Ani’s Portrait (My String Bag Back Home)

By Julie Mota Kondi

This book is a deep intellectual dive into village life in Papua New Guinea. The unspoken atrocities hovering. Where indigenous people like the Bebeli of New Britain are marginalised and constantly pushed towards erasure of identity, even today. Told by women, who speak truth to each other. Old and deep all-knowing truth.

“And to ultimately proclaim: “I am my own woman. That is who I am. I am tired of the label black, brown, colored glaze, niggard woman. I am only human walking on this earth one time in my life time. That, that is who I am. I don’t know why I need to explain that over and over again. Trying to assert myself in this God forsaken land like some bad black odour in this world. This continuous justification is not my vocation nor my calling but I am forever put there on the spot for my appearance.”