Unlikely gifts across the void

BY PHIL FITZPATRICK

IN RUNNING THE CROCODILE PRIZE competition, one of the things we receive in abundance, apart from the deluge of entries, is praise.  People tell us it is a great thing that we are doing for Papua New Guinea.

I’m as inclined as anyone else to lap this up and quietly preen about it but when I sober up and put it in perspective I realise that it is actually a two-way street.  I’m getting as much out of it as I am giving and so too, I hope, are our readers.

Obviously one of the things I’m getting is the opportunity to read some great literature (and some not so great literature too) but there are other gains that are not immediately obvious or so tangible.

One of the most significant and subtle gains has been the gradual diminishment of the sense of what is sometimes called “the other”.  This is that nagging awareness that we Australians and Papua New Guineans are somehow irrevocably different.  I’m sure it affects Papua New Guineans as much as it does Australians.  There are positive aspects to being different but there are many more negatives involving such elements as arrogance, prejudice, racism, intolerance, you name it.

I’m fairly easy going and I like to think that I mix reasonably well when I’m in Papua New Guinea but at the end of the day, or week, or month, I inevitably retire into my comfortable European cocoon, be it a tent, hotel, house or simple frame of mind.  I’ve always envied those few people, like Carol Kidu, who seem to have come pre-armed with a total lack of this sense.

One of the things that got me thinking about this was the acute intelligence that I encountered in both the entries and at the workshop last year.  I’m white, he/she is black but he/she is one hell of a lot smarter than me!  I’d suggest that a lot of Australians in Papua New Guinea have yet to admit to this possibility.  The reverse is also true, I’m black, he/she is white but I’m one hell of a lot smarter than him/her – fancy that!

Another thing relates to empathy.  This is something that is sometimes hard to detect in Papua New Guinea.  The lack of it is all too obvious in the way men treat women ,for instance.

Despite having been a rough and tough kiap in a previous life I’m actually a big sook.  Something that used to tug at my heartstrings was the appalling attitude to animals in many villages, from starving and diseased dogs (as distinct from lean hunting animals) to the old highlander casually plucking fur for his wig from a live cuscus.

Then along comes along something like Kirsten Ipi Aria’s anguished poem about the green turtle at Koki market.  A small thing but it speaks volumes.  There are other entries before that, young men writing poems of tribute to their canine friends for example.  These are sentiments which are common to many people, no matter where they live.  After all, we are all just human beings; it’s just that recognising that fact is sometimes hard to do.

There is a lot more to this “other” thing of course; many would see it as a typical colonial manifestation and hangover, which is undoubtedly true.  I’m not sure I want to debate that however, best leave it to people wiser than me like Martyn Namorong.

So what does all this esoteric palaver mean?

It means that the entries in the competition are far from being mere attempts at recognition by Papua New Guinean writers from some sort of “superior” source.  They are, in fact, gifts to our readers, both in Australia and Papua New Guinea.  They are gifts of understanding and friendship but, most of all, of commonality.  For this, I for one am grateful.

Comments

[Michael Dom]

Phil - I think the 'rough and tough' kiap life beat you into the supple leather glove that today handles PNG literature with such diligence and care.

So parts of you were re-made in PNG!

Congratulations and thanks for your wisdom.

[Jeff Febi]

Through the Crocodile Prize competition, I found out I could write short stories. Funny! Thanks!

[Jimmy Drekore]

Thanks Phil and Keith for this window of opportunity through the Crocodile Prize.

What have been our little lights in our own little huts in the mountains and islands, you have paved the way for us to collectively concentrate a brighter light to see the road to true civilisation.
__________

That's a wonderful thing to say, Jim, thank you - KJ

[Russell Soaba]

Phil, good one!

Until I came across the Crocodile literary program I always considered myself as a "kiap" of PNG literature, sensing perhaps that there was a duty somewhere to perform.

But I feel now that there is something positive to give back, be it to PNG or to Australia, whichever perspective one is at.

All that we read through the entries makes it possible.

[Mrs Barbara Short]

Keith - I'm thrilled to read all these wonderful articles, written by various people in PNG, that you have put on this blog recently.

I had 13 years teaching in PNG and, especially after 7 years at the National High School, I certainly knew there were plenty of very intelligent people in PNG.

I remember young Joel Luma back in my Geography class at Brandi following the same syllabus I'd taught at PLC Pymble the previous year. He was doing as well as the top PLC students. He went on to do Civil Engineering.

My Dad came for a visit one year and could see these clever Brandi students going off to do Civil Engineering and, as far as he was concerned, "they had never seen a proper bridge" in their lives.

He went home and photographed the building of the Gladesville bridge so I could show it to all the prospective Civil Engineering students in my Geography classes!

At Keravat I taught Economics and had over 100 doing the course so I ran it like the University with night lectures, piles of notes, also smaller class times and smaller tutorial groups where I could help them with their library assignments.

I think I covered a lot of the first year University course as well so got a lot of letters of thanks from the students after they left Keravat for university.

I'll never forget my 1975 Debating team of John Kola, Susuve Laumaea and Barsinkia (Francis) Koimanrea. What a great bunch of great minds!

Of course I knew Somare and knew he had a great mind too.

Well, it is now up to the present generation of "great PNG minds" to save PNG from all the problems it now faces. I'm sure, with the help of God, they can do it!

Some of the current writers on this blog, both men and women, obviously have great gifts of understanding and reasoning and I'm sure their thoughts are already resounding through the minds of many in PNG.

Also the readers of this blog, where-ever they are in the world, are very fortunate to have this "window into PNG" today.

Yes, we all have our problems to face in life and it is good that we can help each other along our way.

[Lindsay F Bond]

Thanks Phil, your prose points up particularly an appreciative response I perceive in picturing intent of each contributed entry and in this collective of human enterprise.