🇵🇬 Butibam Village Road Upgrade, Lae | DJI Mini 4 Pro Drone View

Описание: 🇵🇬 Butibam Village, Lae — Morobe Province

This aerial footage captured using a DJI Mini 4 Pro drone on Saturday, 24 January, shows the road through Butibam Village as it undergoes its first major upgrade in many years. Construction has already progressed beyond what is shown in this video, but this flight documents an important moment in the village’s development.


In the 1970s, the road was fully sealed all the way to Kamkung. Years of neglect, however, saw it deteriorate into one of the worst roads in Lae — an ironic outcome for a village that has sacrificed much of its land for the development of the City of Lae.

Much of the surrounding area was once bushland used by Butibam villagers for gardening and subsistence, land that sustained families for generations. Over time, most of this traditional gardening land has been sold to industries and settlers, leaving little space for village food gardens today.

Growing up in Butibam in the 1970s and 1980s, life was very different. We were never hungry. Families relied on taro, bananas, vegetables, and fruit grown in our own gardens, providing food security and passing knowledge from one generation to the next.

Today, that way of life has largely disappeared. Children no longer enjoy the same access to gardening land, and with it, an important source of nutrition, independence, and cultural identity has been lost.

Despite the difficult trade-offs — including the road now running close to family yards — the people of Butibam welcome this long-overdue road upgrade as a necessary step towards improved access, connectivity, and development.

This video is both:

A visual record of infrastructure change, and
A reflection on land use, development choices, and planning for the future of our children.

🚁 Captured with DJI Mini 4 Pro
📍 Butibam Village, Lae
🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea