New Guinea (Tok Pisin: Niugini; Dutch: Nieuw-Guinea;
German: Neuguinea; Indonesian: Papua, historically,
Irian) is a large island off the continent
of Australia.
It is the world's second-largest island, after
Greenland, covering a land area of 785,753
km2 (303,381 sq mi), and the largest wholly
or partly within the Southern Hemisphere and
Oceania.
The eastern half of the island is the major
land mass of the independent state of Papua
New Guinea.
The western half, referred to as Western New
Guinea or West Papua or simply Papua, formerly
a Dutch colony, was annexed by Indonesia in
1962 and has been administered by it since
then.
== Names ==
The island has been known by various names:
The name Papua was used to refer to parts
of the island before contact with the West.
Its etymology is unclear; one theory states
that it is from Tidore, the language used
by the Sultanate of Tidore, which controlled
parts of the island's coastal region.
The name came from papo (to unite) and ua
(negation), which means "not united" or, "territory
that geographically is far away (and thus
not united)".Ploeg reports that the word papua
is often said to derive from the Malay word
papua or pua-pua, meaning "frizzly-haired",
referring to the highly curly hair of the
inhabitants of these areas.
Another possibility, put forward by Sollewijn
Gelpke in 1993, is that it comes from the
Biak phrase sup i papwa which means 'the land
below [the sunset]' and refers to the islands
west of the Bird's Head, as far as Halmahera.
Whatever its origin, the name Papua came to
be associated with this area, and more especially
with Halmahera, which was known to the Portuguese
by this name during the era of their colonization
in this part of the world.
When the Portuguese and Spanish explorers
arrived in the island via the Spice Islands,
they also referred to the island as Papua.
However, the name New Guinea was later used
by Westerners starting with the Spanish explorer
Yñigo Ortiz de Retez in 1545, referring to
the similarities of the indigenous people's
appearance with the natives of the Guinea
region of Africa.
The name is one of several toponyms sharing
similar etymologies, ultimately meaning "land
of the blacks" or similar meanings, in reference
to the dark skin of the inhabitants.
The Dutch, who arrived later under Jacob Le
Maire and Willem Schouten, called it Schouten
island, but later this name was used only
to refer to islands off the north coast of
Papua proper, the Schouten Islands or Biak
Island.
When the Dutch colonized it as part of Netherlands
East Indies, they called it Nieuw Guinea.The
name Irian was used in the Indonesian language
to refer to the island and Indonesian province,
as "Irian Jaya Province".
The name was promoted in 1945 by Marcus Kaisiepo,
brother of the future governor Frans Kaisiepo.
It is taken from the Biak language of Biak
Island, and means "to rise", or "rising spirit".
Irian is the name used in the Biak language
and other languages such as Serui, Merauke
and Waropen.
The name was used until 2001, when the name
Papua was again used for the island and the
province.
The name Irian, which was originally favored
by natives, is now considered to be a name
imposed by the authority of Jakarta.
== Geography ==
New Guinea is an island to the north of Australia,
but south of the equator.
It is isolated by the Arafura Sea to the west,
and the Torres Strait and Coral Sea to the
east.
Sometimes considered to be the easternmost
island of the Indonesian archipelago, it lies
north of Australia's Top End, the Gulf of
Carpentaria and Cape York peninsula, and west
of the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon
Islands Archipelago.
Politically, the western half of the island
comprises two provinces of Indonesia: Papua
and West Papua.
The eastern half forms the mainland of the
country of Papua New Guinea (PNG).
The shape of New Guinea is often compared
to that of a bird-of-paradise (indigenous
to the island), and this results in the usual
names for the two extremes of the island:
the Bird's Head Peninsula in the northwest
(Vogelkop in Dutch, Kepala Burung in Indonesian;
also known as the Doberai Peninsula), and
the Bird's Tail Peninsula in the southeast
(also known as the Papuan Peninsula).
A spine of east–west mountains, the New
Guinea Highlands, dominates the geography
of New Guinea, stretching over 1,600 km (1,000
mi) from the 'head' to the 'tail' of the island,
with many high mountains over 4,000 m (13,100
ft).
The western half of the island of New Guinea
contains the highest mountains in Oceania,
rising up to 4,884 m (16,024 ft) high, which
is even higher than Mont Blanc in Europe,
ensuring a steady supply of rain from the
equatorial atmosphere.
The tree line is around 4,000 m (13,100 ft)
elevation and the tallest peaks contain permanent
equatorial glaciers—which have been retreating
since at least 1936.
Various other smaller mountain ranges occur
both north and west of the central ranges.
Except in high elevations, most areas possess
a warm humid climate throughout the year,
with some seasonal variation associated with
the northeast monsoon season.
The highest peaks on the island of New Guinea
are:
Puncak Jaya, sometimes known by its former
Dutch name Carstensz Pyramid, is a mist-covered
limestone mountain peak on the Indonesian
side of the border.
At 4,884 metres (16,024 ft), Puncak Jaya makes
New Guinea the world's fourth-highest landmass
after Afro-Eurasia, America and Antarctica.
Puncak Mandala, also located in Papua, is
the second-highest peak on the island at 4,760
metres (15,617 ft).
Puncak Trikora, also in Papua, is 4,750 metres
(15,584 ft).
Mount Wilhelm is the highest peak on the PNG
side of the border at 4,509 metres (14,793
ft).
Its granite peak is the highest point of the
Bismarck Range.
Mount Giluwe 4,368 metres (14,331 ft) is the
second-highest summit in PNG.
It is also the highest volcanic peak in Oceania.
Another major habitat feature is the vast
southern and northern lowlands.
Stretching for hundreds of kilometres, these
include lowland rainforests, extensive wetlands,
savanna grasslands, and some of the largest
expanses of mangrove forest in the world.
The southern lowlands are the site of Lorentz
National Park, also a UNESCO World Heritage
Site.
The northern lowlands are drained principally
by the Mamberamo River and its tributaries
on the Indonesian side, and by the Sepik on
the PNG side; the more extensive southern
lowlands by a larger number of rivers, principally
the Digul on the Indonesian side and the Fly
on the PNG side.
These are the island's major river systems,
draining roughly northwest, northeast, southwest,
and southeast, respectively.
Many have broad areas of meander and result
in large areas of lakes and freshwater swamps.
The largest island offshore, Dolak (Frederik
Hendrik, Yos Sudarso), lies near the Digul
estuary, separated by a strait so narrow it
has been named a "creek".
New Guinea contains many of the world’s
ecosystem types: glacial, alpine tundra, savanna,
montane and lowland rainforest, mangroves,
wetlands, lake and river ecosystems, seagrasses,
and some of the richest coral reefs on the
planet.
== Relation to surroundings ==
The island of New Guinea lies to the east
of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is
sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian
Archipelago.
Geologically it is a part of the same tectonic
plate as Australia.
When world sea levels were low, the two shared
shorelines (which now lie 100 to 140 metres
below sea level), and combined with lands
now inundated into the tectonic continent
of Sahul, also known as Greater Australia.
The two landmasses became separated when the
area now known as the Torres Strait flooded
after the end of the last glacial period.
Anthropologically, New Guinea is considered
part of Melanesia.New Guinea is differentiated
from its drier, flatter, and less fertile
southern counterpart, Australia, by its much
higher rainfall and its active volcanic geology,
with its highest point, Puncak Jaya, reaching
an elevation of 4,884 m (16,023 ft).
Yet the two land masses share a similar animal
fauna, with marsupials, including wallabies
and possums, and the egg-laying monotreme,
the echidna.
Other than bats and some two dozen indigenous
rodent genera, there are no pre-human indigenous
placental mammals.
Pigs, several additional species of rats,
and the ancestor of the New Guinea singing
dog were introduced with human colonization.
Prior to the 1970s, archaeologists called
the single Pleistocene landmass by the name
Australasia, although this word is most often
used for a wider region that includes lands,
such as New Zealand, which are not on the
same continental shelf.
In the early 1970s, they introduced the term
Greater Australia for the Pleistocene continent.
Then, at a 1975 conference and consequent
publication, they extended the name Sahul
from its previous use for just the Sahul Shelf
to cover the continent.
== Human presence ==
The human presence on the island dates back
at least 40,000 years, to the oldest homo
sapiens migrations out of Africa.
Research indicates that the highlands were
an early and independent center of agriculture,
with evidence of irrigation going back at
least 10,000 years.
Because of the time depth of its inhabitation
and its highly fractured landscape, an unusually
high number of languages are spoken on the
island, with some 1,000 languages (a figure
higher than that of most continents) having
been catalogued out of an estimated worldwide
pre-Columbian total of more than 7,000 currently
spoken human languages according to Ethnologue.
Most are classified as Papuan languages, a
generally accepted geographical term.
A number of Austronesian languages are spoken
on the coast and on offshore islands.
In the 16th century, Spanish explorers arrived
at the island and called it Nueva Guinea.
In recent history, western New Guinea was
included in the Dutch East Indies colony.
The Germans annexed the northern coast of
the eastern half of the island as German New
Guinea in their pre–World War I effort to
establish themselves as a colonial power,
whilst the southeastern portion was reluctantly
claimed by Britain.
Following the Treaty of Versailles, the German
portion was awarded to Australia (which was
already governing the British claim, named
the Territory of Papua) as a League of Nations
mandate.
The eastern half of the island was granted
independence from Australia in 1975, as Papua
New Guinea.
The western half gained independence from
the Dutch in 1961, but became part of Indonesia
soon afterwards in controversial circumstances.
== Political divisions ==
The island of New Guinea is divided politically
into roughly equal halves across a north-south
line:
The western portion of the island located
west of 141°E longitude (except for a small
section of territory to the east of the Fly
River which belongs to Papua New Guinea) was
formerly a Dutch colony, part of the Dutch
East Indies.
After the Dutch New Guinea Dispute it is now
two Indonesian provinces:
West Papua with Manokwari as its capital.
Papua with the city of Jayapura as its capital.
The eastern part forms the mainland of Papua
New Guinea, which has been an independent
country since 1975.
It was formerly the Territory of Papua and
New Guinea governed by Australia, consisting
of the Trust Territory of New Guinea (northeastern
quarter, formerly German New Guinea), and
the Territory of Papua (southeastern quarter).
The country consists of four regions:
Papua, consisting of Western, Gulf, Central,
Oro (Northern) and Milne Bay provinces.
Highlands, consisting of Southern Highlands,
Hela Province, Jiwaka Province, Enga Province,
Western Highlands, Simbu and Eastern Highlands
provinces.
Momase, consisting of Morobe, Madang, East
Sepik and Sandaun (West Sepik) provinces.
Islands, consisting of Manus, West New Britain,
East New Britain and New Ireland provinces,
and the Bougainville Autonomous Province.
== People ==
The current population of the island of New
Guinea is about eleven million.
Many believe human habitation on the island
dates to as early as 50,000 BC, and first
settlement possibly dating back to 60,000
years ago has been proposed.
The island is presently populated by almost
a thousand different tribal groups and a near-equivalent
number of separate languages, which makes
New Guinea the most linguistically diverse
area in the world.
Ethnologue's 14th edition lists 826 languages
of Papua New Guinea and 257 languages of Irian
Jaya, total 1073 languages, with 12 languages
overlapping.
They fall into one of two groups, the Papuan
languages and the Austronesian languages.
The separation was not merely linguistic;
warfare among societies was a factor in the
evolution of the men's house: separate housing
of groups of adult men, from the single-family
houses of the women and children, for mutual
protection from other tribal groups.
Pig-based trade between the groups and pig-based
feasts are a common theme with the other peoples
of southeast Asia and Oceania.
Most societies practice agriculture, supplemented
by hunting and gathering.
The great variety of the island's indigenous
populations is frequently assigned to one
of two main ethnological divisions, based
on archaeological, linguistic and genetic
evidence: the Papuan and Austronesian groups.Current
evidence indicates that the Papuans (who constitute
the majority of the island's peoples) are
descended from the earliest human inhabitants
of New Guinea.
These original inhabitants first arrived in
New Guinea at a time (either side of the Last
Glacial Maximum, approx 21,000 years ago)
when the island was connected to the Australian
continent via a land bridge, forming the landmass
known as Sahul.
These peoples had made the (shortened) sea-crossing
from the islands of Wallacea and Sundaland
(the present Malay Archipelago) by at least
40,000 years ago, subsequent to the dispersal
of peoples from Africa (circa) 50,000 – 70,000
years ago.
The ancestral Austronesian peoples are believed
to have arrived considerably later, approximately
3,500 years ago, as part of a gradual seafaring
migration from Southeast Asia, possibly originating
in Taiwan.
Austronesian-speaking peoples colonized many
of the offshore islands to the north and east
of New Guinea, such as New Ireland and New
Britain, with settlements also on the coastal
fringes of the main island in places.
Human habitation of New Guinea over tens of
thousands of years has led to a great deal
of diversity, which was further increased
by the later arrival of the Austronesians
and the more recent history of European and
Asian settlement through events like transmigration.
About half of the 2.4 million inhabitants
of Indonesian Papua are Javanese migrants.Large
areas of New Guinea are yet to be explored
by scientists and anthropologists.
The Indonesian province of West Papua is home
to an estimated 44 uncontacted tribal groups.
== Biodiversity and ecology ==
With some 786,000 km2 of tropical land—less
than one-half of one percent (0.5%) of the
Earth's surface—New Guinea has an immense
biodiversity, containing between 5 and 10
percent of the total species on the planet.
This percentage is about the same amount as
that found in the United States or Australia.
A high percentage of New Guinea's species
are endemic, and thousands are still unknown
to science: probably well over 200,000 species
of insect, between 11,000 and 20,000 plant
species, and over 650 resident bird species.
Most of these species are shared, at least
in their origin, with the continent of Australia,
which was until fairly recent geological times
part of the same landmass (see Australia-New
Guinea for an overview).
The island is so large that it is considered
'nearly a continent' in terms of its biological
distinctiveness.
In the period from 1998 to 2008, conservationists
identified 1,060 new species in New Guinea,
including 218 plants, 43 reptiles, 12 mammals,
580 invertebrates, 134 amphibians, 2 birds
and 71 fish.
Biogeographically, New Guinea is part of Australasia
rather than the Indomalayan realm, although
New Guinea's flora has many more affinities
with Asia than its fauna, which is overwhelmingly
Australian.
Botanically, New Guinea is considered part
of Malesia, a floristic region that extends
from the Malay Peninsula across Indonesia
to New Guinea and the East Melanesian Islands.
The flora of New Guinea is a mixture of many
tropical rainforest species with origins in
Asia, together with typically Australasian
flora.
Typical Southern Hemisphere flora include
the conifers Podocarpus and the rainforest
emergents Araucaria and Agathis, as well as
tree ferns and several species of Eucalyptus.
New Guinea has 284 species and six orders
of mammals: monotremes, three orders of marsupials,
rodents and bats; 195 of the mammal species
(69%) are endemic.
New Guinea has 578 species of breeding birds,
of which 324 species are endemic.
The island's frogs are one of the most poorly
known vertebrate groups, totalling 282 species,
but this number is expected to double or even
triple when all species have been documented.
New Guinea has a rich diversity of coral life
and 1,200 species of fish have been found.
Also about 600 species of reef-building coral—the
latter equal to 75 percent of the world’s
known total.
The entire coral area covers 18 million hectares
off a peninsula in northwest New Guinea.
=== Ecoregions ===
==== Terrestrial ====
According to the WWF, New Guinea can be divided
into twelve terrestrial ecoregions:
Central Range montane rain forests
Central Range sub-alpine grasslands
Huon Peninsula montane rain forests
New Guinea mangroves
Northern New Guinea lowland rain and freshwater
swamp forests
Northern New Guinea montane rain forests
Southeastern Papuan rain forests
Southern New Guinea freshwater swamp forests
Southern New Guinea lowland rain forests
Trans Fly savanna and grasslands
Vogelkop montane rain forests
Vogelkop-Aru lowland rain forests
==== Freshwater ====
The WWF and Nature Conservancy divide New
Guinea into five freshwater ecoregions:
Vogelkop–Bomberai
New Guinea North Coast
New Guinea Central Mountains
Southwest New Guinea–Trans-Fly Lowland
Papuan Peninsula
==== Marine ====
The WWF and Nature Conservancy identify several
marine ecoregions in the seas bordering New
Guinea:
Papua
Bismarck Sea
Solomon Sea
Southeast Papua New Guinea
Gulf of Papua
Arafura Sea
== 
History ==
=== 
Early history ===
The first inhabitants of New Guinea arrived
at least 50,000 years ago, having travelled
through the south-east Asian peninsula.
These first inhabitants, from whom the Papuan
people are probably descended, adapted to
the range of ecologies and, in time, developed
one of the earliest known agricultures.
Remains of this agricultural system, in the
form of ancient irrigation systems in the
highlands of Papua New Guinea, are being studied
by archaeologists.
This work is still in its early stages, so
there is still uncertainty as to precisely
what crop was being grown, or when/where agriculture
arose.
Sugar cane was cultivated for the first time
in New Guinea around 6000 BC.The gardens of
the New Guinea Highlands are ancient, intensive
permacultures, adapted to high population
densities, very high rainfalls (as high as
10,000 mm/yr (400 in/yr)), earthquakes, hilly
land, and occasional frost.
Complex mulches, crop rotations and tillages
are used in rotation on terraces with complex
irrigation systems.
Western agronomists still do not understand
all of the practices, and it has been noted
that native gardeners are as, or even more,
successful than most scientific farmers in
raising certain crops.
There is evidence that New Guinea gardeners
invented crop rotation well before western
Europeans.
A unique feature of New Guinea permaculture
is the silviculture of Casuarina oligodon,
a tall, sturdy native ironwood tree, suited
to use for timber and fuel, with root nodules
that fix nitrogen.
Pollen studies show that it was adopted during
an ancient period of extreme deforestation.
In more recent millennia, another wave of
people arrived on the shores of New Guinea.
These were the Austronesian people, who had
spread down from Taiwan, through the South-east
Asian archipelago, colonising many of the
islands on the way.
The Austronesian people had technology and
skills extremely well adapted to ocean voyaging
and Austronesian language speaking people
are present along much of the coastal areas
and islands of New Guinea.
These Austronesian migrants are considered
the ancestors of most people in insular Southeast
Asia, from Sumatra and Java to Borneo and
Sulawesi, as well as coastal new Guinea.
=== Precolonial history ===
The western part of the island was in contact
with kingdoms in other parts of modern-day
Indonesia.
The Negarakertagama mentioned the region of
Wanin in eastern Nusantara as part of Majapahit's
tributary.
This has been identified with the Onin Peninsula,
part of the Bomberai Peninsula near the city
of Fakfak.
The sultans of Tidore, in Maluku Islands,
claimed sovereignty over various coastal parts
of the island.
During Tidore's rule, the main exports of
the island during this period were resins,
spices, slaves and the highly priced feathers
of the bird-of-paradise.
Sultan Nuku, one of the most famous Tidore
sultans who rebelled against Dutch colonization,
called himself "Sultan of Tidore and Papua",
during his revolt in 1780s.
He commanded loyalty from both Moluccan and
Papuan chiefs, especially those of Raja Ampat
Islands.
Following Tidore's defeat, much of the territory
it claimed in western part of New Guinea came
under Dutch rule as part of Dutch East Indies.
=== European contact ===
The first European contact with New Guinea
was by Portuguese and Spanish sailors in the
16th century.
In 1526–27, the Portuguese explorer Jorge
de Meneses saw the western tip of New Guinea
and named it ilhas dos Papuas.
In 1528, the Spanish navigator Álvaro de
Saavedra also recorded its sighting when trying
to return from Tidore to New Spain.
In 1545, the Spaniard Íñigo Ortíz de Retes
sailed along the north coast of New Guinea
as far as the Mamberamo River, near which
he landed on 20 June, naming the island 'Nueva
Guinea'.
The first map showing the whole island (as
an island) was published in 1600 and shows
it as 'Nova Guinea'.
In 1606, Luís Vaz de Torres explored the
southern coast of New Guinea from Milne Bay
to the Gulf of Papua including Orangerie Bay,
which he named Bahía de San Lorenzo.
His expedition also discovered Basilaki Island
naming it Tierra de San Buenaventura, which
he claimed for Spain in July 1606.
On 18 October, his expedition reached the
western part of the island in present-day
Indonesia, and also claimed the territory
for the King of Spain.
A successive European claim occurred in 1828,
when the Netherlands formally claimed the
western half of the island as Netherlands
New Guinea.
In 1883, following a short-lived French annexation
of New Ireland, the British colony of Queensland
annexed south-eastern New Guinea.
However, the Queensland government's superiors
in the United Kingdom revoked the claim, and
(formally) assumed direct responsibility in
1884, when Germany claimed north-eastern New
Guinea as the protectorate of German New Guinea
(also called Kaiser-Wilhelmsland).
The first Dutch government posts were established
in 1898 and in 1902: Manokwari on the north
coast, Fak-Fak in the west and Merauke in
the south at the border with British New Guinea.
The German, Dutch and British colonial administrators
each attempted to suppress the still-widespread
practices of inter-village warfare and headhunting
within their respective territories.In 1905,
the British government transferred some administrative
responsibility over southeast New Guinea to
Australia (which renamed the area "Territory
of Papua"); and, in 1906, transferred all
remaining responsibility to Australia.
During World War I, Australian forces seized
German New Guinea, which in 1920 became the
Territory of New Guinea, to be administered
by Australia under a League of Nations mandate.
The territories under Australian administration
became collectively known as The Territories
of Papua and New Guinea (until February 1942).
Before about 1930, European maps showed the
highlands as uninhabited forests.
When first flown over by aircraft, numerous
settlements with agricultural terraces and
stockades were observed.
The most startling discovery took place on
4 August 1938, when Richard Archbold discovered
the Grand Valley of the Baliem River, which
had 50,000 yet-undiscovered Stone Age farmers
living in orderly villages.
The people, known as the Dani, were the last
society of its size to make first contact
with the rest of the world.
=== World War II ===
Netherlands New Guinea and the Australian
territories were invaded in 1942 by the Japanese.
The Australian territories were put under
military administration and were known simply
as New Guinea.
The highlands, northern and eastern parts
of the island became key battlefields in the
South West Pacific Theatre of World War II.
Papuans often gave vital assistance to the
Allies, fighting alongside Australian troops,
and carrying equipment and injured men across
New Guinea.
Approximately 216,000 Japanese, Australian
and U.S. soldiers, sailors and airmen died
during the New Guinea Campaign.
=== Since World War II ===
Following the return to civil administration
after WW2, the Australian section was known
as the Territory of Papua-New Guinea from
1945 to 1949 and then as Territory of Papua
and New Guinea.
Although the rest of the Dutch East Indies
achieved independence as Indonesia on 27 December
1949, the Netherlands regained control of
western New Guinea.
During the 1950s, the Dutch government began
to prepare Netherlands New Guinea for full
independence and allowed elections in 1959;
the elected New Guinea Council took office
on 5 April 1961.
The Council decided on the name of West Papua
for the territory, along with an emblem, flag,
and anthem to complement those of the Netherlands.
On 1 October 1962, the Dutch handed over the
territory to the United Nations Temporary
Executive Authority, until 1 May 1963, when
Indonesia took control.
The territory was renamed West Irian and then
Irian Jaya.
In 1969, Indonesia, under the 1962 New York
Agreement, organised a referendum named the
Act of Free Choice, in which hand picked Papuan
tribal elders reached a consensus to continue
the union with Indonesia.There has been resistance
to Indonesian integration and occupation,
both through civil disobedience (such as Morning
Star flag raising ceremonies) and via the
formation of the Organisasi Papua Merdeka
(OPM, or Free Papua Movement) in 1965.
Amnesty International has estimated more than
100,000 Papuans, one-sixth of the population,
have died as a result of government-sponsored
violence against West Papuans.
From 1971, the name Papua New Guinea was used
for the Australian territory.
On 16 September 1975, Australia granted full
independence to Papua New Guinea.
In 2000, Irian Jaya was formally renamed "The
Province of Papua" and a Law on Special Autonomy
was passed in 2001.
The Law established a Papuan People's Assembly
(MRP) with representatives of the different
indigenous cultures of Papua.
The MRP was empowered to protect the rights
of Papuans, raise the status of women in Papua,
and to ease religious tensions in Papua; block
grants were given for the implementation of
the Law as much as $266 million in 2004.
The Indonesian courts' enforcement of the
Law on Special Autonomy blocked further creation
of subdivisions of Papua: although President
Megawati Sukarnoputri was able to create a
separate West Papua province in 2003 as a
fait accompli, plans for a third province
on western New Guinea were blocked by the
courts.
Critics argue that the Indonesian government
has been reluctant to establish or issue various
government implementing regulations so that
the legal provisions of special autonomy could
be put into practice, and as a result special
autonomy in Papua has failed.
== Religions ==
See Religion in Papua New Guinea.
== See also ==
Papua conflict
West New Guinea dispute
Papuan unification
== Notes and references ==
== 
Bibliography ==
Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short
History of Everybody for the last 13,000 Years,
1997.
== External links ==
Facsimile of material from "The Discovery
of New Guinea" by George Collingridge
Scientists hail discovery of hundreds of new
species in remote New Guinea
PapuaWeb
"New Guinea".
The New Student's Reference Work.
1914.
