A photo taken on 6 February 2013 shows a crowd watching as a young mother accused of sorcery, is stripped naked, reportedly tortured with a branding iron, tied up, splashed with fuel and set alight on a pile of rubbish topped with car tyres, in Mount Hagen city in the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Photo: AFP / Post Courier
Papua New Guinea desperately needs stronger laws to protect innocents and deliver justice for victims of sorcery related violence, an advocate says.
Activist Evelyn Kunda is currently in Aotearoa to shine a light on the horrors of sorcery related violence in her country.
Those accused of sorcery in PNG are frequently beaten, tortured, and murdered, and anyone who manage to survive the attacks are banished from their communities.
Kunda told RNZ Pacific authorities are failing the survivors of such violence.
"We really need justice." - Evelyn Kunda
She said it breaks her heart to see what this violence also does to the children of the victims of sorcery violence.
"Then the people would say, this is the sorcery kid. The man thinks they will pass on [sorcery] to the kids. So where will they go?"
She said accusing someone sorcery is often the excuse people use to steal land, businesses or peoples home, and most of those targeted are women.
In October 2023, Papua New Guinea MPs were told that gender-based and sorcery violence was widespread and much higher than reported.
Port Moresby Governor Powes Parkop, who presented a damning report, said stakeholders across the country wanted more action.
No one in PNG knows how many instances of sorcery accusation and violence occur in PNG, researchers say. Photo: Paul Wolffram
According to research by Australian think tank, Devpolicy, sorcery accusation related violence (SARV) "is a big number" but "no one knows how many Papua New Guineans are being attacked each year based on magical sugarcane stories".
"It is hard to estimate how many instances of SARV occur annually in the other 18 provinces of PNG," Devpolicy Blog researchers wrote in 2021.
"And while a handful proceed to court, 98%+ do not," they wrote.
Kunda said she has heard of cases where the perpetrators of sorcery violence far outnumber police - who can only stand-by and watch.
"We really need justice or law must be strong and then must go to the village or we must have to set by-laws in the communities."
She said she helps anyone who turns up to her doorstep in Goroka.
"[Victims] need help. So, every time they will come to my house, even in the night, like one or two o'clock in the morning, they can come [if] life is [at risk]."
Photo: Supplied: Paul Wolffram
Kunda and her work are the subject of a new feature documentary screening at this year's Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival.
She said the world needed to know the horrors inflicted upon innocents in her country.
A collection of images capturing scenes of sorcery-related violence in PNG is part of an exhibition in Porirua in Wellington.
Kunda is part of a network of human rights defenders in her country who support victims accused of sorcery.