Conducting Tourism Awareness on Karkar Island, Madang

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By Theodore Armstrong Baworo

For year 3 tourism students conducting tourism awareness as well as Coral Reef awareness on Karkar Island was everyone’s agenda despite the tireless efforts in leading the department earlier in the week with the university’s annual open day. The trip arranged by Ms Elizabeth Goodyear and the students was part of the assessment in Recreation and Community Development course which was the first of its kind to have the whole class travel to the island.

The refreshing breeze of the Friday morning and the energizing sun led our way towards the white downy clouds hanging over the island in the distance as we soared over the waves on “Elly 2”. Elly 2, about 23 feet powered by 225 horse power motor normally makes the trip in one hour from the Madang wharf to Karkar Island situated north-east of Madang.

The speed boat soared over the waves as we aimed towards the island spotting fly-fish with excitement, speeding atop the water in the distance as Graham and I stood at the front diligently keeping gaze with thrill. The sea was calm and shifted through various tints of blue as we went past the first group who had earlier travelled for almost two hours on the ship named MV Pundock. It wasn’t even an hour’s travel for us as we zoomed past them about thirty meters apart and waved to the group on the ship disappointing them with excitement.

The noon sun reflected off the waves as they came to a white crest and crashed over the black-greyish sand as we approached the isle at Biabi in the north. The tropical view of the island with the swaying palms was truly a paradise get away to!

We got off the boat and unloaded our cargos to Ms Goodyear’s house, situated close to the seaside where we docked. Walking through the backyard surrounded by tropical palms and ferns was peaceful, with the lawn maintained and a pond engulfed with white water lilies and prawns and fish visible under the greenish, recycled saltwater, guarded by sleepless toads and green frogs camouflaged under the leaves and bordering rocks.

The rocks surrounding the pool led up a pathway to an old cottage that seemed to many of the students to be a guest house. “Is that your guest house?” Olive asked Ms Goodyear only to find that it was an old house that was built late in the 1980s by one of her grandfathers, whose ghost visits the house from time to time.

At the front of the house was a European statue of a nude woman next to the path that encircles the pool with ferns and other tropical flowers. The white statue was a sculpture of a woman fetching water from a gourd-like bottle. She had an ancient garment that wrapped around the jug and hung down towards her nether regions and left her perfectly sculptured breasts protruding. Seeing the sculpture reminded me of some of the ancient sculptors like Michelangelo, whose works of art represent the renaissance sculptures of the human body.

It was interesting to find such a statue as you wouldn’t expect to see something like that which links two different world on this secluded island. Sculptures have the power to evoke various feelings to the mind and make you marvel at these imposing structures. Culturally similar to the Sepik carvings which also depict human body in its natural form, this form of art is indeed very powerful and makes a strong statement without really saying a word despite of one’s coyness. In fact, there are certain famous sculptures that remain a source of inspiration for all sculptors and lovers of art.

Our lecturer’s mum, Singaok, welcomed us warmly as we carried our cargo toward her house. In return, Wesley and I confidently shook hands and hugged as we greeted her. The students dropped their cargo and waited patiently to be transported to our campsite. While waiting, we had a good look around Elizabeth’s yard and out to the copra dryer where they also buy cocoa from the local farmers. “The price of the copra has dropped and people are not so serious in collecting coconuts till when the price starts to pick,” said one of the locals in an interview.

Despite the variance in commodity price, over 60 percent of Karkar Island’s economy is driven mainly by copra and cocoa, in fact the many cocoa and coconut plantations on the island contribute 65 percent of Madang’s total production.

It was going past 2pm when the driver arrived in a Toyota Land Cruiser. Ms Goodyear swapped him and drove us up to Kavailo School situated towards the mountain where we camped in the classrooms for three nights during our stay. The school was once attended by the retired army general Jerry Singirok, we were told by one of the locals. The short drive took us off the sealed road and through muddy, rough, mountain terrain that Elizabeth handled skillfully knowing her “once-upon a time learn-driving route” drove up with our cargo without fear of crashing. It was truly an experience to be with a female driving up on such a muddy road!

The evening look-out from the mountainside to the east over the sea was spectacular with the reflection of the twilight beam from the ocean that matches the golden cloud and sky in the horizon. This was the Mothers’ Day weekend for us and the reflection in the horizon brought a sense of manifestation leaving our homes far away and thinking of our beloved mothers for that weekend was special to us.

We were well organized into different cooking groups and those responsible for the first night’s dinner knew what to do. It was an opportunity to bring out different cooking skills with the rations we had brought.

Saturday was the busiest with two separate programs scheduled. We had a quick breakfast at 7am and sorted out our presentations before the Kavailo grade seven and eight students arrived at 8.30am. The first awareness with the students was based on the concept of tourism and ecotourism with its benefits and how to assess its negative impacts on the local host communities. This was inline with the conservation of the environment and the importance of keeping the art and culture through sustainable approaches and ecotourism was the highlight.

There were a few Kavailo teachers involved in the program, which lasted for three hours with short video footages, dramatic presentations and question sessions which required everyone’s participation with some of us helping in facilitating. The program ended with awarding of prizes to the students and a light refreshment for lunch, which the students enjoyed.

The second awareness at 3pm was held at Kavailo’s main village near the seaside which had an awesome view across the ocean to the east, where Bagabag Island lies peacefully on the horizon. The awareness was based on protecting the coral reefs and was presented by one of our groups on behalf of the Coral Reef Alliance. Karkar Island is encrusted with corals and has a richness of marine life parallel to the best, untouched and pristine marine ecosystems and the awareness on coral reefs was interrelated and equally important to that of tourism.

The village people were waiting for us when we arrived. The councillor beat a garamut drum to signal to the members of the community. Most of the village people attended and a few from the nearby villages and as far away as Wadau came. The people listened attentively to the awareness and took part effectively in the question session and were rewarded with small gifts that we took for those who answered our questions correctly after the presentations.

“Your awareness is very informative and interesting as it engaged almost every one of us in the community. Unlike other previous groups, who came and did their awareness but did not get much of our village people’s attention,” the village councillor commended after completion of our awareness.

Villager Peter, surprisingly not a member of Kavailo made the same comment. He came all the way from Wadau just to listen to the awareness. “I should have attended the first awareness as well, because I am more interested in knowing what tourism is and how I could start up a community-based project along ecotourism,” said Peter eagerly as he took a biro and paper to note my contact details.

It was already going past 6pm and the community raised many more brilliant questions and children gathered around us to watch a movie on marine life. With our tight time schedule, we ended the program and continued later in the night at 8.30pm at our campsite with the movie show on marine biodiversity and its dependency on coral reefs.

The village people were inspired by the 30 minute film and saw the importance of preserving the coral reefs and saving the environment with the phenomenon of global warming and climate change. This made them aware of the world and the environment around them and we encouraged them to “think globally, and act locally” to save and protect the coral reefs as well as the natural environment for their future generations.

Sunday’s itinerary was set for a tour round the island which was our leisure time and an opportunity for all to visit the places. The island is divided into two different language groups: the Waskia in the north and Takia in the south. Takia has a tune that is slow and easy to follow while Waskia sounds light and is spoken fast. About 90 percent of the total population are Lutherans while the rest are Catholics and other denominations.

The drive around the island takes over two hours on a completely sealed road. However, it took us more than four hours as we did some stops on the way starting from Biabi and travelling anti-clockwise right around the island. The places we stopped and visited were Kulili Plantation, Tugutugu Guest House owned by Pholas Yongale and final stop was at Kulkul Plantation where everyone had an enjoyable afternoon swim in the sea.

The location was ideal for a get-away with a huge yard and neatly maintained lawn surrounded by coconuts and other palms and hibiscus and tropical flowers. Situated on the hillside, there is an excellent view overlooking the sea in the west with cemented, steep braced stairs about 30 meters long that twist downwards at an angle onto the black sandy beach cove. The students couldn’t resist making the most of the inlet by having a cool off in the sea as waves came crashing on the lagoon-like reef with everyone in their swimming suit!

Early next morning was time to say goodbye to the school. “Tidomlom!” I called to Paul who was still half asleep. With a voice of an old man, he replied back the same word, meaning ‘good morning’ in Takia. We woke up early that day, had a quick breakfast and cleared up the school before 7.30am. At the assembly, the students and staff of Kavailo School expressed their gratitude with the headmaster making a closing remark of appreciation. He commended us and wanted us to go back again and do the same kind of awareness which was educational to the students and the local people, who lack such information on how they can sustain their environment with the challenges of population growth and climate change.



On behalf of the Tourism Department at Divine Word University, I would like to thank the Headmaster of Kavailo Primary School, the staff and students; the Kavailo village councillor and community for generously allowing us to conduct the awareness program which was a successful one! A special thanks to Ms Elizabeth Goodyear for arranging our travel. Lastly we would like to thank our Dean of Faculty, Dr. Romulo Lindio and HoD, Mr John Imbal for giving us the green light and the University for allowing us to take such a field trip out. This was a good and worthwhile experience for us as future tourism professionals in the development of tourism industry in PNG.

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