Save the Sepik

18/09/2026

WHO DEFINES DEVELOPMENT IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA? 🇵🇬

The voices of the Sepik are travelling across Australia.

Over the next two weeks, "Sukundimi Walks Before Me" will screen across Australia, bringing audiences into a story of the Sepik River, its people, and communities standing up for their right to determine what happens to their land, river and future.

Project Sepik Director Emmanuel “Manu” Peni is joining the Australian roadshow for screenings, Q&As and conversations around the award-winning documentary.

Winner of the "Sustainable Future Award" at the 2026 Sydney Film Festival", "Sukundimi Walks Before Me" is a story about who gets to decide.

For generations, the Sepik River has sustained our people. It feeds us. It connects our villages. It carries our stories, cultures and traditions. Our relationship with the river is not simply economic; it carries responsibilities inherited from our ancestors and owed to generations yet to come.

So when major development is proposed on our land and river, the question cannot only be:

"What will this project bring?"

We must also ask:

"Who decided?"
"Were our people properly informed?"
"Did they freely give their consent?"
"Were customary systems of decision-making respected?"
"And how do our people define development for themselves?"

This is the heart of "Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)".

"Sukundimi Walks Before Me" brings these questions to the screen through the voices and experiences of the people themselves.

As the film travels across Australia, we invite our Papua New Guinean brothers and sisters, at home and abroad, and our friends in Australia to join this conversation.

Because the future of the Sepik must include the voices of the people who have cared for it for generations.

"Our river. Our land. Our culture.
Our future. Our voice."

🎬 "Watch the official trailer:"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=563D8YlNV7A

🎙️ "Listen to Emmanuel Peni speaking with Agnes Tupou on ABC Pacific":
https://www.abc.net.au/pacific/programs/pacificbeat/sukundimi/107131742

🇦🇺 "Australian screening tour and Q&A dates":
https://cinemaaustralia.com.au/2026/09/14/whats-on-qa-screening-tour-announced-for-award-winning-documentary-sukundimi-walks-before-me/

18/09/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1JGco7sEBq/

❓How is aid used as an international tool of influence?
❓What is the US losing by shutting down USAID?
❓Who is moving to fill the void they’ve left behind?

Jubilee’s Executive Director Luke Fletcher just published a book called ‘America and the Birth of Global Aid’ and was interviewed by David Marr on ABC Radio National's Late Night Live about the birth and evolution of the international aid regime.

🎧Listen via link in comments.

And if you’re in Sydney catch Luke’s book launch this Sunday 20 Sept. at 3PM at Better Read Than Dead (265 King St, Newtown).

18/09/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AiuPgjMzw/

14/09/2026

The decisions concerning development on Indigenous lands cannot be made without the people whose lands, rivers, cultures and futures will carry the consequences.

For the people of the Sepik, FPIC is not a box to tick. It is the right of communities to say YES or NO.. Freely and independently, before decisions are made, and with full access to information.

Standing here at Australia’s Parliament House, I remember the great Melanesians who walked before me paving way for political independance and their foresight in seeing the darkness of neon lights, those who dared to challenge the narrative, I bring this message from PNG, Australian political and corporate engagement in our region must respect Indigenous peoples, customary landowners and their right to determine development on their own terms.

No consent should be assumed. No community voice should be bypassed. No development should come at the cost of Indigenous sovereignty.

Australia’s legislators have an important role to play in ensuring that Australian policy, investment and corporate conduct in the Pacific uphold these principles.

Respect FPIC. Respect Indigenous governance. Respect the right of our people to decide their own future and chart their own course..

10/09/2026

Sustainable Award winning documentary "Sukundimi Walks Before Me" has reached new heights. The film will commence Australian Cinema Tour from the 16th to the 29th September.

Who defines development? Who benefits?

Development has to happen at our pace and at our time.

Our voices are being brought into the global conversations about Development, Free Prior Informed Consent, Sovereignty and indigenous guardianship.

09/09/2026

The Sepik River is known as the second Amazon, providing water to one of the world's most pristine fresh water basins.

The river is of huge cultural significance for the half a million people the river sustains, and is guarded by the water spirit, Sukundimi.

But environmental campaigners worry that the proposed Frieda River Mine could change that.

If approved, the mine stands to be one of Papua New Guinea's biggest and community groups fear the waste it generates could have a devastating impact on the ecosystem and local communities.

This concern is the subject of a new documentary 'Sukundimi Walks Before Me' which follows the journey of environmental activist Emmanuel Peni.

"When we look at how other people see rivers, see forests, lakes and oceans they see it as bits and pieces of of things that can be sold and traded," he said. "We only see our home, the Sepik River also our home, we don't just see it, we feel the connection with it"

If approved, the mine stands to be one of the biggest in PNG and community groups fear the waste it generates could have a devastating impact on the ecosystem and local communities.

08/09/2026

Don't miss our documentary Sukundimi Walks Before Me in selected Australian cinemas from 16 September - 1 October, including Q&As with Emmanuel Peni, Director of Project Sepik.

Emerging from the Sepik River region of Papua New Guinea, the film documents Sepik communities’ resistance to a proposed gold-copper mine located near the river’s waters - an existential journey exploring sacred life, cultural survival and environmental justice.

Winner of Sydney Film Festival's Sustainable Future Award - the world's largest environmental film prize - Sukundimi Walks Before Me is a story of resilience and collective refusal in the face of extraction.

Don’t miss your chance to see this special film on the big screen, where you can fully immerse yourself in the music, sounds and beauty of the Sepik.

Sukundimi Walks Before Me puts the voices of Sepik communities front and centre. We ask you to Stand with the Sepik, and to ask yourself – what would you do to protect your home?

With deep gratitude and thanks to the Save the Sepik campaign, including Project Sepik and Jubilee Australia, as well as all the crew, partners and supporters who made this film possible.

📣 Help us spread the word.

03/09/2026

https://youtu.be/E-TXLVvQSE4?si=6_0kFLbwYHHfFU5R

Members of Parliament and key bureaucrats have not listened to the people of PNG and the Sepiks and their Provincial Governor, an Elected Member of Parliament, Mr. Allan Bird. This film will show clearly the UNANIMOUS REJECTION of the Frieda River mine across traditional Haus Tambarans which are the true Melanesian and PNG House of Governance of each and every sovereign nations along the Sepik River. The PNG Government cannot turn a blind eye to how these 6Eps were issued when local communities explicitly said NO.

This film is going on an Australian Tour. Having won the 2026 Sydney Film Festival -Sustainable Future award, Sukundimi Walks Before Me will be screened in the following cities and centres: Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin Film Festival. All these screening be accompanied with pre and post screening panel discussions.

The Sepik River Screening Roadshow will be next!

'Sukundimi Walks Before Me' is a critically acclaimed 2026 document...