deaths
p. 65 · Read in the full issue
Raphael Karepa In New York on February 7. aged 35.
A senior member of Papua New Guinea’s diplomatic ser vice, Mr Karepa was serving as counsellor to PNG’s permanent mission to the United Nations.
Expressing “shock and sad ness” at the news, PNG Minis ter for Foreign Affairs and Trade Rabbie Namaliu said the cause of Mr Karepa’s death was not immediately known, but that arrangements were being made for his body to be sent back to PNG.
Mr Karepa came from Koiari Village in Erave, southern High lands Province.
Usaia Sotutu In Tavea, Bua, Fiji, on New Year’s Eve, 1983, in his late 80s.
The Rev. Usaia Sotutu was a missionary, soldier, and mem ber of the famous Australian Coastwatchers group who operated behind Japanese lines in the Solomons in World War 11.
Mr Sotutu is best remem bered for leading the Fiji batta lion in the Solomon Islands to safety through jungle tracks un known to the Japanese. His intimate knowledge of the Solo mons and his bravery in the war became a legend.
Mr Sotutu had served as a missionary in the Northern Solomons for about 20 years when the islands were invaded by the Japanese in 1942.
Ex-staff sergeant and a for mer editor of Nai Lalakai, the late Luke Vuidreketi, in a tri bute, said Mr Sotutu decided to stay behind after his family had been taken to safety in a sub marine.
Mr Vuidreketi recalled the fighting in and around the Numa Numa trail at Sisivi, in the Solomons.
The Japanese, outnumber ing the Fijians almost 10 to one, almost encircled the battalion aiming to annihilate it, when Mr Sotutu came on the scene, with a Lt. Keenan, and actually led the battalion to safety through
an unknown track towards the north and down the west coast north of Torokina.
“After this tough battle and a breakthrough in the encircle ment, the Fijians had felt they never had a hope of survival, having been informed from air reconnaissance that the enemy was closing again in greater numbers from all sides.
“Our battalion commander asked the Coastwatchers if they knew a way out.
“Mr Sotutu’s reply that day has been remembered over all these years by the men of the Ist Battalion. It was: ‘lf there are 99 tracks known to the Japanese on Bougainville, I know of the 100th. Follow me’.”
Fila Fae In Newcastle, Australia, on February 10, aged 22.
Samoan-born boxer Fila Fae collapsed in his dressing room on February 7 after a bout in Newcastle. He had fought the major preliminary of the even ing to a draw, and was taken to hospital unconscious.
Dr Norma Ruth McArthur Dr Norma Ruth McArthur, a noted specialist in Pacific stu dies at the Australian National University, “still had a bed full of academic books” up to with in one week of her death on January 17, according to a colleague.
Dr McArthur was bom in Ararat, Victoria, in 1921, and had suffered a relapse of a long terminal illness 18 months ago.
She began her career at ANU in 1952 when she took up a position as research fellow in demography at the research school of social sciences. From 1956 she spent two years as Census Commissioner in Fiji.
Before she left the school in 1970 as professorial fellow, she wrote and had published in 1967 a book entitled Island Populations of the Pacific, an influential work which ques tioned the popular theory that Pacific populations had been decimated soon after the arrival of the Europeans in the 19th
century. This was her major publication.
Reviews praised the book but said she had relied on Euro pean figures to the exclusion of contemporary archaeological finds which had revealed more about very early population trends.
As a result of this criticism Dr McArthur then embarked on her second PhD, in 1970, this time in prehistory. This stage of her work sent her to live on Aneityum, in the New Hebrides group, today’s Vanuatu.
Preparing herself physically for research on the island, which had no roads, included walking up Canberra’s Black Mountain and back every day before she began work. She was then in her early 50s and spent two seasons of several months each on the island, doing research. Other censuses were undertaken in the Solo mon Islands and the Gilbert and Ellice Islands (today’s Kiri bati and Tuvalu).
After Dr McArthur joined the department of Pacific and South-east Asian history in 1975 as a senior research fel low, she undertook further statistical and historical work on populations in New Caledonia and Hawaii. Between 1975 and 1977 she was also a representa tive of the non-professorial staff of the institute of advanced studies of the AND Council.
She became a visiting fellow in the research school of Pacific studies in the department of Pacific and South-East Asian history in 1980.
Gene Lai In a road accident near Navua, Fiji, on January 27, aged 38.
Mr Lai, managing director of the P. A. Lai Company, a bus-building firm in Suva, was killed when the light van he was driving collided head-on with a heavy goods truck.
The speedometer on Mr Lai’s van was stuck at 140 kmh when inspected by police.