I went to PNG as a lecturer in economics in 1973 and left three years later as a student of anthropology and have remained one ever since. Following doctoral work at Cambridge I spent a year in Bastar District, India, in 1982-3 undertaking ethnographic research on the rural marketing system. I have made some 16 return trips over the past 35 years whilst employed as a lecturer in Anthropology at ANU. My research focus has moved from the economy to include kinship and religion, as reflected in rice rituals and accompanying oral epics sung by female priestesses. I lived in Fiji for four years from 2008 to 2012, which enabled me to pursue my interests in kinship and the economy in a broader comparative context. Work (with H Vaishnav) on the transcription and translation of a 31,000-word Halbi rice epic has been completed. This will be published soon along with an accompanying analytical volume that locates the rice culture in Bastar in comparative and historical context.