Porer Nombo

Porer Nombo is Local Government representative (Komiti) for the villages of Reite, Sarangama and Marpungae in Ward 16 of Mot 1 District on the Rai Coast of Papua New Guinea, a position he has been asked to occupy since the early 1980s. Growing up in the village in the 1950s and 60s, he never learned to read or write but was educated about plants and healing, among other things, by his elders, and is recognised as the leading local authority on kastom (effective modes of action from past and present). In 2000, he gave a presentation to the Motupore Island Seminar on Intellectual and Cultural Property in Port Moresby organised by the University of Papua New Guinea, and in 2009 he visited the UK at the request of the British Museum to assist them in their work.

Reite Plants »

An Ethnobotanical Study in Tok Pisin and English

Authored by: Porer Nombo, James Leach

Publication date: January 2010

Reite Plants is a documentation and discussion of the uses of plants by speakers of the Nekgini language, a people who reside in the hinterland of the Rai Coast in northern Papua New Guinea. High quality images and detailed information about traditional customary practices using plants provide a unique entry into understanding Nekgini social and cultural life. The book contains a discussion of the ownership of plant knowledge in the context of both local and contemporary global trends. As a dual language, co-authored text, the book is a unique contribution to the ethnobotany and anthropology of Melanesia. Reite Plants represents the product of a long term collaborative work between the authors. This book makes an important contribution … Nombo and Leach provide an exciting example of how much a deeper exploration of cultural context adds to the field of ethnobotany. It will make very good company with the classic ethnobiological collaborative work of Saem Majnep and Ralph Bulmer on the birds and animals of the Madang highlands. — Robin Hide, The Australian National University

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