I'm currently in my hometown of Lae, Morobe province, and am enjoying every minute of it.
I'll post all pictures and stories of my stay in Lae.
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Friday, July 03, 2009
Classrooms without books in Papua New Guinea
Eric Johns...someone who is passionate about putting books in all classrooms of Papua New Guinea
PNG History Through Stories, Book 2
Ahuia Ova, PNG's first anthropological researcher in the 1920s. His story is told in PNG History Through StoriesA sad but true fact about Papua New Guinea is that our young people know very little about the rich and proud history of the country.
There are books that tell that history, which should be in schools, however, are not.
A number of concerned former PNG residents, seeing this state of affairs, are now working quietly behind the scene to change this trend.
They include writer Eric Johns, Australia’s pre-eminent historian on PNG Emeritus Prof Hank Nelson, and PNG Association of Australia president Keith Jackson.
“The need is urgent,” Prof Nelson says.
“Few schools – or towns – have libraries and some schools are almost bookless.
“The one or two books on the history of PNG in a school may be coverless and one may have been written when Australia was still the administering power.
“The teachers, often facing large classes and without the promised support for major topics in the syllabus, need relevant textbooks – for themselves and for every student,” he said.
“Papua New Guineans need a consciousness of what they have in common.
“A knowledge of a shared history is basic to the building of a nation-state.”
Eric Johns worked in PNG from 1960-1973, teaching at Rigo Intermediate High School (later Kwikila HS), Bugandi High School Lae, KilaKila High School Port Moresby and the Port Moresby Teachers College.
He completed his BA at University of PNG and MA at Australian National University.
When Mr Johns was lecturing at Port Moresby Teachers College 1969-72, he was appalled by the lack of history and social studies resources available to teachers.
He found it especially deplorable that there was almost no readily-accessible information about the history of PNG.
So before he left PNG at the end of 1972, he started to correct this by interviewing a few historically-prominent Papua New Guineans, intending to write their stories.
When he retired from teaching he resumed this work, which was eventually published by Pearson/Longman as 69 stories in two volumes, PNG History Through Stories Books 1 and 2.
The books are aimed at classes below Year 10, where there is no material available for teachers or their students about PNG history.
Most of the details in his books do not exist in any other single book.
A major incentive for Mr Johns in writing these books was the fact that students of PNG were without knowledge of important, ordinary, heroic and notorious Papua New Guineans who lived during the long period before Michael Somare came to prominence.
“Citizens of every nation should know about their own historic heroes and villains,” he says.
The need for these books is enormous.
“In 2004 and 2006, Pearson Education published two history books, expecting that they would be distributed to schools throughout Papua New Guinea,” Mr Johns said.
“Unfortunately, although the books were approved as school texts by the PNG education department, they are still sitting in a warehouse in Australia and are likely to remain there for some time.
“Many other books produced by Pearson and other publishers share the same fate, sitting on shelves waiting to be sent to their intended readers, the long-deprived students and teachers of Papua New Guinea.
“The reason for this deplorable situation is simple – nobody is willing to pay for the books.
“It was different before 2002, when the Australian aid agency AusAID was a reliable purchaser and supplier of classroom materials, but since then the powers that be have taken a different tack.
“Books have been pushed aside, their place taken by consultant-driven curriculum development. “This changed policy, which has been in operation for several years, ignores the basic tenet that teachers – no matter how well designed their curriculum - cannot teach without books and other classroom materials.
“Curriculum is important, but this unbalanced aid policy has done nothing to alleviate the all too common tragic situation in PNG schools – classrooms with few or no books.
The two history books mentioned above are examples of what is waiting unread on the shelves.
PNG History Through Stories Book One and Book Two have a selection of 69 well-researched true stories about people and events in PNG’s past.
They are purpose-designed for PNG classrooms, complete with student exercises and lots of illustrations and maps.
Their purpose is to introduce students in upper primary and junior secondary levels to PNG history - with emphasis on important PNG people, and events affecting PNG people – the kind of history that should be taught in our schools.
For example in Book One the story, The Rabaul Strike, which takes place in colonial Rabaul in 1929, tells of how two men, boat captain Sunsuma, and police sergeant-major N’Dramei, decided to challenge their Australian masters by organising a peaceful and disciplined general strike in demand for higher wages.
Such action was unheard of at the time and many Australians were enraged when they woke to find that all New Guinean workers in Rabaul, except for police on duty, had disappeared overnight, having assembled near mission stations at Malaguna and Rapolo.
The strike failed and those taking place were punished severely, especially the leaders, Sunsuma and N’Dramai, who were imprisoned and beaten.
Sunsuma was unbowed by this experience and ended his days as a respected leader on his island home of Boang, off the east coast of New Ireland.
It could be argued that Sunsuma and N’Dramei should be remembered with pride by Papua New Guineans for their courage in taking on the powerful white establishment, and that their story should be known to all school students.
In Book Two another story, Ahuia Ova, is about a man from Kilakila village near Port Moresby who became prominent as Papua New Guinea’s first anthropological researcher, one of its earliest writers, a leading man of Hanuabada Village and a friend of lieutenant-governor Sir Hubert Murray.
In 1904 the renowned British anthropologist Charles Seligman was so impressed by Ahuia’s talents that he asked him to assist with his studies of the customs of the Koita people.
In the 1922-23 Papua Annual Report, Ahuia published his own study called ‘Motu Feasts and Dances’.
He also recorded stories about the origins and genealogy of the Koita people who lived in Hanuabada, and wrote articles in a government magazine, the Papuan Villager.
The story of Ahuia’s achievements, and how he managed to cope with the demands of Koita, Motu and Europeans societies, and with the opposing forces of Protestant and Catholic churches, is an example of culture clash at several levels that should interest all students.
“If only for the sake of national pride in the achievements of early Papua New Guineans, the names of people such as Ahuia Ova, Sunsuma and N’Dramei, and many others mentioned in these books, should be made known to all school students in Papua New Guinea,” Mr Johns said.
“There is also the question of what constitutes a rounded education, for how can a Papua New Guinean said to be educated who does not know about the heroes, villains and events of the past that shaped his or her own country?
“The immediate and crucial question is, how long will it be before PNG History Through Stories and the dozens of other books, written specially for PNG children but now sitting on warehouse shelves, get to where they should be – in the PNG classrooms?”
“Since completing PNG History Through Stories Book Two I have been researching and writing a history of PNG that will cover the period from prehistory to 1975,” Mr Johns said.
“It will be big, comprehensive and well illustrated, and will take me at least another two years to complete.
“It is intended that it will be a text for senior students and for anyone with an interest in PNG history.
“I hope it eventually gets into the schools!”
Eric Johns can be contacted on email eric@johns.com.au
There are books that tell that history, which should be in schools, however, are not.
A number of concerned former PNG residents, seeing this state of affairs, are now working quietly behind the scene to change this trend.
They include writer Eric Johns, Australia’s pre-eminent historian on PNG Emeritus Prof Hank Nelson, and PNG Association of Australia president Keith Jackson.
“The need is urgent,” Prof Nelson says.
“Few schools – or towns – have libraries and some schools are almost bookless.
“The one or two books on the history of PNG in a school may be coverless and one may have been written when Australia was still the administering power.
“The teachers, often facing large classes and without the promised support for major topics in the syllabus, need relevant textbooks – for themselves and for every student,” he said.
“Papua New Guineans need a consciousness of what they have in common.
“A knowledge of a shared history is basic to the building of a nation-state.”
Eric Johns worked in PNG from 1960-1973, teaching at Rigo Intermediate High School (later Kwikila HS), Bugandi High School Lae, KilaKila High School Port Moresby and the Port Moresby Teachers College.
He completed his BA at University of PNG and MA at Australian National University.
When Mr Johns was lecturing at Port Moresby Teachers College 1969-72, he was appalled by the lack of history and social studies resources available to teachers.
He found it especially deplorable that there was almost no readily-accessible information about the history of PNG.
So before he left PNG at the end of 1972, he started to correct this by interviewing a few historically-prominent Papua New Guineans, intending to write their stories.
When he retired from teaching he resumed this work, which was eventually published by Pearson/Longman as 69 stories in two volumes, PNG History Through Stories Books 1 and 2.
The books are aimed at classes below Year 10, where there is no material available for teachers or their students about PNG history.
Most of the details in his books do not exist in any other single book.
A major incentive for Mr Johns in writing these books was the fact that students of PNG were without knowledge of important, ordinary, heroic and notorious Papua New Guineans who lived during the long period before Michael Somare came to prominence.
“Citizens of every nation should know about their own historic heroes and villains,” he says.
The need for these books is enormous.
“In 2004 and 2006, Pearson Education published two history books, expecting that they would be distributed to schools throughout Papua New Guinea,” Mr Johns said.
“Unfortunately, although the books were approved as school texts by the PNG education department, they are still sitting in a warehouse in Australia and are likely to remain there for some time.
“Many other books produced by Pearson and other publishers share the same fate, sitting on shelves waiting to be sent to their intended readers, the long-deprived students and teachers of Papua New Guinea.
“The reason for this deplorable situation is simple – nobody is willing to pay for the books.
“It was different before 2002, when the Australian aid agency AusAID was a reliable purchaser and supplier of classroom materials, but since then the powers that be have taken a different tack.
“Books have been pushed aside, their place taken by consultant-driven curriculum development. “This changed policy, which has been in operation for several years, ignores the basic tenet that teachers – no matter how well designed their curriculum - cannot teach without books and other classroom materials.
“Curriculum is important, but this unbalanced aid policy has done nothing to alleviate the all too common tragic situation in PNG schools – classrooms with few or no books.
The two history books mentioned above are examples of what is waiting unread on the shelves.
PNG History Through Stories Book One and Book Two have a selection of 69 well-researched true stories about people and events in PNG’s past.
They are purpose-designed for PNG classrooms, complete with student exercises and lots of illustrations and maps.
Their purpose is to introduce students in upper primary and junior secondary levels to PNG history - with emphasis on important PNG people, and events affecting PNG people – the kind of history that should be taught in our schools.
For example in Book One the story, The Rabaul Strike, which takes place in colonial Rabaul in 1929, tells of how two men, boat captain Sunsuma, and police sergeant-major N’Dramei, decided to challenge their Australian masters by organising a peaceful and disciplined general strike in demand for higher wages.
Such action was unheard of at the time and many Australians were enraged when they woke to find that all New Guinean workers in Rabaul, except for police on duty, had disappeared overnight, having assembled near mission stations at Malaguna and Rapolo.
The strike failed and those taking place were punished severely, especially the leaders, Sunsuma and N’Dramai, who were imprisoned and beaten.
Sunsuma was unbowed by this experience and ended his days as a respected leader on his island home of Boang, off the east coast of New Ireland.
It could be argued that Sunsuma and N’Dramei should be remembered with pride by Papua New Guineans for their courage in taking on the powerful white establishment, and that their story should be known to all school students.
In Book Two another story, Ahuia Ova, is about a man from Kilakila village near Port Moresby who became prominent as Papua New Guinea’s first anthropological researcher, one of its earliest writers, a leading man of Hanuabada Village and a friend of lieutenant-governor Sir Hubert Murray.
In 1904 the renowned British anthropologist Charles Seligman was so impressed by Ahuia’s talents that he asked him to assist with his studies of the customs of the Koita people.
In the 1922-23 Papua Annual Report, Ahuia published his own study called ‘Motu Feasts and Dances’.
He also recorded stories about the origins and genealogy of the Koita people who lived in Hanuabada, and wrote articles in a government magazine, the Papuan Villager.
The story of Ahuia’s achievements, and how he managed to cope with the demands of Koita, Motu and Europeans societies, and with the opposing forces of Protestant and Catholic churches, is an example of culture clash at several levels that should interest all students.
“If only for the sake of national pride in the achievements of early Papua New Guineans, the names of people such as Ahuia Ova, Sunsuma and N’Dramei, and many others mentioned in these books, should be made known to all school students in Papua New Guinea,” Mr Johns said.
“There is also the question of what constitutes a rounded education, for how can a Papua New Guinean said to be educated who does not know about the heroes, villains and events of the past that shaped his or her own country?
“The immediate and crucial question is, how long will it be before PNG History Through Stories and the dozens of other books, written specially for PNG children but now sitting on warehouse shelves, get to where they should be – in the PNG classrooms?”
“Since completing PNG History Through Stories Book Two I have been researching and writing a history of PNG that will cover the period from prehistory to 1975,” Mr Johns said.
“It will be big, comprehensive and well illustrated, and will take me at least another two years to complete.
“It is intended that it will be a text for senior students and for anyone with an interest in PNG history.
“I hope it eventually gets into the schools!”
Eric Johns can be contacted on email eric@johns.com.au
Thursday, July 02, 2009
New recreational facilities for Port Moresby, but we must take care of them
Note: I originally posted the article below on May 17, 2009, however, have decided to repost to protest against the senseless taking away of recreational facilities for our children by "wolf in sheep's clothing" politicians like Deputy Prime Minister Sir Puka Temu and business houses who have no concern for the community except filling their pockets. You can post your comments below or take a vote at right...Malum
All over
For instance, at Gerehu Stage Two where I live, two new basketball courts are going up, and I can't wait for them to be opened so that I can take my kids to the courts for a fun arvo.
Towards the end of last year, playground facilities were set up, bringing so much joy and enjoyment to children.
The NCD Commission spends a lot of money on facilties, and the least we can do, as responsible citizens, is to have a sense of ownership and take care of them.
I took my kids to the playground a couple of days ago and was taken aback by the sight of litter including plastic bags, soft drink bottles, cigarette butts, and betlnut stains.
Please stop doing this!
Such facilties also keep our young people occupied and away from a life of alcohol, drugs, and crime.Lutheran team in Germany
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea general secretary Isaac Teo heads a four-man ELCPNG delegation which is currently in
The team, which left for
They will spend three weeks in
“The purpose of my trip is to strengthen relationships with our partners,” Mr Teo said before leaving for
“The other thing I will be doing is visiting the LWF in
“Our visit to LWF will portray a good image of the country.
“We’re going to have a very tight schedule, one in which it will also be an opportunity to meet with former missionaries who used to work in PNG.”
Mr Teo said Siassi district president Mr Max would use the opportunity to establish contacts before Siassi celebrates 100 years of Lutheran presence in April 2011.
The team returns to PNG at the end of July.
Montevideo Maru tragedy remembered
This was the 67th anniversary of the sinking of the Montevideo Maru (pictured) off the
Japanese hospital ship Montevideo Maru was carrying 845 troops from
The youngest was a boy of 15.
“There were fathers and sons, civilians and troops, missionaries and traders, businessmen and administrators,”
“They had all been captured and interned by the Japanese in Rabaul.
“They all died.
“The youngest, the 15-year old, was Ivan Gascoigne, recorded as a clerk, the son of Cyril Gascoigne, who also died.
“The sinking of the Montevideo Maru at 2.40 am on Wednesday July 1, 942 was
The unmarked Japanese ship left occupied Rabaul on June 22, 1942, but nine days later on July 1, American submarine USS Sturgeon torpedoed it off Luzon in the
The saddest thing is that the wreck has never been found to this day, and both
“To the best of our knowledge, she carried 1,053 prisoners from the
“It remains one of our country’s worst disasters.
“This memorial to the Hell Ships of World War 2 now includes a commemorative plaque to mark the tragedy of the sinking of the Montevideo Maru 67 years ago today.
“The plaque has been placed here as a result of the generosity of a number of private organisations - the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles/PNG Volunteer Rifles Ex-Members Association, the Lark Force Association, the Papua New Guinea Association of Australia and the Greenbank Returned Services League Club in
“This tragedy is not forgotten.
“The families are not forgotten.
“These men are not forgotten.”
Call for review of Sorcery Act
By PISAI GUMAR in The National,
A CONFERENCE in Madang has called for a major review into the Sorcery Act of 1971.
There were recommendations that the act be redrafted with clear definitions.
The “Law on sorcery and sorcery-related killings” conference was held at the police training centre in Madang.
The conference was organised by the Public Prosecutions office and was attended by
Acting Public Prosecutor Jim Wala Tamate told the conference that the courts were dealing with “belief systems and not mere criminal acts, or rather, with criminal acts based on belief systems”.
He also said that sorcery was deeply rooted into customs and traditions.
Mr Tamate said that belief in the effectiveness of magical and sorcery practices were widespread in the country in various ethnic groups and levels of society.
He stated that sorcery was a very broad field because the practices were performed based on various general and personal interests including land matters, courtship, family and marriage relationships and much more.
Mr Tamate said that the subject needed proper research by knowledgeable researchers from different fields to define clearly the meaning of the various sorcery practices in PNG.
He also said that the penalties on sorcery-related crimes also had to be tougher for the sorcerers and “torturers” based on how serious the matter was.
“Sorcery should be clearly defined to help police and the courts to perform their duties effectively,” Mr Tamate said.
He added that sorcery practices had both good and bad side.
Good sorcery, he said, related to social support services to individual, family and community while bad sorcery meant killing a person without good reason.
Prime Minister shocked at reclassification of Unagi Park
By MADELEINE AREK in The National,
A previous member of the Lands Board may have conducted himself improperly in the sale of the land known as
The reclassification of the
In November 2005, and again in June 2007, the Prime Minister wrote to Lands Minister Sir Puka Temu to investigate this land deal.
Sir Michael said if the land was indeed granted initially to the National Capital District Commission for recreational purpose, then the reclassification (to commercial) should be reversed.
It is unclear if any investigation requested by the Prime Minister was carried out.
Sir Puka refused to comment when contacted by phone yesterday.
He said he would make a detailed public statement today.
The Prime Minister’s Media Unit also declined comment, referring The National to the Lands Department.
Two companies, Virgo No. 65 Limited and Fairhaven Limited, are claiming ownership of the land and have asked NCDC to remove all playground equipment from the park.
The NCDC is opposing this, insisting the land is reserved as a park and is preparing to go to court.
Company documents obtained by The National show that former Lands Board chairman John Tangila was a shareholder of Virgo No. 65 Pty Ltd, a company incorporated on Jan 19, 1998.
The documents show a number of other people, believed to be family members of Tangila, as shareholders.
They all have a Mt Hagen address.
The company was later sold to three naturalised citizens, who now want to have the
A number of church, women and youth groups, opposed to this land being developed for commercial purpose, approached the Prime Minister to intervene.
In November 2005, the Prime Minister instructed Sir Puka to provide him with an intense brief into how the reclassification of
In the second letter, written in June 2007, Sir Michael expressed “surprise and shock” that his orders in 2005 for an investigation into how the land was reclassified were not adhered to.
Sir Michael had expressed concern that the land was not lawfully obtained by individuals and organisations stating claim to it, and had advised the minister to immediately investigate how it was reclassified.
The brief was to include whether the mentioned parcels of land (allotments 4 to 16, section 122, Hohola, Gordon) were first granted to the NCDC as special purpose; why the lease granted to NCDC was cancelled and the area rezoned to commercial; if there had been any new grants done to other persons or organisations and, if there had, then to whom were the respective parcels granted to and when.
The report was to be made available to Sir Michael “as soon as possible”, as he strongly believed that “if all investigations reveal that these parcels of land were firstly granted to NCDC to be used for recreational purposes, then all or any other grants should be cancelled”.
On June 29, 2007, in another letter to Sir Puka, Sir Michael expressed frustration that despite his Government’s election promise to investigate all unscrupulous land deals in the country as a matter of priority, the
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