Papua New Guinea Quotes

“If they sold eyeballs in the supermarket, I
would be the first one to buy a pair
(Sanakoli John).”
― Thor F. Jensen, Salt Water and Spear Tips

“In the past, a lady of fashion would seductively smoke a long cigarette in an ivory holder; the modern idol of the betel age will probably be the same lady, but this time elegantly spitting out three table-spoons of blood-red betel-spit into an artistically crafted spittoon through teeth blackened by decades of chewing. When such a body offers you a little ground limestone, be aware that this is a gesture of the most genuine friendship.”
― Vojtěch Novotný, Notebooks from New Guinea: Field Notes of a Tropical Biologist

“Een Republiek past doorgaans niet in een Koninkrijk.”
― Petra Hermans, Voor een betere wereld

“It was an image that afterwards often came to me when I was traveling in the Pacific, that this ocean was as vast as outer space, and being on this boat was like shooting from one star to another, the archipelagoes like galaxies, and the islands like isolated stars in an empty immensity of watery darkness, and this sailing was like going slowly from star to star, in vitreous night.”
― Paul Theroux, The Happy Isles of Oceania, Part 1

“You may leave Papua—But Papua will never leave you. You are her fate.

You may betray her—But she will never betray you. Her covenant is not of politics, but of blood.
You may forget her—But she will not forget you. Her memory is deeper than time.

Among all stars, only one bears destiny—The Morning Star of Papua.

Papua is not a place. It is a prophecy.
Papua is not defeated. She is a sacred oath—Signed in silence, kept through suffering.

She is not West, East, or divided. She is one: The United States of Papua.
“New Guinea” is a colonial map. Papua is the soul.

She has been raped, burned, sold, buried—Yet still she breathes.

Why has she suffered? Because you must be born. This is the sacred meaning of her suffering.

Your pain is not punishment. It is preparation.
Your exile is not rejection. It is your sacred journey of becoming.

Your hopelessness, fear, defeat, failure—Are the fire of formation.

All things are preparing the resurrection - Of a forgotten covenant - And the rebirth of a sacred nation.”
― Yamin Kogoya