Южная Высокогорье Папуа — Новой Гвинеи: люди, языки и политическая история.

Southern Highlands is a province in Papua New Guinea. Its provincial capital is the town of Mendi. According to Papua New Guinea's national 2011 census, the total population of Southern Highlands (after the separation of Hela Province) is 515,511 spread across .

Southern Highlands has diversly more than 8 groups of people, the Kutubu Bosavi are partly of the Huli tribes and coastal, they speak Hela and the Foe Faso languages, the Erave Samberigi people also are of coastal or Papuan descent and speak their own, Poroma, Nipa and Plato speak the Nongo Naiko dialect as of the Mendi people but in a twist of tongue, the people surrounding Mt Giluwe and Ialibu speak the Umbu Ungu dialect while Pangia and Kagua people speak their two different languages. The Imboungu and parts of Ialibu people speak Kewabi languages. This shows that there are more than 8 major languages and 18 24 different tribes that live in SHP. Some tribes extends all the way to newly formed Hela province, Enga,Western Highlands Province, Gulf Province, Simbu Province and the Western Provinces. SHP is quite uniquely diverse in tribes and people of both coastal and Highlands descent living with their varying cultures and traditions passed down from generations to generations.

In July 2009, Parliament passed legislation to create two new provinces by 2012. One of these was to be created by removing the districts of Tari Pori, Komo Magarima, and Koroba Kopiago from the Southern Highlands Province to form the new Hela Province. Hela Province officially came into being on 17 May 2012.

The province was governed by a decentralised provincial administration, headed by a Premier, from 1978 to 1995. Following reforms taking effect that year, the national government reassumed some powers, and the role of Premier was replaced by a position of Governor, to be held by the winner of the province wide seat in the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea.

The province and each district is represented by a Member of the National Parliament. There is one provincial electorate and each district is an open electorate. Electorate Member Southern Highlands Provincial William Powi Ialibu Pangia Open Peter O'Neill Imbonggu Open Pila Niningi Kagua Erave Open Maina Pano Mendi Open Raphael Tonpi Nipa Kutubu Open Billy William M. Joseph

On 1 August 2006, the government of Papua New Guinea declared a state of emergency in the country's Southern Highlands region. According to Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare, troops were deployed to restore 'law, order and good governance' in the region, following accusations of corruption, theft and misuse of government buildings at the hands of the regional government. As a region rich in energy resources, the Southern Highlands was at the centre of plans to construct a gas pipeline to pump natural gas to Queensland in north Australia. The project would have resulted in much needed revenue for Papua New Guinea, and as it was believed that the instability in the region could jeopardise the project, the national government decided to intervene by declaring a state of emergency. The move was supported by Parliament, although some criticism was leveled at the government for restricting press access to the region while the state of emergency was in force. The companies involved subsequently opted for the current PNG Gas project which has export facilities outside Port Moresby. This is operated by Esso Highlands, a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation, and is expected to begin production in 2014.