A conference will be held in June to try to address the growing number of sorcery related incidents in Papua New Guinea.
It will be convened by an anthropologist at the National University of Australia, Dr Richard Eves, who says sorcery killings in PNG are becoming more public, attracting crowds in urban places, something that hasn't occurred in the past.
Dr Eves says the conference in Canberra will pull together academics, NGOs and politicians, including a number from PNG.
"We're really keen to do a number of things. Firstly, we want to map out a sort of research agenda on how to address this problem. We're particularly keen to develop research that can actually develop culturally sensitive and culturally relevant interventions for how to address it as a social problem."
Dr Richard Eves from the Australian National University in Canberra.
