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

61 SING-SING №1 NEIGHBOUR Taxation and land became the catalyst for the nationalist statements that rose from the aftermath of the Japanese attack. In 1958, two tax rioters, ToVurete and ToVetuna, were shot and killed at Navunaram Village. In 1969, Daniel Kaputin’s son, John Kaputin, together with Oscar Tammur, steered the Mataungan Association into the political conscience of the Gazelle Peninsula. The Tolai native, Kaputin wanted to run his own affairs using the ancient Tubuan society as a model. 8 In 1971, District Commissioner Jack Emanuel was murdered at Kabaira Bay by the Baining over a land dispute. Papua New Guinea was shocked into grief and disbelief and 10 000 people attended Emanuel’s funeral. 9 The Tolai agreed to amalgamate the warring factions into the Interim Provincial Government on 13 July 1975, under the leadership of Stanley ToMarita. The new government was short-lived, as Papua New Guinea was granted independence on 16 September 1975, some 100 years after the Methodist missionary, Reverend George Brown arrived at Blanche Bay. In the moonlit nights, after praying to the God of Israel, fishermen launch their canoes on Blanche Bay where ‘a Bit na Ta’ is still the source of the sea. 1 Blanche Bay is an ancient crater that was created during a cataclysmic volcanic event some 1400 years ago. 2 The Tolai is a matrilineal society with very strong links to the land and the sea through their spirits, or Kaia, a spirit that often manifests itself as a physical being in the form of a snake or totemic creature. 3 Australia lost six men at the Battle of Bitapaka. Germany lost one soldier. The biggest loss was 30 native men, who were fighting for the Germans. Over 100 years after the war, these men have never been identified and their burial place has never been found. 4 In 1926, the German properties were seized by the Expropriation board and tendered to Australian servicemen who had fought in Gallipoli during World War One. According to Professor Hiery, the bird of paradise and pigeon populations were decimated by the Australians through hunting. See Hermann Joseph Hiery, The Neglected War: The German South Pacific and the Influence of World War One , University of Hawai’i Press, Honolulu, Hawai’i, c.1995, pp.48–50. 5 Daniel Kaputin and Daniel Rumet went on to become founding members of the Mataungan Association, while John Vuia was one of the first members of the legislative council. 6 The Tubuan society is a men-only secret society whose members are openly known. It exists as an enforcer of discipline, a keeper of native wealth and a system of government. 7 ‘This ought to change the name from Rabaul to rubble’ is a quote attributed to the American Admiral William Halsey. See Peter Stone, Hostages to Freedom: The Fall of Rabaul , Oceans Enterprises, Yarram, Vic., 1994, p.208. 8 The Mataungan Association created their own Tubuan called ‘Ia Mataungan’. The East New Britain Provincial Government also has its own Tubuan. 9 See Neville Threlfall, Mangroves, Coconuts and Frangipani: The Story of Rabaul , Rabaul Historical Society in collaboration with Neville Threlfall, Rabaul, 2013, p.485.