control Board, Bank South Pacific, Morobe provincial government, Lae Builders
and Contractors, Papindo, Intouch Media, and PNGFM was held at the Sir Ignatius Kilage Stadium
from December 13-16.
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| Yalu villagers |
Lae
is slowly, but steadily, getting back its ‘garden city of Papua New Guinea’ tag,
its infamous potholes are disappearing, and business is booming.
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| Hengali villagers |
Crime
and social problems, however, infest this garden of good and evil.
The
six Ahi villages –Yalu, Kamkumung, Hengali, Butibam, Yanga, and Wagang - are
all located within and around the industrial city of Lae.
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| Butibam villagers |
Along
with the expansion and development of Lae, these traditional villages are also
being forced to accept new changes and influences brought about by the changing
socio-economic conditions.
The
changing socio-economic conditions have placed a high demand for land on the
Ahi communities.
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| Yanga villagers |
This
has seen most of the traditional land being taken away.
Land
was taken earlier by missionaries, then the colonial government and recently
the state and industry.
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| Wagang villagers. |
The
attractions of urban life along with government’s
and industry’s demand for labour has also attracted Papua New Guineans to
migrate to Lae in search for work and better living conditions.
This
unfortunately has created a need for more land.
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| Ahi Festival motorcade around Lae |
Consequently,
customary land which used to be hunting and gardening land has all been
replaced with buildings, factories and urban settlements.
Without
gardening or hunting land, most inhabitants of the Ahi community are now forced
to adopt and embrace the cash economy.
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| Ahi Festival motorcade around Lae |
Education
of the children of Ahi is therefore important, the main reason for the Ahi
Festival.
Without
land and other natural resources, the human resources must be trained and
developed if the Ahi community is to survive and live in peaceful co-existence
with every other Papua New Guinean and the wider Lae community.
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| Crowd at the Sir Ignatius Kilage Stadium |
The
economic changes around Lae also bring with them many tangible and intangible
social problems which affect the Ahi communities.
Tangible
social problems include unemployment, law and order issues, drug abuse, alcohol
problems, and school drop-out rate is high.
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| School children singing the national anthem at the opening |
Intangible
social problems include breakdown in moral standards, and lack of ethics in
community leadership – a recipe for corruption which affects the management of
church groups, clans and businesses owned by the people, community disharmony,
and breakdown in the family unit.
Ahi
son and Morobe Governor, Kelly Naru, hit the nail on the head when delivering
the keynote address at the festival last Thursday when he urged Ahi villagers
to stop selling their land to outsiders, as well as get into business.
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| Morobe Governor Kelly Naru speaking at the opening |
He
also paid K10, 000 cash to festival organisers as his personal contribution as
a Yalu villager.
Naru
said the six Ahi villages would have to draw up a standard customary land
policy.
“A
lot of Ahi traditional land has been lost to people from other provinces and
government,” he said.
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| Riback operations manager George Gware and festival organiser George Gware speaking during the opening |
“This
has to stop.
“My
government has policies to deal with this but it needs support from the six
villages.
“We
have to come up with a standard customary land policy.
“I
want the Ahi land mobilisation committee to sit down with me and discuss this.”
Naru
urged the Ahi people to stop being passive observers in the city and to get
into business.
“We
are poor people,” he said.
“How
many Ahi people own PMVs, taxis and stores in Lae?
“We
are spectators to people from other provinces.
“Are
we going to sit back and let this go on forever?
“Enough
is enough.”
Highlights
of this year’s Ahi Festival included the Miss Ahi pageant, Carols by
Candlelight, and of course the four-day sporting extravaganza which brought
together the best sporting talent from the six villages.
Hengali
village beauty Noelyn Kahata was last Friday night crowned Miss Ahi 2012 at the
Sir Ignatius Kilage Stadium Indoor Complex.
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| Miss Ahi 2012 Noelyn Kahata with Miss Ahi 2012 Christine Amos |
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| Riback operations manager George Gware congratulates Miss Yanga and first runner-up Aito Aiten |
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| Miss Ahi 2012 Noelyn Kahata with Miss Ahi 2012 Christine Amos |
Kahata,
21, beat contestants from the five Ahi Ahi vilages - Ms Yalu Dodo Miul, Ms
Kamkumung Jasmime Hasu, Ms Butibam Pamela Delabu, Ms Yanga Aito Aiten, and Ms
Wagang Anna Sekep - to be crowned in front of a full house crowd of
predominantly Ahi villagers.
Kahata
was crowned by Ms Ahi 2010, Christine Amos, from Yanga village.
She
received K3, 000 from major sponsor Riback Stevedores, K25, 000 infrastructure
projects for her village, a tertiary scholarship, celebration costs for her
village, and a laptop.
The
four judges for the event included Lae-based beauty, Lorraine Rifu, who was
earlier this year crowned Miss PNG 2012.
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| Ms PNG 2012 Lorraine Rifu and me |
Kahata
is an open and distance learning student at the University of Techology in Lae
while working for Oxford Medical Supplies.
"I'm
so proud of the work that Ahi Festival major sponsor, Riback Stevedores, and
other sponsors, are doing to help our young people in the six Ahi villages in
Lae," Kahata said.
"I
hope to proudly carry out the work of Ms Ahi from 2012-2014."
There
was no prouder person that night than her father, Ben John Kahata, who was with
wife Taiyo to celebrate their daughter's win.
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| Miss Ahi 2012 Noelyn Kahata with her proud parents Ben John and Taiyo |
"I'm
very proud of my daughter," he said.
"I'm
happy that she has made it."
Other
prizes were for Ms Traditional (Ms Yalu), Judges' Choice (Ms Kamkumung), Second
Runner-Up (Ms Butibam), First Runner-Up (Ms Yanga), and Ms Traditional (Ms
Yanga).
They
all received various prizes, biggest of which was tertiary scholarship.
George
Gware, the hard-working operations manager of Riback and the man behind the
festival, said the event had proven to be a success and the company and the Ahi
Foundation would be working towards making it even bigger and better in 2014.
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| George Gware, Riback operations manager and the man behind the festival |
Moreover,
Miss Ahi could be taking part in Miss PNG, and an Ahi team could be taking part
in the 2014 PNG Games in Lae – given the abundance in talent.
“Judging
by the number of people coming for the four-day event, it’s a sign that the
concept of the Ahi Festival is becoming very popular,” Gware said.
“Generally,
it’s been very successful.
“We
can use this as a launching pad for other events, for instance, the PNG Games
in 2014.
“I’m
very proud because a lot times, people talk only about the bad things in Lae.
“We
hope that if the community can enforce concepts like the Ahi Festival, there
will be other good things in Lae.
“We’re
very happy with the Ahi community for their support.”
