Saving the Sepik river, and remembering the Soweto uprising

About this episode

The episode discusses the resistance of the Sepik people against a proposed mine threatening their river and reflects on the legacy of the Soweto uprising in South Africa.

When a proposed mine threatens Papua New Guinea’s Sepik River, the Sepik people resist the mine on their own terms, but will they succeed? And fifty years since the Soweto uprising, how South Africa has reckoned with its past. Guests: Emmanuel Peni, director of the PNG NGO Project Sepik , and co-Producer of the film. Theonila Roka Matbob, former PNG MP from Bougainville and winner of the 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize . Professor Noor Nieftagodien, Head of the History Workshop at the University of the Witwatersrand Seth Mazibuko, activist, former teacher and one of the original student leaders in the 1976 uprising

People in this episode

Guests: Emmanuel Peni, Theonila Roka Matbob, Noor Nieftagodien, Seth Mazibuko

Topics covered

• environmental activism
• indigenous rights
• historical reflection
• mining impact
• social justice

Keywords

• Sepik River
• Papua New Guinea
• mining
• Soweto uprising
• environmental prize
• historical reckoning
• activism

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Project Sepik

Places: Papua New Guinea, South Africa

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