Book Reviews

Through Melanesian Eyes: An

anthology of PNG writing compiled by Ganga Powell. Macmillan Australia.

Reviewed by Susan Simons THROUGH Melanesian Eyes is an intriguing collection of stories in which the selection and arrange ment of pieces allow the stories to play multiple roles. The first important consid eration is that the book is designed as a re source for young Papua New Guineans, particularly secondary school students, “. . . to acquaint them with the writings of their own people”. Ganga Powell has thoughtfully selected each piece of writing to represent major literary forms prose, poetry, fiction and drama.

The selection opens with traditional legends and songs taken from the vast rep ertoire of Melanesian oral tradition. The little that has been translated and tran scribed gives us only the merest glimmer of the continuing vitality and relevance of a body of songs and stories that, in the ver nacular, is still the major vehicle for cre ative expression. The anonymous song of mourning. My Polupiri Brother, de scribes a young widow’s pain and loss after the death of her husband in local warfare: Favoured and skilful hunter what shall Ido? lam tearing my new string bag in which I intended to carry potatoes for you for the first time.

I am in pain and grief as I take off my bridal decorations.

My brother, my brother, to show that I love you even in death, I am pulling out my hair.

My Polupiri brother, I am hurt all the more For it is not a dream that you are going away With the love that I have come to experience. . .

Some of the gems from the heady days of accelerated social change and growing political awareness of the 1960 s and ’7os are included in the section Society and So cial Change. The fears and frustrations of the colonial era are faced with irony and wry humour in John Waiko’s play The Un expected Hawk, and John Kasiapwalova’s short story Betel-nut is Bad Magic for Aeroplanes. The use of Tok Pisin, vernac ular language and colloquial forms of spo ken English give these pieces a particular pertinence. Kumalau Tawali’s poem The Bush Kanaka Speaks has appeared be fore, as have some other items in the an thology, but they well deserve a wider audience: The Kiap shouts at us forcing the veins to stand out in his neck

nearly forcing the excreta out of his bottom he says; you are ignorant.

He says: you are ignorant, but can he shape a canoe, tie a mast, fix an outrigger?

Can he steer a canoe through the night without losing his way?

Does he know when a turtle comes ashore to lay its eggs?

The question of cultural identity pro vides good material for debate on the need for a Melanesian Way. My only complaint is that Ms Powell did not reprint in full John Kasiapwalova’s remarkable poem The Reluctant Flame — perhaps the most powerful call for freedom in the emerging literature of any new nation.

Ganga Powell is to be congratulated on a thoughtful, inspiring and fearless an thology. She has not veered away from what some may consider controversial choices, especially since her intended pri mary audience is secondary school chil dren. But it is essential that young readers are exposed to the best of their country’s creative minds, and in this selection they will find the strengths and conflicts that have shaped its recent history. □

Papua New Guinea People In

CHANGE A Social Studies Resource Kit - Film Australia. ISBN O 642 11955 4. $l2O.

Reviewed by John Hunter FOR MANY people, Papua New Guinea is the ‘kid next door’. He has always been there as a child, then grown to maturity but we’ve never really got to know him. People of the Pacific need to know more about their nearest neigh bour and to understand more about the country and its people. One way is through the school system; children should know more about their neighbours from an early age.

While this is easy to say, it can prove difficult in practice due to a perennial scarcity of resource material on PNG. In 1987 a school project kit was produced by Peter Leyland Publishing. Called Papua New Guinea Today, it consists of photo graphs, an audio tape and teacher’s book.

Just recently a second kit appeared, called Papua New Guinea People in Change.

It’s a social studies kit for upper primary and secondary classes and consists of two video cassettes, an audio cassette and comprehensive teacher’s guide. It seeks to answer two questions: what is traditional culture? and how and why do cultures change?

The kit introduces children to the Bar uya tribe of the Eastern Highlands in Papua New Guinea, through a Film Aus

tralia video produced by lan Dunlop. A second video contains copies of New Guinea Patrol, which records James Sin clair’s 1950 s Southern Highlands patrol, and Yumi Yet, which covers the 1975 In dependence celebrations.

An audio tape is also provided to en able children to hear a variety of Papua New Guinea music and to hear two stories read in Pidgin. Teachers have a compre hensive guide that suggests ways of pro gramming the course to include subjects such as art, music, science, language and so on. The guide provides resource ma terial on Baruya society, a list of books and films, the stories on the audio cassette and games that can be played by the children.

The study of the Baruyans is a sensitive one: at no time are children encouraged to condemn, accept value judgments, laugh at or look down on another society. Cer tainly the material enables a better under standing of Papua New Guinea, its cultures and the great changes that have sped the country ahead “ 10,000 years in a lifetime”.

I believe the kit is of great value to any student or adult, for it captures moments in history. I would very much like to sit in on a class and to watch students discuss life in the village, make traditional houses, cook sweet potato, exchange pigs and per form a sing-sing. D

Business Development In The

Highlands Of Papua New Guinea:

Pacific Islands Development Program Research Report No 6. By Ben R Finney.

Published by East-West Centre, Honolulu, 1987.

Isbn U-86638-094-9.

Reviewed by John Connell SOME MIGHT envy Ben Finney. After completing a master’s thesis on the history of Hawaiian surfing and a doctorate on Tahitian village economics, he has de voted many years to studies of Pacific Tourism and traditional Polynesian navigation.

Two decades ago Finney also found lime to make a pioneer study of business development and economic growth in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea.

His book Big Men and Business (ANU Press and University of Hawaii, 1973) quickly became a pioneer study of how some Gorokans became cash crop pro ducers, affluent businessmen and na tional politicians within a single generation. The Gorokans pointed the way for many other Highlanders to follow as coffee, cash and capitalism brought a new era to the region. Almost 20 years later the Pacific islands Development Program, then engaged in a wider study of business development in the Pacific, commis sioned Ben Finney to return to Goroka and

examine again business development in the Highlands.

In Finney’s first book on Goroka he concluded that the traditional culture of the Eastern Highlands “pre-adapted” the people to modern commercial develop ment, through the emergence of entrepre neurs willing and able to exploit the opportunities offered by the new market economy. Many of these grass-roots busi nessmen began their careers through trad ing pigs, shells and other valuables, usually both as individuals and on behalf of the clan. Subsequently they followed the style if not the substance of traditional status mobility. Eastern Highlanders quickly accepted both economic innova tion and new forms of economic activity but, in most respects, retained the basis of their traditional culture.

In some respects little had changed.

Gorokans remained “conspicuous inves tors”, gaining prestige and status by in vesting in visible commercial assets.

Wealth and social standing more than ever are measured in terms of coffee produc tion, business assets and cash flow. Once again entrepreneurship was closely re lated to leadership, and there were intense rivalries for power and authority within the competitive and fluid leadership system.

At the same time the older business groups that with government support had initiated the almost complete localisation of business in the Highlands, had disin

tegrated through tension and jealousy and been replaced by more cohesive and man ageable businesses based on nuclear fam ilies. If business had become more individualistic, the new businessmen nonetheless were still closely identified with their clans, contributing to ceremon ial expenses, clan payments, school fees and so on, through which they gained both prestige and clan support. Clan support remains crucial as a source of land, labour and also cash. Traditional influences have barely dwindled.

Again Finney found that businessmen were unable to escape the necessity to dis tribute largesse to clansmen, and unres trained demands and generosity often led to bankruptcy and business failure. In other words, the very factors that enabled businessmen to prosper were all too often exactly those that led to the demise of po tentially successful businesses. Only a few younger men were easily able to escape the confines of the wantok system. One means by which the most successful entrepre neurs achieved this was by delegating the daily management of their business to ex patriates who were both experienced managers and better able to withstand the demands of customary obligations. So the largest businesses are best able to regulate the wantok system, as smaller businesses collapse under the strain, and there are virtually no skilled Gorokan managers.

Finney observes: “The rough egalilar

ianism of traditional times, where every man had a more or less equal chance to strive for wealth and power, has been re placed by a social system that is beginning to look more and more stratified.” The youngest university-educated entrepre neurs are increasingly investing outside the province (one buying up land in Brisbane, Queensland), to avoid customary obliga tions and to make greater profits away from Goroka, where the best rural and urban land has already long been sold. However, though Finney argues that entrepreneurial values are so widespread that there will be such constant challenges for business prominence and disputes over land tenure that few businesses will survive more than one generation, there is just as much evi dence that some business elites in the new development corporations are now ex tremely well entrenched.

Indeed, in the end, Finney’s conclu sions are not wholly convincing both be cause he was only in the Eastern Highlands for 15 days and because he has taken no apparent note of social scientists who pre ceded him in the Eastern Highlands and whose conclusions are far from being so sanguine.

The new rapacious entrepreneurs have scarcely created a society where the rural and urban poor can face the future with confidence. Perhaps Ben Finney will re turn again, stay longer and reveal the darker side of the moon. □