Background of Reuben Taureka
p. 55 · Read in the full issue
Reuben Taureka
The newspapers, in 1940, de scribed a funeral voyage through a wilderness lagoon in Papua.
A white-swathed body, covered with tropical flowers, lay on a log barge, rowed by brown men in white ramis. Scores of canoes, crowded with chanting mourners, followed toward the burial island.
A Papuan pastor, of splendid physique, had died in his prime.
He was a craftsman in build ing churches, or in shaping or sailing racing canoes, a maker and a leader of songs, and an intense Christian. He had the instinctive graces of the elite who, in any race, need no pro clamation.
He was Taureka. His second youngest son, like unto him, plus modern education, now is named “Dr. Reuben Taureka, MLC, Suva medico. President of the first Papuan Workers’ Asso ciation, first official indigene member of the Legislative Council of Papua-New Guinea”.
The Press often quote him as a voice of his people; and his words are wise. From Rev.
Harold Short, former LMS missionary in Papua.