P-Ng Missionaries

To Go Into

Cannibal Country

The Unevangelised Fields Mission in Papua-New Guinea is about to enter the Biami cannibal country against Administration advice.

Biami country is between the Strickland River and Mount Bosavi (8,000 ft) about 350 miles north west of Port Moresby.

It’s administered tenuously by Administration patrols from a small station on the Nomad River, estab lished in 1962.

Early last year, a UFM missionary patrol walked through some of the Biami country (some members carry ing shotguns) and told the Admin istration that Sadado, 20 miles east of Nomad Post, would be ideal for an airstrip and mission station.

Risk of attacks

In Port Moresby, Administration officers have confirmed that they’ve been trying to talk the UFM out of the project, to remove the risk of tribal attacks against missionaries.

But the UFM is interested in the unevangelised Biami tribes around Sadado.

Patrol office staff at Nomad are worried that a mission station near Sadado might have sad repercussions.

The Biami tribes around Nomad have been in contact with the Administra tion only since 1962, and the effect on the tribes has been slight.

Only a few spasmodic patrols have visited the Sadado Biamis.

Acting Assistant District Commis sioner Allan Johnson has recently been trying to establish a base camp to pacify the Sadado area in readiness for the determined UFM workers.

Ever since Nomad was opened in 1962, the UFM has been trying to enter Nomad country—and the Patrol Officers have been calling on their superiors in Port Moresby to keep them out. A recent appeal was from Patrol Officer R. J. Barclay, now on patrol trying to run down some cannibal killers.

The latest situation report from the Biami area: Three confirmed cannibal murders, two axe and arrow wound ings, an attack on an Administration patrol (April) and general aggres siveness by two fortified longhouses in the Sadado area. • For a flashback, see, 'They hunted the headhunters", p. 83.