Where Do You Live

And What

Does It Mean?

What’s in a name. One man in Papua-New Guinea who thinks there’s more than meets the eye is Mr. Malcolm McLauchlan of the Post and Telegraph College in Port Moresby. He’s been delv ing into place names of sur rounding areas and has arrived at the following conclusions: For an easy start, many readers will know that Hanuabada means “Big Village” (bada = big, hanua = village). But what about Iduabada and Porebada? Idu is probably from iduka, a cape or point; so we have “big cape” which describes the pro minent point at Iduabada.

Porebada, a large coastal village to the west of Port Moresby, derives its name from the Motu word for a sandbank, probably of considerable importance to fishermen in the old days.

Although most people think of Konedobu today as the “place of public servants”, the Motu speaker once recognised it by a geographical feature; a beach ( kone ) where there was deep water ( dobu ) for boats.

Taikone is a small village under the palms, built on a sandy beach, and may be reached by a road which branches off near the golf course at Kaugere. As we have learned, kone is a beach, and tai is from taina, meaning “little”.

It is likely that Tuaguba (more correctly Touaguba in the Motu language) has its name connected with the guba or strong north westerly squall which strikes along the coast during the wet season.

Toua means “to strike”, among other things, so with a little imagina tion we can see the connection: the sudden strike of a squall over the exposed hill behind the House of Assembly—the hill we now call Tuaguba.

Boroko does not have such a story associated with its name; it is simply

Corruption

the name of a species of eucalyptus tree, common in the area.

Many readers will have been to Paga Hill and Paga Point. The name Paga apparently originated as a mistake by early Europeans. The Motu name for the area is Era kurukuruna (turtle snout) so it is understandable that this name was not adopted (although Era has been corrupted to Ela for use in the title of well known Ela Beach). The story has it that an early European asked a Papuan the name of the hill, at the same time touching him on the shoulder. The Papuan thought he was being asked the word for shoulder and answered Paga.

Boera, a water-village west of Porebada derives its name from the Motu “tired”. Briefly, it may have received its name when its founders, who were tribes people from the direction of the Gulf, decided to settle there, being so “tired” of travelling. If you want a great deal more information on this, read Mr.

Percy Chatterton’s excellent article in Journal of the Papua and New Guinea Society (Vol. 2, No. 2, 1969).

Koki (more correctly Koke) was probably derived from a Koitapu word kogi, which is the tree the leaves of which were used for rolling cigarettes. These grew at Koke and were visited by those wishing to collect their supply of cigarette “papers”.

Here are some literal translations of Motu place-names, and your guess is as good as anyone’s as to how these came to be used as place names:— Tatana: from tata meaning “to run” or “to sail”; Lea Lea: more correctly Rea Rea —to forget, lose, miss, or fail; Vabukori: vabu = widow or widower; kori = true; Pari: wet; Tubusereia: Tubu grandparent, or verb “to grow”.

That’s how far one man has got with his digging into derivations. It’s an interesting exercise and one we would be glad to hear more about.

Come to think of it, how did the Pacific get such an unlikely name?