Bougainville Revolutionary Army leader Francis Ona, barefoot and wearing a bush hat, in 1994 during the decade-long civil war in the archipelago. New feature film Soldiers Without Guns, directed by Will Watson, tells the story of how New Zealand stepped in to resolve the Bougainville civil war. On Bougainville, where thousands died during the Pacific’s bloodiest conflict since the end of the Second World War, the fighting is over—but the task of rebuilding has only just begun. By 1988 the tensions had led to violence, guerilla rebels shut the mine down and people started taking sides. There had already been 14 failed peace agreements. The BRA is the main separatist force in Bougainville, declaring independence from PNG in 1990 after PNG forces withdrew from the country. In 1997, after 14 failed peace agreements, the New Zealand army stepped into the conflict with a radical new plan - instead of bringing guns, the unarmed soldiers took guitars. An estimated 15,000 to 20,000 Bougainvilleans died as a result of the conflict. Last year Ona claimed to have been made King of Bougainville in a coronation ceremony, and is now making another bid for political power. In a journal article ‘The Gangs of Bougainville’ by Stan Starygin, Toroama was portrayed as a ‘Rambo’. Opened in the 1960s, it was polluting waterways and making land unusable for farmers in the area. And they wanted it stopped. A recently released film Mr Pip - which is set during Bougainville's civil war period - has also generated global interest in the island. Cassidy says it changed the whole culture and tone of those talks. The bulk of its quarter of a million people reside on the main Bougainville Island, which is roughly the size of Jamaica. This gave rise to a local resistance movement that eventually forced the closure of the mine in 1989. Up until then, women had not been invited to any of the peace talks. Instead, they packed music and culture. Bougainville: island of scars The wounds of war are a long time healing. Peace has held on the Island. The tiny island of Bougainville, a province of Papua New Guinea, could become the world’s newest nation, more than 20 years after a brutal civil war killed thousands of people. Other than a few close friends, I have kept pretty quiet about the documentary project I started work on in 2014 ().After a 10 year civil war with the Papua New Guinean (PNG) Government, the Autonomous Region of Bougainville will vote for independence between 2015 and 2020 and my goal is to document what life is like there, through my photography, during this period. During the colonial era Bougainville was occupied by the Germans, Australians, Japanese, and Americans for various periods. The Bougainville Civil War, also known as the Bougainville conflict, was a multi-layered armed conflict fought from 1988 to 1998 in the North Solomons Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG) between PNG and the secessionist forces of the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA), and between the BRA and other armed groups on Bougainville. The movie is based on a novel by New Zealand author Lloyd Jones. The Bougainville conflict started over an enormous Australian-owned Papua New Guinean-run copper mine. He came to wider attention in the documentary film, The Coconut Revolution, which sought to portray the BRA as a band of convivial guerrillas in pursuit … "It was not only for themselves. Alexandre Berman is the co-director of the documentary, Ophir, which took the top prize at the 2020 Tahiti Film Festival. The conflict was described by Bougainvillean President John Momis as the largest conflict in Oceania since the end of World War IIin 1945, with an estimated 15,000–20,000 Bougai… What is also unique is the fact that the revolutionaries, as some call them, won the war.". The NZ Defence Force's use of guitars, waiata, and wāhine to help bring peace to Bougainville at the end of a bloody decade-long civil war is explored in a new documentary Soldiers Without Guns. "They had been at war for so long that they were killing each other, brother on brother, uncle on uncle, village on village. "And once you've got a bridge, you can start talking.". Bougainville should become fully independent from Papua New Guinea in October this year. Featured Documentaries. NZ Defence Force Haka There's footage in the film of the Army performing 'Ka Mate' and Cassidy says they deployed well-known songs: 'Pokarekare Ana', and 'Ten Guitars' too. For much of the civil war, Phillip has been broadcasting programs with music and news from a Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) perspective. Last night I was on edge. And those peace accords that NZ ran were the starting point, but we as service men and women, taking a totally different approach, provided a bridge. Soldiers Without Guns is a documentary about how the NZ Defence Force helped bring peace to Bougainville at the end of a bloody decade long civil war, armed with guitars, waiata, and wahine. Alexandre Berman is the co-director of the documentary, Ophir, which took the top prize at the 2020 Tahiti Film Festival. An estimated 15,000 to 20,000 Bougainvilleans died as a result of the conflict. He set up the Bougainville Interim Government (BIG), but it had little power, and the island began to descend into disarray. The Coconut Revolution relays the academically underexposed Bougainville Civil War, in Papua New Guinea. That's one-sixth of the entire population. 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