White Man "Heavily Suppressed"

A Psychiatrist Says:

Natives' Natural Resentment to White Man "Heavily Suppressed"

• Melbourne psychiatrist, Dr. Alex. Sinclair, was in Papua-New Guinea last year as one of a team charged with the task of finding out the incidence and causation of neurosis among the natives.

The team’s report is at present with the Minister for Territories, Mr. Hasluck, but some of the conclusions reached by the specialists were outlined by Dr. Sinclair during an address to the Australian Institute of Political Science summer school in Canberra in January.

The main portion of his address is published here.

IN the native’s own culture, his chief stresses are fear of attack, subsistence fears and the fear of supernatural forces. Disputes between individuals are mainly in relation to property—either of land, chattels or women.

The normal psychological adjustive mechanisms include a high degree of aggression—at times physical and destructive and at times verbal.

Socially acceptable behaviour from the cradle to the grave is ensured by a rigid group control vested in the clan. Conformity in behaviour is demanded and achieved by group pressure within this clan.

Failure to conform is punishable both by internally self applied

forces or reprobation, such as “shame”, and externally by public reprobation. The final, awful sanction on social deviation resides within the universally accepted belief in the supernatural, The social system is further pre served by a highly embellished ritual observance and complicated systems of precept and practice, The ingredients of leadership are age, wisdom, strength and material possessions. Members of a cultural group are bound closer from time to time by marriage-contracts, and systems of matrilineal and patri lineal land tenure, Overall, sits the powerful monitor of the spirits who are everywhere and omnipotent, We do not know whether these

ile are happy or not —no more i we know whether we are elves. One thing we do know lat it is almost impossible to in relatively untouched native ire any evidence of the neurotic jrn of behaviour and thinking h is the predominant ill of our so-called enlightened social :ture. ming now to the effects of ict or urbanisation, we see ges in the pattern of the stress of the reaction. ar of attack has been largely wed by administrative action, by improvement in communica- Overt aggression is controlled rongly imposed sanctions. Sub ice worries are still there, but i less acute. isternisation is disturbing the social systems. Most import ■ of all, the responsibility for :ontrol of the young is passing the group to the parents. In connection I need hardly id you that problem parents problem children, e old monitors of group riour are giving way to the nistration and to the church, clan council is being replaced >cal government councils and force of the supernatural is d strongly by the church.

Rituals Disappearing

tective rituals are disappear- The disappearance of Dlism is for the time being ig some of the relevance and ing of life for the native. The r ,e from shell to paper money eft the native with a system terchange which lacks much ; ritual, social significance and power possessed by the old icy. formation of native labour s has broken down inter-clan lice and fear, and has laid •undation for the development v mechanisms of interpersonal ;ment. On the other hand, labour groups have posed ms of detribalisation. customary avenue for the ;sion of aggression has been ed. Contacts with Europeans made it necessary for ision to be suppressed. New es must be discovered for the y acceptable channelling of gression. laps, most importantly of all, inevitable uneveness in the of acculturation within the ories. Blueprints in generalisa firm time-schedules for the ition of so-called “civilisation” tives, could wreck prospects itional evolutionary develop important site of action of uration is at the growing edge ' new culture. Fortunately, dministration has very able men in forward areas in the ories who are attacking this It job with wisdom, energy

nderstanding.

The changes consequent upon contact are inevitable.

Like all other human beings the native is making his own psychological adjustments. Some of these are healthy and some are not.

There is a tendencv for aggression to be heavily suppressed under a facade of agr eeable compliance and smiling dependency on the white man j t ould be foolish to take this' compliance and dependency at its fac £ value , It is unhealthy nnp thp rnnt pai]S . p<; JpuroSs causes ox ' Natural resentment to the white ™ an 18 fairly heavily suppressed by H l6 natives. The sense of frustratlon at inequality of opportunity, power and possession expresses itself in “cargo thinking”.

Return to a belief in magical thinking is often expressed in a

desire for education, as I have indicated previously, When these and other adjustive mechanisms fail we see neurosis, I think the most important finding of the survey was that of the development of neurosis amongst urbanised natives feel that this will continue, seeing that it does not reacll the proportions existing in our own culture is a very heavy on , e „ , . .

We cannot stand and let this blending of cu i tu res go on its own way just because we are scared of the effects of our intervention.

There is no place in the Terri tories for a Don Quixote, in a feathered head-dress and a stone axe There is an urgent need in the Territories for painstaking anthro pological study and for its close

ication to studies of sociology, culture, medicine and thfr inistration. Further, as Dr, i Gunth'er says, the church 5 train anthropologists, te job of directing the new ire if well done will represent Ddel in colonisation, do not know whether or not job must be done well for ical reasons, but I do know that job is a worthwhile one simply jse it is being done for a very tiwhile, proud and sensitive le.

John Gunther Asks:

iat is Good

outNG Culture?

The P-NG Assistant Adminis r, Dr. John Gunther, was one ,e main speakers at the con ce. The following extract from ddress is published because it with a matter of special in ; in P-NG at the moment. i ver, it should be kept in mind Dr. Gunther did not present views as an argument in selves, but merely as a de ment in a wider argument. put the aspirations of the e r, ery simply, they are: to the cargo that we Europeans got. If we teach them the of getting it or give them the that will manufacture it, we lave partly achieved our task, et the cargo themselves they ieny their own culture, ilst appeasing their ancestors, will destroy their totems, t away their conventional )le grass skirt and replace it a dircy piece of calico, a sym f the type of cargo that is to a veneer thing of our Wes civilisation. jy will sing hymns, but not own songs. They will not s their own dances; they will >y their houses of native 'ial and live in frightful ir in galvanised iron shelters; will destroy their gardens, ole groups have done all this action and sat down to await oming of the cargo. This is a hysterical behaviour. But in a cold, calculating way indi -1 sophisticates are doing it exactly the same today.

Little That's Good

2 hears repeatedly the great to graft all that is good in Western culture onto what is in theirs. I believe they see that is good in their own. I nally would ask what is good it? now little of art or of music;

I do know these people are capable of pleasant melody and of har mony, but to me few of their songs have either. Their dances have rhythm as we know that word, but they are mostly stilted, monotonous, barbaric affairs. Yet they dance the more attractive Polynesian dances ver y well.

They had little or no P ictorial art > though they carved quite well, but often grotesque phallic figures, Tbey had f ew pigments and used colours crudely. Some of their carvings, I readily admit, have character, some of their bowls are useful, most of their pottery is utilitarian, though the Amphlett Islands pots were, to me, beautifully delicate pieces.

Belshaw interestingly says, “The art of pottery for which the Motu were j ustly famous has now com pletely disappeared in Hanuabada.

European cooking-pots have re placed native ones and the institu tion motivated production has disappeared. This was the annual sago-trading expedition to the Gulf 0 f papua during which Motuans bartered thousands of pots for canoes and sago ” , ... f ’ . . 1 dor ? f think that the pots could be , called works of art, by any stretch of the imagination. All of a sudden and recently a new use has been f oun( j f or them; they make decorative pots for plants, , , , . ...

D H “? dred l “f ?i’V beln l’ ! old ln f ort Moresby itself. Though decora they deteriorate and break easily; they dont withstand the rigours that a good baked Austra llan flower-pot would withstand, So , a cooking pot becomes a plant-pot; it took eleven years for somebody to think to put holes in the bottom of a cooking pot and sed A to the ex patriate, who is garden hungry and desirous of see in £ g reen in arid Port Moresby, The Price is about the same as the pot from Australia on which duty and frei S ht have been Paid ,, , c

u 9'y Songs, Dances

Except to record it for history and for closer academic study on tape and in picture, I see no heed to try to preserve what are, to me, ugly songs and dances. Their carv ing can be put to some purpose to make bowls and so on, similarly their pottery has its new uses.

Some must be encouraged to con tinue their art until museums and collectors are satisfied. I agree the artifacts must be collected and Ca Somfor t^Xe P s rSs of vvork are their bows, their arrows, their s P ears and a xes and clubs and their shields ; who can ask them to make these when th Q v qvp vent ed from ushig them? P Care is put into a favourite fighting-weapon, but who is going

to put the same care into a weapon to be sold to a tourist?

Talking Points:

A Conference

Round Up

Some talking points from the three-day conference: Dr. J. Andrews, of Sydney; “The Australian spokesmen on the Trusteeship Council have not al ways had the necessary standing or experience in territorial affairs, and the annual reports submitted by Australia on its administration of its Trust Territories suffer severely in comparison with those of other Administering Authorities, in re gard both to technical production and the successful presentation of the story.

“During my term at UN Head quarters, the common impression in Trusteeship circles was that Aus tralia was the least efficient of the administering nations, and that the Trust Territory of New Guinea was the least well-administered of all trust territories . . . The presenta tion of Australia’s case aright in the annual reports is a matter for experts in public relations tech niques, and the story of the Ad ministration’s achievements in the field, rather than in the office, can bring out convincingly the tre mendous difficulties of the New Guinea physical and human en vironment.” * $ $ Mr. John Kerr, Sydney QC: “One problem we have to face is that many of the white settlers in New Guinea are not there to stay. They believe they can make their for tunes and pull out before the long term issues arise for settlement.

“In the meantime, many of them believe in and practice the notions of white supremacy. The satis faction by such people of their short term aims may easily create problems of greater magnitude for us later.” *l* *|j Mr. George Whittaker, a former P-NG MLC, and a resident there for 33 years; “It is a peculiar fact that some white men take the greatest delight in condemning other white men if they happen to live in a “black” country, earn ing an honest living, and possibly earning it in a much more honest way.

"But it is an offence to the white man who is a decent citizen in a black country.” * * * Mr. John Hohnen, MLC, a Wau businessman, and chairman of the

3 Native Apprenticeship Board:

i indigene of New Guinea un the Australian Government, nothing to fear from enlight private enterprise; rather let reiterate that he cannot go d without it. ustralia has a great part to in New Guinea and the re s will be commensurate, but s be practical. uch criticism centres around degree of control said to be ised upon the local adminis jn from Canberra. How far is true is difficult to determine, whatever the source the pattern cialistic in conception.

"Supplants Others"

i its services to primary pro ’s the Agricultural Department, igh its scientific section, is a very good job, re lation is progressing apace, some assistance is now being id to the mining industry. Un nately the story does not end le Administration owns and tes saw mills, has acquired of forest reserves, cattle ins far greater than required ixperimental study, and con s in many ways to supplant >art of private enterprise, would be interesting to know iconomic return, if any, from ventures.” 5jC v v A. A. Calwell, MHR, Deputy ;r of the Opposition: “There »e occasions when the Govern and the Opposition will differ me aspects of Territories Ad tration, but I never expect to ss any divergence of opinion tie things that matter. The iment has, in effect, a bi ian policy on Papua-New ?a .

H. C. Brookfield, Australian nal University; “European iltural development is respon for more than half the total le of the Territory from all ss, yet in many respects it is le copra industry, widely dis ed around the coastal fringes e northern mainland and the Is, has been aptly described wasting asset. r too many of the trees are eat age, and far too few are planted. Particularly in of the termination of the h contract in 1958, planters it feel sufficiently assured of ong-term security of returns d for this crop. Consequently, :h 80 per cent, of copra pro m still comes from European

plantations, the proportion that is derived from native growers is increasing, and is likely to increase more rapidly in the future. * * * n/rTi-. * Mr. lan Downs, MLC, a former District Commissioner of the NG Eastern Highlands: “No matter what has been said here, no matter what you may read, no matter what you may wishfully hope, the fact is certain that if our Australian authority and control was withdrawn to-day or next year, or even 50 years hence, the people of New Guinea would rise one against the other and revert to a scale of tribal war possibly more vicious and certainly more wide-

spread than ever before . . . « o nly a little while ago we had - n p Moresby a vicious battle between the Elama, whom the people of Port Moresby call Kerema, and the Pacific Islands -Rpo-impnt “Quite apart from the shocking deficiencies and training as citizens, which the Army people showed that week, there was revealed to many surprised post - war Government officials, who had not previously seen the savagery of primitive people at war, the naked hatred for man against man, which is al ways present in New Guinea as a latent but terrible force easily stirred and hard to placate.”