March 17, 2025 • 23 mins
Welcome back to our Podcasthon series, "Ending Witch Hunts."
In this third installment of our Podcasthon series, Josh and Sarah continue the full story of witch hunting by examining contemporary SARV- sorcery accusations and related violence in Papua New Guinea. As Sarah reveals, "The witch hunting story is bigger than just what most people know. Pull back each layer and you find that witch hunts aren't a tall tale or an open-and-shut case."
We will share about these layers through discussing the complexities and nuances of SARV across the diverse cultures and developing communities of Papua New Guinea. You need to learn about the incredible advocacy and victim support that is happening now through creative education and community development. Find out what makes ending SARV such a challenge.
Podcasthon is a global movement to spread awareness about charities. Join us each day March 15-21 as we participate in Podcasthon 2025, where more than 1,500 podcasters unite to amplify causes close to their hearts. We're proud to participate with our nonprofit End Witch Hunts, which works to educate about persecution of alleged witches worldwide.
Tune in daily as we uncover this complex story layer by layer. Learn more at podcasthon.org and discover how you can help at www.endwitchhunts.org.
Help us recognize World Day Against Witch Hunts, August 10th
Donate to Witch Hunt Podcast Conference Fund
Papua New Guinea Discussions on Witch Hunt Podcast
Boris Gershman Witch Hunt Podcast Episode
Witchcraft Beliefs Around the World: An Exploratory Analysis
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hi, I'm Josh Hutchinson and she's Sarah Jack.
And this is Witch Hunt Podcast. Welcome back to our Podcast on
2025 series Ending Witch Hunts. Our nonprofit and witch hunts is
a podcast on participating charity and Podcast on is a
global movement to spread the word about charities and causes.
(00:22):
We have a great website so please check it out and Witch
hunts.org to learn more and to donate.
In today's episode, we are goingto continue telling the witch
hunt story by covering sorcery accusation related violence,
also known as SARV in Papua New Guinea.
(00:42):
Papua New Guinea is located north of Australia and is a
culturally diverse island nation.
Yes. Comprising the eastern half of
the island of New Guinea, Papua New Guinea is home to between 12
and 17 million people. The exact count is hard to come
by because of the remote nature of many villages, especially in
(01:05):
the Highlands. If you aren't aware of how large
this community is, then how manylanguages they have is going to
be a surprise to you. It's 840 languages.
It's the most linguistically diverse nation in the world.
That's Papua New Guinea. It's also home to great natural
(01:27):
beauty and great ecological and geographic diversity.
You see landscapes such as beautiful coasts, high high
mountains, 15,000 feet and flat lands like the Australian
Outback, as well as very long beautiful rivers and valleys.
(01:48):
But amid this amazing landscape and amazing communities of
people, they are experiencing violence, including gender based
violence and sexual violence. According to the United States
Institute of Peace, each year more than 1.5 million women and
(02:09):
girls in Papua New Guinea experienced the gender based
violence tied to inter communal conflict, political
intimidation, domestic abuse andother causes.
The good news is many individuals and organizations
are advocating for solutions to these problems.
Today we'll discuss a few of thepeople involved.
(02:31):
Let's peel back the layers of witch hunting in Papua New
Guinea. Today's witchcraft terminology
is different than what you've heard in other episodes because
cultures around the world, including those in Papua New
Guinea, use different language to discuss similar issues, such
as witch hunting. While we're on the subject of
(02:53):
terminology, there are a couple more things to know.
One of the national languages ofPapua Guinea is Talk Paisan,
which is an English Creole language.
Looking at different biblical translations, we can see that
Bibles published on the island have different translations of
(03:14):
the words that are translated aswhich in English.
For instance, the Hebrew word translated as, which in English
Bibles is translated as sanguma in the talk Piston Bible
published by the Bible Society of Papua New Guinea and appears
in 9 Old Testament verses. Talking about biblical
translations and words for whicha witchcraft is significant
(03:38):
because colonialism introduced diabolical or evil types of
witchcraft concepts to many cultures around the globe.
And we talk about those and manyof our other episodes.
So we're not going to dig into that now, but this one is really
(04:01):
important to talk about because the term sanguma is something
that we attach to the term that we refer to as a witch in the
Bible, Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live is 1.
You may have heard, but sanguma,which is the terminology used
there, is a word that's evolved over the years and in its
(04:24):
original form, it didn't translate easily to English,
like which sanguma represents someone to fear.
But Sanguma was originally defined as a kind of a warrior
who attacked and tortured members of rival communities to
instill terror in their enemies.Today, sanguma means different
(04:46):
things in different communities.In Papua New Guinea, sanguma can
refer to a malevolent supernatural force or being.
In other places, sanguma can mean either the act of sorcery
or the person who commits the act, and in some places a
sanguma is a helpful magic practitioner.
(05:06):
You will really enjoy our Papua New Guinea episodes where we
have great discussions around this concept of sanguma and we
learned a lot from experts Miranda Forsyth and Anton Watts,
and they've both done direct advocacy within the communities
and that's how they're able to tell us all about it.
(05:28):
Now we're going to return to theterm we mentioned at the very
beginning of the episode, sorcery accusation related
violence. Sarv.
In Papua New Guinea, the term sorcery accusation related
violence is used to emphasize that the accusation of sorcery
is the central issue leading to a violence.
(05:48):
Yes, it's about the accusation, not about any act of sorcery.
SARV is a complex phenomenon with no single cause.
In a previous episode, Miranda Forsythe told us that SARV can
be understood through the metaphor of a wildfire requiring
a conducive landscape and a trigger event.
(06:09):
Miranda Forsythe is a professor and a social legal researcher at
the School of Regulation and Global Governance at the
Australian National University, and she's also the director of a
nonprofit we spoke about in our first episode in the series
called The International NetworkAgainst Witchcraft Accusations
and Ritual Attacks. Let's talk about her metaphor of
(06:32):
the wildfire. Although a lot of what we're
talking about in this episode isvery specific to Papua New
Guinea, this incredible metaphorthat she has developed really
represents how witch hunts quickly become a wildfire in any
place in the world, in any part of history.
(06:56):
It's because there's a conducivelandscape, like dry brush
providing fuel for the wildfire.This landscape includes two key
elements, belief that misfortunecan be caused by supernatural
forces and a socioeconomic dimension.
That socioeconomic dimension of the conducive landscape for SAR
(07:18):
in Papua New Guinea includes poverty, uncertainty, resource
scarcity, unequal wealth distribution, unemployment and a
lack of adequate social safety Nets.
If you've listened to previous episodes, you know these factors
or impacts in other countries aswell.
(07:39):
These are the factors that create environments where
individuals and communities are most vulnerable to misfortune
and may resort to accusations ofsorcery as an explanation or as
a means to address their challenges.
This is a lightning strike ignites a wildfire.
The trigger event sparks accusations of sorcery.
(08:03):
I'm going to tell you what some of those trigger events could be
death or sickness, especially ifit's the death of a child or an
unusual death. And almost any death can
potentially be attributed to sorcery.
There are various motives for accusations.
(08:25):
Sometimes people are after personal gain, such as trying to
obtain land, or they're desiringto resolve conflicts.
I have some new terminology to possibly introduce to you today.
Yesterday we were speaking aboutAfrica and talked about natural
healers, traditional healers. And in Papua New Guinea, there's
(08:49):
a role that diviners play in their communities and they are
called glassmen or glass Marys, and sometimes their role is in
identifying supposed sorcerers. There are self-proclaimed
spiritual warriors who unfortunately are identifying
(09:12):
individuals as sorcerers. And want to talk about who are
the victims of sorcery accusation related violence.
As we discussed at the top of the episode, gender based
violence is widespread in Papua New Guinea as some of the
highest levels of gender based violence in the world.
(09:33):
SARV is a gendered form of violence in most parts of the
world has been throughout history that women have been the
targets most frequently. And that's true in most of the
provinces of Papua New Guinea, but not all.
For example, on the island of Bougainville, it's primarily men
(09:54):
and boys who are accused and tortured because of the belief
that they are doing supernaturalharm.
Throughout Papua New Guinea, disturbingly, there's a trend of
children being accused. We talked about that in
yesterday's episode as well withIn the context of Africa, about
(10:16):
the children being accused and abandoned.
And unfortunately, in Papua New Guinea, children accused of
sorcery are often murdered. In Papua New Guinea, a lot of
work and research has been done around SARV and there is a
holistic approach that needs to be used to address it.
(10:39):
There's not a single solution, and we're going to tell you
about some of those initiatives.There is local Community Action
where within the communities in this advocacy effort, young men
are speaking out against the violence as role models and this
method is showing positive results.
(11:01):
Religious leadership is needed in Papua New Guinea to address
Sark. Fortunately, last year Pope
Francis visited the island and called upon the church to stand
by the victims of false sorcery accusations.
While Pope Francis was in Papua New Guinea, he met with a
(11:23):
wonderful woman named Sister Lorena Janal, who is associated
with the organization Misio, which is a worldwide Catholic
mission organization. It's part of the Pontifical
missions, so the Pope is involved in overseeing that.
(11:44):
And Sister Lorena has been working for years in Papua New
Guinea to support victims of SARV to She has rescued victims
from the grips of their attackers, and she has housed
women and help them get back on their feet following
accusations. And Sister Lorena Janal and the
(12:06):
Vizio organization are responsible for creating World
Day Against Witch Hunts, which is recognized and observed every
August 10th, which is the anniversary of a date when
Sister Lorena rescued a woman from an attack.
(12:27):
If you have your device handy, open up your calendar right now
and write on August 10th, World Day Against Witch Hunts.
It's a easy way for you to participate in raising awareness
by either sharing one of our episodes, share one of the
websites from one of the organizations we're covering
(12:48):
this week, or make a statement acknowledging World Day Against
Witch Hunts. Although August 10th as World
Day Against Witch Hunts is widely recognized by hundreds of
advocates right now, we still need to raise awareness about
(13:09):
it. So please jump in on August 10th
and say something about ending witch hunts and World Day
Against Witch Hunts. The other part of the holistic
approach is training healthcare workers in Papua New Guinea.
They are developing programs to train the frontline healthcare
(13:31):
workers to better address the sorcery concerns and explain
causes of death and sickness. There's a couple things that
could happen when someone has experienced harm from SARV.
They may be afraid to go in for medical treatment because
(13:52):
they've been branded sanguma or witch and not receive treatment
that they really need to live orsurvive their injuries because
of their fear of the response ofthe medical workers.
And so educating health care to recognize that these victims are
(14:13):
living in fear and need continued protection is really
key. And then, as I mentioned,
explaining the causes of death and sickness is really critical
because the fear of bad magic and sorcery is so often
attributed to death worldwide. So it's important to support
(14:36):
local action and insiders who have local knowledge and who
have legitimacy within their communities, but they can be
supported by connecting them with external resources and
networks which have the data andresources that are needed to
support them in whatever they need.
(14:57):
And another aspect of this holistic approach is education
communities. The local communities
experiencing SARV need to receive education but also we
need to be talking about it globally with the wider world so
that the reality of what's happening is understood.
(15:19):
Right awareness needs to be raised in Papua New Guinea and
globally about SARV and which hunts more generally, so that
more people can get involved in the advocacy, the activism,
pulling resources and information together so that
these holistic approaches can betested and people can learn from
(15:43):
what other people are doing also.
So it's very important to you beraising awareness.
I want to say, Josh, sorry to interrupt you, but you know
what, when we podcast and we areamplifying these stories, it's
not just to report, it's not just so oh, you might know a
little bit more. It's so that you, our listener
(16:07):
are engaged with this real crisis that's happening.
And if you talk about it within your circle, you may have
somebody who has a platform or aresource or some social power or
agency that can contribute on the ground in a real way.
(16:29):
So using this podcast to talk about Papua New Guinea and the
whole story of witch hunting is for you to learn, but then for
you to turn around and talk to your your friends and family
about. Now to put all the holistic
approach, to put all the ingredients together for the
(16:50):
holistic approach and to implement that approach, a
Sorcery National Action Plan wasadopted in 2014.
This National Action plan includes 5 main steps which are
to support the survivors throughoffering counseling and other
services for them, to support change in the healthcare sector
(17:16):
through advocacy and the healthcare worker training that
Sarah talked about previously. The third step is prevention
which involves advocacy and communications. 4th, legal
improvements are needed to both protect individuals from these
(17:37):
actions in the 1st place throughpolicing, and to prosecute those
who perpetrate the violence to bring them to justice.
And then the 5th step is to continue to do research to
quantify the scope of the problem, the scale of the
problem, how many people are getting accused in what's
(18:00):
happening to them, and to look at what are best practices,
what's working in different communities to affect positive
change. So more research is constantly
needed. We've talked about that in a
number of previous episodes. In 2024, Josh and I went to the
(18:21):
Witchcraft and Human Rights Conference in Lancaster, which
was a global meeting of human rights experts and some of the
Papua New Guinea advocates were there and we got to learn from
them and person and hear first hand what is happening on the
ground and what efforts are seeing successes there.
(18:46):
Yeah, At the conference, we met Professor Miranda Forsyth, who
we've already mentioned in this episode.
We also met Professor Philip Gibbs, who's the president of
Divine Word University in Papua New Guinea and also works with
an organization we'll be talkingabout shortly called Stop
Sorcery Violence. We also met William Kapongi,
(19:08):
who's a research officer at the National Research Institute in
Papua New Guinea and a member ofthe Advisory Committee of
Innowara, the International Network Against Witchcraft
Accusations and Ritual Attacks, of which Miranda is the
director. Another tireless advocate in
Papua New Guinea who we weren't able to meet at this conference
(19:31):
but have spoken to several timesthrough the miracle known as
Zoom is Anton Lutz. He's our previous guest of the
podcast and he grew up doing mission work in Papua New Guinea
and continues to work against sorcery accusation related
violence. He also serves on the
(19:53):
International Networks Advisory Committee and created a teaching
resource for children called Peter and Grace Make a
Difference, and you can check that project out through a link
in our show notes. We've mentioned Inouara today,
the international network and another organization I just
(20:13):
alluded to that you should be aware of is Stop Sorcery
Violence. It's a joint collaboration
between researchers, the Papua New Guinea government and civil
society. Their website,
stopsorceryviolence.org, offers resources for individuals,
organizations, community, government, policymakers,
(20:34):
leaders, and others who are interested in learning about
SARP. Stop Sorcery Violence aims to
make public the information gathered around this issue and
about what's currently being done in the space.
They also offer important information on how to get help
if you or someone you know has been accused of sorcery or is in
(20:58):
danger in any way from a sorceryaccusation.
Stop Sorcery Violence Coalition is an example of the types of
collaborations we are saying areso necessary and are an example
of what could be very powerful in Africa.
You heard on yesterday's Podcaston 2025 episode on ending witch
(21:22):
hunts in Africa that Egway discussed the importance of all
stakeholders coming together. Individuals, organizations,
community, government, policymakers, leaders, and
anyone who's interested in helping.
And you can support all these advocates and organizations that
we've discussed by sharing theirsocial media, sharing podcast
(21:44):
episodes involving them, and by making financial contributions.
And I just want to remind you that all of this that we're
talking about is to save lives. And it's because of the victims.
It's because of these innocent children, women and men by the
thousands who are finding themselves on the wrong both
(22:08):
sides of an accusation of witchcraft is wrong, but on the
most dangerous side of a witchcraft accusation.
So it's really incredible and offers a lot of hope that so
many groups are working in so many places to confront
(22:29):
something that has gone on for long, way too long and needs
confronted delicately. We want to extend our sincere
gratitude to podcastthon.org forproviding this week of charity
focus. Other podcasts across the
network are also highlighting various worthy causes, and we
(22:50):
are so honored to have this opportunity to share the story
of this mission that's so dear to our hearts, the work of
tireless advocates around the world who want to end witch
hunts. Thank you so much for joining us
for podcast Thon. This is an important week.
We're hoping that you've learneda lot in that you are now aware
(23:14):
of these wonderful organizationsthat you can help out as we
outlined above. Tomorrow our podcast Thon Series
takes us to Asia and a look at what which branding is there?
So thank you again. Be sure to tune in tomorrow and
(23:34):
have a great today and a beautiful tomorrow.
Hi, I'm Josh Hutchinson and she's Sarah Jack.
And this is Witch Hunt Podcast. Welcome back to our Podcast on
2025 series Ending Witch Hunts. Our nonprofit and witch hunts is
a podcast on participating charity and Podcast on is a
global movement to spread the word about charities and causes.
(00:22):
We have a great website so please check it out and Witch
hunts.org to learn more and to donate.
In today's episode, we are goingto continue telling the witch
hunt story by covering sorcery accusation related violence,
also known as SARV in Papua New Guinea.
(00:42):
Papua New Guinea is located north of Australia and is a
culturally diverse island nation.
Yes. Comprising the eastern half of
the island of New Guinea, Papua New Guinea is home to between 12
and 17 million people. The exact count is hard to come
by because of the remote nature of many villages, especially in
(01:05):
the Highlands. If you aren't aware of how large
this community is, then how manylanguages they have is going to
be a surprise to you. It's 840 languages.
It's the most linguistically diverse nation in the world.
That's Papua New Guinea. It's also home to great natural
(01:27):
beauty and great ecological and geographic diversity.
You see landscapes such as beautiful coasts, high high
mountains, 15,000 feet and flat lands like the Australian
Outback, as well as very long beautiful rivers and valleys.
(01:48):
But amid this amazing landscape and amazing communities of
people, they are experiencing violence, including gender based
violence and sexual violence. According to the United States
Institute of Peace, each year more than 1.5 million women and
(02:09):
girls in Papua New Guinea experienced the gender based
violence tied to inter communal conflict, political
intimidation, domestic abuse andother causes.
The good news is many individuals and organizations
are advocating for solutions to these problems.
Today we'll discuss a few of thepeople involved.
(02:31):
Let's peel back the layers of witch hunting in Papua New
Guinea. Today's witchcraft terminology
is different than what you've heard in other episodes because
cultures around the world, including those in Papua New
Guinea, use different language to discuss similar issues, such
as witch hunting. While we're on the subject of
(02:53):
terminology, there are a couple more things to know.
One of the national languages ofPapua Guinea is Talk Paisan,
which is an English Creole language.
Looking at different biblical translations, we can see that
Bibles published on the island have different translations of
(03:14):
the words that are translated aswhich in English.
For instance, the Hebrew word translated as, which in English
Bibles is translated as sanguma in the talk Piston Bible
published by the Bible Society of Papua New Guinea and appears
in 9 Old Testament verses. Talking about biblical
translations and words for whicha witchcraft is significant
(03:38):
because colonialism introduced diabolical or evil types of
witchcraft concepts to many cultures around the globe.
And we talk about those and manyof our other episodes.
So we're not going to dig into that now, but this one is really
(04:01):
important to talk about because the term sanguma is something
that we attach to the term that we refer to as a witch in the
Bible, Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live is 1.
You may have heard, but sanguma,which is the terminology used
there, is a word that's evolved over the years and in its
(04:24):
original form, it didn't translate easily to English,
like which sanguma represents someone to fear.
But Sanguma was originally defined as a kind of a warrior
who attacked and tortured members of rival communities to
instill terror in their enemies.Today, sanguma means different
(04:46):
things in different communities.In Papua New Guinea, sanguma can
refer to a malevolent supernatural force or being.
In other places, sanguma can mean either the act of sorcery
or the person who commits the act, and in some places a
sanguma is a helpful magic practitioner.
(05:06):
You will really enjoy our Papua New Guinea episodes where we
have great discussions around this concept of sanguma and we
learned a lot from experts Miranda Forsyth and Anton Watts,
and they've both done direct advocacy within the communities
and that's how they're able to tell us all about it.
(05:28):
Now we're going to return to theterm we mentioned at the very
beginning of the episode, sorcery accusation related
violence. Sarv.
In Papua New Guinea, the term sorcery accusation related
violence is used to emphasize that the accusation of sorcery
is the central issue leading to a violence.
(05:48):
Yes, it's about the accusation, not about any act of sorcery.
SARV is a complex phenomenon with no single cause.
In a previous episode, Miranda Forsythe told us that SARV can
be understood through the metaphor of a wildfire requiring
a conducive landscape and a trigger event.
(06:09):
Miranda Forsythe is a professor and a social legal researcher at
the School of Regulation and Global Governance at the
Australian National University, and she's also the director of a
nonprofit we spoke about in our first episode in the series
called The International NetworkAgainst Witchcraft Accusations
and Ritual Attacks. Let's talk about her metaphor of
(06:32):
the wildfire. Although a lot of what we're
talking about in this episode isvery specific to Papua New
Guinea, this incredible metaphorthat she has developed really
represents how witch hunts quickly become a wildfire in any
place in the world, in any part of history.
(06:56):
It's because there's a conducivelandscape, like dry brush
providing fuel for the wildfire.This landscape includes two key
elements, belief that misfortunecan be caused by supernatural
forces and a socioeconomic dimension.
That socioeconomic dimension of the conducive landscape for SAR
(07:18):
in Papua New Guinea includes poverty, uncertainty, resource
scarcity, unequal wealth distribution, unemployment and a
lack of adequate social safety Nets.
If you've listened to previous episodes, you know these factors
or impacts in other countries aswell.
(07:39):
These are the factors that create environments where
individuals and communities are most vulnerable to misfortune
and may resort to accusations ofsorcery as an explanation or as
a means to address their challenges.
This is a lightning strike ignites a wildfire.
The trigger event sparks accusations of sorcery.
(08:03):
I'm going to tell you what some of those trigger events could be
death or sickness, especially ifit's the death of a child or an
unusual death. And almost any death can
potentially be attributed to sorcery.
There are various motives for accusations.
(08:25):
Sometimes people are after personal gain, such as trying to
obtain land, or they're desiringto resolve conflicts.
I have some new terminology to possibly introduce to you today.
Yesterday we were speaking aboutAfrica and talked about natural
healers, traditional healers. And in Papua New Guinea, there's
(08:49):
a role that diviners play in their communities and they are
called glassmen or glass Marys, and sometimes their role is in
identifying supposed sorcerers. There are self-proclaimed
spiritual warriors who unfortunately are identifying
(09:12):
individuals as sorcerers. And want to talk about who are
the victims of sorcery accusation related violence.
As we discussed at the top of the episode, gender based
violence is widespread in Papua New Guinea as some of the
highest levels of gender based violence in the world.
(09:33):
SARV is a gendered form of violence in most parts of the
world has been throughout history that women have been the
targets most frequently. And that's true in most of the
provinces of Papua New Guinea, but not all.
For example, on the island of Bougainville, it's primarily men
(09:54):
and boys who are accused and tortured because of the belief
that they are doing supernaturalharm.
Throughout Papua New Guinea, disturbingly, there's a trend of
children being accused. We talked about that in
yesterday's episode as well withIn the context of Africa, about
(10:16):
the children being accused and abandoned.
And unfortunately, in Papua New Guinea, children accused of
sorcery are often murdered. In Papua New Guinea, a lot of
work and research has been done around SARV and there is a
holistic approach that needs to be used to address it.
(10:39):
There's not a single solution, and we're going to tell you
about some of those initiatives.There is local Community Action
where within the communities in this advocacy effort, young men
are speaking out against the violence as role models and this
method is showing positive results.
(11:01):
Religious leadership is needed in Papua New Guinea to address
Sark. Fortunately, last year Pope
Francis visited the island and called upon the church to stand
by the victims of false sorcery accusations.
While Pope Francis was in Papua New Guinea, he met with a
(11:23):
wonderful woman named Sister Lorena Janal, who is associated
with the organization Misio, which is a worldwide Catholic
mission organization. It's part of the Pontifical
missions, so the Pope is involved in overseeing that.
(11:44):
And Sister Lorena has been working for years in Papua New
Guinea to support victims of SARV to She has rescued victims
from the grips of their attackers, and she has housed
women and help them get back on their feet following
accusations. And Sister Lorena Janal and the
(12:06):
Vizio organization are responsible for creating World
Day Against Witch Hunts, which is recognized and observed every
August 10th, which is the anniversary of a date when
Sister Lorena rescued a woman from an attack.
(12:27):
If you have your device handy, open up your calendar right now
and write on August 10th, World Day Against Witch Hunts.
It's a easy way for you to participate in raising awareness
by either sharing one of our episodes, share one of the
websites from one of the organizations we're covering
(12:48):
this week, or make a statement acknowledging World Day Against
Witch Hunts. Although August 10th as World
Day Against Witch Hunts is widely recognized by hundreds of
advocates right now, we still need to raise awareness about
(13:09):
it. So please jump in on August 10th
and say something about ending witch hunts and World Day
Against Witch Hunts. The other part of the holistic
approach is training healthcare workers in Papua New Guinea.
They are developing programs to train the frontline healthcare
(13:31):
workers to better address the sorcery concerns and explain
causes of death and sickness. There's a couple things that
could happen when someone has experienced harm from SARV.
They may be afraid to go in for medical treatment because
(13:52):
they've been branded sanguma or witch and not receive treatment
that they really need to live orsurvive their injuries because
of their fear of the response ofthe medical workers.
And so educating health care to recognize that these victims are
(14:13):
living in fear and need continued protection is really
key. And then, as I mentioned,
explaining the causes of death and sickness is really critical
because the fear of bad magic and sorcery is so often
attributed to death worldwide. So it's important to support
(14:36):
local action and insiders who have local knowledge and who
have legitimacy within their communities, but they can be
supported by connecting them with external resources and
networks which have the data andresources that are needed to
support them in whatever they need.
(14:57):
And another aspect of this holistic approach is education
communities. The local communities
experiencing SARV need to receive education but also we
need to be talking about it globally with the wider world so
that the reality of what's happening is understood.
(15:19):
Right awareness needs to be raised in Papua New Guinea and
globally about SARV and which hunts more generally, so that
more people can get involved in the advocacy, the activism,
pulling resources and information together so that
these holistic approaches can betested and people can learn from
(15:43):
what other people are doing also.
So it's very important to you beraising awareness.
I want to say, Josh, sorry to interrupt you, but you know
what, when we podcast and we areamplifying these stories, it's
not just to report, it's not just so oh, you might know a
little bit more. It's so that you, our listener
(16:07):
are engaged with this real crisis that's happening.
And if you talk about it within your circle, you may have
somebody who has a platform or aresource or some social power or
agency that can contribute on the ground in a real way.
(16:29):
So using this podcast to talk about Papua New Guinea and the
whole story of witch hunting is for you to learn, but then for
you to turn around and talk to your your friends and family
about. Now to put all the holistic
approach, to put all the ingredients together for the
(16:50):
holistic approach and to implement that approach, a
Sorcery National Action Plan wasadopted in 2014.
This National Action plan includes 5 main steps which are
to support the survivors throughoffering counseling and other
services for them, to support change in the healthcare sector
(17:16):
through advocacy and the healthcare worker training that
Sarah talked about previously. The third step is prevention
which involves advocacy and communications. 4th, legal
improvements are needed to both protect individuals from these
(17:37):
actions in the 1st place throughpolicing, and to prosecute those
who perpetrate the violence to bring them to justice.
And then the 5th step is to continue to do research to
quantify the scope of the problem, the scale of the
problem, how many people are getting accused in what's
(18:00):
happening to them, and to look at what are best practices,
what's working in different communities to affect positive
change. So more research is constantly
needed. We've talked about that in a
number of previous episodes. In 2024, Josh and I went to the
(18:21):
Witchcraft and Human Rights Conference in Lancaster, which
was a global meeting of human rights experts and some of the
Papua New Guinea advocates were there and we got to learn from
them and person and hear first hand what is happening on the
ground and what efforts are seeing successes there.
(18:46):
Yeah, At the conference, we met Professor Miranda Forsyth, who
we've already mentioned in this episode.
We also met Professor Philip Gibbs, who's the president of
Divine Word University in Papua New Guinea and also works with
an organization we'll be talkingabout shortly called Stop
Sorcery Violence. We also met William Kapongi,
(19:08):
who's a research officer at the National Research Institute in
Papua New Guinea and a member ofthe Advisory Committee of
Innowara, the International Network Against Witchcraft
Accusations and Ritual Attacks, of which Miranda is the
director. Another tireless advocate in
Papua New Guinea who we weren't able to meet at this conference
(19:31):
but have spoken to several timesthrough the miracle known as
Zoom is Anton Lutz. He's our previous guest of the
podcast and he grew up doing mission work in Papua New Guinea
and continues to work against sorcery accusation related
violence. He also serves on the
(19:53):
International Networks Advisory Committee and created a teaching
resource for children called Peter and Grace Make a
Difference, and you can check that project out through a link
in our show notes. We've mentioned Inouara today,
the international network and another organization I just
(20:13):
alluded to that you should be aware of is Stop Sorcery
Violence. It's a joint collaboration
between researchers, the Papua New Guinea government and civil
society. Their website,
stopsorceryviolence.org, offers resources for individuals,
organizations, community, government, policymakers,
(20:34):
leaders, and others who are interested in learning about
SARP. Stop Sorcery Violence aims to
make public the information gathered around this issue and
about what's currently being done in the space.
They also offer important information on how to get help
if you or someone you know has been accused of sorcery or is in
(20:58):
danger in any way from a sorceryaccusation.
Stop Sorcery Violence Coalition is an example of the types of
collaborations we are saying areso necessary and are an example
of what could be very powerful in Africa.
You heard on yesterday's Podcaston 2025 episode on ending witch
(21:22):
hunts in Africa that Egway discussed the importance of all
stakeholders coming together. Individuals, organizations,
community, government, policymakers, leaders, and
anyone who's interested in helping.
And you can support all these advocates and organizations that
we've discussed by sharing theirsocial media, sharing podcast
(21:44):
episodes involving them, and by making financial contributions.
And I just want to remind you that all of this that we're
talking about is to save lives. And it's because of the victims.
It's because of these innocent children, women and men by the
thousands who are finding themselves on the wrong both
(22:08):
sides of an accusation of witchcraft is wrong, but on the
most dangerous side of a witchcraft accusation.
So it's really incredible and offers a lot of hope that so
many groups are working in so many places to confront
(22:29):
something that has gone on for long, way too long and needs
confronted delicately. We want to extend our sincere
gratitude to podcastthon.org forproviding this week of charity
focus. Other podcasts across the
network are also highlighting various worthy causes, and we
(22:50):
are so honored to have this opportunity to share the story
of this mission that's so dear to our hearts, the work of
tireless advocates around the world who want to end witch
hunts. Thank you so much for joining us
for podcast Thon. This is an important week.
We're hoping that you've learneda lot in that you are now aware
(23:14):
of these wonderful organizationsthat you can help out as we
outlined above. Tomorrow our podcast Thon Series
takes us to Asia and a look at what which branding is there?
So thank you again. Be sure to tune in tomorrow and
(23:34):
have a great today and a beautiful tomorrow.
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