Abstract:
This thesis is an attempt to contribute to the growing discussions towards understanding
the increasing critical land-related crisis in Papua New Guinea. It starts from the
contention that land is a deeply spiritual reality and that merely economic, political,
anthropological or geographical understandings of land are incomplete. This thesis is an attempt towards that suggesting land is an important category of faith and therefore a possible starting point towards both a better understanding of the land related crisis and a starting point for incarnating the gospel within Melanesia.
This thesis analyses the beliefs, attitudes and relationship to land from the perspectives of the Kalam people. Land for the Kalam people is an important and integral part of their being. It is held to be sacred, and is indeed their life. It serves as the main point of reference in shaping identity and ordering pattens of behaviour and in regulating political,
economic, social and religious transactions. Land represents the peoples' sense of
identity, being and belonging. All aspects of life are an expression of dynamic tension
that holds the land, humans and spirits together in a triad of unity. Land defines the Kalam relationship to the creator and the spirit world. These understandings and beliefs reveal a deeply profound attachment to the land. Land manifests the presence of God so that land can and does for the Kalam become sacrament of God.