The Pio-Tura area is a region to the south of the central highlands of Papua New Guinea. Future of Rainforest Peoples research in the area is based in the settlement of Haia, which is at the centre of lands of Pawaia people and of the Pio-Tura area.

The local context

Pio is the name used locally use to refer to the meandering Purari River. Tura is a name used across parts of the region to refer to people whose ethnicity is often known as ‘Pawaia’. The Pio-Tura area lies at the heart of the lands of Pawaia people.

Geography

Haia village is situated in a mountainous landscape at an altitude of 800m above sea level. The Purari River, flowing through the south of the Pio-Tura region, and its catchment area, form the third most extensive water system in Papua New Guinea after the Sepik and the Fly (Petr, T., ed., 1983:X). The Pio-Tura area rises from stretches of navigable river to the edge of the highlands, with an estimated altitude range of 100-1500 metres above sea level. The entire region is covered with lowland hill forest and lower montane forest (Hide 1984:17). Climate is humid with an average annual rainfall in excess of 6000 cm.

Infrastructure

Haia village is accessible by occasional small aircraft, usually via Goroka in Eastern Highlands Province. The nearest towns – Goroka in the Highlands, and Baimuru in the Purari delta near the southern Gulf coast - are about 100 km as the crow flies, to the north and south respectively, though it takes days of walking to get just to the edges of the nearest road or river transport networks which might lead eventually to the towns. There are no roads for motor vehicles in the Pio-Tura region.

Provincial and regional boundaries

The customary lands of Pawaia people stretch across the borders of three provinces within Papua New Guinea: in the region known as the Pio-Tura Census Division in Karimui District in Simbu Province; in the Baimuru District of Gulf Province and in parts of Eastern Highlands Province.

We have focussed our efforts in the Pio-Tura area, which is recognised as a ‘Census Division’ in demographic surveys prepared by the National Statistical Office of Papua New Guinea.