Playground Development in Papua New Guinea: Creating New Play, Learning and Research Environments

Abstract

The University of Canberra and the Playground Ideas organization in Australia, and the Pacific Adventist University and Koiari Park Adventist Primary School in Papua New Guinea, partnered to create a demonstration playground and research site in Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea. The long-term goal of this collaborative partnership was to promote playgrounds built of locally sourced materials as safe and stimulating play and learning environments for children and also to serve as community hubs. This field report describes the activities involved in developing the demonstration site including the multiple project partnerships, the community-informed playground design and the playground construction process. Our shared experiences indicate there is much potential for future playground development and we strongly advocate school playgrounds as play and learning environments in Papua New Guinea.