The Wopkai people, or Wopkaimin, are a small aboriginal tribe of the Faiwol people that lives in the remote Star Mountains in western Papua New Guinea in what is known as the Fly River socio-ecological region. They speak the Wopkai dialect of the Faiwol language.
The Ok Tedi Mine, the third largest open pit copper and gold mine in the world is located in their traditional territory.[1] Before the coming of the mine with construction starting in 1981 the Wopkaimin lived in a subsistence economy. The mine severely impacted the tribe, totally disrupting their traditional patterns of life. For one thing, Tabubil a town of 12,500 to house mine workers was built in the midst of their territory. Work for wages was available to tribal members, but only at the unskilled level and not on a regular basis. The Wopkaimin along with many other ethnic groups living in the area now live on a rotating basis between the town of Tabubil, roadside villages along the Kiunga-Tabubil Highway, and in villages away from the mine as jobs are lost or become available.
In 1992, a species of bat, Bulmer's fruit bat (Aproteles bulmerae) previously thought extinct was discovered to still live in Luplupwintem Cave, an enormous cave above the Hindenburg Wall in their territory. This bat was first discovered in the 1970s by David Hyndman, who studied the Wopkaimin. However the contemporaneous introduction of the shotgun was thought to have resulted in the extinction of the species.
^David Hyndman (December 1994). "A Sacred Mountain of Gold: The Creation of a Mining Resource Frontier in Papua New Guinea". The Journal of Pacific History. 29 (2): 203–221. doi:10.1080/00223349408572772. JSTOR 25169228.
The Wopkai people, or Wopkaimin, are a small aboriginal tribe of the Faiwol people that lives in the remote Star Mountains in western Papua New Guinea...
Wopkaimin may refer to: WopkaiminpeopleWopkaimin language This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Wopkaimin. If an internal...
the Wopkaiminpeople to Christianity, and had prevented them from singing traditional songs. New Guinea portal Porgera Gold Mine Wopkaiminpeople Ghazi...
v t e Mountain Ok peoplePeoples Telefolmin people Urapmin people Tifal people Mian peopleWopkaiminpeople Languages Telefol language Urapmin language...
The Mian people (Mianmin) are a people living in the Telefomin district of the Sandaun province in Papua New Guinea. The number of Mian is 3,500, based...
The Telefol people are an ethnic group in the Sandaun Province of Papua New Guinea. Telefol history starts with the "Old Woman" (Afek) traveling through...
v t e Mountain Ok peoplePeoples Telefolmin people Urapmin people Tifal people Mian peopleWopkaiminpeople Languages Telefol language Urapmin language...
meaning 'peoples', which is present in their names (e.g. Telefolmin, Wopkaimin, etc.). Min peoples may also be known as Mountain Ok peoples, from the...
has dyadic kinship terms (terms referring to the relationship two or more people have to each other), which are present in less than 10 languages and not...
Telefol Tsembaga Urapmin Wiru Wola Wopkaimin Yaifo Zia Baining Tolai Trobriand Girls from Papua New Guinea Papuan people in folk dress in Jakarta Newly married...
Telefomin district of the Sandaun province in Papua New Guinea by the Mian people. It has some 3,500 speakers spread across two dialects: West Mian (a.k.a...
Min peoples or Mountain Ok are a cultural group in the West Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea and Highlands Papua in Indonesia. The Min peoples, though...
Great Papuan Plateau, PNG Ok Mountain Ok Wopkaimin: western PNG, Star Mountains. West Trans New-Guinean peoples Dani: Papua, Indonesia Korowai: West Papua...
Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1152-6. David C. Hyndman (1984). "Ethnobotany of Wopkaimin Pandanus significant Papua New Guinea plant resource". Economic Botany...
include the Mountain Ok people, a cultural group with numerous sub-groups including the Telefol, the Urapmin, and the Wopkaimin. The Oksapmin also live...
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