The Leahy family revisited 30 years on
canada goose outlet mall WESTERN HIGHLANDS The road out of Mount Hagen deteriorates by the mile, the pitted blacktop of the little city official canada goose outlet crumbling to dirt before collapsing into reddish ruts scraped through the deep green of Papua New Guinea’s highlands. canada goose outlet mall
canada goose outlet online uk In the final stretch before Kilima, a bedraggled coffee plantation in the Nebilyer Valley, our Toyota Land Cruiser has to crawl in low canada goose outlet parka gear, wobbling and tottering through craters and washouts. canada goose outlet online uk
canada goose coats uk Bob Connolly bounces in the front seat, rolling with the pitch and yaw. He’s just over 70 years old but sturdy, dark haired and barrel chested, with a round face that still seems boyish. canada goose coats uk
canada goose outlet eu He grumbles about the drive: too much traffic in town, too little maintenance everywhere else. When he was a younger man, the drive from Mount Hagen to Kilima took him 35 minutes. Now it takes twice as long. canada goose outlet eu
canada goose outlet jackets The highlands seemed to https://www.canadagoosediscount.co.uk Cheap Canada Goose Coats canada goose outlet black friday hold so much promise when Bob first came to Kilima in the early 1980s. Bob is an Australian documentary filmmaker, and he lived here for years canada goose black friday sale in a hut thatched with kunai grass, making films with his wife, Robin Anderson. canada goose outlet jackets
canada goose outlet washington dc The plantation sprawled in endless rows, trees heavy with canada goose outlet sale coffee cherries, wide canada goose outlet store fields pale with virgin beans drying in the sun. Back then, Kilima’s owner, Joe Leahy, was wealthy and powerful, and he canada goose outlet in usa employed dozens of local people to tend his groves and work his pulping factory. canada goose outlet washington dc
canada goose outlet ottawa Many in the Ganiga tribe eventually became his partners, and they were going to get rich in the coffee business, too. canada goose outlet ottawa
canada goose vest outlet Bob and Robin made three documentaries in the highlands, two of them about canada goose outlet canada Joe Leahy and his neighbours. Each was a triumph, and they still are recognized as such, icons of a genre, touchstones of both anthropology and film. canada goose vest outlet
The initial one, First Contact, was nominated for an Academy Award, and canada goose outlet toronto factory the last, Black Harvest, had “extraordinary historical resonance,” the New York Times wrote, “so rich that watching it feels like taking an inspired crash course in economics and cultural anthropology.”
canada goose outlet store uk Newsweek said it had “the scale and richness of classical tragedy.” Which was true, because everything ended so badly. canada goose outlet store uk
canada goose outlet orlando On a clear, bright summer morning more than two decades later, Bob inhales a great gulp of crystalline air. Away from Mount Hagen, a chaotic burgh wrapped in barbed wire and wood smoke, the highlands are pristine. Bob canada goose outlet uk sale always was struck by that, the clarity of the canada goose jacket outlet place. canada goose outlet orlando
As for the canada goose outlet new york city rest Kilima, Joe, the Ganiga who have lived on this land for untold generations Bob isn’t sure how it all turned out, and canada goose outlet that’s why he’s back for the first time in more than 25 years. Maybe he’ll even find enough story for a fourth film.
The road my response tumbles down a final derelict hill and flattens into a dirt plain between a rusted out shed, which is old, and an iron roofed fundamentalist church, which is new. Then it narrows and rises again toward Joe’s house, up on the next hill.
canada goose outlet edmonton There are five people walking along the road between the shed and the church, one of them a Ganiga man in a blue jacket and cap that seem too warm for the morning. He’s waving for the Toyota to stop. canada goose outlet edmonton
canada goose outlet store calgary It takes Bob a moment to recognize the man in the cap, to sort the face and the name from his memory. “Paraka!” he then says brightly, and Paraka beams. He leans in through the window, holds Bob in a light embrace. canada goose outlet store calgary
canada goose outlet black friday “Happy to see you,” Bob tells him in his still serviceable pidgin. “What’s going on up at the house?” Bob asks. canada goose outlet black friday
canada goose jacket outlet sale Bob’s heard that Joe is going to kill a pig in canada goose outlet jackets honour of his return. He thinks there might be a celebration, a dozen or more tribesmen, all old friends. Perhaps there will be speeches, maybe even a welcoming sing sing. “No, don’t tell me,” Bob says suddenly. He wants to be surprised. canada goose jacket outlet sale
Paraka watches as the Toyota starts up the hill, but he does not follow. He knows he’s not welcome at Joe Leahy’s place. Joe has a complicated relationship with his Ganiga neighbors, and that hasn’t changed at all.
I remember meeting Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson in Hagen when they were working on First Contact. They stayed some goose outlet canada of the time up at Maggie (Leahy) Wilson’s “Haus Poroman” Lodge up at Kuta Ridge. On retrospect I think part of the appeal of the documentaries First Contact, Joe Leahy’s Neighbours, and Black Harvest is the openness. I think there was a “warts and all” approach.
To the best of my knowledge, Dan Leahy’s family still have the plantation at Korgua, in the Nebilyer. Some of Dan’s clan, still run businesses in Hagen. Old Dan was an uncle of Joe.
canada goose outlet hong kong Two of Joe Leahy’s brothers, Clem and John, both sons of Mick Leahy, have died in the past few years. Maggie (Leahy) Wilson, who also died some years ago, herself produced some good films canada goose outlet hong kong.
