No.1 Neighbour: Art in Papua New Guinea 1956-2016

60 №1 NEIGHBOUR SING-SING Gideon Kakabin is a historian who researches the history and the culture of his people, the Tolai of East New Britain. His extensive cultural and historical knowledge informs the specially commissioned project a bit na ta ( The source of the sea ) for ‘No.1 Neighbour’. As the full moon slowly rises over the shimmering waters of Blanche Bay, near Rabaul, 1 fishermen launch their canoes towards the fishing holes that their ancestors have fished for centuries. Prayers and songs to the Kaia promise a bountiful catch. 2 ‘A Bit na Ta’ is the source of the sea. Life begins here. In 1872, Captain Cortland Simpson sailed into this ancient crater and named it Blanche Bay after his ship the HMS Blanche . Reverend George Brown came in 1875 and German traders followed in 1876. The missionaries, the merchants, the whalers and slavers ruled until 1884 when, on Matupit Island, Germany annexed the territory signifying the arrival of Pax Germanica, whose authority was terminated by Australia at the Battle for Bitapaka on 11 September 1914. 3 Australia basked in the spoils of victory: land, towns, plantations and birds of paradise. 4 The seeds of the micro-nationalist movements were planted in the 1930s 5 — Daniel Kaputin, John Vuia, Daniel Rumet and Enos Teve were natives who dared challenge the Australian administration. The gods had other plans, however, when, in June 1937, Vulcan and Tavurvur exploded in a twin eruption that wiped out Rabaul, killing some 500 people who had gathered for a Tubuan feast and creating a new mountain in the Bay. The power, governance and omnipresence of the Tubuan were never challenged by the eruption. 6 On the night of 23 January 1942, a new threat arrived from the north when Blanche Bay morphed into a sea of Japanese military hardware. A desperate attempt at defence by the 2/22 battalion ended in a chaotic and undignified retreat southwards. The Japanese dug in and allied bombs turned Rabaul into rubble. 7 A BIT NA TA GIDEON KAKABIN View of Blanche Bay from the ancient volcanic blowhole Blue Lagoon, June 2016 OPPOSITE Tolai men of Matupit Island engaged in a Tubuan initiation ceremony, throwing protective lime at the feet of Tubuans to invoke spirits of protection, July 2015 / Photographs: Gideon Kakabin