Watertown, MA: Arsam International; Documentary Educational Resources [distributor], 2020. 1 video resource (97 mins.) In English, Tok Pisin, Nasioi.
Ophir, the fabled land of riches from where King Solomon obtained his treasures, has been part of the European imagination since the beginnings of Christianity. Initially believed to be located in Africa or Southeast Asia, in the days of the Portuguese explorer Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira it was thought to be in the Pacific. He actually named the archipelago, of which Bougainville is geographically a part, the Solomon Islands, which has triggered some Bougainvilleans to have no doubt that their island, blessed with gold, copper, and other valuable resources, is indeed Ophir. However, as the land of King Solomon’s riches, Bougainville’s history and current predicament vividly exemplifies the detrimental legacies of the so-called “resource curse”; the paradoxical situation in which a country underperforms economically and politically, despite being home to valuable natural resources.
Ophir tells and shows the heartbreaking story of the land and people of Bougainville, and the enduring struggle for sovereignty, the preservation of ancestral lands, and customary ways of living. A former German and British colony, and Australian protectorate occupied by the Japanese, Bougainville became a province of Papua New Guinea (PNG) in 1975, and subsequently an autonomous region in 2005. The narrative of Ophir starts in the early 1970s, when the Panguna copper mine in Central Bougainville, operated by Bougainville Copper Ltd (BCL) and owned by Conzinc Riotinto of Australia (CRA), commenced operations. Intertwining archival and contemporary footage and interviews, Ophir shows how one of the largest copper mines in the world increasingly began to face local resistance and demonstrations by landowners who were grieved about the unequal division of mining royalties, with most of these being diverted to PNG, as well as about environmental damages. In 1988, popular leader Francis Ona and his group, later known as the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA), sabotaged a power line pylon, cutting off power to the Panguna mine. In response to Ona’s sabotage, the PNG government, aided with Australian equipment such as patrol boats and Iroquois helicopters, responded with force to Ona’s sabotage activities. It initially sent a police-force contingent, and later the PNG Defence Force (PNGDF), which relocated civilians into so-called “care centres” and enforced an economic blockade. Ona’s militancy from mainly anti-BCL sabotage transformed into support for secession from PNG, resulting in a full-scale uprising. Between 1988 and 1998, Bougainville Island became the stage of the biggest conflict in the Pacific since World War II, causing great suffering and ruining nearly all infrastructure and socio-economic services. After almost ten years of brutal warfare and numerous broken peace agreements, the crisis officially ended with the signing of the ceasefire and the August 2001 Peace Agreement. This peace agreement eventually led to the referendum held in late 2019, when Bougainvilleans overwhelmingly voted for independence.
In the film, people express that the crisis was perceived as a new way forward, to break the shackles of foreign domination and exploitation. However, Ophir reveals how the visible and invisible chains of colonization, and its enduring cycles of physical and psychological warfare, impact Bougainvilleans today. At the time of the filming, Bougainville people were confronted with a new mining act written by the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG). The film shows how Dr. Ruth Soavona Spriggs tries to warn her people about this new, so-called Bougainvillean-made law that, as she highlights, will confine them. The Bougainville Mining Act, drafted with the help of European lawyers, was enacted by the ABG in March 2015, giving effect to a mining policy designed to meet the unique circumstances of post-conflict Bougainville. The act included the indigenous notion that ownership of land extends to everything on or in it, including minerals, but it also tried to deal with the legacies of the Panguna mine, including its environmental damages and the continuing alluvial mining that takes place in the area. In the film, President Momis (governing the ABG between 2010 and 2020) expresses the need for development and thus the re-opening of the mine to fund independence. Importantly, this narrative has dominated ABG politics ever since. The current ABG, headed by former BRA commander President Ishmael Toroama, likewise urges for the reopening of the mine. However, as Ophir so painfully shows, many lives were lost due the crisis, and some of the tensions that led to violence between Bougainvilleans are lingering and remain unresolved. As the final fragments of Ophir so heartbreakingly show, many Bougainvilleans are still mourning the disappearances and deaths of their loved ones. Showing this enduring suffering, as well as the barren landscape of the Panguna mine, the polluted waters and rivers, displaced villages, and families living on barren rocks, Ophir dramatically visualizes the devastating social, cultural, and environmental impacts of the mine.
By visualizing and giving voice to various Bougainville people’s experiences and concerns, Ophir provides an intimate view of Bougainville’s “revolution for life, land and culture, leading up to the potential creation of the newest nation in the world.” It also shows the power of faith, a thread that is carefully interwoven in the film. People’s strong belief in Christianity elevates their suffering, at the same time mobilizing them towards action. One of these people is Theonila Roka Matbob, the young woman who at the end of the film asks a question about the mining act. In 2020, she was one of a group of Bougainvilleans who filed a human rights complaint against mining giant Rio Tinto over the environmental degradation caused by the Panguna mine. Becoming the second woman to win an open electorate seat, she exemplifies how Bougainville people’s quest for justice and freedom is intertwined with a strong respect and belief in kastom (culture) and Christianity. In sum, Ophir is both a valuable documentary and resource, as well as a dramatic and poetic ode to the land and people of Bougainville.
Anna-Karina Hermkens
Macquarie University, Sydney