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November 2024 Issue [Letter from Bougainville]

The Island King

A fugitive monarch dreams of fortune and freedom
Illustrations by Daniel Liévano

Illustrations by Daniel Liévano

[Letter from Bougainville]

The Island King

A fugitive monarch dreams of fortune and freedom
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One morning last November, I boarded a plane from Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, to Buka, the capital of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. A collection of islands and atolls the size of Puerto Rico, Bougainville is located some six hundred miles east of Moresby, across the Solomon Sea. Its southern shore is just three miles from the politically independent Solomon Islands, and its people share a culture, linguistic links, and dark skin tone with their Solomon neighbors. But thanks mostly to…

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 is a journalist based in New Zealand. His last piece for Harper’s Magazine, “Purple Haze,” appeared in the October 2023 issue.


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