Paper short abstract:

This paper explores shifts in the articulation of ideals of political emplacement and landownership in Kundiawa, PNG. Anxiety about losing land to “foreigners” sits alongside a future-oriented, entrepreneurial hospitality that seeks to expand patronage networks by bringing in high-status tenants.

Paper long abstract:

Customary landownership is widely held up as the basis for national belonging and political recognition in Papua New Guinea. The citizen-as-landowner, while far from a universal reality, is a persistent ideal in political rhetoric, particularly among those outside major urban centres, for whom the possibility of being recognised as landowners is one of the few tangible promises of citizenship. This paper explores historical shifts in the articulation of ideals of political emplacement and landownership among residents of Kundiawa, Chimbu Province. Chimbu traditions, anthropologist Paula Brown wrote, tell of “fights, migrations, dispersal, and resettlement” (1979:124), frequently emphasising these stories of contestation over claims of occupation from time immemorial. Traditional ownership of Kundiawa has been disputed since before the arrival of the first Australian government patrol in 1933. As town development has intensified, tribal leaders on the town fringe have sought to leverage their status as makan nem (landowners, papa graun) to build a place for themselves in the provincial administration, embracing settlement processes and leases of customary land insofar as they allow members to develop patronage relationships and strengthen the tribe’s prestige. A persistent anxiety about losing land to “foreigners” sits alongside a future-oriented, entrepreneurial hospitality that seeks to expand patronage networks by bringing in high-status tenants. I consider how these political imaginaries are shaping the ambitions of young Chimbus aspiring to future leadership roles.