Papua, By An 'Honest

And Modest' Writer

My first acquaintance with Percy Chatterton was in May, 1967, at Port Moresby’s Waigani seminar, and later at the fort nightly seminars run by the History Department of the Univer sity of Papua New Guinea, at which he became a regular parti cipant. His quick wit, combined with insight, breadth of know ledge and experience so impressed me that one day I found myself asking him whether he had begun to think about writing his memoirs.

With typical modesty, he promptly plied that the task was not worth idertaking as no one would care to ad them. Fortunately however, hers with greater influence and tter powers of persuasion, including uart Inder, PlM’s editor, who is so publisher of Pacific Publications, ive succeeded and the result will not sappoint those who have eagerly /aited this book.

In Day that I Have Loved, each ajor phase of his life in Papua is sumed under a chapter, from his rival in Hanuabada in August 1924, s period at Delena from 1939 to '57, his post-war experiences in the lall school at Koke market that ould have housed 30 children but Light 100, to his political career fich began upon retirement from the ission in 1964 and led to his election member for Moresby until 1972.

It must have been difficult to decide lat to select from such a rich and ried set of life experiences, but each apter is filled with delightfully told ecdotes, in the humorous style so Jch appreciated by readers of his lumn in PIM.

In his humour there is always isitivity, never condescension, 'pical for example is the story of ; mysterious disappearence of read y matter from one of the more note village schools under his arge.

The explanation given him by the lagers was that “such was the urge wards literacy among the young of is hamlet that they could not be drained from rushing straight from jals of wallaby meat to the study the Motu Primer, without first cing the precaution of washing their nds. As a result, the books became impregnated with the juices and ours of wallaby that, when at last were reluctantly laid aside, they :re immediately seized upon and voured by the village dogs”.

Percy comments that this explana tion “would have been a touching story if it had been substantiated by fluency in reading the copy of the Motu Primer which I tactlessly pro duced from my pocket”.

Chatterton makes no attempt to disguise the role of agent of change which the missionary inevitably had to play, but he indicates that it was with the people’s approval.

When a missionary colleague

advocated a more liberal attitude towards participation by church members in the dances, an elderly church leader replied, “You are right, but the time is not yet. One day I will teach the dances to my grand son here, and he will dance for the happiness that is in them. But for the men of my generation the old mean ings are still too close; it is better that we should not dance them”.

Chatterton comments, “I personally am glad that the dances have been resuscitated in this purely recreational form before it was too late. But this resuscitation does not prove that the missionary pioneers of a hundred years ago and their Papuan converts were wrong. Nor, if I may say so, has it much to do with that revival of traditional culture now being advocat ed so stridently by some of our young Papua New Guinea nationalists”.

In another place he says these people “appear to be under the im pression that by reviving a few tradi tional dances divorced from their original significance or by growing their hair long they are preserving the traditional culture. . . . There is, of course, no harm in reviving out of context particular features of tradi tional culture. Indeed, I am all for it. But let us recognise that this is what we are doing, and cut out the blah-blah about ‘preserving the tradi tional culture’.”

Percy’s account of his two terms in the House of Assembly, and his

arguments as to why traditional Mela nesian-style politics which worked admirably in small socio-political units will not work in wider regional or national politics, make fascinating reading for those interested in politics.

Many other topics of interest to those involved in contemnorarv issues are discussed, such as the relevance of the educational system, with an evaluation of the system of education offered by the LMS which was so much criticised in its day, but now, in retrospect, had many merits.

In fact there is irony in the way in which necessity and shortage of funds forced the LMS to rely more upon local initiative. “Due to our poverty and our chronic shortage of overseas staff, we were willy-nilly ‘localising’ well ahead of the field, and my closing years of mission service were to see the establishment of a fully self-governing indigenous church, the Papua Ekalesia, on the foundations laid by the LMS over a period of 80 years’’, he writes.

One is struck by the honesty and modesty of this book.

There is no attempt by the author to claim for himself, or for the mis sion which brought him and his be loved wife to Papua more than 50 years ago, any credit which does not rightly belong to them.

There is continual evidence of the great affection which he and his wife share for the people of Papua New Guinea, and the present reviewer feels convinced that one day in the not-too distant future, some Papuan scholar will write on ‘Chatterton of Papua' and convince his readers that the ‘Paguineans’ are and will always be equally certain of their love and affection for the Chattertons.

Sione Latukefu.

(Day That I Have Loved; Percy

Chatterton’S Papua, By Percy

Chatterton. Published by Pacific Publica tions (Aust) Pty Ltd, Box 3408 GPO Sydney. $5.25.)