Native or what, there’s a lot in a word

The latest addition to The Blatchford Collection of archival material relevant to PNG education includes insights into a question that much bothered the Territory’s administrators for many years – how to refer to the inhabitants of PNG.

A summary of documents covering events in 1956, compiled by Loch Blatchford and now in ASOPA People Extra, shows that many officials from Territories Minister Paul Hasluck down were agonising over the use of the word ‘Native’.

In March 1956 the South Pacific Post reported in a page one story headlined ‘Official Move to Outlaw Native’ that Hasluck had issued a direction to the Administration that the word ‘Native’ was to be used as little as possible in official correspondence. "It can be used as an adjective," Hasluck advised, “This is to avoid resentment.” Meanwhile, the newspaper editorialised (‘That Nasty Word’) that it approved the Administration’s move to discourage use of the word ‘Native’ in official correspondence but asked ‘what do we substitute?’

A couple of weeks later, in its front page column ‘The Drum’, the Post pointed out that Hasluck, after “he told everyone to ‘lay off’ unnecessary use of the word ‘native’ used it nine times in his next public statement on Papua and New Guinea concerning native teachers.” Touchė.

The debate wasn’t helped when, at around the same time, an Indian member of the UN Visiting Mission, Mr E Chacko, raised racial equality as an issue when the mission was in Rabaul and, as the Post lamented, “whenever the opportunity presents itself.”

“He suggested that natives should be asked to dress the same as Europeans,” the Post snorted.