Crown Island, Papua New Guinea
Today we had a morning visit to Crown Island, which is inhabited by members of a single family, headed by Elijah and his wife, Anna, who have nine children and moved to the island less than ten years ago; they own this part of the island. Anna’s mother is also living with them. Their three adult daughters have married and moved off-island. Son Peter, who is 27, has a wife and children on Long Island. For medical attention and supplies they rely on their outboard-driven dinghy to get them either to nearby Long Island or, less frequently, a five-hour trip to Madang, the provincial capital. Their younger children are missing their schooling, since this settlement is too small to have a school.
With family members as guides, we went on a delightful walk from the hamlet into the forest, gradually gaining altitude as we passed through a typical tropical rain forest, alive with difficult-to-spot birds in the upper canopy. We saw several clearings containing gardens past and present. Like other Melanesians, this family practises swidden horticulture, entailing the annual clearing and burning of patches of land in the forest to plant a mixture of crops. The family derives an income from selling copra and smoked fish in Madang.
Following our return to the ship, the order of the day was snorkelling and diving for those so inclined, then in the afternoon we set sail for the Sepik.
