Indigenous Responses to Political and Economic Challenges: the Babek Bema Yoma at Teptep, Papua New Guinea

This article traces the history of a cultural centre and museum, the motives for setting it up, its role in local and national politics, as well as its significance for the different stakeholders involved in the process. The institution discussed here is part of a set of interlinked strategies applied not only by rural people to gain access to the cash economy and to exert political influence but also by members of the elite to access the network of decision makers and thus to participate in the distribution of funds and power on the provincial and national levels. The cultural