Life in Kragur, a village in Papua New Guinea's Sepik area, has been profoundly affected by capitalism. Since European contact the people of this remote corner of the the Pacific have come to fear that their poverty is the result of their own moral failings.
Hard Times on Kairiru Island
evokes in vivid detail the difficulties of entering a cash economy for the first time, as well as the personal conflicts and public debates stirred by Kragur people's pursuit of economic change and moral certainty.