Ishmael Toroama Photo: Facebook
Bougainville's new leader says locals need to return to the innovative, inventive ways they displayed during the civil war.
In his first major speech as president, Ishmael Toroama said the crisis liberated the thinking of Bougainvilleans, leading to innovations such as the use of coconut oil as fuel.
But Mr Toroama says that has been lost and Bougainvilleans again risk becoming bystanders in their own land.
He says it is up to the Bougainville leadership to re-activate this willingness to be inventive.
"When controlled leadership is in place the whole idea of innovation, inventions of the mind, your political inventions, you can talk about spiritual inventions, you can talk about the social behaviour of the people, why they adapt, into getting them into innovating themselves on such ideas," Ishmael Toroama said.
