Acknowledging the blood generation
The Blood Generation exhibition is a retelling of Bougainville’s recent and complex history. In 1964 the Moroni people in Bougainville were subject to and stripped of all their land rights under Crown Law. Australian owned mining company Conzinc Rio Tinto sent in geologists and in 1972 Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL) formed. The Moroni valley was carved into a 4,000-foot long, 2,000-foot wide open-cut mine. From 1972 the Panguna mine was one of the largest open-pit producers of gold, silver and copper in the world, more than doubling the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Territory’s export income, thus funding PNG Independence granted by the Australian colonial administration in 1975.