Negotiating Communities: Sustainable cultural surf tourism

In the mid-1980s, young Papua New Guinean, Andy Abel, broke his leg in a motocross accident. The result was a trip south to Australia, for surgery and extensive convalescence. Leaving his tropical Papua New Guinean home became something of an awakening for the teenage Andy, a third generation member of one of Papua New Guineas most esteemed pioneering missionary and political families. The Abel family can trace its history back 122 years ago when Andy's grandfather, Reverend Charles William Abel of the London Missionary Society, landed on Kwato Island, Milne Bay Province in 1891. His late father, Sir Cecil Abel KBE, OBE, was a Cambridge educated political scientist who served with the Allied Forces during the Battle of Milne Bay during World War 11. He later went on to work with Papua New Guineas founding Prime Minister, Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare, and other pioneering leaders, to gain independence for Papua New Guinea in 1975 after 70 years of Australian administration.