Gil Platten

Returns On

A Mission

Gil Flatten returned to New Ireland on a special mission earlier this year, after being away for 10 years.

He was born in January, 1901, at Peterborough, South Australia, where his grandfather had settled after leaving his native Bohemia and marrying a Devonshire lass.

Gil was bom a Methodist, and christened “Gilbert James”. He finished school in Adelaide and joined the Engineering Depart ment of the SA Railways as a clerk. In 1922 he started a three year full-time course in theology, and then served as a Methodist minister in the Adelaide suburbs for two years.

In 1927, he married Isabel Rose Harcus, and they went to Rabaul, Papua-New Guinea, to serve in the Methodist Mission.

They have a son and a daughter.

Gil was then transferred to New Ireland, where he superin tended a large number of native schools in the central area, with native teachers using the Tolai language written phonetically. Gil spent over 12 years in the area, during which time he did a lot of travelling in canoes, some times in the usual outriggers, and occasionally on the planked canoe called Mon. When the Japanese were attacking P-NG in early 1942, Gil followed his wife and family to Sydney, to work in the Methodist Church there.

He returned to P-NG in 1945, and three years later joined the

Education Department of the Administration. He was seconded to the South Pacific Commission to study methods of teaching natives in the vernacular.

After 1950, Gil spent three years on Tabar Islands, off New Ireland, preparing to do a study of the drastic depopulation for the SPC, but this was finally vetoed by Canberra.

Gil became interested in the traditional ritual of shark snar ing from canoes at Tabar, and published an article with photo graphs in Walkabout during 1953.

According to Gil, shark ritual begins with a magic service ashore, to ensure success for the men of the guild in their outrigger canoes.

A large bunch of coconut shell pieces is shaken on the surface of the water to simulate shoals of fish, and the shark victim is lured alongside the canoe with a mullet. As soon as the shark is in position, a noose is slipped around his head and a plaited rope, at the end of which is a wooden propeller, is secured around his body just before his off in a hurry, but the wooden propeller tires him out after an hour or so, and he is brought alongside and dispatched with a heavy blow on the forehead.

Gil’s present mission in New Ireland, mentioned at the outset of this story, is to make sure that the ritual is still being practised and that it is exciting enough for a documentary film.

Brett Hilder profile