25 February 2006

Takayuki Horiguchi, GFRS volunteer, Japan

I am an artist with a colourful past – I’ve worked as a street performer and at “ding-dong” parties. I have also produced many artworks expressing the souls of the people of Papua New Guinea.

My first visit there was in 2002 and I have visited PNG every year since then. As a street performer, I was very attracted by its traditional dance called “Ming Ming” . I’ve even participated in the biggest annual festival of the Ming Ming dance.

I have been welcomed by the people of PNG, and each visit feels like a home coming.
They are very sensitive about being looked down on by foreigners – I feel I am because his eyes are always level with theirs. Every time I’m back there, 20 or 30 times a day, people call to me and say, “Hi, you’re back again! You gonna dance again? Aheeeeeeeee!”

I’ve never been to Western Province and was a little nervous. What is happening here makes my soul shake. I feel as though there is something here I must do.

Village lives in PNG are self-sufficient and necessities comes from forest. I hear my grandpa and grandma calling me to come and rescue them; I would not like their village to be sunk in a dam and the water consumed by workers of foreign companies.

In Tokyo, I am surrounded by plywood products. I see it used to lay concrete panels, when I’m working on construction sites. It is on the floor of my tiny apartment. I know it is from PNG or somewhere in South East Asia. I feel like everyday things in my life are being made at the expense of my beloved people and their village. I would like to stop their forest disappearing.

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