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Paper short abstract

In recent years the people of Lihir, Papua New Guinea, have articulated their concerns around changes in their language due to large-scale gold mining in their islands. This paper examines discourses of morality around language change in Lihir and explores a novel and moral solution proposed.

Paper long abstract

The people of the Lihir Island Group in New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea, have experienced twenty years of large-scale gold mining in their islands. In recent years, Lihir people have begun to articulate their concerns around the changes they see to be happening to their Lihir language. These changes manifest themselves primarily in changes in vocabulary and dialect, and an increase in code-switching between Lihir, Tok Pisin (Melanesian Pidgin) and English. Drawing upon recent fieldwork, in particular interviews with Lihir people, this paper examines discourses of morality around language change in the context of the mine and the social transformations that mining has brought to Lihir. Against these discourses the patterns and developments in language use on a local, regional and national level are presented. Proposed solutions are also explored, including the role of the Catholic Church in restoring and maintaining language in the islands.