TO TUKE IN THE CLOUDS
This page describes an expedition to Tuke village in the rainforest of the remote Nakanai Mountains of East New Britain, PNG. Nakanai has been proposed as a potential World Heritage site.
Top Panel: The locations of Australia, PNG and New Britain (red shading)
Centre panel: New Britain, showing the East and West New Britain boundary (orange line) and proposed Nakanai Mountains World Heritage area (purple line). The red square outlines the region near Tuke which is reproduced in the bottom panel.
Bottom panel: Expanded map of Nakanai. Tuke = red dot
The landscape is stunning to view, demanding to live within, and grueling to traverse. The rivers contain beautiful almost kerosene-blue water. The volcanoes majestic. The Nakanai Plateau is dotted with sink-holes and cave systems that are among the most extensive in the Southern Hemisphere. Click the button below to see an extract from a document by Hitchcock and Gabriel (2015) on the Nakanai, its caves and a World Heritage proposal.
The Tukeans seek to protect their forests and traditional lifestyle. They know that survival as a community requires not just improved healthcare and stopping logging but, as elder Tingha states in the video below, they must inform themselves as to how the outside world operates, and learn how they can function within it with the resources they have.
Seeking help, the Tukeans turned to WildArk, a small well-managed conservation organization, and a trusted local businessman, Riccard Reimann (www.baiafishingpng.com/) (www.liamoreefresort.com/), who organized the expedition. It’s aim – to assess ways to secure the Tuke lifestyle and to publicize the pressures upon the community.
Terry Reardon, an associate of the south Australian Museum, and I were the expedition biologists. A simple brief: go, see and tell.
For Terry and I, who are grey-haired for good reason, the expected moderate up-hill saunter was a tough slog!
The video below records the ‘short walk’. It even included an earthquake that attained 7.3 on the Richter scale!
A further beautifully-made WildArk video about Tuke and its biology is posted below, as is an unfinished report (plus appendices listing local animals and plants) that Terry and I are cobbling together.
A few photos follow
Day 1 – From the sea-side to a village with view
Day 2 – From a village with a view to a village with a view
Day 3 – Up hill and down hill to Tuke and a wonderful welcome!
Days 4 and 5 – Meeting Tukeans and exploring the biology
The future leaders of Tuke 
More chieftains 
Even the kids have machetes! 
Our base 
The ablutions block 
Under the house –
shade and gossip
Pastor John 
Evolution is magnificent 
I wonder what Katydid? 
A bandicoot trap! 
The guys assigned to protect me from my stupidity! 
The Batman wowing them 
Riccard talking to the world 
A biiig fern! 
The ‘art’ photo!
Day 6 – Saying goodbyes
Please consider supporting WildArk and Riccard Reimann in their efforts to support the Tukeans. They cannot do it on their own.
Joe Holtum's Science Site 