KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – On this day Francis Nii, one of Papua New Guinea’s most eminent literary figures, is being buried in the soil of his Simbu homeland at Kundiawa.

And also today, PNG Attitude establishes a fund to ensure that the many words and deeds of Francis Nii will endure and not be lost to the future.

Early commitments to the fund already total $1,400 on the way to a target of $10,000.

The money will be used to initiate a project to collect Francis’s most significant essays, articles, poetry and commentary into a book which will also include some of his fellow writers’ observations of his work and his life.

The collection will honour Francis’s writing and other good works and continue his advocacy for the proper recognition of home-grown Papua New Guinean literature.

Dependent upon how much money we can collect, the book will be made freely available to PNG libraries and other appropriate institutions as well as being sold commercially.

It will also be gifted to Francis’s family and the groups and people he was closely associated with in Simbu.

We are asking readers of PNG Attitude and organisations that support the development of PNG literature to donate to the FRANCIS NII COLLECTION so we can complete this project before the end of 2020.

As well as our gratitude, all donations of $50 or over will receive first edition copies of the FRANCIS NII COLLECTION.

We are asking you to donate whatever you can afford – large or small – to make this project a success.

Bank transfers can be made to:

Keith Jackson
National Australia Bank
BSB 082-302
Account 50650-1355

When you have made your donation, email me at benelong@bigpond.net.au and let me know.

NEWSDESK
| Pacific Media Watch

AUCKLAND - Hostile media environments in Fiji, Papua New Guinea and West Papua pose growing challenges to the Melanesian region’s democracies, says Pacific Journalism Review in its latest edition.

The New Zealand-based research journal warns that laws and cultural restrictions are providing barriers to open information and are silencing journalists.

Partnering with the Melanesia Media Freedom Forum and Griffith University, the journal has published 32 articles in the July edition, mostly devoted to threats to the region’s media but also addressing other critical issues such as the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and tropical cyclones.

“The legacy of the former Fijian military dictatorship continues to maintain a stranglehold on the local press under prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama, fostering a culture of self-censorship,” the journal says in an editorial.

The publication, founded in Papua New Guinea and now in its 26th year, refers to Fiji’s “repressive” media industry development decree that became a parliamentary Act in 2015, paving the way for “even more insidious control” through a state-controlled Media Industry Development Authority.

Vanuatu’s arbitrary government attempt to deny former Vanuatu Daily Post media director Dan McGarry permission to re-enter the country in November 2019 after he participated in the inaugural Melanesia Media Freedom Forum conference in Brisbane “heralds a troubling time for press freedom”.

The election of prime minister James Marape in Papua New Guinea in mid-2019 removed “the dictatorial grip” of former prime minister Peter O’Neill that led to “countless violations of press freedom – but media freedom … remains endangered”.

The Pacific Journalism Review also highlighted how both daily newspapers were owned by overseas multinationals – the PNG Post-Courier by Australian-US media tycoon Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, and The National by Malaysian logging company Rimbunan Hijau.

Press freedom in “Indonesian-occupied West Papua continues to deteriorate” and a handful of courageous journalists were “walking a thin line between compliance and press freedom”.

This edition of Pacific Journalism Review– edited by Kasun Ubayasiri, Faith Valencia-Forrester, David Robie, Philip Cass, and Nicole Gooch – has also acknowledged positive developments in media freedom, “however fleeting”.

Journal managing editor Professor David Robie described this as the “most significant” volume of Pacific journalism research ever produced and it was a “voice for the voiceless”.

There are also articles on investigative journalism as research, creative practice as research in the Frontline department, and Nobel Peace Prize co-winner Professor Elisabeth Holland writes about Tropical Cyclone Harold’s swathe of destruction through four Pacific countries and the impact of covid-19.

Articles on journalism education in Timor-Leste and the history of New Zealand’s unique name suppression laws are also featured.

The reviews section is led by a compelling analysis of the 1972 sacking of Listener editor Alexander MacLeod, along with an interview with ‘Akilisi Pohiva biographer Michael Field, and reviews of the recently published controversial book The Road: Uprising in West Papua and The Refugee’s Messenger, a collection edited by TRT World Research Centre director Dr Tarek Cherkaoui.

At 324 pages, this is the largest Pacific Journalism Review volume published. The journal was recently added to the global Directory of Open Access Journals, to supplement the SCOPUS and Web of Science indexes where it is already listed.

Liz and Chenz at an ASOPA class  reunion in 2011

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – When the message circled the globe a few times and finally landed in my inbox it brought the gloomy news that Barry Whitby Vincent had died last Sunday. He would have been close to 80.

My immediate thought was of a young man with a friendly grin. A more pleasant fellow than Chenz not to be found.

We called him Chenz although he had told us he preferred Barry, Bazza or BV, anointed in an earlier life.

But that’s what young men do – solicit your nickname, reject it and invent another purpose-designed to annoy you.

Anyway Chenz it was and there it is stuck nearly 60 years later, even though he and I had scarcely met – maybe just a couple of times - since we left the Australian School of Pacific Administration (ASOPA) and made our way to Papua New Guinea a week before President Kennedy was shot in November 1963.

Chenz went to the Central District to become headmaster at Pari before quitting teaching in 1966, the same year I did, to become a training officer first in the Department of Posts and Telegraphs and then the Department of Civil Aviation.

He left Port Moresby for Darwin in 1974 and spent four years as senior training officer in the Department of Health before being sucked into the Canberra vortex for 25 years, ending his career as assistant manager of energy management programs in the Department of Primary Industries.

He and Liz then retired to Lake Macquarie which he told me he loved, later moving to what a pal termed “very comfortable digs on a hill overlooking the water” at Hervey Bay.

Subsequent life was not kind to Chenz, though, and he had to bear the curse of Parkinson’s Disease for many of those years since.

On first landing in PNG, before his promotion to Pari, he was at Tubesereia Primary School under the respective headmasters Ian Robertson and John Maksimas.

“Tubesereia was the most memorable of my PNG assignment,” he told me.

“Confronting the challenge of living in a new country in which the first language was not English, adapting to new cultures and beliefs and realising that electricity and running water were not to be taken for granted.”

Some years later, after PNG independence, he returned for a while as part of an Australian aid project to upgrade the skills of training officers. “PNG certainly wasn’t the same,” he said. “Dare I say, a siege mentality was evident amongst expats.”

He recalled ASOPA, where we trained as teachers in 1962-63, as “two years of fellowship, friendship and fun, interlaced with a unique learning experience.”

It was always good to have guys like Chenz around. Permanently good humoured and reliably friendly, prepared to cop any drama with a benign grin even when anointed with aN unwanted nickname.

Chenz, Bazza, BV, Barry was one of those blokes who, as the wick now begins to burn low and the wax gutters, you wish you’d been sensible enough to spend more time with.

He certainly turned that ASOPA certificate in education into a fine career and gave Australia its money’s worth.

A rare group photo of Francis Nii with fellow writers Daniel Kumbon, Philip Fitzpatrick, Martyn Namorong and Keith Jackson (Brisbane Writers Festival, 2016)

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – In Germany a Festschrift is a book honouring a respected person. It is generally presented during their lifetime, although it can also be a memorial.

PNG Attitude’s Festschrift for the late author Francis Nii will take the form of an edited volume of Francis’s most significant essays, articles, poetry and commentary, his ideas and achievements and it will include fellow writers’ observations of his work, his methods and his life.

To create a national literature is not just gathering a few people in a backroom to write and talk, although it may start from such conversations - of which Papua New Guinea has had many.

Such a grand enterprise of course requires writers, and prominent ones, because by definition a literature is built from the creative urge of essayists and poets and novelists and the commentariat and the rest.

But it also requires publishers, mentors, advocates, marketers, teachers, petitioners and, arguably most important of all, administrators – those planners and organisers and networkers and negotiators – who can bring everything together, make an industry of it and give it a future.

I only ever met one man in Papua New Guinea who had the capability to put all of those demands together.

He was the man in the wheelchair and hospital bed in the Four Corner Town, Kundiawa.

Francis Sina Nii.

Francis was a writer who also understood the business of writers - its administrative and technical complexity.

With virtually no resources (and those he acquired were often stolen from him), he put together a micro industry.

His was a tour de force without resources. Nothing represented this more than his tapping out a novel on a mobile phone while lying on a rough hospital bed surrounded by the noise and emotion of sickness and death.

A Francis Nii who had the support and recognition he deserved could have provided for Papua New Guinea the cultural and educational agency literature could offer.

He could have created the legacy required to achieve those PNG national goals that after 45 years have proved as elusive as they are grand.

Too often it is that only when a man dies do we fully realise the qualities that have been lost to us and do we come to appreciate the full extent of his talents and understand the depth of his influence.

On this last Sunday, when Francis Nii died, along with the great grief many of us felt, we also realised we had lost both a good and courageous man and someone who knew what to do and - with the simple pragmatism required by the complex challenges he faced -  had managed to take it so far.

The intelligence, wisdom and creative energy  Francis Nii possessed and which drove his ragged body to great heights of achievement now need to be harnessed by others.

What Francis knew and understood, as well as what he did, must not be lost but be built on.

That’s why we are asking readers of PNG Attitude and organisations that support the development of PNG literature to donate to THE FRANCIS NII COLLECTION – a project that will ensure that the multiplicity of talents Francis was able to deploy will not be lost even though the man himself is not with us.

We need people who value PNG literature, or who value literature in general, to donate to a fund that will help ensure that the words and deeds of Francis Nii endure and that he leave behind a legacy not just a reputation.

The money will initiate and produce a project to collect Francis’s most significant ideas, understandings, essays, articles, poetry and commentary into a book augmented by some of his fellow writers’ observations of his work, his methods and his legacy.

THE FRANCIS NII COLLECTION will honour Francis’s writing and other good works and provide a platform to continue his advocacy for the proper recognition and support of a home-grown Papua New Guinean literature.

A group of Papua New Guinean and Australian writers and supporters have begun to work on this project which will require a budget of about $10,000. Early commitments to the fund total over $2,000, which is a good start.

We are asking you to donate whatever you can afford – large or small – to make this project a success. And to encourage others to do the same.

As well as our gratitude, all donations of $50 or over will receive first edition copies of THE FRANCIS NII COLLECTION.

Bank transfers can be made to:

Keith Jackson
National Australia Bank
BSB 082-302
Account 50650-1355

When you have made your gift, email me at benelong@bigpond.net.au and let me know that you have been able to contribute to the Festschrift for Francis Nii.

His wheelchair is now empty but there is an important legacy to protect and advance.

THE FRANCIS NII COLLECTION

PNG Attitude seeks your help to publish a collection of the best essays, poetry, articles & commentary of the late Francis Nii – author, mentor, publisher, literary leader & patriot. Details in the article below.Donations so far - $2,850. Thanks to  Geoff Hancock, Lance Hill, Ed Brumby, William Dunlop, Ross Wilkinson, Lindsay Bond, Paul Oates, Rob Parer, Robin Lillicrap, Philip Fitzpatrick, Ben Jackson, Bernard Corden, Keith Jackson
Bank transfers can be made to Keith Jackson / National Australia Bank /
BSB 082-302 /Account 50650-1355

THE FINAL HOUR - Philip Kai Morre: “I was at Francis’s bedside the hour before his death. He was weak and could not talk but smiled at me. I knew he soon will be gone. God must have told him ‘you have written and done so much for humanity and now I will give you rest.’ His wife Cathy said, ‘He did talk about you and all the writers to say thank you’. Francis glanced at me and smiled again.

James Marape - the uncertainties over coming months will test the resilience & stability of the country & his government

BAL KAMA
| The Interpreter | Lowy Institute

SYDNEY - The resilience and stability of Papua New Guinea is under growing strain as the country navigates what has already been an unprecedented year.

Beyond the increase in Covid-19 cases and the effect the virus is having on lives and livelihoods, the government has overcome a court challenge to the election of prime minister James Marape and has undertaken some significant law reforms on the mining and anti-corruption fronts.

Ultimately, the issue for PNG on fighting corruption is not the need for more laws, but the need for the enforcement of existing laws.

To that end, the long-awaited arrest of former prime minister Peter O’Neill in May over alleged corruption was significant.

Yet it is not only in fighting allegations of corruption where the need for enforcing the law is paramount.

The recent drug bust of more than 500 kilograms of cocaine en route to Australia signals serious transnational criminal activity in the country, challenging the under-resourced law enforcement agencies.

The worrying number of gender-based violence cases remains a national issue and highlights the need to change attitudes, too.

These events followed the expectations for some action on the result of last year’s historic referendum in Bougainville on independence from PNG.

On the foreign policy front, the increasing tension between the West and China underscores that a proposed naval base arrangement with Australia on Manus Island looks set to test PNG’s non-aligned status.

While scrutiny of the government, especially by the Opposition, is important, both sides need to avoid misinformation and petty politics.

Taken together, this marks a daunting set of challenges for any government. But there is more.

A significant development earlier in the year was the decision of the government not to renew the mining licence of the Canadian-owned Barrick Gold over its operations in Porgera in the Highlands of PNG.

Porgera is an established mine that has been critical to the economy since 1990, but it is also marred with controversies around environmental and human rights issues.

Barrick disputes the government’s decision and has opted to take PNG to arbitration at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Barrick is also seeking a judicial review in PNG courts.

Running the matter concurrently in ICSID, however, has the potential to undermine the judicial process and outcomes in PNG.

While Marape’s stance earlier against America’s ExxonMobil and currently with Barrick is assuring to those who are concerned with issues of fairness in the resource sector, some who are reliant on the sector for their livelihood such as employees, contractors and landowner groups have shown concern.

However, unless the court decides otherwise, the decision is permitted under the PNG Mining Act, and the government is mindful that reversing it may risk undermining the legal framework.

Further, the debate on the issue is mainly around concerns for losses of investor confidence, employment and revenue for the country.

While these are important considerations, they also perpetuate dependency and doubt on any attempt at innovation and economic independence.

As a high yield mine, Porgera is likely to attract investors and resume operation, should Barrick’s bid for reconsideration be unsuccessful.

Mining might be expected to be the dominant controversy. But the virus that has shaken the world economy is now again rattling PNG.

PNG is at the edge of a serious outbreak of Covid-19. The long-neglected health system, the communal way of life and the systemic weaknesses in enforcement mechanisms are some of the challenges to the effective management of any outbreak.

In some parts of the country where deaths from diseases are readily linked to supernatural causes, issues such as sorcery-based violence are likely to flare. Clear communication from the government is therefore critical.

While scrutiny of the government, especially by the Opposition, is important, both sides need to avoid misinformation and petty politics that are likely to undermine community preparedness. There must be bipartisanship in managing Covid-19.

Politicians who have long neglected to prioritise an effective health system must take responsibility in ensuring their people have the support and leadership to withstand the looming pandemic.

On the foreign policy front, the agreement between defence officials in PNG and Australia to establish a naval base at Manus Island appears to stagger under the current government.

As Australia joins the US in ramping up its defence posture against China, PNG is wary that having a naval base in Manus will make PNG a direct target of the rapidly advancing Chinese military arsenal.

On the other hand, while PNG has long heralded a “friends to all and enemy to none” posture, PNG has yet to articulate how it will remain unaligned in the event of a conflict, considering it is likely to be caught in some crossfire.

Marape’s government has overseen some unprecedented developments in the past 14 months. But the prospect of a vote of no confidence against a sitting government looms again from November, and those affected by Marape’s policies are likely to hope for a change.

That hope will go beyond just his immediate political rivals and into company boardrooms.

The uncertainties of the coming months will undoubtedly test the resilience of the people, the stability of the country, and demand unprecedented unity and bipartisanship from all local political leaders.

W D BROWNSMITH

CANBERRA - Zoom was the venue as Australia and Papua New Guinea relaunched their bilateral relationship on Wednesday.

Prime ministers Scott Morrison and James Marape then released a statement outlining a new comprehensive strategic and economic partnership between the two countries. (Although Mr Morrison was the only one to grace the washed out cover photo.)

Joint statements between PNG and Australia are always composed after donning the rose-tinted spectacles and repetitiously proofread to remove the slightest possible blemish.

There is particular thoroughness when it comes to bilateral messaging between friendly nations and especially so when Scotty from Marketing is involved.

But in this case there was also more than the usual diplomatic doublespeak, which led this correspondent to direct a heavy-duty spotlight on the statement.

Under its searching glare the intellectual dishonesty underpinning the partnership was revealed.

It is only a few lines into the media statement that you realise that both prime ministers have decided to ignore recent history and whitewash current reality.

In the first pillar of the new partnership, ‘Strong Democracies for a Stable Future’, the prime ministers assure us about “our democratic institutions, which are free from coercion and interference, form the foundations of our security and stability”.

The phrase “free from coercion and interference” is the give-away. Given that this is implicit in talking about democratic institutions, why would it be singled out for special mention here?

Is it an issue so poignant that it must be denied without inducement (not to mention coercion and interference) in full daylight?

In this era of Covid-19, 2017 seems a long time ago, but PNG Attitude readers will remember PNG held a general election that year.

When the dust finally settled – and there was a lot of it – 111 members of parliament were elected (no women, you may recall) with Peter O’Neill comfortably resuming his role as prime minister.

The polling process was marred by irregularities, very many of them according to independent scrutiny, including bizarrely high voter turnouts in key constituencies.

Then finance minister James Marape was the first MP to declare victory – a significant political power moment in PNG.

But eyebrows were raised when it turned out that 145% more people had voted in his Tari electorate than were registered on the electoral roll.

Transparency International PNG strongly condemned the election’s lack of transparency and adherence to proper process, observing the “strong public perception that our democracy is being challenged by vested interests, acting with apparent impunity, and this appears to have heightened during the process of election.”

TIPNG’s election report, like that of the Australian National University, provides grim reading.

Tales of voter intimidation, vote rigging, corrupt polling officials and bribery on an industrial scale.

It was commented upon at the time that none of this seemed to worry Australia’s then foreign minister, Julie Bishop, who closed her eyes, buried her head in the sand and still managed to dispatch a congratulatory cable on a “successful” election.

Successful for some, you might say.

It was a different story in PNG’s autonomous region of Bougainville, which voted for independence in a referendum last year. The voting occurred peacefully, honestly and without major incident.

While 97.7% of voters selected independence, there is official opacity on how the result will be implemented. It’s a process that requires ratification by the PNG national parliament, which is not by any means guaranteed.

As Freedom House, an NGO that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, has suggested democracy – including political rights and civil liberties – is not functioning well in PNG.

There are real challenges facing PNG – like democratic values, rigged elections, seemingly government-sanctioned deep rooted corruption – that the Australian government is apparently ready to ignore or forgive in order to maintain its strategic relationship with PNG.

This makes it impossible to find a pathway to improving PNG’s democracy and a gateway for Papua New Guineans to gain a fairer share of the wealth flowing from the country’s resource riches.

Australia is clearly not interested in creating a ‘Strong Democracy’ in PNG as it is a compliant neighbour. And whether this will lead to a ‘Stable Future’ must be a highly doubtful proposition.

So the ‘Comprehensive Strategic Economic Partnership’ falls at the first hurdle of maintaining democratic values.

What we’re going to get is not more than a continuation of the same uncomfortable and often compromised fumbling and a transactional not a truly strategic relationship between Australian politicians and PNG’s elite.

The first wanting a quiet life; the second the personal enrichment that flows from it.

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

Flight of Jungle Eagle – An Autobiography of Wake Goi, Francis Nii Publications, 2020, 168 pages, ISBN: 9798640309997, US$21.50 from Amazon.com

TUMBY BAY – This work is notable for a number of reasons including that it was the last book that was edited and published by Francis Nii, who most of our readers will know died on Sunday.

Francis worked on the book while he was ill, managing to complete it during a respite in his battle for survival. A battle he ultimately lost.

The other noteworthy aspect, as Francis says in his introduction, is that Wake Goi’s is an inspirational story, demonstrating how anyone can work their way upwards from the most humble of beginnings.

And if anyone knew something about inspiration and battling adversity it was Francis Nii.

Wake Goi is a well-known figure in the health services field in Jiwaka and Eastern Highlands provinces.

He is currently in his second term as the member for Jimi Open and is minister for community development, youth and religion in Papua New Guinea’s national government.

This is the first volume in a series of three and covers his time as a child growing up in the Jimi Valley through to his first election to parliament in 2007.

Unusually for a politician, this biography is honest and frank, highlighting his successes but also his struggles and failures.

Wake Goi was born in 1968, which was a time of great change in Papua New Guinea, particularly in the remote Jimi region.

His journey from what is euphemistically called the Stone Age through to modernity was quite literal.

His challenges began with the death of his mother and his grandmother when he was quite young and the struggle of his father, Goi, to bring him up alone.

In the remote mountains where he lived, family life revolved around gardening and hunting and many children could not access formal education.

This first volume is essentially the story of how Wake Goi overcame these drawbacks and succeeded in creating a new and rewarding life for himself.

Like many young men in those days the changes in PNG could be distracting and Wake experienced many ups and downs of his own making.

He is happy to admit he wasn’t the most dedicated of students and let many opportunities slip through his fingers.

However, after several false starts he knuckled down and in 1990 succeeded in completing a diploma at the Nazarene College of Nursing at Kudjip in the Western Highlands.

In fact he was sitting on the banks of the Mants River operating a card gambling scam with one of his friends when he received the news he had narrowly won a place at the college through the default of another applicant.

After several bush postings in both Jiwaka and Eastern Highlands, Wake Goi began work with the Evangelical Brotherhood Church Health Service.

Prior to his election to parliament in 2007 he had worked his way up to the position of general secretary.

It is unusual indeed to read a warts and all account of his life by a serving politician. That’s not something you encounter every day anywhere in the world.

And Wake Goi could not have found a more empathetic or understanding editor and publisher for this enterprise than the late Francis Nii.

__________

THE FRANCIS NII COLLECTION

PNG Attitude is seeking donations from readers to enable us to publish a collection of the best essays, poetry, articles and commentary by the late Francis Nii – author, mentor, publisher and one of the outstanding literary figures Papua New Guinea has produced.

Bank transfers large or small (or middle sized) can be made to:

Keith Jackson:
National Australia Bank
BSB 082-302
Account 50650-1355

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - You may have heard more than once persons of senior years proclaiming that the older they get the less they know.

That proclamation doesn’t mean a shrinking knowledge. What these aged folk mean is that the older they get the more they discover the vastness of human knowledge and the small part of it that they know or understand.

It’s a bit like suddenly being able to see the incomprehensible vastness of space beyond the stars visible in the sky at night.

Younger people rarely admit to such a lack of knowledge. As far as they’re concerned they know just about everything and what don’t they can easily find out with a few taps on their smart phone.

There are a few subtleties involved in elderly knowledge of course. There are some things, for instance, that elderly people don’t actually want to know about.

Technical stuff is high on that list, especially if it is related to mind-muddling digital matters.

There seems to be a constant snowstorm of technical guff blowing across the landscape designed specifically to befuddle older folk.

At the other end of the spectrum is the ancient stuff they discover they should have known about a long time ago.

A similar phenomenon is finding out that something they have believed all their life is wrong. That happens a lot. Older people often vividly remember things that never happened.

All of these discoveries, whether old or new, are delightful chirrups at the tail end of life. Waiting for the next revelation can be life affirming.

As you have probably guessed I’m speaking from experience. Fortunately I’m old enough to admit to my cognitive deficits and my inability to understand stuff.

There’s lots of stuff I can’t get my head around no matter how hard I try. It comes and goes but a recent example is what economists call ‘quantitative easing’ and journalists refer to as ‘printing money’.

How on earth can a government simply print more money without having some sort of asset like gold bullion to back it up?

Now, I know there are financial wonks out there dying to explain it all to me but please be assured that I was programmed way back in the 1940s and my operating system doesn’t recognise fuzzy logic.

What I think happens is that governments like the USA and Australia, who seem able to print money when they feel like it, actually do so by selling the banks and other financial institutions a form of promissory note or bond.

Those who buy these things are taking a gamble that they will eventually be able to sell them back to the government with a bit of interest added.

This can get a bit dodgy, as the USA is finding out, because one of the major buyers of their bonds is China. Sooner or later China will be in a position to bankrupt the USA by cashing in the bonds they hold. Except, of course, it is also up to its neck in debt.

No doubt treasurers in Papua New Guinea have contemplated printing money by issuing bonds at some stage but then realised no one would buy them because they knew the likelihood of getting their money back was next to zero.

Or maybe I’ve got it all wrong. Maybe it’s simply a matter of the treasury department telling the finance department to type numbers into bank accounts.

Keystrokes on computers in a virtual system creating money out of thin air! Imagine how that could work in the wrong hands, inflation going through the roof.

If that’s the case it also means that the government, if it was so inclined, could turn the value of that $10,000 you’ve got stashed in the bank into $1,000 in the blink of an eye. Such is the tenuous nature of our money economy.

One thing plain to me is that the global financial system is floating on very thin ice with nothing underneath to save it if the ice gives way.

That’s the bit I just can’t grasp. To me that all sounds incredibly dumb. But, then again, there are lots of things going on in the world that seem dumb. Ignoring climate change for instance.

Well, dumb to me at least, but I’m just an old grey fogey who can’t be expected to understand.

Now why does that make me feel so uneasy?

Maybe I’m better off not knowing.

FRANCIS NII
| The PNG Writer, No 1, 1985 

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – According to their first president, Micheal Yaki Mel, in late November 1984 “a group of eager young writers based at the University Papua New Guinea got together to express their dissatisfaction over the lack of publishing outlets for their work.

“Many had poems, stories and other tattered manuscripts tucked away which they couldn’t get published because they were unknown. From that meeting was both the Papua New Guinea Writers Union.”

Anyone in PNG was eligible to join – adults K5; students K2.

This was the second wave of efforts to establish a sustained creative writing culture in PNG, the first having flourished under the guiding presence of Ulli Beier around the time of independence, and then wilted.

The archives of the online Athabasca University in Alberta, Canada, tell the story of the second wave and the Writers Union and its short-lived publication, The PNG Writer, as well as other university-based literary efforts in PNG.

I have extracted the story of The PNG Writer both because it is interesting in its own right as an attempt to drive a writing culture in PNG but especially because the vice-president of the PNG Writers Union was Francis Nii.

Mel had urged his colleagues to “nurture [The Writer] along so PNG literature becomes a living reality: not just something academics talk about.” But, sadly, it was unable to fulfil that noble sentiment.

However, in a Kundiawa hospital bed 20 years later, the by now paraplegic Francis Nii – his spine severed and legs made useless in a vehicle smash - remembered those times and, his career as a banker also wrecked, began to write.

Between then and now, as we mourn Francis’s death and the people of south Simbu prepare for his burial, Francis Nii and PNG Attitude came together in the Crocodile Prize, the third wave of creative writing in PNG, which also did not survive but seems, after 10 years, to have left a permanent imprint.

We did not know it until now, but Francis was the link connecting those ‘eager, dissatisfied young writers” of the mid 1980s and the Crocodile Prize era.

And, as the story will unfold in our latest project, The Francis Nii Collection, from his hospital bed, our dear friend was trying to guide a home-grown literature in an even more complex and far reaching way than those writers had dreamed of three decades before.

The PNG Writer

On the tenth anniversary of Independence, the Papua New Guinea Writers Union was able to obtain financing from the National Literature Board to fund a periodical, The PNG Writer, which appeared in 1985.

PNG Writer was a lively journal, published twice each year. It was about 70 pages long. Most of its content was in English.

It featured essays, poetry, short stories, plays, interviews, and reviews with only one or two items in Pidgin out of an average 15 items.

The genres were labelled and collected in sections, except for verse, which was interspersed. Reviews and interviews were generally located at the end.

An academic bias in PNG Writer was demonstrated in the proportional representation of essays and reviews -- about half of each issue.

What is encouraging about PNG Writer is that these essays and reviews were by the writers themselves and about PNG literature.

One interesting aspect of the PNG Writer is its black consciousness, evident in reviews of several African and Caribbean works. This continuing "spiritual" connection between Africa and PNG literatures had survived Ulli Beier's tenure in several ways.

Joseph Sukwianomb had studied and worked in Kenya for five years. Sukwianomb authored reviews of Kenyan writers Mwangi Ruheni, Maina wa Kinyatti, and Sam Kahiga and an essay on Ngugi in PNG Writer and Ondobondo.

Charles Hood wrote a review of Aimé Césaire. In 1986, Ben Nakin and Steve Winduo returned from the Black Writers Conference impressed by the power of black organisations, committed to the new union, and to black control of editing and publishing.

But this black consciousness was not identical to the Black Power movement on campus a decade earlier. Rather than a political identification, it seemed directed in two ways: the first was professional achievement and acceptance for the black writer; the second was a kind of cultural affirmation.

If there was a backlash in this journal, it was not anti-colonial, but directed toward the first generation of PNG writers as too elitist, too political, and not committed enough to literature.

It is significant that the only older writers who contributed to PNG Writer were Vincent Eri (an essay about writing), Allan Natachee (poetry), Kumalau Tawali (poetry), and Russell Soaba (poetry). Eri and Natachee were always a-political. Tawali and Soaba were two of the most committed of PNG writers and two of the least systemically aligned.

The Writers Union was at pains to dissociate itself from what was generally understood as university writing: i.e., the Beier/Kovave school. It did this in part through forewords and editorials that sounded as though they were written for Papua New Guinea Writing. The message was populist and written in clear, simple English:

“...there is a wealth of creative talent in this country. Let's nurture it along so that PNG literature becomes a living reality; not just something which academics talk about. The best way to do this is to join the PNG Writers Union or to set up a branch in your school, college or home district” - Micheal Mel, 1985

Mel's appeal for broad participation was echoed in D'Arcy's editorial. His pitch was very reminiscent of Roger Boschman's editorials for Papua New Guinea Writing in the early 1970s. The Union was receiving manuscripts from all over the country, so many that he could not publish them as quickly as he would like; but contributors were to be patient.

D'Arcy was especially clear that PNG Writer was not elitist. Although the journal was based on the UPNG campus, it was to be understood as a national magazine.

The journal welcomed manuscripts from provincial writers and from women. Drama, that very political genre used by the first generation of PNG writers was not at first forthcoming, so D'Arcy had plans for including articles on playwriting.

But the a-political nature of his approach was clearest in the admonition that direct "political diatribe" was boring. Criticism, he suggested, might better be directed into satire and humour.

In other words, the journal was conceived as yet another entry-level populist literary magazine intended to bear the full weight of forming whatever character the national literature might come to have.

LINDSAY F BOND

Words that Francis plied to vantage
verbs he wove into his work,
nouns he’s nourished now are vintage,
wounds he hid nor spoke nor wrote;
epithets his ought not languish,
pronouns he so keenly wrought,
determiners he spiced, assuaged,
wants, inveigles, interests, sought.

Francis

Michael

MICHAEL DOM

LAE - Francis Sina Nii (Paradise in Peril), author, publisher and poet, passed away in Kundiawa town (Simbu Province) on 2 August 2020, just one month shy of a decade since I first met him.

While Francis fellow writers may wish to pay him good tributes, we should more so uphold his highest ideals and brightest dreams.

On 15 September 2011, the eve of Papua Niugini’s 36th independence anniversary, I attended incognito the inaugural Crocodile Prize ceremony, after having flown into the capital city Port Moresby (National Capital District) from Lae (Morobe Province) for work duties the day before. I was excited and eager to meet my fellow writers, essayists and poets at this unexpected and un-hoped for event.

The Crocodile Prize National Literary Awards was established in 2010 by Australians Keith Jackson AM and Philip Fitzpatrick (Fighting for a voice) “to encourage creative and critical writing in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and to provide Papua New Guineans with access to home-grown literature”.

In June this year the Crocodile Prize, our beloved Pukpuk, was pronounced dead in the water. But now we can make some leather goods (and hopefully we can sell a few items) which are intrinsically valuable and certainly more useful than a sukundumi’s decaying carcass.

When I look back on that starting event it strikes me as being a sad indictment on our nation that we ourselves had not dared to dream of this possibility as our writer-leader forbearers had done in decades past; “It was not so long ago / less even than a lifetime or so / when our nation was so young / and our history had just begun…/ Did then we dare to dream / and transcend as one?” (O Arise!).

Our literary pioneers, Albert Maori Kiki (Ten Thousand years in a Lifetime), Vincent Eri (The Crocodile), John Kasaipwalova (The Reluctant Flame), Kumalau Tawali (The Bush Kanaka Speaks), Nora Vagi Brash (Which Way Big Man), Russell Soaba (Wanpis), Rabbie Namaliu (The Good Woman of Konedobu), Bernard Narokobi (The Melanesian Way), Michael Somare (Sana) and Ignatius Kilagi (My Mother Calls Me Yaltep), had all written about their lives and of aspirations and dreams, before becoming politicians, administrators, dramatists and philosophers but only one novelist.

They may have tried to make their dreams of the future nation become our reality but a recent PNG prime minister’s autobiography was titled His dream is our dream and it seems, more often than not, that we live in the nightmares which he created.

More than three decades after the flourishing of literature in PNG there was a deathly silence. It was difficult to fathom that it was ‘all quiet on the Western front’ in “the land of a thousand tongues”, or, as our Tourism Promotion Authority proudly boasts, “the land of a million different journeys”.

So, where were all the stories?

It was a dead literary garden that Keith and Phil found and, in trutru pasin bilong ol kiap, decided to do something with what they had available to them right then and there, laka.

They started off with tentative steps, Keith and Phil playing mid-wives to the pikinini pukpuks emerging from their kiau. Some writers stepped out bravely whist others and I in particular were more reluctantly drawn out into the light of day.

At the time it was my proclivity to use the pen name Icarus, by which I had become well known for writing political poems such as Yesterday we dreamed, Oh my Penge and The Aspiring Politicians 36 Winning Ways for Making Monkeys. Keith was willing to let me gradually wean myself off the pseudonym use.

Nevertheless, it was Icarus, a foreign idiom, which provided some interest when I met Francis Nii, of the PNG Writer Ondobondo era, after the awards ceremony at the Australian High Commission on Wards Strip Road.

It seemed somehow fitting to me that a wartime airstrip should be the launching site for the soon to be national literary awards.

“While PNG's situation may not justify 'bloody' warfare, we are at war. We are at war against corruption in government and throughout the public service system, the very architects and mechanisms that should make our state function. But it is the State versus the People every day. And clearly the other side has no rules of engagement” (At war against a dysfunctional state, The Crocodile Prize Anthology 2011).

It also seemed auspicious that the high commission building bordered upon the sprawling grounds of the Department of Education Teachers In-service College, responsible for managing appropriate teaching skills and knowledge, and designing school curriculum.

I had assumed that writing was still one of those skills included in school curriculum, although there seemed little evidence of this in the 1990’s when I was a sumatin reader looking for PNG authored books at the National Library just down the road.

I recall the late Francis Nii listening intently to the talks by Russell Soaba and Philip Fitzpatrick during the writers’ workshop prior to the awards ceremony. I could feel him paying them attention with a kind of contained energy like the pressure of Wara Singar breaking at Sigewagl, bursting the rocks on its banks – his eyes were hurling boulders across the room.

Francis and I were competing writers, and there were no holds barred in the ensuing days of the Crocodile Prize fights, which were very well refereed by Keith and Phil. We had sparring sessions of which I am proud because we each stuck to our guns: honest and forthright disagreement, in mutual respect. (God knows the world needs more of that.)

The more I read from Francis it dawned on me that his writing was much like our Wara Simbu; broad and powerful, the current fresh with cold and sometimes rudely awakening thoughts, always dirty-brown with the earthiness of the land from which it springs and seeps.

In some places Wara Simbu undercurrents will move even football-sized rocks as you wade into the water, and this is the potentially hazardous but life giving, grinding and gritty nature with which my fellow writers Francis Nii, Jimmy Drekore (A Bush Poet’s Poetical Blossom) and Mathias Kin (My Chimbu) approach our art, for our people.

We are Simbu warrior-poets. And Simbu will always speak up for the ‘unheard voices’.

Simbu are also great advocates of the ‘fair fight’ – rulim lain na bai yumi stretim long namel (“rule a line and we will sort it out in the middle”).

These are worthy pasin that we Simbu share and which I believe are well recognized by our fellow Papua Niuginians. Michael Somare recognized this when he chose a Simbu, Iambakey Okuk, as his campaign leader in 1974. Their story is now PNG history and mystery, knighthoods, empty coffins, sukundumi and all.

In 2015 Simbu spoke up for hosting the Crocodile Prize in Kundiawa, the first and only time the awards was fully run nationally and held outside of Port Moresby. The hosting team went on to initiate the Simbu Writers Association and promote reading and writing to schools all around the province.

However, the Crocodile Prize eventually floundered to its death despite the valiant efforts by other writers, particularly Emmanuel Peni (Sibona), Betty Wakia and Caroline Evari (Nanu Sina), as well as Ben Jackson, husait i givim bel gut na karim pasin bilong papa b’long em Keith Jackson.

Various business houses had supported the prize awards and initially there was acknowledgement from the PNG government, apart from recognition and facilities provided by the Australian High Commission.

But a failure to communicate, cooperate, coordinate and provide cohesive leadership amongst nationals on the literary scene has meant that while the soil and seeds are fertile there is no one willing to till the land and water the garden. Government support, like elsewhere, was non-existent.

Last year PNG writers initiated a petition to Prime Minister James Marape “to commit his government and future governments to providing the support our writers, our literature and our nation deserve”. I chose to lampoon him in poem.

Supporting the petition late Francis Nii expressed that; “Writing and publishing our own Papua New Guinean stories in the absence of government or donor agency support is a daunting and painful experience. But we write because stories are part of our culture and books are repositories of our culture. What is it the authorities don’t understand?”

Keith Jackson wrote that; “It is a home-grown literature that will amplify the creativity, culture and spirit of Papua New Guineans. But, lacking the required support, literature has not emerged in PNG as an influence capable of playing its vital role in education, in nation building or in people’s lives.”

Francis had seen very clearly the real effect of the lack of support; “No one even knows or cares to how many national authors there are in the country. Nor what kind of books they produce. Nor what their books look like. Nor how good their stories are. They don’t know and they don’t care to know the importance and value of the books that have been written”.

On his hospital bed earlier this year Francis Nii’s last project was to raise K400,000 to help Australia’s bushfire victims. "When we Papua New Guineans face natural disasters, Australians are the first with support," he said, “this is the time to show our solidarity.”

Francis later published my poetry collection, dried grass over rough cut logs, for which he boasted, “Mike is truly a gifted poet and I had the pleasure of publishing his latest anthology”. I imagine him stoically texting this comment with his weak and trembling hands by shear will power.

A warrior has fallen in the battlefield. I weep for our loss. And I will not give up his good fight.

In modern day Papua Niugini writers are not offered a ‘fair fight’ and the ‘unheard voices’ of our people have far too often and for far too long remained as muffled whispers behind the security enforced doors of our political leaders offices at Waigani.

When invited to present the petition at the Manasupe Haus our team leaders were instead told that the Prime Minister was unavailable – at the Waigani golf course across the road.

It was towards such leadership that I had penned the following poetic epistle in 2010, before ever imagining a literary future for myself or for my country.

Dear Honorable Sirs

We are your loyal supporters, remember us
Your fellow Papua New Guineans
The honored rabble that raised you up to lofty heights
We drink your poisoned brew
While we suffer your misspent fortunes
Watch our heritage squandered
And our independence scorned

In our national parliament
Where once walked wise men, proud and true
Where once were just laws, written and defended
Foolishness now rules that house
Where the Honorable vie for their-own (rabble)
With their educated rhetoric, regurgitated oratory
Sanctimonious as wallowing sows and as smelly

In our nation’s capital
Beggars loiter while wealthy loaded landowners’ loaf
Pickpockets, thieves and informal street sellers roam
As mountains crumble and trees topple
Littering our rivers and seas
Our ancestral lands and siblings are divided over riches
Money for dishonorable dignity in Port Moresby

There Honorable Sirs you dwell
And celebrate our nation’s prosperity
Which we apparently are yet to receive
There Honorable Sirs you play pernicious politics
You and your rabble, squabble, dribble, grapple
For position, power and prestige, PNG big man policies
Your slightest glance is our grace, dear Honorable Sirs

In our towns and villagers
Far, far from freeways, Fairfax and Finance Ministry
We hear tales of civilization, rumors of development
Our aging fathers idly reminisce
While their beloved sons seek other forms of bliss
Mothers and matriarchs do what their daughters should do
Excuse what their children have done, and for you

We are the commoners from rural towns and villages
Those hamlets not seen on Falcons flight
Distant, and remote, you’ve forgotten our vote
Our sweat feeds this nation
Our land; fills your coffers
Our blood bathes your altars
Our tears are granted no remittance

Our fates are in your hands
We are the unheard voices
Disenchanted, disowned and denied
How long lived is your deception
Schemes and dreams and fantasies
Where are the promised fruits?
Your majestic visions

Leave us in dearth and doom
We are your people
We gave, glorified and groveled for you
Now disrespected, deceived and destitute
We are the infants you suckle on a flimsy future
The unborn cheated, betrayed and bartered
As your virulent greed robs our womb
God save Papua New Guinea!

Francis Nii understood clearly that the grand enterprise of creating a national literature required more than writers

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – I spent the weekend reading through the archives of PNG Attitude between 2010 and now, extracting the writing by and about the late Francis Nii and, occasionally distracted by some other old article or incident it evoked, wandering along the trail of my own memories about this remarkable website.

Yes, in its 15th year, I think PNG Attitude is entitled to the honorific ‘remarkable’. I began publishing the blog when I was 59. I’m now 75. It has occupied a considerable chunk of my life and has been published almost each day – whether I was in Papua New Guinea’s remote highlands, in the middle of some ocean, even in hospital, where I have been too often these years.

The most exciting year for me was 2016. This was a halcyon time when the Crocodile Prize flourished, when scores of new writers emerged and when the blog was a vibrant and exciting marketplace of ideas, argument and innovation.

It was a period bookended by a strange happening and a fantastic event. In late 2015 Ingrid and I went on a long sea trip around Africa to see if I could shake off the chronic fatigue syndrome that had dogging me for so many years.

Instead I returned home in worse condition augmented by a painful back problem. I didn’t know it then, but my vertebrae were gradually eroding and I was facing five years in which I would have four spinal operations, two of them very difficult.

Hoping a quieter life might help, I decided to cut my extra-curricular activities back to the minimum and that PNG Attitude, after 10 years, would have to join the queue.

This I announced on the blog in December 2015, drawing a response so huge, emotional and compelling that I felt I could not proceed with that plan.

And so PNG Attitude continued into 2016 and beyond - saved by its readers and writers. A strange happening, indeed. A fine example of ‘by popular acclaim….’

There were other highlights of that period. The Crocodile Prize Anthology of 2015, edited by Phil Fitzpatrick, was a majestic volume. And Phil’s book, Fighting for a Voice, remains a well-told and relevant history of PNG Attitude and the Crocodile Prize.

It turned out that many other good things were to happen in 2016 – and one of them was a truly fantastic event.

Thanks to the efforts of Bob Cleland, Papua New Guinean authors had been invited to present a symposium at the Brisbane Writers Festival.

PNG Attitude undertook a major fund-raiser to get four PNG writers to Brisbane, and it was inspirational how readers came to the party, enabling Francis Nii – wheelchair and all – to make his first and only trip overseas.

He was joined by Daniel Kumbon, Martyn Namorong and Rashmii Amoah Bell, whose epic My Walk to Equality was conceived at this time.

And a reminder here before I continue, that we are marking the career of the late Francis Nii, an extraordinary writer and literary figure, by seeking donations to publish The Francis Nii Collection - a major book on his writing, his extraordinary life and his contribution to the development of literature in PNG.

The Francis Nii Collection will be his legacy. The volume, now being compiled by a number of his colleagues, will include his best writing, his life story and his ideas for the effective development of a home-grown literature in Papua New Guinea.

This is likely to be the last of PNG Attitude’s many projects, but before expanding on that let me review some of the insights I gleaned from my weekend’s work amongst the PNG Attitude archives.

First of all, it can be seen clearly how the blog and the Crocodile Prize worked so effectively together to facilitate and encourage Papua New Guineans to bring their writing out into the open. And what wonderful writing so much of it was. And from scores and scores of writers.

Second, it can be seen how the demise of the Crocodile Prize has led to a decline in Papua New Guinean writing. Not even the continuing presence of PNG Attitude has been enough to sustain that literary revival – PNG’s third after 1972-75 and 1984-86 – that reached a peak in 2015-16.

Of course, the writers will continue to write but the effervescence and drive of the Crocodile Prize has been lost. The recognition and support required could not be sustained from a voluntary organisation on the basis of enthusiasm alone.

The recent death of Francis Nii, who had also, amongst many other initiatives, developed his own publishing imprint, is a tragic moment marking the end of a wonderful era.

So those archives show a great project with a lot happening. And they show the huge latent literary talent within PNG. What a creative people Melanesians are.

But the archives also show the lack of administrative capability – the planning, networking and managerial capacity to keep a major project moving forward. This is what we also lost when we lost Francis Nii.

Although Francis was permanently physically constrained and suffered recurring bouts of ill health – some of it very serious – during the 10 year period I reviewed in the archives, it was crystal clear that he understood better than most what was required to provide PNG with a sustainable home-grown literature.

In case you don’t know it, or are only vaguely familiar with it, I should relate the Francis Nii story.

After a vehicle crash in 1999, Francis spent the 20 years before his death a week ago as a paraplegic confined to a ward in the Kundiawa Hospital. Over those years he experienced multiple surgeries and a number of brushes with death.

His eventual passing on Sunday 2 August aged 57 was an event of great consequence to Papua New Guinea’s literary community and its continuing struggle to gain recognition and support.

Educated as an economist, Francis was a banker until his mid-thirties when he found himself stripped of a normal life and meaningful work. In his hospital bed, he began to write, using a mobile phone as his keyboard until PNG Attitude readers were able to better equip him with word processors.

He wrote poetry, articles and full length books and the establishment of the Crocodile Prize in 2010 enabled him to join the national network of writers that the awards encouraged.

This opened up a new world for Francis. He began to write for a larger audience in PNG Attitude and when won the Crocodile Prize for Essays and Journalism in 2013 it brought him to greater public attention and encouraged him to mentor other writers.

In the same year he established the Simbu Writers Association, which among other activities initiated an inter-school writing contest and began to produce anthologies of student writing.

He also was appointed administrator of the Simbu Children Foundation and with Jimmy Drekore a chief organiser of the Crocodile Prize awards held in Kundiawa in 2015.

When at about this time, he became very ill, as a result of Robin Lillicrap’s efforts, a public subscription in Australia purchased him a new wheelchair, a water bed to ease his bedsores and a supply of appropriate drugs to assist his condition.

Meanwhile Francis continued to contributed prolifically to PNG Attitude mainly through social and political commentaries. His presence at the Brisbane Writers Festival in 2016 was a life-changing event.

Around this time he teamed up with PNG entrepreneur Terry Shelley and senior Queensland Rotarian Murray Bladwell to initiate a project to supply Simbu schools with books and library equipment. Under this massive project all 400 primary schools in the province were equipped with micro-libraries.

Francis taught himself the techniques of digital publishing and began to edit and publish the work of new writers through his Francis Nii Publications operation. His final project, completed just before he died, was to publish, Flight of Eagle, the autobiography of PNG’s community development minister, Wake Goi.

Despite increasing frailty over the last couple of years Francis turned his attention to seeking greater national recognition and support for home-grown literature and remained a strong advocate for government support until his death.

He was a one man tour de force with few resources. Nothing represented this more than his tapping out a novel on a mobile phone while lying on a rough hospital bed surrounded by the noise and emotion of sickness and death.

Our project, The Francis Nii Collection, will publish an edited volume of Francis’s most significant essays, articles, poetry and commentary as well as colleagues’ accounts of his work and life and his aspirations for PNG literature.

Francis understood clearly that the grand enterprise of creating a national literature required more than writers. It needed publishers, mentors, advocates, marketers, teachers, petitioners, international contacts and, arguably most important of all, administrators – the planners, organisers, networkers and negotiators who had the skills to bring everything together.

If PNG literature is to thrive, the intelligence, wisdom and creative energy Francis Nii possessed and which drove his ragged body to great heights of achievement now must be harnessed by others. What Francis knew and what he did must not be lost but be built on.

That’s why we are asking seeking financial support to produce The Francis Nii Collection– a project that will ensure that Francis’s work, character and knowledge will not be lost even though the man himself is not with us.

We need people who value PNG literature, or who value literature in general, to ensure that the words and deeds of Francis Nii endure and that he leaves behind a legacy not just a reputation.

The Francis Nii Collection honours Francis’s writing and other good works and provides a platform to continue his advocacy for the proper recognition and support of a flourishing home-grown Papua New Guinean literature.

I wrote earlier that this is likely to be PNG Attitude’s last big project. It was always going to happen that Phil Fitzpatrick and I would age and gradually run out of steam. Well, that point has arrived.

As I struggle to walk painlessly and fluently again after major surgery two months ago, and continue to deal with the chronic fatigue syndrome which randomly chooses to lay me low, and as I watch this blog slowly subside, I know that the remarkable era of resurgence for PNG literature is waning.

The Francis Nii Collection is a legacy volume which, together with Fighting for a Voice, will offer a valuable roadmap to the next generation of Papua New Guinean literary administrators and entrepreneurs who, when they arrive, and let us hope it is soon, will take the huge creative impulse of Papua New Guinea into its next era.

Readers, this is your opportunity to try to ensure that this will happen.

____________

THE FRANCIS NII COLLECTION

Please donate to this bank account:

BENEFICIARY BANK

SWIFT BIC CODE NATAAU33
BANK National Australia Bank
BRANCH Neutral Bay
ADDRESS 183 Military Road, Neutral Bay

BENEFICIARY ACCOUNT

NUMBER 50650-1355
BSB 082-302
NAME Keith Jackson
ADDRESS PO Box 1688, Noosa Heads 4567 Queensland
MESSAGE For Francis Nii Collection

STEPHANIE ALOIS

Always in a dilemma of loathing and loving
Your family that keep secrets
You are dismayed but they plead for your silence
It’s for your protection they say,
It’s for everyone’s peace
You want to disappear
But the feeble child inside you feels insecure
Home is what they provide
So you tolerate their exploitative ways
Yes, we all get broken any way
And a reckless healing would do anyway

Always seeking deeper connections
But encounter betrayal from trusted friends
You are disappointed but they begged for a second chance
I’m bleeding, your heart says,
I’m shattering
You are exhausted
But your love is stronger than the torment
Company is what they are
So you forgive their foolish ways
Yes, we all get taken for granted any way
And a reckless healing would do any way

It’s pathetic!
That so much of your time got wasted on the wrong people
That you remain stagnant with toxic people
And in the end proved they weren’t even worth it
Loving hard,
Caring hard,
And trusting hard are weaknesses to some
But are medicines that cured yesterday's pain

Free yourself, darling!
Let them lose you
If that’s what it takes for them to grasp genuine,
Unconditional love
If time and love you have
A reckless healing is possible any day.

Francis Nii - "A meaningless and derisory celebration that should not be called National Book Week"

FRANCIS NII

One year ago, Francis Nii wrote this article proposing how Papua New Guinea’s annual book week could be more relevant and useful by focusing on locally-authored books. Like much of what Francis wrote, his words were perceptive but ignored. This failure to listen to and act on good advice underpins much of PNG’s failure to progress the interests of its people….

KUNDIAWA - It is high time the meaningless and vain annual National Book Week was changed to make it become the vehicle for stimulating tangible benefits to writers and readers.

Every August features National Book Week. In Papua New Guinea gaudy banners of all sizes rustle in the dusty wind. Written on them is an ostensibly witty theme that nobody cares about.

Empty-minded school children in colourful uniforms fill the city arena for the annual event.

For them, it is one of those playtimes. Their predecessors have celebrated it and so will those who come after them.

Whether there is gain for them or not, it doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, they will go home without a locally-authored book. That they knew. They had experienced it before.

High ranking government officials and distinguished dignitaries mingle at the overly draped grand podium. It’s their day to showcase their oratory eloquence.

Pompous speeches of vanity ring out in crescendo. Blind ovation reverberates into emptiness in the scorching atmosphere.

No national author is present for the event. No locally-authored book is on exhibition. It is supposed to be a National Book Week celebration of locally-authored books, isn’t it? Who knows why? Who knows what kind of books they celebrate?

A meaningless and derisory celebration that should not be called National Book Week. A slap in the face to the multitude of national authors in this country.

No one even knows or cares to how many national authors there are in the country. Nor what kind of books they produce. Nor what their books look like. Nor how good their stories are. They don’t know and they don’t care to know the importance and value of the books that have been written.

So what is the meaning of the annual National Book Week? What is its purpose? What kind of benefits are there and for whom?

The children go home without seeing a locally-authored book. They don’t embrace a copy on their way home, let alone read one. Is it because Papua New Guineans don’t write books?

No. There are many national authors publishing all kinds of books from non-fiction to fiction, as well as collections.

There is no meaning when national authors are ignored. There is no purpose when nationally authored books are neglected and cannot be read. It is absurdly unfair when the younger generation cannot read books about their own history and culture.

Yet it is called National Book Week and is celebrated year after year with all the pompous grandeur without locally-authored books. Sad vanity, isn’t it?

It’s time to reconsider. Make the occasion more meaningful. Recognise local authors. Make available their books. Stimulate opportunities for tangible benefits everyone – authors and readers alike.

The PNG government and the National Library and Archives need to make a drastic policy shift.

Local authors and their books must be given recognition. Their books must be made available at such important occasions, including National Literacy Week, for school children and the general public to take these books home and to read them.

Revive the provincial public library network throughout the country and stock them with locally-authored books.

Make National Book Week an occasion of celebrating and promoting our own books. It should be the vehicle for nurturing readership for locally-authored books

Newly recruited kiaps having completed their training in Port Moresby observe a march past by police in the early 1960s

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - In an article a few days ago about Francis Nii and the effort to memorialise his contribution to Papua New Guinean literature, Keith Jackson reiterated an earlier comment that “this is likely to be PNG Attitude’s last big project. It was always going to happen that Phil Fitzpatrick and I would age and gradually run out of steam. Well, that point is arriving”.

I can wholly endorse that observation, no matter how hard I try to build up a head of steam about lots of things these days it seems to inevitably dissipate in ineffectual little puffs from all the leaks in the rusty old boiler.

I’m also noticing more often than before various comments from Australians who worked in Papua New Guinea prior to independence along the lines of “the ranks are quickly thinning”.

The Covid-19 pandemic with its thirst for elderly lives is not helping this feeling of pessimism and what seems to be a sense of resignation and tiredness among those thinning ranks.

We’re not quite there yet but the gradual fade-out of what was once a very strong connection between those Australian and Papua New Guinean generations who shared so much in common seems to be on the horizon.

There are many seemingly inconsequential but telling indications that this may be the case.

Comments and posts on the Ex-kiap website are now few and far between for instance. Whereas a few years ago you could count on something new on there most days nowadays it can be a week or more before anything new pops up.

The journal of the Papua New Guinea Association of Australia, PNG Kundu, in all its coloured splendour and excellent production standards seems to have lost its attraction, for me at least, for reasons I can’t quite fathom.

Originally intended as a newsletter for the Retired Officer’s Association of Papua New Guinea it now “comprises a global network of more than 1,000 members representing the diverse interests [of] people with affection for or an interest in Papua New Guinea”.

This 1973 photograph from Ian Robertson shows the last great gathering of senior education staff prior to the first wave of  expatriate departures  as the old guard hand over to the new ranks of Papua New Guinean officers

For some reason, when I see the glossy cover I tend to become nostalgic for its old precursor, Una Voce, with its rough black and white printing.

Another indication which I’ve noticed is the increase in published memoirs by people from those pre-independence days.

Graham Hardy’s A Kiap’s Journey: Over the Hills and Far Away arrived in my letter box this morning and while I’m looking forward to reading it I also recall his wife Pat’s comment when she phoned me about obtaining a copy that it was written mainly for the family rather than for wider consumption.

I’ve heard the same comment from several people who have recently published their memoirs.

It is a kind of tidying of the decks before it is too late approach. Graham is a survivor of the early 1950s kiap days, the halcyon years, and it’s great that he’s written the memoir but in doing so I think he has also portended what looks like the coming end of an era.

Looked at in that way makes me wonder what such an end might mean. Will the interest in such a unique period in history fade away with the passing of those who participated in it or will the narrative somehow survive?

If it does fade away I think Australia, but more particularly Papua New Guinea, will be the poorer for it.

We on the Australian side will be leaving a body of literature that historians and researchers in the future might find interesting but in Papua New Guinea an examination of the period from its perspective has hardly just begun.

Those creaky old lapuns sitting around their warm village fires may not even get the chance to tell their stories before it’s too late. It may well be that it is only the Australian version that survives to be scoured and pored over by those future researchers.

I can remember the glaze that used to pass over the eyes of friends and family when I mentioned Papua New Guinea years ago but these days that glaze has been replaced by looks of incomprehension. It is as if I’m talking about another planet.

Perhaps that’s where it will all end up. Apart from a passing interest from some obscure researcher maybe that’s the future of all those jam-packed years we enjoyed and revelled in when we were so young.

Demonstration for Bougainville high school students on how polling booths operate

JONATHAN BARRETT | Reuters

BUKA – Young people in Bougainville are seizing the opportunity to help reshape the future of the autonomous region of Papua New Guinea as they began head to the polls yesterday to elect a new leader.

The general election is the first since Bougainville voted overwhelmingly for independence from PNG in a referendum at the end of last year, and the new president will manage negotiations on the terms of separation.

For Bougainville’s younger ‘lost generation’, who grew up either under or in the shadow of a bloody 10-year civil war, it gives them a chance to break from the past and elect a civilian president with no ties to the previous unrest.

Two decades after combatants snapped arrows to signal the end of hostilities, there is anger among the younger generation that there has been little economic progress for the resources rich region.

“It has been wasted on mere politics, and there’s nothing on the ground to show for it,” Pajomile Minaka, a 37-year-old law student, told Reuters by telephone.

“In terms of bringing sustainable economic development there is nothing. Young people like me believe the government has failed the people.”

Bougainville’s 250,000 strong population has a median age of just 20, a demographic that’s likely bad news for the ex-combatants among the open field of 25 candidates vying for the top political office.

Younger voters are likely to push for a fresh face, even though prominent figures from the conflict had the advantage of wide-spread name recognition, said Paul Barker, executive director of Port Moresby-based think tank the Institute of National Affairs.

“There is a strong element of the lost generation missing out and wanting change,” Barker told Reuters, ahead of polling in the five-yearly election.

Bougainville descended into a decade-long conflict in 1988, triggered by a dispute over how the profits from the lucrative Panguna gold and copper mine should be shared and the environmental damage it had caused.

As many as 20,000 died during the fighting between the region’s rebel guerrilla army and PNG forces, and Panguna was closed.

Last year’s non-binding independence poll was part of the peace process that ended the conflict, but competing claims over development rights to Panguna still hang over its future.

Bougainville vice president Raymond Masono said Panguna should “play a major role in revitalising Bougainville’s economy.”

Younger voters, like Augustine Teboro, 30, said it was time to dispense with the “old view” that Bougainville’s future relied on re-opening Panguna when it should be making use of its physical and natural beauty by cultivating its tourism, agriculture and fisheries industries.

“Our hope is that this generation will transform our society and not be a generation that will make the same mistakes of the past,” said Teboro, who heads a Bougainville youth federation.

“We are looking for a civilian leader with integrity.”

With no formal political polling and a diverse list of candidates to replace long-serving president John Momis, the election is considered an open race.

Among the old guard candidates are former president and combatant James Tanis and government-backed candidate Thomas Raivet. Other candidates include Fidelis Semoso, who served in the national PNG parliament, lawyer Paul Nerau and businessman and former sports administrator Peter Tsiamalili Junior.

There are also two female candidates, health care professional Ruby Mirinka and former Bougainville MP Magdalene Toroansi.

Polling is likely to be complicated by the first recorded case of Covid-19 in Bougainville, a 30-year-old man who returned from Port Moresby last week.

The coronavirus pandemic has also thrown a cloud over whether international observers will be able to attend.

The United Nations said in a statement the Bougainville Electoral Commissioner had asked the PNG government to invite diplomatic missions in Port Moresby to observe the vote.

“This election will determine the future political status of this emerging nation,” Masono said.

“The next government must consult with the national government on independence – nothing more, nothing less.”

The result of the election will be known on Monday 14 September.

RAYMOND SIGIMET

DAGUA - Culture heroes have always been an important aspect of human society and culture.

They are romanticised in popular literature and oral traditions of most human societies.

Their exploits and relevance are legion in myths and legends told the world over.

Culture heroes in literature are represented as humans, animals or demi-gods. They are an important part of creation myths and origin stories.

In some societies, they are presented as creators of the world, of humans and of society. In others, they complement the creation process through their exploits. They are also portrayed as tricksters in some mythologies.

Culture heroes have a practical function in that they can facilitate the means by which human societies and cultures develop.

They can bring to humans ideas of new ways of doing things or new technology thus completing the world and making it fit for humans to live in.

Traditional societies attribute important aspects of their existence and culture to culture heroes.

The introduction of fire into human society has been a major theme associated with culture heroes.

The ones who introduced fire to humans include the Greek titan Prometheus, the Polynesian demi-god Maui and the crow from Australian Aboriginal mythology, Waa.

In Papua New Guinea, a recurring culture hero in traditional myths and legends is the dog.

The dog is often portrayed as a companion, hunter and protector.

In some of these tales, the dog is elevated to the role of progenitor: an originator of human settlement; the discoverer of salt, fire or a body of water; or caregiver and healer.

Such tales also have dogs shapeshifting or having the ability to talk and communicate with humans.

How this ability was lost depended on how the stories evolved. One form had the dog talking to someone who was not supposed to know dogs could talk. Another would have the dog revealing a secret to someone who was not supposed to know the secret.

Here are two tales from the Lake Kutubu area of the Southern Highlands Province and the Dagua area of East Sepik which illustrate how the dog is an important narrative theme in traditional Papua New Guinea culture and experience.

__________

HOW LAKE KUTUBU WAS FORMED

Once upon a time, there was a man and his dog who lived in the bush. In that village, there was no water so every time, the man and his dog always thirst for water so they always search for water everywhere.

Every afternoon after eating the dog used to go someplace and come back in the night and sleep. The dog used to do this several times.

One afternoon, the man tied a long rope on one of the dog’s leg. After eating, the dog disappeared and the man got the end of the rope and followed the dog into the thick bush.

After some time the man saw his dog under a big tree. There he saw water coming down from the tree. He saw that and he went back home.

The next morning, he woke up and got his axe went to where the tree was located. Then he started to cut the tree until in the afternoon when the tree fell down. When the tree fell the place started to fill up with water.

Then the man and his dog enjoyed themselves washing and drinking and they were very happy. Sometime later, a lake was formed and now people call this lake, Kutubu.

__________

HOW DOGS HELPED PEOPLE

Once upon a time on a hill called Rautibri, there lived a couple. They had an only child named Luhim. There were also two dogs who lived with them. Luhim was like a brother to the dogs. They lived a happy and simple life on the hill.

The male and female dogs were helping dogs. They were also great hunters. Every time, they went into the bush to hunt for meat. On their return, they came with bandicoots in their mouths. Their parents were always excited to see them returned with food.

Since Luhim was just a baby, he couldn’t help his parents. As helping dogs, they would listen and do what their parents said.

One day, the couple decided to go to the garden. They put Luhim to sleep in a bilum and left for the garden. When the dogs saw that their brother Luhim was alone, they decided to stay back and keep watch over him.

After some time, Luhim woke up and began to cry. He cried for a long time. The female dog, in seeing this, said to the male dog, “Nobody will see us. We have to take him out of the bilum, wash him and let him sleep again. Mama and papa will not be returning soon.”

Since there was no one around, they agreed to remove Luhim from the bilum.   The female dog took him down to a pool and washed him. After bathing him, they replaced him in the bilum and let him sleep again.

When the couple returned, they saw the place was clean. They noticed that Luhim was washed because his hair was wet. The couple began to wonder out aloud and discussed who might have done all these things.

The dogs just slept quietly and listened to the couple talking and discussing. They felt demeaned and humiliated. From that day on, the dogs never helped their parents again.

I would like to acknowledge James William of 9C1 (Pangia Aisoli Memorial High School 2008) and Adasha Tairuo of 11Y (St John Bosco Secondary School-Dagua 2018) for these tales

Chris Overland - "My time in PNG made me who I am and I am supremely grateful for that"

CHRIS OVERLAND

ADELAIDE - Phil Fitzpatrick has raised the inevitable dying of the light for those of us who served as kiaps.

I find it incredible to think that it is now more than 50 years ago that I first stepped onto Papua New Guinean soil as a rather gormless 18 year old Assistant Patrol Officer.

I would guess that, at the age of only 69 years, I would be amongst the youngest former kiaps, with my five years of service coming to an end in 1974.

Most of today's Papua New Guineans were not even born as I watched PNG disappear into the distance from the window of an Ansett 727 jet.

As Phil has observed, we all returned to a country that was resolutely indifferent to us and to PNG generally.

So we mostly submerged ourselves in the task of finding new careers, raising families, paying mortgages and doing all the other things that you must in order to make a living and a life.

Many of us have, in our dotage, put pen to paper about our experiences in PNG, mostly for the benefit of our children and grandchildren.

My personal hope is that my grandchildren will find my reminiscences at least of passing interest.

A few of us have had work published for a wider audience and so put on record a personal view of a formative period of the history of PNG.

Unhappily, apart from the efforts of a determined few historians like Mathias Kin, the stories of older Papua New Guineans have not been recorded.

This is sad because a ‘bottom up’ view of the colonial era is sorely lacking.

As I have written before, I count myself astonishingly lucky to have lived and worked as a kiap in pre-independence PNG.

I doubt that such an experience will ever be possible again: modernity has swept away virtually all traditional societies across the globe.

In a very real sense, my time in PNG made me who I am and I am supremely grateful for that.

So, when it comes time for me to embark upon the last patrol my only regret, apart from the necessity to leave my family behind, will be that I did not spend longer in PNG and rather less time in an office.