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You managed not to get eaten then? Prince Philip to British trekker in Papua New Guinea 1998
Cannibalism: One of mankind’s ultimate taboos. But what would it take to kill and devour another human being? Piers Gibbon, Cannibal Island
Cannibals don’t just come from remote jungles and desert islands, they also come from England. I’m in Gough’s cave near the village of Cheddar. ibid.
Some of the most recent accounts of cannibal activity come from tribal populations on the island of New Guinea. ibid.
A gross form of insult upon the victim. ibid.
It’s chilling to learn that in the vast un-policed jungles of Papua New Guinea men and women are still killed for suspected witchcraft. ibid.
On the island of New Guinea there are forty-two different species of birds of paradise, each more bizarre than the last. David Attenborough, Planet Earth: Pole to Pole e1, BBC 2006
A male blue bird of paradise is advertising for a mate. It’s quite a performance. But he is not the only bird of paradise here keen to make an impression. There are nearly forty different kinds on the island of New Guinea. David Attenborough, Planet Earth e8: Jungles
For the Indonesian elite, enrichment was assured. From 1992 to 2004, Freeport provided $33bn in direct and indirect ‘benefits’, much of it finding its way to the Indonesian military, the real power in the land, which ‘protects’ foreign investments in the manner of a mafia. The reward for the people of West Papua has been a rate of impoverishment double that of the rest of Indonesia, says a World Bank report. At Bintuni Bay, where BP is exploiting natural gas, 56% of the people live in abject poverty. ‘More than 90 per cent of villages in Papua do not have basic health facilities’, the report noted. In 2005, famine swept the district of Yahukimo, where virgin forests and gas deposits deliver unerring profit. The suffering of West Papuans is seldom reported; the Indonesian government bans foreign journalists and human rights organisations such as Amnesty from the hauntingly beautiful territory known by its indigenous people as ‘the forgotten bird of paradise’. John Pilger, article The New Statesman, ‘Free the Forgotten Bird of Paradise’
I came across a piece in the largest and most trusted newspaper in Papua New Guinea about a SWAT team armed with M16s and shotguns hunting down a dinosaur – Iguanodon. Destination Truth s1e1, Skyfy 2007
A local creature with features resembling a mythical mermaid living off the coast of New Ireland ... Several reports of fishermen. ibid.
Josh travels to the remote Papua New Guinea to search for a pterodactyl-type bird. Destination Truth s1e3
The locals call this flying dinosaur the Ropen. ibid.
The glow it emits from its stomach and tail. ibid.
The video forensic experts couldn’t provide an explanation of what we recorded ... The luminescent spheres we saw in the sky. ibid.
Something strange flies at night over Papua New Guinea. ibid.
On the far side of the world is an island carved by waterfalls. Forged by volcanoes. New Guinea: home to ancient cultures and the last great frontier of jungle exploration in the world. Lost Land of the Volcano I, BBC 2016
New Guinea: a huge tropical island on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. This rugged jungle hides a network of deep isolated valleys … The creatures that have evolved here are truly strange. ibid.
George McGavin: But the hind wings are this beautifully fanlike pleat. That is the biggest stick insect I have seen in the world. ibid.
Just twenty miles south the jungle is disappearing. ibid.
McGavin: There is a huge store of species here about which we know nothing at all. ibid.
The Pygmy parrot: they are tiny ... significantly smaller than many of the insects that live in this forest. And they are very much a parrot ... This tiny bird weighs less than half an ounce. ibid.
Striped possum: they are Marcupials, raising their babies in a pouch, and for defence, can let out very strong smells. ibid.
‘This is one of the most remote inaccessible places on the planet.’ Lost Land of the Volcano II
One of the most extraordinary rituals in Nature: the mating display of the bird of paradise. ibid.
Flying Foxes – the largest bats on the planet ... eat almost exclusively fruit. ibid.
Outside the crater [Bosavi] they have already found new types of frogs, lizards and insects. But inside there could be unknown large mammals. Lost Land of the Volcano III
I’ve heard the screams of this women – screams I can never forget as the women were tortured, their flesh burned forced to confess they are witches. Uncensored with Michael Ware s1e3: Witch Hunt, National Geographic 2017
A country ruled and fuelled and subconscious governed by a belief in magic. ibid.
This whole country is rife with crime and unrest. ibid.
Among the Asmat people of New Guinea there exists a way of life that has remained unchanged since the Stone Age. In 1961 it drew the attention of a restless young man named Michael Rockefeller. In Search of s2e6 … Michael Rockefeller, 1978
In their midst he disappeared and was never seen again. ibid.
Australia is looking to a natural wonderland on its doorstep in the battle to stop catastrophic climate change. Preserving these rainforests is vital to the planet. We’re told the way to do that is to turn the cabon in the trees into an asset to be sold as carbon credits. Australian businesses and iconic institutions are opting in. But out of sight in isolated forests it’s a different story. Four Corners: Carbon Colonialism, ABC 2023
Papua New Guinea: There’s rainforest here but there’s also utter devastation from logging. ibid.