Kinship, Biocultural Sovereignty, and Love: Indigenous‐Led Conservation and Collaboration in New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. The Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania ( <scp>ASAO</scp> ) 2025 Distinguished Lecture

ABSTRACT This article examines an Indigenous‐led approach to conservation developed through more than 17 years of collaboration between Ailan Awareness, a community‐based organization in New Ireland, Papua New Guinea, and an anthropologist working in the region. Our partnership is grounded in kinship, reciprocity, and long‐term accountability, and it demonstrates how conservation can be reimagined as an Indigenous resurgence practice rather than an externally imposed model. Drawing on ritual traditions such as Vala , which integrates socio‐spiritual authority with ecological restoration, and institutions such as the Ranguva Solwara Skul , which fosters intergenerational knowledge transmission, we show how biocultural diversity is enacted as both a political claim and an ecological necessity. Ethnographic, ecological, and archival research conducted in partnership with local communities reveals that conservation here is inseparable from Indigenous sovereignty, spiritual obligation, and cultural revitalization. We argue that these efforts constitute biocultural sovereignty: a mode of environmental governance that centres customary law, ancestral ties, and collective decision‐making. By situating conservation within the lived moral fabric of kinship and community life, our work challenges dominant conservation paradigms and offers pathways for decolonial, place‐based environmental practice. Ultimately, we show that conservation grounded in kinship and love sustains both ecological and cultural futures.