KEITH JACKSON
Mirror On The Wall: selected poems, short stories and expositions by Raymond Muso Sigimet. JDT Publications, Port Moresby, 2018. 92 pp. ISBN-13: 978-1724-22-495-8. Amazon Books, paperback $5.50
SORRENTO, ITALY - Raymond Sigimet writes about real life and his writing is driven by the strong feeling that he should, in his own words, “express myself on issues and topics of interest to me.”
Before the 2015 Rivers Award for writing on peace and harmony – for which he wrote the prize winning poem – he had never previously entered a writing contest.
But he has made up for it since, with a rich output of wonderful essays and poems, some of which is represented in this collection. It is worth revisiting that prize-winning poem, because it tell so much about Raymond and the philosophy of life so authentically reflected in his writing.
Raymond is from East Sepik Province, married with two daughters and is a secondary school teacher living in the Wewak District. But it was a considerable journey that brought him to this point.
He grew up away from his province and village, with half his life spent in the New Guinea Islands. His father was a career officer in Papua New Guinea’s correctional service and the family moved to different parts of the country.
It may have been a somewhat unsettled life, but it provided Raymond with a true feeling for his country, its diversity, its beauty and its problems.
Raymond was actually born in Wau, where his maternal grandfather had once panned for gold along the banks of Edie Creek.
His school education ended at Keravat where “I stepped into the freedom and excess of national high school life. I had to grow up quickly during my two years at Keravat.”
Leaving school, Raymond chose technical college ahead of university and by early 2000 was engaged in a signwriting course in Madang. Life was turning into a bit of a struggle, employment was hard to find and he returned to Kimbe and his family’s oil palm block.
Things were to turn around when, in 2005, he became a mature age teaching student, qualifying in 2008, pursuing a satisfying career as a teacher, marrying and raising ‘two beautiful headstrong daughters’.
What all this did, all this early uncertainty and struggle to find a good pathway, was to develop a good eye for the ways of the world, a keen appreciation of what is worthwhile and what is not and, more recently, real talent as a writer.
I believe you will enjoy the writings of Raymond Muso Sigimet in this book as much as I did when I read them for the first time.
Raymond Sigimet joins a growing galaxy of significant writers who have emerged from Papua New Guinea in the last five years.
More power to his pen.
Keith Jackson AM is publisher of PNG Attitude and was a co-founder of the Crocodile Prize and the Rivers Prize