Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the fractality of imagined successes for students at the University of Goroka, Papua New Guinea. Students see education as a path to success and linear development, but because of relational obligations they are required to repeat past rituals and events when they are successful.

Paper long abstract:

Education is viewed as the gateway to success and development for students and staff at the University of Goroka. This message is directed at individuals who can gain wealth and status, communities who receive benefits back from their "investment" in students, and the nation which can develop and Westernise, but also decolonise. Staff and students imagine futures and successes for themselves and for Papua New Guinea and these imagined futures exist in a tension between Melanesian states of being and aspirations towards Western styles of governance. Importantly, students and staff exist in relationships with their communities through the wantok system: a system of networks and familial obligations which informs interactions, obligations, and daily living. The wantok system functions at every level of relationship in Papua New Guinea: in families, businesses, and government. The wantoks of students fund university fees and daily needs with the expectation that if students prosper in jobs or status once they graduate, they will give back to their communities. While this system is crucial to communities and ensures reciprocity and relationships, students and staff perceive wantok system as a problem for their imagined success and development, especially for goals based on Western systems of governance.

I draw on three months of fieldwork and interviews with students and staff at the University of Goroka to explore how the wantok system and its consequences are perceived in fractals at different levels, and I explore how a linear understanding of time affects the imagined success of students.