Nick Brown discovers there's more to the world than himself, but finds he can't fix the corruption and the squalor

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

The Value of Journey: Virtue and reality in Papua New Guinea and Asia by Nicholas C Brown, Mereo Books, Cirencester UK, 2021, 332 pages with illustrations. ISBN 9781861513212. Available here from Amazon Australia, AU$22

TUMBY BAY – Nick Brown's The Value of Journey follows directly from his first book, Better than Rich and Famous, the transition so flawless you could move from one to the other and not notice the physical change.

When I reviewed the first book, I wrote:

“What Nick’s book essentially details are the experiences of one of the many people who briefly flittered onto the Papua New Guinean scene in the early 1970s and then just as quickly flittered away.

“Or at least I think he flittered away because the book seems to end in mid-stream. He has secured an interesting job in the administration and then goes on leave back to Britain with the intention of returning to Papua New Guinea.

“Whether he actually returns and what happens to him is left hanging in the air.”

Now I know what happened because it’s all in his second book which covers the period when he returned and then left for good.

That makes the two books complementary and you need to read them in sequence to appreciate the full story.

In ‘The Value of Journey’ there is more detail about Papua New Guinea society and governance since independence in 1975.

The section of the department for which he worked promoting local handcrafts undergoes a series of pointless changes until it is unclear where it’s heading or whether the national government is even interested in what it is doing.

At the same time the people in charge are regularly and inexplicably leaving and being replaced by others, in this case people of Indian descent from Fiji.

This phenomenon where senior positions once held by Australians were filled by recruits from Asia and Africa is notable.

It would be worth exploring as part of a wider work of how governance evolved in PNG after independence.

Brown’s goal, stated in his first book, to simply have fun, takes a beating, partly because many of his friends are leaving the country but also because deteriorating law and order makes it an unsafe place to live.

This curtailment of an easygoing and undemanding life coincides with Brown beginning to evaluate his experiences and ponder his future.

At the same time, as their PNG experience did to so many expatriates exposed to its challenges and peculiarities, causes him to undergo a profound change in his attitude to the world and how it operates.

Not least he comes to realise “the virtue in doing good and ultimately better understanding what is important in life”.

Brown grasps that it is time to leave PNG, and embarks on a pilgrimage through Asia as he makes his way back to Britain with the intention of going to university.

Along the way the reader is treated to observations not recorded by the self-styled hippies experiencing ‘the great Asian enlightenment’ so popular in those days.

Papua New Guinea has changed his values and Brown is now immersed in an acute sense of reality about what he is experiencing.

The book reveals how he develops a profound desire to explode the concocted myths, too readily accepted back then in a perfumed haze, about the places he visits.

At a superficial level, as most first-timers in Asia are, he is disgusted by the crowded, dirty, noisy and unpleasant cities, particularly in India. More deeply he begins to understand that this squalor is the result of more profound and complex inequities and corruption.

Nick Brown - Discovered "the virtue in doing good and ultimately better understanding what is important in life”

Towards the end of the book, Brown endeavours to analyse his feelings and express what he has learned about humanity and the world. I’m not sure he captures this fully and successfully.

As he says, the experiences “gave me an understanding of inequity in the world and the importance of the need to do something about it.”

I guess, in that sense, he joins so many other people who have come to the same conclusion but did not believe they possessed the means to do anything about it.

Sharon Davis - "With our traditional languages stolen, along with our land, we took the way the gudiya talked and decolonised it"

SHARON DAVIS
IndigenousX | Edited

“If you attack my language you attack me, because what I am and what I know and believe and feel are all mediated through language” – Jack Dwyer

“My mother, her mother, and all my mothers before her were Aboriginal women. I am the product of past policies and practices, but also of love and reconciliation. I grew up all over Australia. My family never really settled and looking back, I think it was the pull between black and white, between my mother’s country in the Kimberley and my gudiya father’s place in the Blue Mountains that replicated my own inner turmoil in understanding Aboriginality” – Sharon Davis

CANBERRA - Avi Yemini is a self-proclaimed ‘citizen journalist’, social media ‘personality’ and convicted abuser of women.

Recently, Avi Yemini tweeted a video of Western Australian premier Mark McGowan sending a vaccination message to Western Australian Aboriginal communities.

The message was also translated into Aboriginal English (AbE) by Aboriginal Interpreting WA.

The racist twitter furore that followed was not surprising, given the far-right ideologies held by Yemini

However the amount of misinformation about AbE and Kriol spouted by both non-Indigenous and Indigenous people across social media was something to behold.

Now, it is January after all and most mob are familiar with the binfire that surrounds Invasion Day [26 January], so my patience levels for educating the masses are already low.

But given the amount of AbE misinformation shared across most social media platforms, I think we could all do with a bit of AbE 101.

Isn’t it just broken English?

No, and if you say that again I’ll put chili in your mouth.

AbE is the name given to complex, rule-governed varieties of English that are spoken by over 80% of Indigenous peoples in Australia.

These varieties differ from standard Australian English (AusE) in systematic ways and at all levels of linguistic structure, like sentence formation and meanings of words.

AbE is mutually intelligible between varieties and can also be known by its local names, such as Koori or Murri English, Broome lingo and Noongar English.

Well, where did it come from?

Upon invasion, it’s estimated that there were over 250 distinct languages plus around 600-800 overlapping, connecting languages across the Australian continent.

Given that gudiyas (non-Indigenous people) weren’t that keen to learn our languages, we adapted English to enable communication.

With our traditional languages stolen, along with our land, and being the adaptive and highly intelligent people we are, we took the way they talked (and forced us to talk) and decolonised it to suit our needs.

AbE is not a form of AusE, but rather both are varieties of English.

Oh, righto. So, what’s Kriol then?

Kriol is a specific creole; a new Aboriginal language that is spoken across northern Australia that developed because of colonisation and the expansion of the pastoral industry.

While non-AbE speakers may be able to pick up what’s being said in conversations with AbE speakers, this is less likely with Kriol due to the inclusion of more traditional language words.

It sounds like English, how come I can understand it?

Don’t be fooled! AbE and AusE are false friends. While you may think you understand AbE, there are many different layers, and some of these cannot be seen or heard, such as pragmatics, semantics and worldview (values, beliefs and attitudes).

So, it’s not a real Aboriginal language?

Bruh, c’mon now. Sociolinguist and Yiddish scholar Max Weinreich once famously remarked: “A language is a dialect with an army and a navy”.

This suggested that categorising a way of speaking into ‘language’ and ‘dialect’ isn’t necessarily a linguistic choice, but rather based on disparities of politics and power.

I think this rings true when people talk about AbE.

People tend to poo-poo AbE as slang or broken English, when in fact it is a rule-governed, legitimate language that connects Aboriginal people to culture, Country and community.

Consider an Aboriginal person speaking this sentence to you: “Wen we got ome, dat ole man said, ‘You mob wanna hab a feed now, owot? It gettin proper late’.”

And now ask yourself, what level of education does this person have, what do they do for a living and where do they live?

Check yo language bias fam.

The spectacular map shows the 250 Indigenous languages of Australia. There were another 600-800 overlapping dialects

Can I, as a non-Aboriginal person, speak AbE?

In my opinion, nope. What makes AbE different from many traditional languages and Kriol is that it is not officially taught (in a Western sense).

It is a community developed language that belongs to community.

Being a marker of Aboriginal identity, it is confusing and pretty offensive for non-Indigenous people to just pick up AbE and start talking.

Imagine you are in the US and you walk up to a group of African American people and start speaking in Black American English.

You would soon be put in your place; same goes here. A rule of thumb: Just don’t. It’s shame. Don’t be a Tiffany.

All the Aboriginal people I know speak normal English.

AusE is the language used in law, media, politics and education in Australia, holding immense power.

Over the years, many mob have been forced to speak AusE at the expense of traditional language, Kriol or AbE to survive this place.

While we can choose to speak AbE to power, there may also be times where we need to codeswitch into AusE.

Control over codeswitching helps us to walk in the gudiya world while maintaining home language and all the richness and connection that comes with it.

If you think that your Aboriginal mates don’t speak AbE, you are probably wrong, given that over 80% of us speak a form of AbE.

Is it racist to have information interpreted into Aboriginal English or Kriol?

No.

Who cares anyways?

We do, and you should too. Negative attitudes towards AbE risks the lives and livelihoods of Aboriginal people every damn day.

Many Aboriginal people have been left without interpreters when dealing with police, health sectors and in education settings.

The misinterpretation of AbE can lead to incarceration, misdiagnosis and lead to low (standardised) education outcomes.

What’s most frustrating is that systems continue to ignore the important role that understanding AbE has in all these social determinants of health.

By excluding AbE from reports, strategies and policies, the powers that be are denying the legitimacy of our connection to community, culture and our identity.

AbE has been recognised by linguists and educators as a legitimate language since the 1960s, so why is it still treated as slang? (cough-racism-cough)

The land gave birth to our languages; language and culture are inseparable.

And yet, languages have been and continue to be stolen, with all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages currently under threat.

So, it is essential we retain and revitalise our languages everywhere we can. And this also means we need to do some myth-busting and stop positioning AbE or Kriol as bad English.

Aboriginal English is important.

Aboriginal English is a marker of Aboriginal identity.

Aboriginal English holds culture.

Aboriginal English holds knowledge.

Aboriginal English is not slang.

Aboriginal English is not broken.

Aboriginal English is us and it is ours.

Sharon Davis is of the Bardi and Kija peoples of the Kimberley region in north-west Australia. She originally trained as a primary school teacher and later earned a Master of Science in Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition from the Oxford University in the UK. Sharon is now director of education and ethics at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and a board member of Reconciliation Australia

Beach scene on Mahur Island (Schneider Photography)

SUSAN R HEMER

Tracing the Melanesian Person: Emotions and Relationships in Lihir by Susan R Helmer, University of Adelaide Press, Adelaide, 2013, 329 pages. ISBN 978-1-922064-45-5. Free download here

KEITH JACKSON WRITES - Dr Susan Hemer lectures in development studies and medical and psychological anthropology at the University of Adelaide and her book, Tracing the Melanesian Person, resulted from a year spent in the Lihir group of islands in Papua New Guinea.

The incident it tells of occurred in May 1998 when Hemer was about halfway through her doctoral fieldwork in Mahur, the northernmost of Lihir.

The story is not typical of the book’s purpose or direction but provides a substantial basis for it. As Hemer writes in a prologue, it serves “as a window onto themes about life in Lihir …. the emotional reactions of Mahurians, the importance of Christianity to Lihirians and my positioning in the flow of life on Mahur”.

The book, published by the now defunct University of Adelaide Press, has been described as “an engaging ethnographic account of connections, conflicts and loss in Lihir” and it tells of Hemer’s own fieldwork and experiences and he exploration of the gap that exists between being Melanesian and the practical realities of being Lihirian.

The story begins on Wednesday 6 May when a small boat, ‘Maria’, goes missing carrying two men, Nezik and Ngalbolbeh, and two boys, Gilas (16) and Michael (8). The boat did not return as expected from a short trip and, as the days passed, the Mahur people and Hemer react.

Stories are told of other lost boats, prayers are said and dreams are interpreted for clues as the incident became an important and puzzling element of Hemer’s research.

Mahur Island

Tripping to Tabar

SUSAN R HEMER

Ngalbolbeh, Nezik, Gilas and Michael left Mahur Island on Wednesday morning, 6 May, to go to Samo village on the south-west coast of the main island, Niolam.

Their aim was to collect Ngalbolbeh’s wife’s father, Zikmandawit, and take him to Mahur for a major celebration planned for Friday, 8 May: confirmation in the Catholic Church for the Grade 5 school children.

Ngalbolbeh’s oldest son was to be confirmed, as was Gilas. 

Those aboard the boat attempted to collect Zikmandawit from Samo village, but he was unwell and did not want to go.

He watched them push the boat out and begin the two-hour journey back to Mahur. Ngalbolbeh and Nezik thought they had enough petrol to make it to Mahur, but they also knew it would be a close call. 

Ngalbolbeh  told  Nezik to check the petrol when they were at Kunaye village, and if it was low, said they should call in and collect some from Ngalbolbeh’s wife’s sister. Nezik did check, but felt there was enough petrol to make it to Mahur.

Nezik ran the boat slowly, and by the time they approached Mahur it was dark.  They were close enough to see the light of lamps, and hear the beat of kundu drums practising for the confirmation celebrations … and then the petrol ran out.

The boat had no oars, torches, canvas, raincoats, life jackets, flares, cooked food or water. Nezik and Ngalbolbeh pulled up the planking in the bottom of the boat and fashioned some oars from this.

They then did their best to row to Mahur, but the tide was strong, and after a long effort, they gave up.  They anchored for the night using a fishing line off the village of Lakamelen on the south side of Mahur, checked that this anchor would hold, and slept.

Towards dawn the anchor slipped and they began drifting to the western side of Mahur, to the village of Kuelam, where they had left the previous morning. Again they tried to row ashore, but found the tide was too strong.

They tried to signal using a mirror, but it was too cloudy. They managed to stay within sight of Kuelam until about 10 am, but by this time the tide was pulling them to the northern side of Mahur. If they had followed this current they would have been drifting north with no islands in their path.

At this point they realised they were actually in trouble and Nezik commented ‘Yumi lus pinis’ (‘We are lost’).

Until this time they had felt they would be seen or would be able to row to Mahur—they had not been afraid until this point.

Luckily, the wind was blowing to the Tabar islands and thus they decided their only chance was to head quickly for there.  They had to think about young Michael, and the dangers of dehydration.  They rigged up a sail from Gilas’s laplap (sarong)and set sail.

Night fell. They were very close, and spotted lights on the southernmost island of the Tabar group, Big Tabar. They tried to aim for the lights, but adjacent to Tabar there was a current and they were unable to make it.

They paddled, and eventually landed on a small, uninhabited beach at about 8 pm. Ngalbolbeh carried Michael to a cave for shelter; he had vomited three times from lack of food and water and was crying for his mother. 

They made a fire and cooked some mami they had got from Zikmandawit at Samo village, while Ngalbolbeh looked for water.  Finding none, he sent Nezik to climb a coconut tree (one of two on the beach), despite it having a golgol taboo on it. They got six coconuts, which they shared and ate with the mami and then they settled down and slept.

In the morning Ngalbolbeh climbed up the cliff hoping to find nearby inhabitants. He found a road that he followed a little way in both directions, and found a few fallen coconuts.  These he took back and they ate them with the last two mami. 

Then they all climbed the cliff and set off to find some people.  They wandered into a hamlet where an old man and woman and a young boy were staying. They were startled, and the old woman tried to talk to them in the local Tabar language.

Ngalbolbeh and Nezik then explained their story. They were taken into the main camp where they were fed and looked after. Ngalbolbeh recognised some people from his days in high school on the New Ireland mainland.

By this time it was Friday 8 May and it was obvious that Gilas was going to miss his confirmation, which was to be held that morning. Ngalbolbeh did his best to send word to Mahur that they were safe but this was by a very circuitous radio route, and those of us anxiously waiting on Mahur never received this message.

Thinking that the people of Mahur knew they were safe, Nezik and Ngalbolbeh agreed to stay and have a proper, though small, feast in their honour.  The women went to  the gardens  to get vegetable  foods, while  the young  men  went  and  retrieved  the  boat  from  the  uninhabited  beach and caught fish for the feast.

Meanwhile the four ‘trippers’ had a proper meal and then slept.  That afternoon they feasted and then prepared to leave early the next morning.

That afternoon they feasted and then prepared to leave early the next morning. Next morning, Saturday, they pushed the boat out and were farewelled by the Tabar people.  They started to motor away when something in the boat motor burst into flame. 

They had to row all the way back to the shore, and were in grave danger of drifting again.  The boat motor was fixed, but they hesitated to leave that day, fearful after nearly being lost a second time.

Instead, they waited until Monday morning when they were able to be accompanied by Bruno, a Tabar man, with his boat motor as a back-up to their own. They finally arrived back on Mahur on Monday, 11 May at 1.30 pm.

___________

By Monday morning I had basically given up hope that the boat and occupants could all be found safely. At 1.30 pm I was just finishing a language class when two boats went past to go ashore at the wharf.

I paid little attention until I noticed some of the young children from my hamlet running to the wharf. I asked one what boat it was and she said ‘Maria’. In amazement I turned and walked very quickly to the wharf.

All four occupants were safe and sound. I was nearly in tears from relief. I expected to see Kwildun at any moment sprinting to the wharf to hug her child to her and check he was still in one piece, but she didn’t arrive.  The only person who seemed to be amazed was me.

___________

When the boat arrived Kwildun did not rush to see her husband and son. Neither did Gilas’s family, who were all up in the gardens finding food. I went to Lalakam hamlet and reported to Kwildun that her son was fine.

She seemed to take it for granted that this would be the case. She calmly told me that there had not been any bad signs to say they were really lost. Such calmness baffled me at the time: I had expected joy and relief and tears.

Link here for a free download of ‘Tracing the Melanesian Person’, of which this story triggers a fascinating Dr Hemer’s fascinating insights into the life and thinking of the Lihir people

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

“I know there's a self-publishing alternative available, but for Luddites such as me that sort of technology stuff would be beyond my comprehension. And how good would those volumes look compared to books prepared by a professional printer” – Richard E Jones

TUMBY BAY – For writers who cannot or don't want to use a major publisher, there are three options available to get your book printed and in front of readers.

Traditional publishers are in the business of making money and – the costs of editing, design, printing and distribution being significant - are very careful about what they publish.

In most cases they have a stable of proven authors whose books they know will sell readily and they are loath to take on newcomers.

In Australia, publishing is also dominated by a couple of major companies and getting a foot in the door is extremely difficult. In Papua New Guinea it’s almost impossible.

If a traditional publisher is not interested in your book, the first option is to get it printed privately using a local printer.

In my experience in Australia and PNG, this is the most expensive option. You will spend a lot of money and get very little back from sales.

The second option is to use what is called a ‘vanity publisher’, so called because authors who spent a lot of money to see their book in print were perceived to be conceited.

Vanity publishers took advantage of this self-regard and extracted large sums of money from authors to produce their books, but they rarely provided editing services and almost without fail were poor promoters and distributors, leaving these important functions to the author.

The third option is the e-book. These digitally-based publishers are led by Amazon-owned KDP self-publishing where it costs nothing to upload your book and make it available to the market through Amazon.

KDP doesn’t edit it or promote the book for you either but you start paying only if you buy copies, which are reasonably-priced.

There are similar companies I’ve linked to here - Matador, Lulu and IngramSpark. All have their own way of doing things and you should check them out.

The production quality of these books is pretty much like traditional publishers and vanity publishers. These companies are a boon to less than best-selling authors everywhere, and especially in places like Papua New Guinea.

Many authors are more interested in people reading their books than making a lot of money from them – and the low-cost publishers are a gift to these writers. The literary purists, who want to do things on their own terms, have a long and proud tradition.

Here’s an article by best-selling author Harry Binham, who self-publishes many of his books and says he loves doing so. I think you’ll find what he has to say informative and fun to read.

STEPHEN CHARTERIS

CAIRNS – I was particularly struck by the recent observations of Dr Chris McCall and author Nick Brown (in Phil Fitzpatrick’s review of his latest book).

Their observations of discovering some of life's grim realities provided by salient insights into the shallow ignorance of what former US president Donald Trump contemptuously referred to as “shithole countries”.

Both McCall and Brown had witnessed and been moved by the shocking lives many people were forced to endure, often exacerbated by the consequences of unbridled corruption.

In doing so they had developed an incisive understanding of the terrible consequences that occur when personal agendas override all other considerations to the point where the outcome is evil.

In essence, the doctor and the author were first-hand witnesses to the logical end point to the late UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s much quoted assertion that “there's no such thing as society”.

They were words perfectly formed for the favoured 10-second sound bite on a news bulletin.

Just like Trump’s, “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” referring to people from Africa and Central America.

One of his sympathisers denied Trump was being racist: “Trump simply meant countries without plumbing,” he said.

While another stated the president did certainly not sue the word ‘shithole’. He had in fact used the word ‘shithouse’.

Well, they might seem like the sort of language you can use or the sort of sentiments you might offer until a grieving mother turns up at your door at four in the morning cradling a dead toddler who has succumbed to an entirely preventable disease.

Or when you arrive in a remote village to transport their vegetables to market and are met by a line of stunned women, one of whom is bleeding profusely from an axe wound to the back of her head.

Many readers could relate similar moments when self-satisfaction was shaken out of them.

How an event forced an examination of their sugar-coated view of how the world worked and how its inhabitants were somehow not part of ‘normal’ life.

When these moments of shocking realisation occur, it doesn’t take long to shake you out of your complacency and examine the shallowness of your thinking about how the world worked.

It’s about that time when you either decide to pack up and ‘go pinis’ (leave forever) or something more profound happens: that you have an obligation to stick around.

At this point you have unknowingly crossed your own personal Rubicon.

It’s then that you no longer feel fully comfortable about who you are. Nor are you able to relate in the same way to where you came from

It’s at this point you decide to stay on. It’s at this point a feeling of empathy and understanding attach to you, never to leave no matter where you are.

I empathise with both McCall and Brown, neither of whom I know but who’s sentiments are immediately familiar.

And I am thankful they feel the way they do, because in this incredibly shallow world of Maccas and ‘fully sick’ and ‘BLT’, there’s more truth and purpose to be found in the realities they discovered than they ever would have known in the bubbles they came from.

Daru's New Century Hotel and street market - doubtless the mud-puddlers have fond memories of sinking the odd stubby here (Mark O'Shea)

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

TUMBY BAY - There’s a loose and exotic fraternity of expatriate mud-puddlers who served in the Western Province who exchange occasional emails when something of interest about their old stamping ground surfaces in the media.

A recent report in the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier about a development plan for Daru, the provincial capital, is currently stirring their interest.

Many of us puddlers thought the whole thing was pure pie in the sky but it seems there might be more to it.

According to journalist Gorethy Kenneth, the Chinese proponents plan to build a K37 billion city on the island, including seaport, industrial and commercial zones, a residential area and a resort.

The two companies involved, WYW Holding Ltd and AA Oil and Gas Corporation, plan to send representatives to PNG this year to get negotiations moving with the government, which has yet to respond to the proposal.

“This is a project not to create animosity among both national and provincial leaders and neighbouring countries,” the companies state somewhat defensively.

“We want to genuinely help Papua New Guinea and create more jobs for the locals apart from developing the area.”

One of those neighbouring countries is Australia, whose mainland is 200 kilometres south but with plenty of islands in between.

The other is Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populated country, 250 kilometres west.

In PNG Attitude recently, Bri Olewale, who knows the area well, pointed out that many people in Western Province see their future with Indonesia.

“Western Province people can't wait for a border road to be built so our people can benefit even more from trade and education opportunities in Merauke and other parts of Indonesia,” Olewale wrote.

“Make a trip to the border villages in Western Province and you will surprisingly find that the Indonesian independence day celebrations are bigger than September 16th (PNG Independence Day).”

It’s tempting to speculate how much a future Indonesian linkage to Daru has to do with the Chinese proposal.

As mud-puddler Ray Moore says: “To a great extent we [Australia] are to blame as we have done very little to assist the coastal area of the Western Province. We have left a void that either Indonesia or China will fill.”

Given its paranoia about its maritime borders, you would think the Australian government should be paying a lot more attention to this area and what is happening there.

Geo-political concerns aside, however, you would consider Australia might be more concerned about the Torres Strait as a conduit for drug running and infectious diseases like HIV-AIDS and the particularly nasty MDRTB (multiple drug resistant tuberculosis).

The Australian government and its foreign policy mandarins always leave action too late and only seem to move when a situation reaches crisis point.

Its next step is usually mismanage the crisis and look for someone to blame.

Dick (Skunge) Randolph points out: “Australia will regret its disregard of Papua and its demonising of the Kiwai, Daudai and Trans-Fly people in the eyes of the Torres Strait people over the last 50 or 60 years.

“When I first went to Daru,” Skunge recalls, “the waterfront was gunwale to gunwale with tinnies.

“These were Torres [Strait] Islander dinghies; they all did their shopping on Daru.

“Virtually all Daru people had Torres Islander blood, Daru residents were closely related to Mer, Masig, Erub, Stevens, Saibai, Duan and Boigu.”

And Skunge adds: “The Australian government are the ones who pulled down the Sago Curtain”.

Peter Walsh agrees but believes any Australian paranoia about China establishing a military presence on Daru is probably unfounded.

“Strategically, the proximity to Australia matters little from a military point of view,” Walsh says. “Missiles and subs count for more.

“To me it is the cultural and environmental catastrophe that is looming.

“As any student of history can attest, two things define a town: clean water and sewerage.

“Daru, from my memory, lacks the former from any natural source and, as to sewerage, well Perfume Point [known for its crab-eating mangrove snakes] will turn into Putrid Point pushing the shit all the way into the Torres Strait and Gulf.

“Desalination must be in the plan somewhere, so energy must also be added to the list,” Walsh adds

Warren Dutton, a former PNG government minister and MP for North Fly, points out the region is very sparsely populated.

“The total population of the whole Western Province would not fill even one small suburb of such a city [the Chinese are contemplating],” he says.

“Hence most of its residents would have to come from some foreign country, or other. We can all guess where that might be.”

Dutton also endorses Skunge’s point about the unnecessary division by national borders of people on both sides of the Torres Strait.

He recognises it as a serious problem and suggests it is not one that it is too late to reverse.

The timing of the planned visit by the Chinese company representatives to PNG will be governed by the Covid situation.

The timing itself is curious as there are national elections in both Papua New Guinea and Australia which almost coincide in April and May.

Perhaps the Chinese are hoping for regime changes.

In Australia the Labor Party believes it is possible to deal with the Chinese without the damaging theatrics employed by the Liberal-National Coalition for domestic political purposes.

And in Papua New Guinea, you never know, it’s entirely possible that the China-friendly Peter O’Neill might regain the leadership.

Harry (right) with former Sunshine Coast mayor Bob Abbot. Considering Harry's ubiquity and his reputation for having a finger in every pie, strangely this is the best pic we were able to find at short notice. Looks like ONGU operatives were at work

HARRY ROACH

Harry Roach died this afternoon bringing to an end an illustrious career as a Papua New Guinea kiap, a Cooroy property salesman and a Noosa shire councillor. He was known wherever he went as a can-do man, a thoroughgoing professional, a solid citizen and an inveterate prankster. Life with Harry could be eye-popping, hair-raising and mind-blowing, but the saga of ONGU was perhaps his greatest accomplishment – a true tour de farce - KJ

AITAPE - There was very little to occupy the ever-enquiring minds of the people who lived and worked in the many and varied outstations of the Sepik District in the mid 1960's.

And so it was with those who filled the various government and private occupations on the small Aitape outstation at the time.

There was occasional cricket against the Doggett XI. Tennis on the concrete slab laid down by the AIF for its mess hall during the war. A dangerous surf. A popular game of golf on the ever expanding airstrip.

Whatever, the Aitape gang was ever ready to adopt any new challenge that appeared on the horizon.

Thus when Michael Somare formed PANGU (Papua and New Guinea United) Pati, the news became an important topic of conversation on Friday night at the famous multiracial Aitape Club.

This ensured much discussion far into the night. The beer flowed freely and ideas came thick and fast. Finally a consensus emerged - "something must be done."

ONGU seemed to spring up overnight. The newspapers were mystified, but not as much as ASIO, the Special Branch and the Joint Intelligence Organisation. Wherever they looked, ONGU was elsewhere. And then, there was mysterious carving....

If there is a PANGU, why not an ONGU?

And thus the ONGU legend was born. The political arm of Only New Guinea United.

Donald T, the technical school headmaster, vowed that henceforth the school's trade store - the ONGU trade store would guarantee Only New Goods Utilised (the commercial arm).

And Tiger, the didiman promised henceforth his efforts would be directed to Organised Natural Ground Utilisation. And thus the legend grew.

Matias from Menapi undertook to find a suitable carving to be the emblem - a mascot.

He returned next day with a solid four foot carving of an ugly head, with a crocodile collar. It was immediately dubbed ONGU.

And the legend grew further.

When a bus full of school children slipped off the road, a local wag wrote ‘ONGU WAS HERE’ in the dust on the back.

When told the story a South African born police officer in Vanimo muttered "it had to come to this country sooner or later."

Again at Vanimo the 007 (as Special Branch officers were known) left his safe open one lunchtime and an ONGU representative slipped an ONGU file into the secure space.

When discovered it caused such a stir that District Commissioner John Wakefield threatened to "bring the long arm of the law down on ONGU."

In Madang two tortoises, extracted from the hotel fishpond were branded with ‘ONGU’ and returned secretly to the water, setting tongues wagging and astonishing all and sundry.

And at every inter-station sports day or football match, ONGU the carving would be a silent sentry on the sideline.

And so it spread - letters to the editor began to be published in the Post Courier newspaper from ONGU’s in Lae, Port Moresby, Aitape and Konedobu.

J K (Jack) McCarthy (the journalist, not the kiap) visited Aitape to report on the ever-expanding phenomenon.

He was met by two motorbike riders with ONGU WAN and ONGU TU printed on their helmets and his subsequent full page article went viral throughout the Territory.

In 1972, local MP Paul Langro proposed to form an ONGU branch of his United Party and even suggested a renaming of the West Sepik to ONGU District.

In a letter to the Post Courier a Jay Kay from Waigani criticised this idea and it was rejected by ONGU in a later letter to the editor.

Telegrams began to arrive over the radio sked. One that had 007 worried was from Bulolo to ONGU reading: "ASPECTS GOOD ONGU UNGU BONGU BOT (STOP) DEKANAI.”

The monthly Aitape magazine Da Spegal followed the fortunes of ONGU and published an ONGU Book of Verse.

There was the famous occasion when the Australian naval ship HMAS Aitape arrived for a long weekend of sports and cultural activity.

A quick snapshot from the last Cessna out of Aitape. ONGU forces had seized the airport and were refusing landing rights to any aircraft not carrying rum

The town played the ship at rugby league and the ship's team won. ONGU was present by the sideline.

It was agreed that the crew of HMAS Aitape would take ONGU for a publicity voyage round New Guinea, so wherever the ship visited and played a game against the locals, ONGU was produced.

The omnipotent carving always had pride of place.

Whenever asked the significance of the object, the crew would answer simply: "That is ONGU from Aitape."

__________

We express our great sadness to Betty who, with Harry, made one of the best teams of community builders Aitape, Kieta, Cooroy and the world ever saw. Great men and women exist because of what they do, not because of what is said. The deeds live on - KJ

This piece was first published in PNG Attitude as 'The curious affair of ONGU: A study in public confusion' in July 2015

'Noken Simuk - Smoking forbidden. Leave the matchbox and inflammable matches inside the box' (Robert Eklund)

CRAIG ALAN VOLKER
| Edited & updated

First published in The National, February 2018

PORT MORESBY – All of us probably remember dictionaries from when we were at school.

They had a long list of English words and explained them in English. This is a monolingual dictionary. Words and explanations in the same language.

Another type of dictionary is bilingual, where the explanations of words are given in another language.

This type is especially useful when we’re learning another language.

For example, a Tok Pisin-English dictionary gives Tok Pisin explanations of English words and English translations or explanations for Tok Pisin words.

maski = never mind, forget about it

forget it = maski

An example is the Oxford Tok Pisin-English Dictionary I edited with Susan Baing, Brian Deutrom and Russell Jackson some years ago

So bilingual dictionary like this is useful for foreigners learning Tok Pisin or Papua New Guineans learning English.

Bilingual dictionaries are also useful for documenting a language that might otherwise not be written at all or only partially.

This is especially so when a language is in danger of disappearing or when difficult terminology, such as plant and animal names or expressions related to customary practices, are no longer being learned by young people.

Putting these important words in a dictionary preserves them for future generations and can be retrieved long after a community has forgotten them.

These days many PNG languages are in danger of disappearing as young people prefer to use Tok Pisin or English.

Even if a language is not totally disappearing, it is often the case that only a simple form of the language is used, and the older and more complex words and grammar are disappearing.

I omce received a letter from a young Tolai who was worried about this happening in his Kuanua language.

He said that, while his grandparents taught him how to speak Kuanua using complicated vocabulary and eloquent oratory, most of the young people spoke it in a simple way, taking many words from Tok Pisin and English.

He was worried about this and that Kuanua, a very rich language, would be passed on in a diminished form to future generations.

Of course, a dictionary alone will not reverse this trend. After all, there are dictionaries for many dead languages that are no longer spoken.

But by recording the important words in a dictionary, people who want to learn them in the future will have a resource they can refer to.

So how can someone with no linguistic training do this?

The first step is to check online or in a library to see if there is already some kind of dictionary for your language.

One good place to start on the internet is the Ethnologue website of international languages, which is partly subscriber-driven but still offers much information free of charge.

Today, for example, the website featured the Haruai language of Madang, spoken by about 2,000 people and still in good shape.

Apparently speeches and sermons by visiting outsiders are always translated into Haruai.

There is also OLAC, the Open Language Archives Community, an international partnership that is creating a worldwide virtual library of language resources.

If your language does not have a dictionary, or if there’s a dictionary available but you feel it needs additional data, you can start to do this yourself.

Even if you do not have linguistic training, you can make word lists with English or Tok Pisin explanations and translations.

It is especially important to have lists in your language related to the environment, customary beliefs and practices, and oral history, as this knowledge is disappearing quickly.

Another resource is Wiktionary, an online collaborative tool similar to Wikipedia, that allows anyone to create, add to or edit a dictionary in any language.

Although learning how to use Wiktionary does take a bit of time and patience, once you know how to edit and add entries, people anywhere can add to the dictionary.

Several years ago, I worked with Motu-speaking colleagues at Divine Word University to see how this could work for their language. We set up a Motu Wiktionary Dictionary and wrote a number of entries for people to see.

It hasn’t been touched for a while but you can check it out (and even add to it) here.

An advantage of publishing online with Wiktionary is that the site can be accessed by anyone with a smartphone and, because you do not need to wait until you have a finished product to publish, people can comment on the dictionary as it is being written.

It then becomes a true community effort, in keeping with Melanesian custom.

If you want to learn more about dictionaries, SIL PNG offers lexicography (dictionary-writing) workshops from time to time.

https://www.silpng.org/

SIL has also written several guides about dictionary writing and compilation as well as software to use on a laptop to make dictionary compilation and organisation easier.

More importantly, they have a website for public use, link to it here, where people with very little linguistic and computer expertise can produce an online dictionary for their own language.

Like Wiktionary, this is organised so that it can be a community project, with people in different places contributing at different times.

Ideally, provincial and national governments would support the documentation of PNG languages and indigenous knowledge through the compilation and publication of dictionaries.

Unfortunately, this is not yet the case. It is ironic that governments in the still colonised parts of Melanesia–Indonesian Papua and French New Caledonia–do much more to support tok ples dictionary compilation than the governments of independent Melanesian countries.

But in the absence of government support, there is still much valuable work that individuals and groups here can do on their own to preserve the words in their languages through dictionaries.

Professor Volker is a linguist living in New Ireland and an Adjunct Professor in The Cairns Institute at James Cook University in Queensland

MICHAEL DOM
| Ples Singsing

In loving memory of Green Eggs & Ham by Dr Seuss

I do not like vomit flavoured ice cream
Vomit flavour is not in my dreams
And if I were to taste it I think I would scream
Please don’t count me on your vomit-flavour team

Many other people dislike it too
But I’m sure there’s someone and maybe it’s you
Who likes vomit flavoured ice cream
And maybe you dream and scream for it too

Some people chew buai and swallow the juice
Others spit the stuff out and that looks quite gross
Some people think buai tastes like vomit – their choice
Because I love the taste and always rejoice

But then again, I don’t like nuts in ice cream
I think putting nuts in ice cream is really mean
Though my bestie loves that stuff and is always keen
To eat nuts in ice cream until she turns green

She dislikes me gargling buai all day
I chew my buai and swallow the juice
But serve vomit flavoured ice cream and I’ll puke right away
Sometimes we can’t help what we like or choose

The late Grand Chief Michael Somare, who led PNG to independence, farewells his comrade Bernard Narokobi, who nurtured the flame of Melanesian identity, Wewak, March 2010

LISE DOBRIN

CHARLOTTESVILLE - I got to know Bernard Narokobi while doing research for my dissertation in linguistics in his home village of Wautogik in the late 1990s.

While the old people there taught me about the language, Bernard taught me that I was participating in a knowledge exchange.

Just as his son Vergil had gone to study at Cambridge University, I had come to study at the University of Melanesia.

Once we recognise that different cultures everywhere have their own special ways of organising family life, governing their communities, communicating and so on, there’s the possibility for people from each place to learn from one another.

But before we can engage in that kind of equal exchange, we first have to accept that there is a Melanesian Way worthy of attention and exploration, just as there are Australian or English ways for Papua New Guineans to learn from.

As an American, I could not be more appreciative of my exposure to the Melanesian Way.

It has made me more open to helping when I can, and asking without shame when I’m the one who needs something.

It has taught me what it means to know and love your lands, how important it is to mourn properly for your dead, and how morally dangerous an extended imbalance of wealth can be.

It has revealed to me the enormous effort hidden behind any planned gathering.

Associate Professor Lise Dobrin - "There is a Melanesian Way"

It has taught me about levels of hospitality that were unimaginable to me before.

I am ever grateful to Bernard Narokobi and the people of his village for their gift of exposure to the Melanesian Way.

It is something I will never stop trying to repay.

Lise Dobrin is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, USA

Port of Lae - set to become a regional container hub as Australia fends off Chinese influence.

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA - The Australian government has announced it will provide K1.5 billion in loans and grants to Papua New Guinea to upgrade its ports facilities.

Australia says the funds will strengthen trade ties between the two countries and encourage PNG to decline investment from other nations including China.

The surprise announcement came on Friday during a short virtual meeting between prime ministers James Marape and Scott Morrison.

The funding has been made available as part of Australia’s on again-off again relationship with Pacific Island nations to counter the influence of China in the region.

China has been accused of deliberately lending Pacific Islands countries money to create a ‘debt trap’ which these economically struggling nations will find difficult repay leaving them in the clutches of China.

But a number of expert studies of Chinese lending to the Pacific has called the debt-trap this a ‘myth’, saying that available evidence challenges this assertion.

https://www.chathamhouse.org/2020/08/debunking-myth-debt-trap-diplomacy

Announcing the funding arrangement, Morrison said it would “support the sovereignty, the independence and the self-sufficiency of Papua New Guinea.

“That has always been our absolute goal with all of our support interventions and assistance,” he said.

“This investment will improve trade and connectivity in the region, support economic recovery from Covid-19 and help safeguard the development of critical infrastructure in PNG.”

The grants and loans will be used to improve port facilities at Kimbe, Lorengau, Kavieng, Vanimo and Wewak.

It will also develop PNG’s biggest port, Lae, as a regional hub by improving its capacity to service dedicated container ships from southeast Asia.

“Upgrades to these key ports will facilitate trade and investment opportunities for PNG local products to reach designated domestic and international markets,” Marape said.

“The projects will also create local employment, stimulate economies of scale and build business confidence to grow our economy.”

Dr Anthony Bergin, a senior fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told the Sydney Morning Herald that the deal makes strategic sense because “because the Chinese have been trying to get into the PNG ports.

“So I think this is a good geopolitical move to ensure the Chinese don’t dominate PNG port development.”

MICHAEL DOM

You see dried grass over rough cut logs
And the earth floor of my house
When I open my home to you
And you think to yourself how you can help me.
And yet…

I smelled the air that morning we cut the kunai grass
And I heard the children laughing as they played
On the green knoll beside us
And I tasted the sweet sour sweat
As we hewed the living trees to earth.
I felt the heat of day and the burning flames
As this house was dried and bound
By light of bright blue day above
And in the deepest dark of night.

I recall the evenings we ate the green-cook
That the old women brought us
(God bless pig fat!)
Because they saw our toil
And loved their grandchildren.
But I do not know and lament bitterly
How could I help you know?

So, this is what I would pray
If God would listen to me once
On one night of His majestic eternity
High above the sparks of my fire place
Give my friend peace, if you are truly god
With the blessing that only heavens knows
Because I have much to be grateful for
But so little to give.
Let my friend understand that I too know

That we are here and now, each of us, alive
And we love too.

Yu lukim drai garas antap long ol rap kat diwai

TRANSLATED BY RAYMOND SIGIMET

Yu lukim drai garas antap long rap kat diwai     
Na giraun plo blong haus blong mi
Taim mi opim haus dua long yu
Na yu tingting long yu yet hau yu ken halivim mi.
Na yet …

Mi simelim tuhat blong dispela moning mipela katim kunai garas
Na mi harim ol pikinini wok lap taim ol pilai
Antap long grinpela liklik maunten sait long mitupela
Na mi teistim switpela saua tuhat
Taim mipela wok katim ol diwai i sanap go daun long giraun.
Mi pilim hot blong san wantaim paia lait
Bilong wanem dispela haus i stap drai na karamap
Wantaim bikpela lait blong blu skai antap
Na insait long bikpela tudak blong nait.

Mi tingim bek ol abinun mitupela kaikai kumu
Em dispela lapun meri i bin bringim kam long yumi
(God i ken blesim gris pik!)
Bikos ol lukim mitupela wok hat
Na laikim ol tumbuna
Tasol mi i no save na karai nogut tru
Hau bai mi halivim yu long save?

Olsem nau, dispela em wanem samting bai mi beten
Sapos God bai harim mi wanpela taim tasol
Long wanpela nait insait long glori blong Em oltaim oltaim
Antap tru long paia kalap long paia ples
Givim poro blong mi bel isi, sapos yu god tru tru

Wantaim gutpela sindaun we heven tasol i save
Bikos mi gat planti tumas long tok tenk yu long
Tasol liklik tru long givim.
Larim poro blong mi save olsem mi tu save
Olsem mitupela stap hia na nau, mitupela yet, i stap laip
Na mitupela gat laikim tu.

Notes on the Tok Pisin translation

Rap kat is a Pinglish equivalent to the phrase ‘rough-cut’.

Apart from that, the difficult phrase to translate was “on one night of His majestic eternity“.

For all plural words, the Tok Pisin plural marker ‘ol’ is used. Plural pronouns were translated based on the context of the poem.

CHRIS OVERLAND

ADELAIDE – China knows that money talks and has acted accordingly.

This is a shrewd strategy as well as making long term economic sense.

Meanwhile, in the USA, the division, disputation and denunciation between the only two political parties that matter continue unabated.

So does the arm wrestle with China for dominance in the South-West Pacific.

Australia and Papua New Guinea are largely helpless bit players in this struggle for power and influence between the two titans of our era.

The only certainty is that China will resume its place as the most important power in South East Asia. This is being pragmatically recognised by ASEAN nations.

What this might ultimately mean in geo-political terms is anyone's guess right now.

Two wild cards in this new Great Game are whether China can maintain its spectacular economic growth rate as its economy matures, and whether Xi Zinping succeeds in his efforts to suppress aspects of China's rampant crony capitalism.

If he can do this, he will achieve the redistribution of wealth he calculates is needed to keep the masses satisfied, thus shoring up the Chinese Communist Party's support base.

For the USA, dealing with the historic legacy of slavery and racism which lies at the very heart of the current internal political and socio-economic divisions is the great task before its leadership.

This problem is hugely enervating and distracting for the current political elites, Republican and Democrat alike, who seem incapable of creating a consensus based strategy for the inevitable transition to a majority coloured USA.

While the demographic end game for this problem is actually clear, getting there without major political and civil uproar looks unlikely at the moment.

So, right now at least, China is winning the Great Game.

But history suggests there will be many challenges and surprises ahead before it becomes clear just which of these two great powers ends up in a predominant position.

STEPHEN CHARTERIS

CAIRNS – Chris Overland comments that “we collectively ought to have sufficient insight and humility to accept that we have an obligation to help out those who live in 'shithole' countries….

“Not merely through charity, but by a conscious, systemic and systematic effort to help them reach their true socio-economic potential.”

I agree entirely with this evaluation. The bit that sticks in my craw is the inequity that exists at such a deeply disturbing level.

To observe a young boy dying from the ravages of tuberculosis 200 kilometres from the Australian border kindles a deep sense of sadness and outrage at the inequity.

I cannot separate the image of our citizens arriving as fly in-fly out workers at mines across Papua New Guinea from the hunter gatherer family standing in front of me to whom the boy belongs.

Workers shepherded straight off the plane onto buses going to the mess, their donga or their first world jobs. 

And during their 'swing' they can be certain that they won’t miss a single game of footy or be exposed to anything 'outside the fence'.

And the boy? There is nothing we can do.

The nearest health centre is days away and he will probably die before being assessed for treatment.

This is not to bag the workers who come and go. 

But to my mind the system from which they benefit represents the worst aspects of our inequitable and imperialist world.

Comments you hear at the camp mess too often confirm that former president Trump’s ruminations on ‘shithouse countries’ expressed commonly held views.

I wince each time I hear Australia’s political class refer to ‘our Pacific family’.

This statement is crass beyond all imagining. 

That it is uttered at all given the real circumstances, the real relationship, only serves to show how conveniently ignorant we are, or worse how opportunist and amoral we have become.

This is not about some misplaced 'do-gooder' zeal. 

Rather it refers to the notion that, if you wouldn’t tolerate the death of your child or sister from the abject failure of the health system, why would you tolerate it 200 kilometres beyond your border.

And for how much longer do you expect those on the other side of that imaginary line to tolerate the discrepancy?

Australia is a rich nation that benefits directly from its resources. Are we contributing anything worthwhile in return?

Are we doing enough to facilitate the type of social and economic empowerment that provides people with a degree of financial independence and a pathway towards improved health and education?

No – we are not.  Our models of development assistance are demonstrably ineffective.

We would rather focus on offshore camps in which to incarcerate other desperate people.

We are now witnessing the cost of inequity across the globe. 

We are witnessing the price to be paid for the creeping calamity of global heating, a phenomenon that is driving human misery on an increasing scale.

Millions of people are being forced to look ever further for a place with reliable fresh water, or to deal with the ravages of conflict arising from shrinking resources, or to find a place where they can simply exist.

The notion that we in our privileged bubble can turn a blind eye and solve it by increasing Border Force and naval patrols is mind-numbingly myopic.

It is clear that our survival is becoming more and more dependent and intertwined with others with whom we share an increasingly over stretched planet. 

Where access to clean water rather than which movie to watch is the pressing order of the day. 

As Chris Overland correctly suggests, the solutions lie in how we assist people to achieve their socio-economic potential and what we also need to do in our own jurisdictions. 

That’s not charity, it’s common sense.

So far our political class has not been willing or prepared to confront these realities with anything like the intellectual rigour or physical scale required.

This elite can’t even make sensible decisions about our relationships with our nearest neighbours.  There is nothing to be proud of about this. It is painful and cringeworthy to watch.

I fear what will be the consequences of our continuing along the path we have created for ourselves.

The product of exploitation of resources and citizens on a global scale will be an almighty reckoning when the chickens come home to roost.

Almost 400 years ago John Donne penned these prophetic words:

“Send not to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee”

The tolling of those bells is nearing a crescendo now.

Harry Roach,  Otto Alder and Betty Roach at a kiap's reunion in 2009

KEITH JACKSON

NOOSA – On Friday, they’ll bury Harry Roach in the pretty country graveyard at Cooroy.

Cooroy, 20 kilometres inland from Noosa, had been his and Betty’s home pretty much since they left Papua New Guinea just before independence in 1975.

You’ll have to tolerate my vagueness because, for a man who did so much, knew so many and seemed a permanent fixture anywhere he was, Roach didn’t leave behind too many tracks.

It is vivid memories and stout friendships that Joseph Harold (Roachy) Roach left in his wake.

Soon after he died at home early Saturday afternoon, his great buddy Rob Parer got in touch to share the wretched news.

Harry had been ill for a long time, but the last but was the worst because Harry refused to use pain killers and there have been few born more obstinate than Harry.

The Aitape region (Bill Brown)

As we grow old, it’s not really a shock when an acquaintance dies, that’s somehow expected. Death is more of a crossroads where a desolate sorrow meets a damn shame.

Most of the people a bloke would have wanted to share things with have gone where Roachy’s gone.

And those glorious days had also gone. Days when splendid achievement or frustrated outrage or lashes of danger or preposterous frivolity would be laughed at over two or three beers too many. And that would be that.

But now we are old enough to know that no matter how vivid the memories and animated the spirit those times will never come back. But there is always just the faintest of hope until a mate passes on to wherever we go.

My immediate reaction upon hearing the news about Harry last Saturday was to write and communicate a brief message appended to one of his favourite yarns:

“Harry Roach died at two o’clock this afternoon bringing to an end an illustrious career as a Papua New Guinea kiap, a Cooroy property salesman and a Noosa shire councillor.

“Harry was known wherever he went as a can-do man, a thoroughgoing professional, a solid citizen and an inveterate prankster.

“Life with Harry could be eye-popping, hair-raising and mind-blowing, but the saga of ONGU was perhaps his greatest accomplishment – a true tour de farce.

"We express our great sadness to Betty who, with Harry, made one of the best teams of community builders Aitape, Kieta, Cooroy and the world ever saw. Great men and women exist because of what they do, not because of what is said. The deeds live on.”

The deeds live on but the words never quite do it at times like this. Truth is I don’t know the detail of Harry’s personal story. I’m going to have to paint a picture.

The sub-district office at Aitape, 1966

Of Aitape, where he is still remembered with great affection, Harry wrote:

“There was very little to occupy the ever-enquiring minds of the people who lived and worked in the many and varied outstations of the Sepik District in the mid 1960's.

“And so it was with those who filled the various government and private occupations on the small Aitape outstation at the time.

“There was occasional cricket against the Doggett XI. Tennis on the concrete slab laid down by the AIF for its mess hall during the war. A dangerous surf. A popular game of golf on the ever expanding airstrip…..”

Harry could be fairly quick in his judgement of his fellow humans, once describing his immediate superior, the West Sepik district commissioner, as “a fossilised obstructionist”.

“You have certainly left your mark in a big way in many fields,” Parer commented after Harry’s death. “One of the best kiaps ever to set foot in New Guinea.”

Brother Charles Barry, a missionary in PNG for 26 years, clearly recalled his encounter with Harry in his 2010 memoir, Reminiscences & Recollections:

“I attended a party on Government Hill, Aitape, in the early 70s hosted by senior kiap Harry Roach with many others including Rob Parer, a real identity and great mission supporter, and his wife Margaret.

“Next morning, Sunday, Rob suggested Harry, Lawrence Cassar and me do a spot of sailing in Rob’s new yacht Seksek. We got totally becalmed a mile out to sea.

Harry and Rob, with mild hangovers, succumbed to sleep while Lawrence and I got seasick even though conditions were dead calm. I jumped into the placid sea and a slight breeze came up and the yacht slowly drifted away.

“Being only an average swimmer I couldn’t keep up with it and my yelling went unheeded for some time until one of them became aware I was missing. After clumsy manoeuvering they eventually rescued me. Harry was not very complimentary in his remarks”

Harry Roach (left) and other kiaps in Bourke, 1969

Harry was nothing if not opportunistic and in August 1969 he wangled a trip to New South Wales to study the Australian beef industry. Because there weren't too many stud bulls in Kings Cross, the destination for the week-long visit was Bourke in the state's far west.

The Western Herald reported on its front page, Study Tour From New Guinea, that one Mr Roach had revealed that “the meat industry is just coming good in New Guinea” and that “the general atmosphere in Bourke is similar to some centres in New Guinea with golf, bowls and other sporting clubs.”

Warming to his theme, Harry explained that the Rotary Club "had sent pumps, well-making and other materials [and] a humane act was the forwarding of an X-Ray plant to the hospital at Aitape”.

The newspaper also reported that “Mr Roach represented Wewak Golf Club at golf on Sunday and was enthusiastic about the wonderful day’s golfing and the very efficient organisation at the Bourke Golf Club.”

Wherever Harry ended up, he cut a swathe.

Rob Parer, who spent much of his life in the West Sepik, which he knows as no other white man, recalls the time 12 bedraggled Indonesians came ashore in Aitape in a rickety homemade sailing boat.

“They had drifted from the Maluku Group for six weeks and been reduced to eating stinking copra,” Parer says. “They came ashore at night and the Aitape police grabbed them and tied them to poles.

“A map had been found on one of them with PNG marked as ‘East Irian’ and all hell broke loose as the authorities were sure they were spies.

“Four or five intelligence operatives from Canberra came to Aitape to check them out.”

When the tumult died down Harry allowed them out of the local prison to do some grass cutting and gardening around the station and, when he found out they were entertainers, they Maluku 12 were invited to the Aitape Club to sing and dance every Saturday night.

That was an archetypal Roach initiative.

HMY Britannia in Kieta Harbour, April 1971. Pokpok Island in the background. Harry and I were to talk with the Duke f Edinburgh at a garden party

I first met Harry and Betty in Bougainville when they transferred to Kieta from Aitape – arriving on Saturday, 17 April 1971 (where there is precision, there is always Bill Brown).

Harry had been appointed executive officer of the Arawa Municipal Commission, I was running Radio Bougainville and the notorious Bougainville copper and gold mine was just coming into production up in the mountains.

On the coast, at the former Arawa plantation, a substantial township was being constructed for the sizeable population that was to work at and provide for the mine.

While he was still a kiap – and, as an assistant district commissioner, a senior one - Harry was effectively the Arawa town clerk, or the Mayor of Arawa as he preferred to be known.

It was his official role to manage the new town’s development and its affairs. It was his unofficial role to keep everyone he encountered on their toes, to enjoin at every level, to raise morale in every setting and to generally be a highly effective gadfly.

Harry and I didn’t have much to do with each other professionally in Kieta but we were active in the sailing club and would collaborate to perform occasional skits at the Kieta Club:

Jackson: It is said you were the first man to sail from Toromaro Cove to Pokpok Island without making landfall.

Roach: So true.

Jackson: But there is no land between Toromaro Cove and Pokpok Island.

Roach: Yes, that ranks as my most important discovery.

Jackson: Tell me about your ideology of sailing.

Roach: A great Australian sport. It’s catching on overseas I believe.

Jackson: Are you saying that Australians invented sailing?

Roach: It was that great Aussie politician Banjo Paterson who wrote, “I am sitting in my dinghy”.

Jackson: He was a poet but I’m certain he didn’t say that.

Roach: They’re all ratbags.

Despite the dilapidated sign, Cooroy Cemetery is in a beautiful counry location

When Harry and Elizabeth returned to Australia they established a successful real estate agency in Cooroy and once again became sterling members of the local community, so much so that Harry was elected to serve a term as a Noosa Shire councillor from 1984-88.

Harry's funeral service will be held at Drysdale’s funeral parlour in Tewantin at 10am on Friday, followed by a small graveside service at the Cooroy cemetery at 11.15. The service will be livestreamed. There will be no wake because of Covid.

Harry would not have been pleased about that.

Peter Comerford amidst the ruins of Panguna, from which he was forced to flee in 1990. An author who has seen the best and the worst of things, but this charming children's book is a delight all round

PHILIP FITZPATRICK

A Survival Story of Michael and Natlik by Peter Comerford, Austin Macauley Publishers, 2022, 146 pages. Available here from Booktopia in Australia, $18.95 paperback, $7.15 ebook

TUMBY BAY - I don’t remember when I learned to read. I know it was before I started school so I must have been fairly young.

I clearly remember a book based on the 1953 Walt Disney film of JM Barrie’s 1904 West End play Peter Pan or the Boy Who Would Not Grow Up. I would have been five at the time.

I also remember other books I read as I got older, including The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean published by Scottish author RM Ballantyne in 1857.

And later William Golding's 1954 novel Lord of the Flies, which was written as a counterpoint and parody of Ballantyne’s book.

The reason I mention this is because I’m trying to place Peter Comerford’s new children’s book into context, both in genre and who it might appeal to in terms of age and gender.

Peter’s book is about Michael, a young Australian lad holidaying on his uncle’s plantation in New Ireland.

Disaster strikes in the form of a boating accident and Michael is forced to depend on his own skills to survive.

The book is also about the relentless efforts of his uncle’s faithful household servant, Natlik, to find him.

At one point Michael makes the counterintuitive decision to leave the place on the coast where he has found food, water and shelter to cross the mountainous and jungle clad island seeking help.

This doesn’t make a lot of sense because his instincts should have told him to stay close to the place where he made it to shore and where people searching for him would probably look.

The crossing, however, provides much drama, and this may have been the author’s intent.

Although not stated, the book has a colonial feel to it with Australian plantation owners and their house servants. (Except on the very last page when a computer appears.)

Of course, none of this will bother an enthusiastic 10-year old looking for an entertaining yarn.

And this Peter Comerfield has given us. The book fits neatly into the boy’s own adventure genre pioneered so long ago by RM Ballantyne.

As for the possible age range, I reckon I read Coral Island when I was about 10, so 8-12 is probably pitching about right for this book.

Peter is a retired teacher, a headmaster no less, who taught in Papua New Guinea from 1970 to 1990, including in New Ireland where the book is set.

His experiences and his profession has enabled him to provide an authentic and charming ‘colonial days’ feel to the book.

I hope today’s 8-12-year olds will sit down and read A Survival Story– or maybe have it read to them - because it’s not only a well-constructed story with a consistent narrative but is imbued with a clear, positive message about interracial relationships.

In reading the book, and thinking of my own grandsons, I began to wonder about the extent to which children read for leisure these days when there are so many competing attractions.

Research shows that a majority of children still enjoy reading (and also enjoy being read to) until things drop away when they reach high school.

In an Australian survey, about half of the children aged 6-17 said they were currently reading a book “for fun” and another 20% said they’d just finished one.

Peter Comerford - Drama, adventure and a satisfying conclusion

Some 77% of girls and 65% of boys said they would read books at home five to seven days a week, and three-quarters were also card-carrying members of their local public library.

Furthermore, and this is great news, they tend overwhelmingly to talk to their parents about the books they are reading. There are some interesting statistics here.

A Survival Story will make a great gift for young children and as a work of literature Peter Comerford brings it to a natural and satisfying conclusion that will please a child of any age.

Other books by Peter Comerford

Land of the Unexpected: short stories, anecdotes and memoirs of Papua New Guinea

Tales and Memories of Papua New Guinea

MICHAEL DOM
| Ples Singsing - A Space for
   Papua Niuginian Creativity

Vernacular Traces in the Crocodile Prize:
Part 3 of an essay in five parts

ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY ED BRUMBY | TOK PISIN ORIGINAL FOLLOWS

LAE - When the 2014 Crocodile Prize national literary awards was announced (organised again by Keith Jackson and Phil Fitzpatrick), writers contributed many entries – the 497page Anthology surpassed the 2012 Anthology by 122 pages.

Nevertheless, there were not many entries in Tok Pisin and Tok Ples. Only three men wrote poetry and translations: Jimmy Drekore, David Wapar and me.

Although I had entered ‘Sonnet 6: At dawn we will escape the cage’ in the 2013 competition, it was included in the 2014 Anthology. I cannot deny that I was very happy.

And when I saw Jimmy Drekore’s Tok Ples entry, ‘Mina ya, mama ya, oh mama, and David Wapar’s ‘Laif i sot tumas’, I was even happier.

The ‘bush poet’ Drekore had also translated his poem into Tok Pisin and English and the three languages looked and felt so nice to me.

In all three languages, the seventh stanza reads:

Kua gal mei re/Bona au re/Monemone di re/Unao.

Karim bilum kaukau/Olim rop bilong pik/Isi isi/ Yu kam.

Carrying that load/ holding that rope/Slowly/Walking home.

When you first glance at this poem on paper, it appears to be an insubstantial piece of writing.

But as you read it, you see a true word picture emerge. Through each rendition - Tok Ples, Tok Pisin or English - you can feel the true essence of the story.

You see that woman trudging forward with her bag of kaukau, pig following.

The mental image the poet conjures up illustrates the life of all village women.

It is forever hard even as we city folk ride buses, eat Big Rooster and express great anger about our demanding lives.

I think too about my mother’s hard work, which I ignored and left for her to do.

My mother is like a counsellor who deals with plenty of worries and concerns about the lives of others even as see must address her own personal challenges.

City work can be the same as garden work. There are still bags of kaukau to be borne. And I’m the following pig.

There’s another poignant image that Drekore describes about our thinking of our mothers:

Yal molo dinga ple/Yal molau.

Yu tok kamap man na/Nau mi kamap man.

You wanted to see me a man/Now I am a man.

Everyone one of us can feel this poem in our bones. These are not empty words employed fordecoration. They speak of the pain of life.

It is so important to know that such short poems have the same power as stories told in whatever tongue.

The third poem in that 2014 Anthology, David Wapar’s ‘Life is Too Short’, is executed stylistically as the singing of a choir.

David applied some rules to the poem: the principal one being that it had to resonate with meaning as might a Biblical proverb.

Mi save ting laif i olsem flawa
We soim kala long moning aua
Tumoro, taim win na san I kam nau
Bai yu lukim lip bilong flawa pundaun

I think life is like a flower
Which blooms in the morning
Tomorrow when the wind blows the sand
You will see the petals fall

Laif blong yu na mi mas stap amamas
Laif, laif, laif is sot tuams
Em bai orait oltaim yumi amamas

Our lives should be happy
Life, life, life is too short
But it will be all right if we are always happy

The English version is exemplary, and follow’s David’s rules. Its style confirms that Tok Pisin can be used in a range of poetic varieties and styles.

The poem itself makes a strong case for including Tok Pisin in our Melanesian literature.

Another Tok Pisin poem by David Wapar has a different kind of message:

Long nait taim yumi bung
Taim papa silip tingting i lus
Bai yumi bung ananit long mun

Krukutim graun long ol pinga
Isi tasol, nongut ol I kirap
Yu kam hariap mi wet istap

When we meet at night
While Papa sleeps dreamlessly
We can meet underneath the moon

Scrape the ground with every finger
Gently, don’t wake everyone
Come quickly I am waiting

This aspect of young men and women’s lives is expressed beautifully in Tok Pisin but, if translated into English, would lose much of its essence.

The 2015 Anthology contained no mother tongue or Tok Pisin entries.

Four of my English poems were published and the Bush Poet submitted two plus another he co-wrote with Marie-Rose Sau, founder and manager of the Poetry PNG Facebook page.

In 2015 I wrote ‘Mi na yu’ (Me and you), a short Tok Pisin description of teasing and deception.

Here’s an extract:

Mi save long yu na yu save long mi
Mi no tingim yu na yu lusim tingting
Mi fit man tru na yu ia ino wanpela man tu!

I know you and you know me
I don’t think about you and you forget
I’m a truly able-bodied man, and you’re not a man either

Although this and other poems could not be included in the Anthology, other work was published in PNG Attitude and, around Christmas 2015, PNG writers produced much poetry, providing a stunning list of just how many of us there are.

The 2015 Crocodile Prize was the second year of the Cleland Family Award for Heritage Writing, sponsored by Bob Cleland. A number of these heritage stories were published in the 2014 and 2015 Anthologies.

During this time, a former patrol officer, Paul Oates wrote a Tok Pisin poem, ‘Equality of service delivery in rural PNG’.

It was pleasing to see Paul utilising the Tok Pisin that we PNG writers used in our Crocodile Prize entries and contributions to PNG Attitude.

It was the patrol officers and our grandparents who promoted the use and development of Tok Pisin in pre-independence times. If you read Paul’s poem you will understand the deep feeling he has for the people of PNG.

Equality of service delivery in rural PNG

Mipla igat traipela hevi
Ol bus igat planti wari
Lain gavman inostap
Na oli askim mipla antap
Bilong wanemn yupela noinap,
Long mekem ol samting kamap?
Orait, bai mipla mekim nupla lo
I olsem bengbeng istap bipo
No ken wari na singaut moa
Watpo yupla paitim doa
Lo opis bilo mi?

We have a heavy load
People of the bush have many worries
Government workers are absent
And everyone asks us administrators
Why aren’t you able
To make something happen?
All right, we’ll make a new law
Like the one that was there before
There’s no need to sing out again
Why are you knocking on the door
Of my office?

This work confirms that we can use Tok Pisin and vernacular languages to make a strong contribution to Melanesian literature.

Tok Pisin is deep in the bones of us Papua New Guineans: conversation, stories, flattery, secrets, making fun, and expressing thoughts, feelings, fears and worries.

These are strong reasons for Tok Pisin to become an integral part of our literature - to tell our stories, explain our thinking and express our feelings as Papua New Guineans.

I hope that in future my advocacy will bear fruit and there will be more poems and stories written in our three national languages and translated into and out of our mother tongues.

In years to come we will see more poetry and stories in our national languages and in translations from our indigenous languages.

I’m trying to pave the way by writing Tok Pisin poetry and good friends are helping me to translate these works into Motu and mother tongues.

My mother, Ruth Dom, translated the following poem:

Enduwa Kombuglu

Ooo Enduwa Kombuglu,
San emi holim het bilong yu pastaim tru
Olsem blessing bilong tumbuna man
Na tulait emi holim pasim yu isiisi tru
Olsem yangpela meri ino marit iet

Ooo Enduwa Kombuglu,
The sun touches your head first
Like a blessing from our patriarchs
And dawn embraces you gently
Like a young unwedded woman

Ooo Enduwa Kombuglu
Koma are bilin augidimwe one
Nile gome Abe bolemil umwe
Te kamuntagwai monemone dire uwai
Ene gai kumul ta kene pai kewa mele, elwe

In thinking about this poem, I am reminded that Enduwa Kombuglu was my forebears’ original name for Mt Wilhelm, PNG highest mountain.

It was the German colonists who called it Mt Wilhelm in recognition of their then young leader, Kaiser Wilhelm.

Nowadays, this and very many original indigenous place names have been forgotten and we think Mt Wilhelm is the name we gave. But, no, it was others who displaced original names:

Yu sutim nus bilong yu igo antap long lukim heven
Tasol ol pikinini bilong yu ol i mekim paul raunraun
Ol lus tingting pinis long pasin bilong sanap strong tru
Na ol i sutim giraun na lukim ples nogut

You hold your head high up to the heavens
But your children
Have forgotten the way to stand with strength
And they grovel in the dirt and misery

En gumanikan kaminil epe den we
En gage kane i kan kundalkenwe
En el enga bolemil, gage yumore wanmolumwe
Te yobalema i en augiderere molawe mile nigedomwe

Ol PNG raita i kirap bek gen

Taim 2014 Crocodile Prize Nesenol Litereri Kompetisen ikirap gen (em igo bek gen long han bilong Keith Jackson na Phil Fitzpatrick) ol raita i pinisim bikpela wokmak tru olsem na Entologi buk em igat 497 pages.

Dispela page mak emi abrusim mak bilong 2012 Entologi inap long 122 pages na i luk olsem wanpela liklik buk igo antap moa.

Tasol long dispela taim inobin igat planti hanmak long Tok Pisin na Tokples. Tripela man tasol i raitim tok-singsing na tanim tok, em Jimmy Drekore, David Wapar na mi iet.

Luksave i bin stap long ‘Sonet 6: Long tulait bai tumi kalapim dispela banis kalabus’2013 olsem em i mas stap insait long 2014 Entologi (p144), we mi bin slaim igo long kompetisen long, na mi noken giaman mi iet i pilim bel gut. Tasol taim mi lukim hanmak bilong Jimmy Drekore long “Mina Ya, Mama Ya, Oh Mama” (p201) na David Wapar ‘Laif i sot tumas’ (p207) mi hamamas moa iet long dispela tupela tok-singsing.

Bush Poet Drekore em i tainim tokples Dinga long Tok Pisin na Tok Inglis, na tripela tok-singsing wantaim i kamap nais tumas long ai na long nek na long iau bilong mi. Olsem nambawan ves i tok:

Kua gal mei re/Bona au re/Monemone di re/Unao.

Karim bilum kaukau/Olim rop bilong pik/Isi isi/ Yu kam.

Carrying that load/ holding that rope/Slowly/Walking home.

Taim yu lukluk long dispela tok-singsing long pepa em bai luk olsem wanpela liklik hanmak, tasol taim yu ridim bai yu luksave olsem emi trupela tok-piksa. Na tu taim nek bilong yu pairap long tokples na tokpisin na tokinglis bai yu harim na pilim tru swit bilong stori. Bai yu inap lukim stret wanpela mama i wokabaut igo wantaim bilum kaukau na pik i bihainim em.

Dispela piksa emi laip bilong ol mama blong ples long wanwan dei taim yumi ol man-meri long siti raun insait long bus, kaikai long Bik Roosta na bel kaskas olsem laip bilong yumi hat tumas.

Mi save tingim tu hatwok bilong mama bilong mi iet long Mosbi Siti. Ating Anutu pasim het bilong mi gut na mi inosave larim mama bilong mi mekim wanpela bikpela hevi wok abrusim mak, bilong wanem wok blong em olsem kaunselor emi kam wantaim planti wari na hevi bilong sindaun blong ol man-meri. Dispela wok long siti tu em i olsem wok gaden na bihain bai karim bilum kaukau igo long haus. Na ating mi wanpela liklik pik i bihainim em tasol.

Emi bin wanpela longpela wokabaut tasol Drekore iet itokaut long bel tingting bilong yu mama olsem:

Yal molo dinga ple/Yal molau.

Yu tok kamap man na/Nau mi kamap man.

You wanted to see me a man/Now I am a man.

Ating ol narapela lain tu i ken pilim dispela tok-singsing long bun bilong ol iet. Dispela tok-singsing em inogat mak bilong em long kalakala nating, em igat mak bilong em long pen bilong laip. Dispela ol kain sotpela tok-singsing igatim pawa bilong stori-tru isave kamap long olgeta tokples.

Nambatri tok-singsing ikamap long 2014 Entologi em bilong David Wapar, ‘Laif i sot tumas’, we em i bihainim hanmak bilong tok-singsing ikam long ol veses wankain olsem ol ‘choir’ (planti man meri wantaim) singsing.

Taim em raitim ol veses David i mas mekim sampela rul bilong em iet long bihainim taim em kamapim dispela tok-singsing. Nambawan ves igatim fopela lain. Bihain ves igatim tripela lain we i mekim wankain nek tasol igo.

Na tu igatim wankain nek pairap long pinis bilong ol wanwan ves-lain, olsem ‘flawa’ na ‘aua’. David i raitim tok-singsing olsem sampela kain ‘proverbs’ (tok-piksa igat bilip) bilong Buk Baibel:

Mi save ting laif i olsem flawa
We soim kala long moning aua
Tumoro, taim win na san I kam nau
Bai yu lukim lip bilong flawa pundaun

Laif blong yu na mi mas stap amamas
Laif, laif, laif is sot tuams
Em bai orait oltaim yumi amamas

Tok Inglis bilong en tu em ikamapim gutpela tok-singsing na bihainim wankain rul David ibin makim. Mi ting olsem dispela kain hanmak emi soim strong bilong Tok Pisin long traim narapela narapela kain tok-singsing na strongim nek bilong tokpisin iet insait long wok litiritia.

Tasol dispela tok-singsing em ibin nambatu hanwok bilong David Wapar long Tok Pisin. Nambawan hanwok bilong em ‘Long nait bai yumi bung’ igat narapela kain tokgris bilong en:

Long nait taim yumi bung
Taim papa silip tingting i lus
Bai yumi bung ananit long mun

Krukutim graun long ol pinga
Isi tasol, nongut ol I kirap
Yu kam hariap mi wet istap

Em wanpela hap wok bilong ol yangpela man-meri na stori bilong em long Tok Pisin emi kamap nais tumas na ating bai lusim sampela swit bilong em sapos yumi traim tanim Tok Inglis.

Long 2015 Entologi buk inogat wanpela hanmak bilong Tok Ples na Tok Pisin. Jimmy ‘Bush Poet’ Drekore ibin putim tupela tok-singsing na wanpela moa em i raitim wantaim Marie-Rose Sau (em ibin kirapim na save bosim Poetry PNG Facebook page). Fopela tok-singsing bilong mi istap insait long 2015 Entologi tasol olgeta stap long Tok Inglis.

Long 2015 mi raitim wanpela kain tok-singsing ‘Mi na yu’ we igat ol sotpela tokpisin toktok bilong sutim bel na pulim nus wantaim. Sampela tok bilong en igo olsem; “Mi save long yu na yu save long mi / Mi no tingim yu na yu lusim tingting / Mi fit man tru na yu ia ino wanpela man tu!”

Dispela tok-singsing blong mi inobin kamap insait long Entologi tasol wantaim ol arapela wok bilong or raita long 2015 istap iet long Keith Jackson & Friends: PNG Attitude blog. Namel long dispela krismas ol raita ibin kamapim planti wok we igat bikpela mak na soim olsem ol raita igat namba tru.

Igo moa, long 2015 kompetisen em ibin nambatu yia bilong Cleland Family Award for Heritage Writing, we Bob Cleland i kamap sponsor long en. Sampela tumbuna stori tu i stap long Entologi blong 2014 na 2015.

Ex-kiap Mr. Paul Oates i bin raitim wanpela tok-singsing long dispela taim tu, ‘Equality of service delivery in rural PNG’. Em ibin gutpela long ai bilong mi long lukim Paul tromoi sampela tokpisin i kam insait long wokbung bilong mipela ol PNG raita long Crocodile Prize na PNG Attitude, bilong wanem ol kiap wantaim ol lapun papa-mama bilong mipela i kirapim Tok Pisin trutru long taim bilong ol kiap. Na sapos yu ridim tok-singsing bilong Paul bai yu inap skelim olsem bel tingting bilong em i stap iet wantaim yumi ol pipol bilong Papua Niugini.

Equality of service delivery in rural PNG

Mipla igat traipela hevi
Ol bus igat planti wari
Lain gavman inostap
Na oli askim mipla antap
Bilong wanemn yupela noinap,
Long mekem ol samting kamap?
Orait, bai mipla mekim nupla lo
I olsem bengbeng istap bipo
No ken wari na singaut moa
Watpo yupla paitim doa
Lo opis bilo mi?

Ating dispela wok i soim piksa olsem mipela inap long brukim tokpisin wantaim ol sampela man-meri bilong narapela hap graun na em bai kamap gutpela tru long literatia bilong yumi. Tok Pisin em i stap long bun bilong mipela ol Papua Niugini, long toktok, long stori, tok-gris, tok-hait, tok-pilai, na tu long autim bel tingting, bel hevi, sori, poret na wari. Long dispela as i bai gutpela sapos Tok Pisin ken kamap strong moa long literatia, long kamautim ol stori, tingting na bel trutru bilong yumi Papua Niugini.

Ating long bihain taim baimbai yumi lukim sapos sampela wok i kamap long dispela tingting bilong mi long raitim ol tok-singsing na stori bilong yumi long tripela nesenol tokples na tu long tanim tokples. Mi iet i traim long brukim bus long kirapim sampela tok-singsing long Tok Pisin na ol gutpela poroman-meri halavim mi long tanim Tok Motu na Tok Ples Sinesine, na emi wanpela tok-singsing, ‘Enduwa Kombuglu’, we mama bilong mi iet, Mrs Ruth Dom, ibin tanim toktok long en:

Enduwa Kombuglu

Ooo Enduwa Kombuglu,
San emi holim het bilong yu pastaim tru
Olsem blessing bilong tumbuna man
Na tulait emi holim pasim yu isiisi tru
Olsem yangpela meri ino marit iet

Ooo Enduwa Kombuglu,
The sun touches your head first
Like a blessing from our patriarchs
And dawn embraces you gently
Like a young unwedded woman

Ooo Enduwa Kombuglu
Koma are bilin augidimwe one
Nile gome Abe bolemil umwe
Te kamuntagwai monemone dire uwai
Ene gai kumul ta kene pai kewa mele, elwe

Long dispela tok-singsing mi tromoi sampela tingting olsem, Endua Kombulgu emi nem bilong Mt Wilhelm we ol asples lain ibin givim long en. Tasol long taim bilong ol koloniel ol German ibin givim nem long wanpela yangpela bikman bilong ol iet, Kaiser Wilhelm.

Ikam inap nau dispela nem bilong ol asples emi lus nating, na yumi olgeta i tingting olsem Mt Wilhelm emi nem bilong yumi iet, tasol nogat, narapela lain i tromoi nek bilong ol igo antap long yumi. Ating i wankain long ol narapela kain ol samting, ples na pasin long kantri bilong yumi. Em kalsa tu bai senis.

Yu sutim nus bilong yu igo antap long lukim heven
Tasol ol pikinini bilong yu ol i mekim paul raunraun
Ol lus tingting pinis long pasin bilong sanap strong tru
Na ol i sutim giraun na lukim ples nogut

You hold your head high up to the heavens
But your children
Have forgotten the way to stand with strength
And they grovel in the dirt and misery

En gumanikan kaminil epe den we
En gage kane i kan kundalkenwe
En el enga bolemil, gage yumore wanmolumwe
Te yobalema i en augiderere molawe mile nigedomwe

STEPHEN HOWES
| East Asia Forum

CANBERRA - National elections will be held in Papua New Guinea with polling held from 11-24 June.

Elections are held every five years and are very popular events. Although voting is voluntary, the turnout of voters is just below that of Australia, where voting is compulsory.

An extraordinary number of political candidates compete for office. The average number of candidates standing in seat grew from eight in 1977 to 30 in 2017.

In the 2017 elections, 111 men but no women were elected. It is possible but unlikely that special measures will be put in place before the 2022 elections to ensure this result is not repeated.

If no measures are forthcoming, the only hope is that at least a few of the growing number of women who stand at elections are successful.

It is impossible to predict election results as there are no opinion polls and party structures are very fluid.

But James Marape, prime minister since 2019 when he ousted Peter O’Neill in a mid-term vote of no confidence, is the favourite simply because he is the incumbent.

In each of the last three elections, the incumbent prime minister has kept his job. This is because PNG law was amended at the turn of the century to require that the party with the most members elected be given the first chance to form a coalition.

MPs are normally attracted to the party of the prime minister. Currently, Marape’s party, PANGU, has 34 MPs, almost three times the size of the next party.

There is a high turnover of MPs, but even if there is a swing against it, PANGU will likely emerge from the elections as the biggest party, giving Marape first go at the top job.

Whoever wins the election will have to deal with two key issues. One is Covid-19.

Vaccination rates increased in PNG in October and November 2021 as COVID-19 took off, but there are still very high levels of vaccine hesitancy.

By the latest estimate, only 2.6% of the population is fully vaccinated. PNG will have to navigate 2022 without significant vaccine coverage.

Covid hit PNG hard in the second half of 2021 and it is likely there will be another large wave associated with the introduction of the Omicron variant and perhaps during election campaigning.

The other issue facing PNG is the desperate need to raise economic growth and create more jobs.

Covid is an economic problem and the low level of vaccination in PNG is likely to hinder labour mobility, trade and investment. There might also be further internal lockdowns.

Growth has taken a hit with Covid but was already slow before the pandemic. In the absence of data on gross national income and given the enclave nature of the extractive (resource) sector, non-resource gross domestic product is the best measure of national economic activity.

From 2014 to 2019, this grew in real terms by only 0.9% a year on average. The budget projects this to accelerate to an annual average of 4.4% from 2021 to 2027. How is unclear.

Perhaps one of the various resource projects currently being negotiated will be finalised within this period and its construction will give the economy some much-needed stimulus.

But with all the uncertainty around the projects currently under discussion, the government wisely isn’t counting on this.

Growth in government expenditure this year, including much needed increases in health expenditure, will help economic growth, but PNG is running record deficits to support expenditure in the face of Covid. Rapid spending growth cannot be sustained.

While the latest budget allows for a 3.5% increase in expenditure after inflation in 2022, it doesn’t allow for any subsequent expenditure growth after that until 2027.

The biggest drag on growth since 2014 has been foreign exchange shortages which remain a problem to this day.

According to annual surveys, PNG’s business leaders have listed foreign exchange as one of their top four concerns every year between 2014 and 2021.

PNG’s central bank (the Bank of Papua New Guinea) has been content to ration foreign exchange to protect the exchange rate and its foreign exchange reserves.

The government recently amended the Central Banking Act to require the central bank to take account of growth as well as the inflationary consequences of its policies.

Given the disastrous impact of foreign exchange rationing on growth in recent years, it is hoped that this forces the Bank of Papua New Guinea to change tack and eliminate foreign exchange rationing.

Ultimately, whoever wins the 2022 election is going to find themselves in the invidious position of having to exercise fiscal restraint while trying to accelerate economic growth. It won’t be easy.

Stephen Howes is director of the Development Policy Centre and professor of economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy in the Australian National University

Daru boat harbour

CHIPS MACKELLAR

WARWICK QLD – Here is more than interesting fact – it is a concrete reality of international importance.

There is no single border in the Torres Strait between Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Instead there are four separate and overlapping boundaries: the seabed boundary; the land boundary; the fishing boundary; and the cultural boundary.

The seabed boundary runs more or less through the middle of the Strait from east to west and defines who gets what from the seabed or below it – should oil or other minerals, be discovered.

The land boundary extends right across the Torres Strait from mainland Australia so that every island in the Strait is part of Australia except for Daru, capital of PNG’s Western Province, and neighbouring Bristow Island.

The fishing boundary includes all the Australian islands but excludes Daru and Bristow.

And the cultural boundary excludes the Thursday Island group (Australian) but otherwise extends right across the Strait to include all other islands including Daru and Bristow and also the adjacent coast of PNG.

The cultural boundary protects the traditional visiting rights of Papua New Guineans and Torres Strait Islanders who inhabit this zone.

These people, with a shared heritage embracing thousands of years, have free access to this entire territory without immigration, customs, quarantine or health controls.

These details – especially those relating to people’s movements within the cultural boundary – can be of great significance to both PNG and Australia.

But in the current warmish going on hottish geopolitical climate, proposing the mere presence of a Chinese enterprise on Daru, let alone a city as has been speculated, is likely to cause extreme mischief for Australia.

Phil Fitzpatrick (Remote Daru could be a regional flashpoint), John Greenshields (Reflections on the borderland dilemma) and Binoy Kampmark (China, PNG & Australia’s backyard blues) have all written fascinating pieces in PNG Attitude on this issue in recent times.

And I note this without mentioning the many comments from readers that accompanied these explorations.

One element of the mischief that could be triggered by a formal Chinese presence in Daru is that, although the Kiwai people of Daru will have free access to the Australian islands that start nearby and extend across the Strait, the Chinese will not.

But the Chinese enterprise envisioned for Daru is unlikely to be confined to the island alone, after all, there is little resource there except mud and nice people.

The clear aim would be to expand in all directions, and any expansion of Chinese into the Torres Strait would be a nightmare for Australia in terms of quarantine, illegal immigration, trafficking of various kinds, resource exploitation and, heaven forfend, strategic positioning.

Although with Daru 1,400 km from Darwin there would probably be no joy rides across the Arafura Sea for Chinese tourists to inspect the Port of Darwin, leased by a Chinese company for 99 years that has only got seven years on the clock.

China’s current restrictions of various kinds on Australia’s barley, lobsters, wine, coal, copper, beef, timber and wheat would seem like small fry if the Torres Strait came into play.

If China really wanted to cause mischief to Australia right on our doorstep and chose Daru as a bit of an investment destination, they would have really chosen the right place for some high level knuckle gnawing.

Defence minister Peter Dutton wouldn’t need to invent a drama, he’d have a real one to get his teeth stuck into.

Joseph Henry (Harry) Roach

3 March 1938 - 22 January 2022

The livestream of Harry’s funeral at Tewantin tomorrow (Friday) will start at 10 am AEST. This is 10.30 am in South Australia, 11 am in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania and 8 am in Western Australia. The direct link to the stream is https://view.oneroomstreaming.com/authorise.php?k=1643035259162131