Research, Education, and Lived Experiences in
Papua New Guinea
This website offers a glimpse into my work as a researcher and educator and the relationship I have been building with Papua New Guinea, particularly with Indigenous peoples in New Ireland Province. This is a place for me to bring together photographs, field notes, and texts produced during different periods when I was in Papua New Guinea, along with projects I developed together with local schools and communities. The pages explore different aspects of these experiences, from the cultural and linguistic diversity of Papua New Guinea and New Ireland, to the region’s landscapes and ways of life, malagan funerary ceremonies and other cultural practices, as well as educational projects and community books produced with the Nalik, Nochi, and Kun peoples.
Papua New Guinea and its main islands in the Pacific. New Ireland Province lies in the northeastern part of the country in the Bismarck Archipelago.
A group of people fishing at low tide at dusk in New Ireland Province (da Silva, 2022)
New Ireland is one of Papua New Guinea’s 22 provinces and comprises a group of islands inhabited by different peoples, each with their own languages, histories, and cultural practices. It is also where many of the photographs featured on this website were taken.
Human presence on these islands dates back to around 40,000 years. Over this long period, different peoples have developed their own forms of social organization, knowledge, ways of life, and relationships with the environment. Some practices have changed or are no longer passed on, while others remain part of everyday life and continue to shape relationships between generations.
The diversity of Papua New Guinea and New Ireland also provides the context in which much of the work presented on this website has taken place.
Land, Histories, and Ways of Life
My Research Journey
Identifying bird species with members of the Nalik community during fieldwork in Luapul village, New Ireland Province (Photo: Volker, 2016)
My relationship with Papua New Guinea began even before my first visit to the country. In 2011, while working as a teacher in Japan, I started a penpal letter exchange project between my students and students at a school in New Ireland. Three years later, I traveled to the region for the first time to visit the school and meet the community in person.
That first encounter led to further visits, research, and projects. The photographs gathered on this website trace part of that path, documenting not only research-related activities but also everyday life in villages and schools, ceremonies, journeys, workshops, and other moments experienced during these different periods. My path as a researcher in Papua New Guinea has also taken shape through these experiences and the relationships built over the course of my repeated visits to the region.
An important part of this work has been carried out with the Nalik, Nochi, and Kun peoples through projects developed with schools and communities that, at different times, have brought together students, teachers, elders, and other village residents.
Some of these experiences led to the creation of community books, produced collectively and bringing together stories, narratives, illustrations, and local knowledge. Created with the participation of the communities themselves, these materials were later returned to the schools and villages, where they could remain and circulate among the people who took part in their creation.
Students at Langenia Primary School creating illustrations for the collaborative book produced with the Kun and Nochi peoples (Photo: da Silva, 2022)
Collaborative Projects
Cláudio da Silva
Research, Education, and Lived Experiences in Papua New Guinea
claudio@clausilva.eu
© 2026 Cláudio da Silva
