I thought I had left pots behind for a couple of years because of a temporary change in personal directions and I have ended up in Papua New Guinea working for AusAID. I work as a small scale gold mining advisor which is not too far from my previous experience in a number of countries around the world.

One of my first introductions to pots was looking at an old film of village people making pots in PNG. I can't remember where it was but it appeared to be somewhere in the Sepik area.

Last year, as part of my job, I flew to Wewack, the capitol of East Sepik province and eventually drove over the mountains and down onto the flood plain of the Sepik River. I was expecting jungle right to the river but there were many kilometres of open grassland before we came to the river.

The first sight of the river itself was not as dramatic as I had expected as everything is so flat - suddenly it was there. A great swirling brown mass of surging water. Flowing at an incredible pace, dotted here and there with tree trunks, grass islands and water hyacinths wildly rushing past.

We had to travel to lake Chambri to the south of the main river. First along the Sepik itself, then into a small river. This quickly became blocked with water hyacinth and grass islands and required forcing the canoe along with paddles as the grass kept fouling the propeller of the motor.

Then we moved into a narrow channel. This one was only 1-2 metres wide with the water flowing very swiftly away from the river. After about two hours of progress through dense overhanging jungle we came out into the thick grass surrounding the lake itself.

We broke clear of the grass and out into the lake - what a sight. The lake extended for many kilometres. Mount Garamambu we could see in the distance. It seemed so close but we still had about 3-4 hours of travel to go. The speed of our progress immediately increased and we had a breeze to keep us cool.

The sun set behind a bank of clouds and we were treated to a display of lightning I have not seen since I was in the Northern Territory in the 70s. Accompanied by the syncopated cacophony of flashes and booms we continued our journey beyond sunset finally arriving at the village after negotiating the grass banks on the southern side of the lake.

The next day we carried out the workshop for the miners and then headed out across the southern edge of the lake to Aibom pottery village. It is famous for pots with faces, some human, some animal and some based on birds. Aibom consists of several villages in the same area. They make pots up to 1.5m tall, handbuilt and low fired. Every house in the villages had a store of pots under the raised floor. One village in particular had some massive pieces that were made by previous generations. They were part of their cultural heritage and not for sale at any price. Some anthropoligists had been there recently and had been offering large sums of money. The pots would have been taken away and placed in Museums but one particular man whose father or grandfather had made many of them years ago had wanted them kept in the village.

Aibom has become a tourist town to some extent where you can buy a small representative pot for 5 kina but a genuine pot made for use locally, about 20 times the size, is only 15 kina. They also make ceramic stoves. These are the large dishes in which you place three stones or three small pots, light your fire inside and then place the cooking pot on top. A very effective stove for a cheap price.

We left Aibom and travelled back north along the eastern edge of the lake where the wildlife was incredibly prolific. Flights of ducks, egrets and many others took off passing overhead. They were obviously feeding on the grass beds and the fish inhabiting the breeding grounds. The journey back to Pagwi took all day but we finally returned to solid ground.

Images: (top) Canoes stop at the Sepak, (right) Making a stove in Aibom

Regards, Geoff Crispin