Paper Lady

Papua New Guinea has very recently achieved independence and Australia is helping to organise the transition. This includes the transfer of lands—viable plantations—back into the hands of Papua New Guinean clans. But this is a tricky task, especially given the fact that few, if any, tangible records of traditional ownership exist. For relief journalist Nicola Jameson, fresh into Mount Hagen following a disastrous eight months in Port Moresby, working for Papua Guinea’s only daily newspaper, covering this tension and the new administration’s handling of affairs is a God-given chance for her to revive her career. But the more she gets into the intricacies of traditional custom and the politics of land transition, the more she loses sight of the necessary divide between journalism and participation—especially when she finds herself attracted to Kuria plantation owner Ian Hilder.