Tom’s travels to Papua New Guinea – PNG

Arrival in Vunepope,  New Britain Island, PNG

Papua New Guinea also known as PNG is simply a crazy place! It’s a group of islands north of Australia whose inhabitants, like the Australian Aborigines, migrated there from Africa at least 50,000 years ago. Many coastal tribes have long had contact to seafaring foreigners but none of the remote highland tribes even knew of, or were known to, the outside world until the 1920’s when westerners ventured there looking for gold. The mountains and jungles are rugged and the tribes practiced ritual warfare and cannibalism. There were still tribes making first contact in the 1970’s and rumors persist of uncontacted groups but this seems rather unlikely. It’s wildly beautiful but a dangerous place whose inhabitants practice a mixture of beliefs and customs out of the Stone Age thrown into the modern world.

Catholic mission & hospital in Vunepope

In 1992 I spent 6 weeks there traveling and also visiting my sister doctor Kate Bolton who was a medical missionary at the Catholic mission in Vunepope, on the island of New Britain. I actually stayed at the mission house for the nurses, which was surely a bit questionable for the nuns and priests. What might have been even more shocking was for the locals to hear from my sister that her brother was visiting. Even in PNG there was a taboo against incest, which in their culture meant that brothers and sisters had no contact with each other upon reaching adulthood. I dedicate this page to my sister Kate who tragically died of ovarian cancer in 2015. In addition to her work in Papua New Guinea, she volunteered for projects in Asia, Africa and Latin America. I secondly dedicate this to Dr. Tomer Levy who is pictured together with Kate. He was a dedicated soul who died in an accident in a return trip to Vunepope in 1996.

The actual medical staff was all dedicated volunteers who had to deal with working with very limited supplies and equipment while coping with a wide range of problems beyond their specialties. As my sister put it, it’s not a question IF they have malaria, anemia, meningitis or a host of other ailments but WHICH is the critical problem at the moment. The Australians had administered the Islands after WWI until independence in 1975 and had left a legacy of civil structures including a system of hospitals and clinics, which was in the process of collapsing due to malfeasance. As simple as this medical facility was, usually running with just 3 or 4 doctors and a handful of nurses, it was at the time possibly the best in the country.

Here I am below left in the op in the mission hospital, my siter Kate below right. Short scrub pants and bare feet were normal due to the always hot, humid weather. I got to see a number of operations and observe both the last breaths of a dying man and the first breaths of a new born baby, moving experiences to see the full circle of life. I only observed of course but I think the locals assumed that any westerner there was probably a doctor.

Santa Claus rides in a helicopter

It was Christmas time when I arrived in Papua New Guinea and of course they celebrated it at the Catholic mission. People didn’t have chimneys for Santa to come down and nobody would know a reindeer from a cow, so in PNG Santa Claus comes in a helicopter to bring toys to the sick kids in the hospital. I contributed a little show of my own and even got a Christmas meal and 25 Kinas for performing at a private dining club where many of the westerners went to in Rabaul the nearest sizable town and capital of New Britain Island.

Markets; places for shopping & social contact

Although stores do exist in the bigger towns, the main transfers of commodities are at the local markets. Here I made a show for people at the weekly market in Rabaul, which at the time was the capital of New Britain, the second biggest island in the country. I also performed at the market in Kokopo, which was the closest real village to the Vunepope mission. These were typical market scenes in Papua New Guinea.

Markets reflect advanced agriculture

In addition to recognizable foods like carrots and bananas there were a number of indigenous plants, the most important before the introduction of the sweet potatoes was a tubular called taro. Anthropologists have suggested that due to its advanced agriculture, the highland cultures of PNG were the highest level of human civilization 10,000 years ago. Although they never developed metal, there were an estimated 2 million people living in the highlands of the main island of New Guinea, with a long history of established codes of social interaction

Evangelism at the markets

The markets were always a social event and often a place where such Christian groups would present a musical program in their evangelical attempts. The opportunity to convert “godless heathens” that were once headhunting cannibals seemed to draw lots of Christian fundamentalist fanatics to PNG. Many were obsessed with suppressing much of the local culture claiming it was against God. I was impressed by the Catholics’ efforts there however.

Visit to Duke of York Islands plantation

My sister had connections to a large plantation on the nearby Duke of York Islands that belonged to the Catholic missions and had originally been founded by the German Imperial Empire. Here they grew and processed coconuts and as seen below, cacao which was being cut open by a worker. Such places employed a lot of locals, but they couldn’t tell people exactly when payday was or some of the local bandits, known as rascals, would try to steal the payroll. Such criminality was a major problem throughout the country. Typically a rascal would be the guy who sat next to you at the church service on Sunday morning bemoaning the level of crime in the community. Then by night he and his friends would be robbing and pillaging.

The children there were the offspring of of the plantation workers. Here they dried the coconuts producing what is known as copra and processed the husks and shells.

Danger of robbery in Papua New Guinea

But trying to aid the people in PNG was difficult. Typically, a charity would build a school for a village and the people in the next village would be jealous and destroy it. Or the village inhabitants would suddenly claim that the charity needed to pay them millions of dollars compensation or they would destroy their own school! Westerners, especially the mining companies, were constant targets for outrageous extortion attempts or robbery by the locals throughout the country. While I never got robbed myself, I was very cautious, never going out after dark but it was almost comical how I heard of places that got robbed just before I arrived or just after I left. In one such incident they even caught the rascals who had broken into the Rabaul dining club, got completely drunk, and then tried to hitchhike home with 25 cases of stolen beer.

Blond hair from foreign interbreeding?

A group of boys by the plantation were playing with a mandolin. One occasionally saw coastal people in Papua New Guineawith such blond hair, possibly having some German blood in them. The Germans had colonized this part of New Britain Island and many of the nearby ones as well in the 1880’s but malaria and stress with the locals plagued them and the Aussies finally drove them out during WWI. Clothing was optional for the kids but adults in some remote places still didn’t wear more than some string or grass to protect their lower genitals.

Malaria & other natural dangers

One volunteer nurse there came down with malaria within weeks of arriving and later something poisonous in the water scratched or bit her. The initial wound was minor but within days her leg looked like something out of a horror movie and she had to be flown to Australia for better medical treatment. I was warned not to step on a stonefish. The poison can leave permanent neurological damages and is said to be the most painful thing a human body can experience. Although not usually fatal many victims prefer it were rather than to survive the horrendous suffering. I saw plenty of sea snakes, which I heard were too small to manage a bite to a human except maybe to the webbing between your fingers or toes. Not sure if this is true but although their venom is highly potent, few people seem to die from their bites since most species are not aggressive and the amount of venom they inject seems to be minimal.

Outrigger canoes common

Bigger boats were used for commerce but many families relied on their outrigger canoe to get around or to transport things to and from the local market.

Siar Island & Highlands of New Guinea Island

After visiting New Britain Island, I flew to Madang on the north coast of New Guinea the main island of Papua. I first stayed at a Catholic seminary, which took me in due to my sister’s connections, the bishop there having been treated by her before. Getting up at 4 a.m. to chant prayers was a bit much for me but luckily I found a laid back place on a small nearby island called Siar.

Most people traveling in PNG are missionaries who network amongst themselves or are government workers or mining employees who have a budget to pay for accommodation which is often hundreds of dollars a night. Backpackers are almost unheard of and cheap rooms are few and far between. On Siar I had a simple hut by the beach for a couple of days . I had heard that Simon the local owner didn’t provide much food for his guests but I got feed OK.  The atmosphere was very relaxed but I got restless as otherthan the kids playing on teh ceach and the boats thre, nobody was around. I probably would have stayed longer if there had been some other tourists to hang out with. From Siar Island I ot a boat back top Madang and  headed up to the highland towns of Goroka, Hagen, Mendi and Tari.

Performing in Goroko, Papua New Guinea Highlands

I visited a missionary family in Goroko who were known to my sister. I made a show by the market place and promised to return in a few hours. When I came back there were about 2000 people waiting for me. People totally freaked out when I vanished a small red handkerchief. I stopped doing any magic there since any bad occurrences would be blamed on sorcery and the disaffected party would look to get revenge.

I heard that if an employee from any of the mining companies involved in Papua New Guinea so much as ran over somebody’s chicken, their whole family might be quickly airlifted out before they literally lost their heads. So if anybody who watched my show became ill or something bad happened soon afterwards, they might connect it to me and take revenge against the family I stayed with. So is the craziness of Papua New Guinea

Despite these factors or maybe partially because of them, it was always a very intense situation to perform. I once an across a website from some Europeans that had also made shows around PNG. They presented this picture of happy, friendly, carefree natives welcoming them at every turn. I think there were probably many forces in play around them that they were simply never aware of and maybe they were happier not to know but I found their idealized accounts to be fantastically naive.

Tribal warfare in Papua New Guinea highlands

On way ride into the hinterlands, I passed through one area where tribal warfare was still being fought. Dozens of guys with bows and arrows and spears were hanging about and the smouldering remains of local houses that had gotten burned recently were visible. Our bus driver had to pay the people off to let us through but often trucks would be robbed and looted in such a situation. But then warfare was the basis of highland tribal culture for hundreds if not thousands of years and one still saw plenty of guys like this around especially in the Tari area and they certainly weren’t just posing for tourists.

Clash of cultures

I love the contrast of this photo. Guys whose not too distant ancestors likely ate human flesh going by a place advertising fast food. Brainburger anyone? The highland people subsist mostly on starchy roots like sweet potatoes and taro yet most have very muscular physiques. There are no large mammals indigenous to PNG but pigs were introduced to the islands quite some time ago and are a great symbol of wealth and the highlight of any big feast but too precious for daily consumption.

PNG multitudes of languages

An interesting aspect of Papua New Guinea is the abundance of languages, said to be over 800. Every tribe was basically enemies with every other tribe and each developed its own language. Your native language there identifies your tribal association. The Pidgin word wontuk (literally: one talk) denotes that someone is from the same linguistic group and thus a relative. And one would be obliged to help out anyone from the same tribe. So democracy has nearly destroyed much of the government and civil structures that were established by the Australians.

Cultural traditions incompatible with democracy

The guy from the biggest tribe will win any election. And even if he is honest, custom will pressure him to siphon off things to his tribal people. This is what the Minister of Health had done at the time of my visit; the result was that the public hospitals in PNG lacked the most basic supplies. When the Prime Minister got sick, he flew over to see my sister at the Catholic missionary hospital or to Australia. I heard many people say they were much better off administered by the Aussies who had no tribal obligations and thus could be fair and objective.

Belief in Coke & sorcery

Don’t these billboards just say it all? PNG has an abundance of natural resources like lots of gold to mention one. This influx of money means that lots of things are getting imported since there is next to no local heavy manufacturing or high-tech development, so incomes Coke, Nike and all of the rest. I saw a guy in traditional dress; wearing a Walkman, jump into his Toyota pickup truck. Likely, the guy could take the engine apart and reassemble it blindfolded, understanding the mechanics of it perfectly. Yet he might seriously believe that the running of the engine had to do with mystical spirits. If it got a flat tire, it wouldn’t be question of WHAT happened, that was obvious. Question was WHY, the answer being sorcery on the part of an enemy who needed to be found and punished. The popular word “payback” was one to be taken serious in PNG.

Village elders influential

This seemed to be the oldest of the villagers who seemed to be especially intrigued by me. Examining the photo, one sees that his axe is not a stone one like in the photo above but is probably old and an important traditionally symbolic object in such a rural, primitive society. You wanted to be on the good side of such village elders because if they didn’t like you it could lead to trouble. Contrarily, if one was robbed and the elders liked you, then they would put the word out and your possessions would likely be returned. Thus making a show in a marketplace was a kind of insurance policy for me. The local elders happily accepted me which basically sent out the message “this guy is ok, don’t mess with him”.

Pangia sing-sing festival

I got taken to a cultural festival, which they call a sing-sing in Pidgin, which was held in Pangia. As a substitute for warfare, such events are promoted where different tribes try to outdo each other with a show of their traditional dances and costumes. Wildly painted faces, grass shirts and weapons are the standard look. But the rivalries at such events are not always so peaceful. I went into the venue in the late morning and saw the interesting replications of various local dwellings and various artefacts.

I juggled for the organizers inside and they agreed that I could later take photos of the costumed people performing later if I would juggle outside the entrance to attract more people inside. People nearly rioted and were curious to see more of my juggling but then some of the participants didn’t agree that I should take photos after all without paying 50 dollars a photo. Then they started to argue amongst themselves and I decided to leave rather than take the chance of instigating a fight.

One of the organizers had said that they were taking a group to the World Expo in Spain and he suggested I should go with them. I was happy about his enthusiasm but knew that no Europeans would think that an American juggler fit to a culture program from PNG. The photo shows participants showing up for the sing-sing.

Departure via Hagen & Port Moresby

Eventually I flew from Hagen to Port Moresby and on to visit Australia. I had no real bad experiences on this adventure but I’m not sure I would ever go back. The criminality has apparently gone from bad to worse and without networking connections it is a difficult place to travel on a tight budget. I have since then read a lot about PNG and feel privileged to have had the chance to go there and to be able to put things I read in context to what I saw.

The western half of New Guinea Island belongs to Indonesia and was called Irian Jaya back then but has been renamed Papua and given a special autonomous status in 2001. I met many travelers who said it was cheaper and safer to travel there so if I ever return to that corner of the world, I guess I would try that first although it is possible to take boat trips up some of the rivers in the lowland areas of Papua New Guinea which I never got to, so who knows?