Oil Search Pacific Games Relay in Arawa, Autonomous Region of Bougainville

The Oil Search Pacific Games Relay today took off before dawn again, this time to visit Kangu Beach, the site of the terrible 1996 massacre during the crisis. The beach is now a peaceful spot with its jetty the main centre for cocoa trading and the weekly market visits from the nearby Solomon Islanders.

The beach and its history is really important to the Bougainvillean team travelling with the convoy as the Relay promotes unity and a brighter future.

The beach also signifies that the Relay has reached the furthest south-eastern part of the country, with the islands of our neighbour, Solomon islands, in sight.

The team then drove the three hours to Arawa along the coastal rocky road sometimes resembling a creek bed rather than the road.

In Arawa the town came together to run a Relay around the old abandoned parts of town and the resurrected sections of the town that are beginning to look like a residential suburb again.

The Relay included a slippery climb across a steel swing bridge and in true AROB fashion was carried through town inside a replica canoe, carried by the different groups that took part in the Relay.

Students from every school in town and the outskirts took part along with community youth groups dressed in shirts promoting peace through sport.

At each school the Relay would be welcomed, including with the traditional washing down and tapioca with coconut pasted across the team’s faces and legs, and with songs created by the students welcoming the Baton and our feathered friend Tura.

The Relay ended at Independence Oval to a raucous crowd and many sing sing groups from different ethnic areas.

The Oil Search Pacific Games Relay heads through Kieta before visiting the Papua New Guinea community in Cairns afternoon.

Photo credit: madNESS Photography