I often traveled in PNG on Talair flights, especially to the smaller centres such as Madang, Lae etc. Always a lot of fun and sometimes 'seat of the pants' stuff, especially through the Daulo Pass.
The Kainantu Pottery was established by Muriel Larner in the Eastern Highlands Province. Several of the graduate students from the School or Art & Design in Goroka went to work with Muriel.
I produced this painting while still living and working in Goroka and gifted it to my friends from Wanganui, Michelle and Ean Cantell, who were living in Lae at the time I went 'finis'.
While rather abstract expressionist in style, it reflected my response to the the turbulent nature of the volcano that over looked the peaceful tranquillity of the bay and palms.
As it turn out this proved to be rather prophetic as Rabaul's volcano (Tavurvur) is one of the most violent in the region and destroyed the town in 1994 when it erupted again.
I remember this well as the owner was a Kiwi called Peter Price and his father just happened to be the headmaster at Rotorua Lakes High School where I was teaching, before coming to Goroka.
Talk about coincidences! If I recall correctly the enterprise was a little gold mine for the owners.
The Museum held some good artifacts, particularly the stone tools. It also traced the development of the Eastern Highlands and the journeys of the Leahy's.
Race Day - Local children with gumis Photo: Roger Smith
For the uninitiated a 'gumi' refers to an inflated car or truck inner tube. These were are are still used as a flotation device to cross rivers in PNG and also for one of the more famous/infamous annual events in Goroka. It should not be confused with a Japanese candy of a similar name.
'Gumiing' was the local verb for floating down the river on anything inflatable, be it an inner tube, raft or air matress
The Annual Gumi race took place on the Asaro River, the main water concourse in the Eastern Highlands. It is a highlight of a weekend of fun and revelry initiated and largely supported by the Hash House Harriers. not only was their a race but it was beholden on the participants to dress up in the most garish costumes possible. There were single gumis, groups gumi rafts and the occasional local who joined in the fun.
It should also be noted that the Asaro is not by nature a peaceful river and can turn into a raging torrent after a good tropical downpour. The rapids therefore provided a good deal of fun for the spectators and engendered an element of trepidation in the participants.
Riding The Rapids - Asaro River Photo: Roger Smith
Many ensured they were suitably 'fortified' for the event' by strapping a large 'esky' (polystyrene chilly bin) full of 'stubbies' (beer) on to their rafts so they could quaff en route.
Pacific Helicopters were based in Goroka and I undertook a photographic assignment of the Gumi Race, strapped in and leaning over the skid of the chopper as the tubes careened down the river. The photos were used for Air Niugini's in-flight magazine - Paradise and if I recall correctly by Pacific Helicopters themselves?
The Single Gumi Photo: Roger Smith
Post race the Harriers, other entrants and hangers-on partied at the Lantern Lodge where I played the electronic organ as background music from time to time.
The outer casing of old tires was also put to good use and it was common to see local children running them down the road as toys, with a couple of sticks inserted into the casing from either side(below)
The Rabaul that I knew in the late 1970's has changed rather dramatically due to a series of violent volcanic eruptions in September of 1994. The entire population was evacuated as a result.
The town that I remember was an idyllic place with lagoons fringed with palm trees, friendly Tolai's and an environment littered with war wreckage. It is situated on the Gazelle Peninsular of East New Britain.
Rabaul was the main Japanese naval base for the Solomon Islands and New Guinea campaigns during the War in the Pacific and the scene of bitter fighting (by 1943 there were about 110,000 Japanese troops based in Rabaul), so it is not surprising that so much wreckage still littered the place.
Bombed Dredge - Rabaul Harbour
Take the example of the dredge pictured above. This was reputedly captured from the British with the fall Singapore to the Japanese. The latter decided later to tow it to Rabaul to service their harbour there. The Allies monitored the progress of this voyage to see where it was heading, but waited until it had reached its destination before bombing it.
Rabaul also suffered from a sustained bombing campaign in November of 1943 which was a prelude to the Allied invasion of nearby Bougainville in the Solomon Islands.
I spent a holiday at Kurakakul which was on the coast near Rabaul and the scene of the sunset above. The house was a government one belonging to an Expat fisheries expert and he swapped with me for a week while he stayed in my house in Goroka. This was not an uncommon practice between contracted offices of the PNG government. He left me a large bowl of prawns to enjoy on the verandah of the old bungalow - I remember them still.
Since the eruption the prosperous Rabaul has been replaced by one beset with problems, not the least being unemployment and crime from bands of rascals. What was once a jewel of the Pacific is now a shadow of its former self and I was lucky to experience it at its best.
Tolai Woman - taken at the Goroka Show in Eastern Highlands Province
I was delighted to come across another blog site featuring the work of one of my former pupils, Larry Santana, or 'Larry Mike' as he was called when I taught him.
Larry was a third year student at the School of Art & Design in Goroka in 1979 and by far the most talented of his intake.
By all accounts he has had a tough life in later years while living in Port Moresby - loss of his advertising agency job and then his house, living in the notorious shanty area of Six Mile Dump and scavenging for food scraps.
It saddens me that he and his family had these experiences but at last he seems to be experiencing a much happier existence now, in Madang.
One of my earliest meetings with an Eastern Highland's National was with Ian Mopafli who was an apiarist who had studied honey production in New Zealand. He spent time in my home country, under an aid scheme, and returned to the Eastern Highlands to establish a viable honey industry.
I visited his home village and saw at first hand how hives were dispersed. My interested in this form of agriculture had been pricked a few years previously when I had an idea to quit teaching and become and apiarist. I even went as far as joining a Rotoruabee keeping club but nothing more came of it.
Prior to leaving for PNG I paid a deposit on a large section of bush covered land near Kennedys Bay, on the Coromandel Peninsula. It was subdivided by Jim Rabarts at Tuateawa and was part of my self sufficiency master-plan; painting and bee-keeping. In hindsight totally impractical but such is the fervour of youth!
Once in Goroka I decided not pursue the Coromandel purchase but did discover where most of the rich Papua New Guinea honey ended up - in Rothmans cigarettes.
Rothmans had a large tobacco factory outside Goroka as they grew their tobacco in its rich soils. The EHP honey was one of the several additives that were used.
The other thing I remember was that there was also a thin cigarette produced for local consumption which used recycled paper sheets from old texts as its outer sheath. It was not uncommon to come across one that had a copy of the Psalms printed on the outside, such was the proliferation of bibles and religious texts in the Highlands.
The climate of Goroka was spring like all year around and as a result there was always and abundance of fresh vegetables to be found in the local market.
Being a central location the market was also the place to pick up a PMV (Passenger Motor Vehicle) for a trip further up or down the Highlands Highway. While some of these were vans, many were open decked ISUZU trucks.
The Saturday market was one of the best and all of the activity took place in a designated area. The first vendors could use the concrete slab tables and many preferred to set up on ground mats or the ubiquitous blue tarpaulins that were used for drying coffee.
Kau Kau - Goroka Market
Photo: Roger Smith
The local street potato was kau kau and somewhat coarser version of the New Zealand native tuber, the kumara. Kau kau along with sago was a staple in the diet but this was supplemented with green leaf vegetables.
There were small piles of cabbages, broccoli and cauliflower in season. The buying process meant negotiating for a pile of what you fancied rather than an individual item of fruit or vegetable. All were incredibly cheap in a subsistence economy founded on fertile soils.
One particular favourite were freshly cooked peanuts, still smoky in taste from the fire and costing ten toea in local moni. There were ten toea in one kina, the local equivalent of a dollar.
Sugar cane was also sold although I always found the chewing a piece less than satisfying. Fresh carrots, capsicums and more exotic fare such as jackfruit could also be bought.
Goroka Market - from left, cucumbers, tomatoes, sugar cane, potatoes and in front, kau kau
Photo: Roger Smith
One of the best purchases were the local bananas which grew throughout the highlands at this altitude. Pineapples were also be had and although small were delicious. The same could be said for local passion-fruit.
Goroka Market - at back are limes and in the front jackfruit
Photo: Roger Smith
Goroka market is not all about food and there was a separate section for clothing where one could buy the colourful laplaps or container made out of local bamboo.
Next to the market was the local town butchery selling pork and chicken in large quantities. This was a controlled environment but most of the expatriate population chose to buy their meat from the supermarket in town.
Buying frozen food from the local supermarket could be counter-productive as there were frequent power cuts. Most people had a back up petrol generator to keep their fridge and freezers going in the event of such an emergency. Imported food while not cheap was often of the best quality. I tasted some of the best frozen New Zealand fish that I have ever had in Goroka and at a similar price to buying it in the country of origin!
The plus side was that when the supermarkets own freezers malfunctioned they quickly sold off their food as hugely discounted prices. Most of the power outages who be laid at the feet of those who were meant to maintain the large Ramu Valley power plant which supplied the Highlands electricity. As its intakes in the Yonki Dam were slowly but surely silting up and maintenance was piecemeal (to be charitable), the long term prognosis for the plant was not great.
One of the biggest supermarkets in Goroka was owned by Collins and Leahy. They put in the first elevator while I was there and were inundated with local villagers who came from far and wide to try out this novelty; they spent all day going up and down the wondrous mechanical staircase without making a single purchase much to the annoyance of the staff.
The Bird of Paradise is the national bird of Papua New Guinea and it is also the name of the best known hotel in Goroka.
Its closest rival during my time in the Eastern Highlands was the Lantern Lodge. I used to play for my supper on the electric organ at the Lodge when the mood took me, not that it really mattered as the bar was always full and drinking was on most people's mind.
The Bird of Paradise had a gaggle of tribesmen and meris selling artifacts out the front as this was the main accommodation for the few tourists that passed through.
There were some good pieces to be had and recall a very nicely carved, clay pig whistle that I bought on the doorstep of The Bird. A good set of a black palm bow and arrows could also be bought although the best were to be found out in the villages, which is where I purchased mine.
The traditional bows are strung with a strip of bamboo and are very powerful. I tried mine out with a target in the back garden at Sinofi street and its impaled the cardboard target and supporting tree to a depth of ten centimetres.
The arrows are objects of beauty in their own right with various tips for hunting fish, birds and fighting other warriors. the fish arrows resembled a mini harpoon with their splayed bamboo tip bound with fibre.
Later I purchased a second ceremonial bow from a different part of PNG. This one was covered with woven orchid vine in red and white hues which made it quite a beautiful object.
I note that these days The Bird has joined the Quality chain which no doubt brings more bookings. It still gets good reviews from travellers. When I was there it was managed by an Australian and his Chinese wife who was very strict about maintaining standards.
They commissioned me to produce a portfolio of photographs of local scenes and activities to decorate the hotel's lounge.
Many tourists take in the much vaunted Asaro Mudmen tour while they are in Goroka. I happen to know that the following is a load of conceived bunkum!
"Tribal folklore records that centuries ago the warriors of Asaro were defeated in a tribal fight with a neighbouring village. Honour compelled the men to retaliate with a “payback” raid, and, to make themselves look fierce in the process, covered their bodies with grey mud. According to legend, the ruse worked, and their enemies fled at the sight of these ghostly apparitions"
The late Tara Monighan, who worked for TransNiugini Tours at the time, was one hand when this "legend" was born and she recounted it to me.
The Asaro people were trying to find a way to look distinctive at a singsing ceremony and it was an expatriate Aussie who suggested that the local clay deposits be used over a cane frame to make the now "famed" Asaro masks.
The result as they say is the "stuff of legends" and has proved a nice little earner for the local tourism industry.
Far more interesting is the Raun Raun Theatre (right) which was being built in Goroka during my tenure. It is an interesting example of contemporary ferro cement construction and architecture and was completed in 1982.
The project architects were Paul Frame and Rex Addison.
The Raun Raun Theatre came into existence in 1975 at the suggestion of Professor Ulli Beier from the Insititute of PNG Studies.
"In early April, 1975, the Raun Raun Traveling Theatre was formed in Goroka with a grant from the National Cultural Council. A theatre truck was purchased with some help from the Goroka Rotary Club and housing was granted by District Authorities to accommodate drama students on the one hand and director/office on the other. The Theatre’s original function was to travel with ‘maket raun‘, a suggested scheme for taking public services, private sector activities and entertainment to a circuit of large village centres around the area."
Greg Murphy was the Director of Raun Raun Theatre and we had a close working relationship beween the School of Art and Design at Goroka Technical College and his company
The same ferro cement technique was applied to a number of houses elsewhere in the Highlands and I photographed several of these for an Air Niugini magazine article.
There are few prettier places to visit in Papua New Guinea than Madang which is on the Bismark Sea coast. After months in the Highlands it was welcome respite to take a Talair flight to the northern coast and spend a few days of in the tropical climate under the palms.
Madang Girl
I visited Madang several times although the first was one of the most memorable. I stayed on Siar island which is a small island close to the main town of Madang.
The enterprising headman, Paul Munz, collected me in his dug out canoe and ferried me across to the island for a weekend of island culture, living amongst the local villagers.
Accommodation was in a beach side, thatched roof haus; termed a bure elsewhere in the Pacific. The sound of garamut drums and string bands filled the air each evening when the heat of the day had dissipated.
This was also my first experience of snorkeling over a coral reef. The one surrounding Siar teemed with marine life and the colours of the fishes ad corals were simply breathtaking.
Giant clams and bright yellow and pink brain corals were in abundance. Electric blue fish darted amongst them. For someone reared on a diet of Jacques Cousteau undersea adventures back in New Zealand television, this was the real hting.
It was easy see why PNG is regarded as one of the world's great diving locations. In other coastal regions the diving is over sunken World War Two ships using scuba,
I shared my weekend on Siar with visitors from other parts of Niugini. One was an anthropologist who was spending several months living on the island, studying the traditional ways of life. It seemed at the time that most of the world's anthropology PhD students made a bee-line to PNG to complete their theses; the same applied for linguists, they were everywhere!
Potter - Madang
Smugglers Hotel in Madang was a renowned hideaway and I recall coming across the actor Michael York, who was then in his prime, enjoying a relaxing 'getting away from it all' holiday.
I took photographs in Madang which were later turned into postcards and sold commercially by a company in Port Moresby. One of these images was of Smugglers.
Another postcard was of traditional Madang potters and their pottery. The style and clay, which is a red earthenware, differs from the Zumin pottery of the Markham Valley.
Pottery is made on a small turning base without a wheel. It is then handcoiled and beaten.
The detrius of the last war was still clearly visible in the surrounding jungles and some of the toughest fighting aginst the Japanese took place along this coast. Old pieces of Marsden matting were still in use as make-shift fences and derelict aircraft were left to rot where they had crashed or been destroyed in battle.
War Wreckage - Madang
Japanese Artillery Piece
War Wreckage - Madang
The string bands of Madang and other coastal and island communities have a very haunting and repetitious rhythm. One of the more distinctive instruments is an assemblage of hollow bamboo tubes, much like a xylophone, which are played by beating the top with a pair of rubber thongs (jandals). They used guitar and close harmonies.
An example of bamboo percussion, although in this clip it is the Tatok Bamboo Band from the neighbouring Solomon islands (Bougainville)
These bands can also be heard entertaining in the bars of the major hotels such as Smugglers (mentioned above) and the much older Madang Resort hotel, which began as a German colonial guest house prior to World War One - 1914-18.
I stayed in the Madang Resort Hotel for a weekend when I was the Eastern Highlands chairman for the 1980 South Pacific Festival of Arts. The organising committee met there under the chairmanship of Mali Voi and Helen Dennett. Mali went on to become a UNESCO cultural expert based in Apia and Helen remained a world authority on traditional Sepik art.
There's gold in them there hills or at least there certainly is in various parts of Papua New Guinea.
When I was living there investigation for the new mine at Ok Tedi were under way and it was described as a mountain of copper with a gold cap, so rich were the prospects.
Flecks of gold could also be found in many of the Highlands rivers and panning for gold using an old wok was fun but not very lucrative.
On one of these excursions while a party of us were down by the river a group of rascals broke into the back of my locked land-cruiser and stole my large case of camera gear which included my precious Canon F1 camera.
The term "rascal" refers to every type of criminal; from a petty thief to a murderer and opportunist theft such as this was very common place.
We all fell victims to rascals at some stage of our tenure in PNG. In my first case it was awaking on Xmas Day morning to find that my landcruiser (beneath the house) had been jacked up on blocks and the four wheels stolen.
More disturbing was the level of violence one sometimes encountered. These were rare in my days in PNG and usually were carried out by small bands of disaffected youths.
On another occasion coming back in the land-cruiser, we were passing through a cutting when a large rock was thrown from the bank above, smashing a side window and narrowly missing the passengers in the back.
Tribal fights while sensationally reported in the western media were largely ritual affairs that did not impinge on the lives of expatriates.
Honour was satisfied when someone from an opposing tribe was either injured or killed in these skirmishes and in the main the weapons of choice were traditional - bows and arrows and clubs.
The injured were evacuated by PMV to Goroka Base hospital. I did see one unfortunate arrive by helicopter, lying sideways on a stretcher as the spear that had pierced his abdomen meant that he could not lie on his back.
Those members Eastern Highlands constabulary who came from tribal areas on the coast or in the islands, were loath to get too involved for fear of pay back, which could be swift and brutal.
Things have changed in the intervening years as the money from coffee has seen guns replacing traditional weapons and the level of violence has escalated dramatically.
The first time I drove down the Markham Valley from the Eastern Highlands to Lae, I did so in a Toyota Corolla station wagon that I had purchased from a departing Expat who was going 'finis'.
The vehicle in question had been painted by the Goroka Tech. third year art and design students when, in a moment of generosity (or should that be weakness), I "donated" its surfaces to be a canvas for applied design.
The result was a handpainted wagon with brightly applied 'bilas' in a traditional PNG design. There was nothing like it on the highway and the car attracted a lot of attention from the PMV's (Passenger Motor Vehicles) that plied their trade up and down the highway.
The other vivid recollection I have of this first journey in 1979 was that the Highlands Highway on the Markham Valley section had not yet been sealed, so the sensation of large undulating ruts and large potholes was quite unnerving.
Australian War Memorial 100546. Markham Valley,
New Guinea. 5 September 1943.Screened by dense smoke,
paratroopers of 503 US Paratroop Infantry Regiment
and gunners of 2/4th Australian Field Regiment with their
25 Pounders land unopposed at Nadzab,
during the advance of 7th Australian Division on Lae.
The Markham valley had been the scene of some fierce fighting on 5 September 1943, when US and Australian paratroopers dropped into it.
Their mission was to secure Nadzab airstrip in preparation for the Allies advance on Lae. One paratrooper described exiting the plane as " like leaving an icebox and stepping into a furnace".
It was also unbearably hot in the valley when I traversed it and the only points of interest enroute were the traditional Zumim potteries found in the valley, with their wood fired and highly decorative cooking vessels.
Adhering to ancient tradition, the married, childless women of Zumim walk for ten miles to collect clay in secret from a special place, wrap it in banana leaves and walk the ten miles back to the village where, after a rest of a day, they will prepare it for use.
The clay is placed on a wet solid wooden board and beaten with a wet mallet until it spreads into a flat sheet. This is folded into a lump again and re flattened several times to remove impurities.
When ready the clay is wrapped again in banana leaves and rested for several days before the skilled potters , the men take over forming the moistened clay in two long coils which they spiral around in a circular motion forming the new pot. The interior is then smoothed with a moistened piece of coconut shell. The upper rim is flattened with a paddle and decorations are etched on with fine silvers of bamboo and molded shapes can be applied which indicate the use for which the pot is made.
Morobe dancers from Lae performing
at the Goroka Show. Copyright Roger Smith
The pot will then be rested for a couple of weeks before being fired in several stages on open fires built under and over it. Pots are made ready for cooking or selling by firstly having yams or cooking bananas cooked in them in water until soft which seals the pot.
The embossed decorations on Zumim pottery, represent certain characteristics of nature. For example, the signs of a tracks of a mouse, the teeth of a lizard , a feather or seed pods. Pots with elaborate relief work of flying fox heads, birds and snakes are used for cooking meat and sometimes vegetables, whilst the plainer pots are used solely for cooking vegetables.
I bought a small zumim cooking pot which I kept for many years, eventually selling it in a NZ auction some twenty five years later.
Despite the challengs of of the Markham Valley the suspension of the station wagon held and the radiator did not boil on the return journey as we tackled the sharp incline from the valley floor, heading back towards Kainanatu.
I sold the station wagon shortly after this trek and purchased a Toyota short wheel base Landcruiser which was far better suited to the rough and off road conditions of the Highlands.
It was rumoured that less principled car owners wrote older cars off for insurance claim purposes by arranging for them to be 'stolen by rascals', or simply by finding a convenient cliff face to push them off.
The cost of repairs was often prohibitive and this sort of scam was I suspect not uncommon.
I remember it well as it was like every other government designed house, raised above the ground with stairwell access from a small lower level. Your vehicle was parked underneath the master bedroom.
There was a large section of grass with a few banana palms at the rear. The grass was cut by sweeping a hand blade in a scything fashion; rhythmic but sapping work in the heat of PNG.
Any banana that grew had to be wrapped either in a plastic bag or with fibre from the plant to stop the fruit being attacked by insects.
Most of the decorative plants that were planted were the tropical, indigenous varieties that commanded a premium in New Zealand garden centres, but which grew with wild abandon in their natural habitat.
It was not only the flora that grew in this fashion, the fauna did as well. We had large spiders that spread their webs. These were Nephila pilipes (pictured right) andreportedly caught and consumed small birds?
All manner of bugs and beetles were new and foreign; stag beetles that hissed when threatened, cockroaches of enormous dimensions and even the odd snake, although the latter were not that visible most of the time.
I put the ants to good use by burying some decorative shells I had brought back from a trip to Rabaul. A month later when I dug then up they were completely clean of any internal organs and organic matter.
Shells picked clean
The house I was allocated by the Technical College had been previously occupied by a German engineer and his family called Helmut Helling. He moved from the Tech to work for Rothmans which had a large tobacco factory just out of Goroka.
It was not an uncommon occurrence for people to finish their government contracts and be lured by more lucrative deals in the private sector.
My neighbours on one side was a house full of Filipinos with a huge array of dogs that kept the neighbourhood awake whenever someone walked past at night.
Directly across from my house were Dave and Nancy Chard with their children Gamu and Emma. Dave was an Australian who worked for civil aviation and Nancy was a PNG national.It was from Nancy that I first learnt some of the secrets of Chinese cooking which became a passion of mine in later life.
Dave was a keen radio ham and I used to pop across from time to time to hear him converse with other amateur radio enthusiasts in countries thousands of miles away.
It was a must to purchase a receiver that could pick up the ABC on short wave. In the days before the internet this was the only way to learn what was happening in the big wide world as the PNG media mainly focused on domestic fare.
The result as they say is the "stuff of legends" and has proved a nice little earner for the local tourism industry.
The term "rascal" refers to every type of criminal; from a petty thief to a murderer and opportunist theft such as this was very common place.
Things have changed in the intervening years as the money from coffee has seen guns replacing traditional weapons and the level of violence has escalated dramatically.
