Strangely Mixed

By Major-General B. M. Morris.

Natives of Papua and N. Guinea

A COMMON mistake, made by many people, is that they think, after a few months’ residence in the Terri tory, they are qualified to speak with authority on the natives of New Guinea.

During the recent war the Rev. Stanley Romney Maurice Gill, Archdeacon of the Mampa, in the Anglican Mission in Papua, told me that after 34 years in that Territory he had learned sufficient about the natives to know that he really knew very little about them.

With this introduction it may seem an impertinence for me to write about them.

My excuse is that anyone who has know ledge, however slight, may be able to educate non-Territorians on the matter and thus be of benefit, not only to the natives themselves, but perhaps to Aus tralia. For over four years, I had excel lent opportunities of moving about the two Territories and seeing and studying the various peoples who inhabit them.

It is quite wrong to think of all the natives of the Territories as one people, who can be similarly treated. There is as much difference between the sophis ticated tribes near Port Moresby, or Rabaul, and those of the Mount Hagen plateau, or the Makolkols of New Britain, as there is between university dons and the boors of our Australian bush.

Social customs and ways of life gener ally differ. The colour of skins vary from a honey-yellow to the jet black of the Bukas of Bougainville. Members of the District Services staffs who have been stationed in various parts can tell at a glance a Sepik, a Manus, a Kiwai or an Orokaiva and, having identified him, they will probably have a fair idea of his character and how he must be treated to get the best results. ruHE unspoiled natives are a delight to meet. They are proud and inde pendent people. Prior to 1942, ex cept for a few isolated cases in the vicin ity of Port Moresby or Rabaul, I had never seen a native beg. They are en tirely different from the fellaheen of

Egypt, or the lower classes of India or, indeed, from the types of Australian aborigines that may be seen on the Trans-continental railway line.

About the middle of 1942, lectures were freely giVen to our Australian troops, who had arrived from the Middle East, in which these differences were pointed out.

However, there were too many to educate thus, and the influx of many thousands of Americans, in addition, made the prob lem insuperable. The result was that,

owing to wrong treatment many thous ands of natives became completely dis gruntled, and lost the happy disposition of their forefathers.

Many newcomers to the Territory thought that, because those in charge of the welfare of the natives did not favour large increases in wages, and so on, they were anti-native. These critics forgot that money has only a relative value. Twenty pounds, to us, is not a fortune; and yet, to the Bedouin Arab, in parts of Pales tine, it represents a sum that will keep him in luxury for the rest of his life.

Moreover, education is needed before anyone can handle money to advantage.

For example, of what use are a few extra shillings a month to a native of New Guinea who, after finishing a three years period of engagement, expends the whole of his deferred pay on fireworks purchased in Chinatown, Rabaul? Of course, he had one glorious night’s en tertainment; but, subsequently, he had little to show for his three years’ work.

A CASE occurred before the war, near Rabaul. A “boy” was indentured for three years to a planter at the then ruling rate of six shillings a month (plus .rations, quarters, medical atten tion, etc.). His employer found him to be quite smart, taught him how to look after internal-combustion engines on the property and gradually, as his usefulness increased, augmented his wages until at the end of his period the native was drawing £5 per month.

This voluntary increase in wages on the part of the employer should be noted by those ignorant folk who write down all the employers of native labour in the Territories as grasping blood-suckers!

When the time came for the final pay

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off the boy was asked if he were returning to his village.

“Nogat, Masta, mi laik wok long Kong.” (No, sir, I’m going to work for a China man.) Now the planter thought that if the boy were going to work for anyone he had a moral, if not a legal, obligation to work for him, as he had taught him all that he knew. So he asked him if he would sign on with him again, if he were to increase his pay to £6 per month.

“Nogat, Masta, mi laik wok long Kong.”

“Well, what about £7/10/-?”

“Nogat mi laik wok along Kong.”

“Well, supposing I offered you £l5 a month?” (although he admitted later that he would not have done so.) “Nogat mi laik wok long Kong.”

So there was nothing further to be said. The boy went off and indentured himself to the Chinaman for three years at the lowest rate of six shillings a month.

The whole incident was told by the planter to a magistrate who decided that he had better look into the matter, as it sounded distinctly fishy. He did so, but the only explanation was that there was another boy from the first native’s own village recently indentured to the China man and “mi laik wok long wantok bo long mi.” (I wanted to work with my mate.) Until natives are taught the worth of money and what they can do with it, what do a few shillings more or less (or pounds, for that matter) mean to them?

Cases like these and others should be known by those people who are arrang ing for the future of the natives. Yet in the debate at Canberra on the “Papua- New Guinea Act” in 1945 the most appal ling ignorance was shown by members on both sides of the House. How can this ignorance be dispelled?

In the first place it is the duty of the responsible Minister to obtain the best advice available before measures affecting the Territories are introduced.

Secondly, in order that all members of the House may be better informed before they cast their votes, a representative in the House itself is an urgent necessity.

There seems no reason why the Terri tories of Papua and New Guinea should not have at least the representation that is accorded to the Northern Territory of Australia.

BUT to return to our native friends.

Anyone who wishes to know all the natives thoroughly is faced with an insuperable language difficulty.

True, in Papua one can get along fairly well with a knowledge of Police-Motu, while in New Guinea Pidgin-English is reasonably widespread. But throughout both Territories there are dozens of lang uages and dialects. This means that the members of one tribe are complete foreigners to those of another who may, geographically, be quite close to them.

As an example, the Poroporena villages around Port Moresby speak true Motu, which is entirely different from the language of Hula, 60 miles to the south east or, again, from that of the Mekeo, about the same distance in the opposite direction.

In Papua, where the use of Pidgin- English has always been discouraged, a lingua franca has been evolved based on Motu. This is known as Police-Motu and has been spread by the members of the Royal Papuan Constabulary and others throughout the Territory. But it is still understood 9nly by those natives who, like the police, have been employed in numbers by Europeans. Except on Gov ernment Stations, few women or chil dren use it.

Much the same difficulty exists in the Territory of New Guinea, except that

here Pidgin-English is employed as the medium of expression between whites and natives.

There is a very important exception to

the use of the accepted lingua franca by Europeans in both Territories. The mem bers of the various missions, being for the most part concentrated in one area,

use the language of the particular tribe amongst whom they work.

In 1945, during a tour of only a couple of weeks, a talk which I gave at various centres in connection with the war situa tion was successively translated to Hula, Mailu, Suau, Police-Motu, Wedau, Binin deli, Pidgin-English, Kiriwinian and Dobu. The translations were variously made by Government officials, mission aries or native interpreters.

While on the subject of language in the Territories it may interest those who have dabbled in Pidgin-English to know that the word for a small boy is not “monkey” but “manki” (or “little man”), while a native woman is not “mary” but “meri.”

And a word introduced into the Terri tories by the troops which is anathema to true Territorians is “boong.” The natives have never been called “boongs,” although one knows that the word is used when re ferring to the Australian aborigines at Darwin.

PROBABLY the greatest curse in the life of the natives is the practice of sorcery. It is very akin to the bone pointing of the Australian blacks. It is widespread throughout the Territories. It is a faith and the natives cannot be argued or laughed out of their belief in it.

If a native is convinced that someone with power has “made poison” against him, to kill him, he will die and nothing can be done about it. If the sorcerer can be killed, of course, his magic will die with him and this fact is the cause of many of the “murders” which come before the District Courts. I must con fess that in many of the cases with which I had to deal my sympathies (privately) were with the “murderer.”

In one case a sorcerer told a native that he had by magic killed his father, mother, brother and wife (they had all undoubtedly died) and that he intended

to kill him and the rest of his relations.

Whait was the native to do? He was convinced that the sorcerer had to be killed in order to save their lives; and he killed him.

Sorcery is a loathsome business. Of course, there is a law against the prac tice. But how does this help in the fol lowing case?

A native was accused of practising sor cery. He was convicted and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. Later, he re turned to his village and said to those who had given evidence against him; “I told you that I was a sorcerer. The Government said I was a sorcerer and put me in prison for it. Therefore I am a sorcerer.” That is good logic, isn’t it?

At my headquarters, near Rabaul, early in 1946, six natives, including two con stables, slept out in the scrub one wet night rather than sleep in the same hut as a third constable, who was a reputed sorcerer.

My police driver (who had been with white folk for twelve years) told me: “He is a bad man, master, and will poison us.” (Here the pidgin word “poison” means “make magic against”).

As I did not want all my native staff to die of pneumonia (which, of course, they and their friends would have attri buted to the magic!) the only course was to change the last arrival.

The only effective answer to sorcery that I know is deportation from the tribal area: a sorcerer has not much power except among his own people.

Miss Barbara Stephens, daughter of Mr. and Mrs, E. J. Stephens, formerly of Stephens Aviation, Wau, New Guinea, has announced her engagement to Mr.

Reg. Williams, of Greenwood Park, Auburn, South Australia. The Stephens family resides at Spring Grove, Auburn, South Australia.