Val donates rare artefacts to help PNG literature

KEITH JACKSON

HALF A CENTURY AGO (in the years 1962-63) Val Rivers (pictured) trained as a teacher at the Australian School of Pacific Administration. She was a contemporary of mine.

Upon the completion of the two-year course, Val taught in then colonial Papua New Guinea from 1964: serving in Daru, Dregerhafen, Gagidu, Wabag, Kavieng and then, from 1969-70, as teacher-in-charge of the demonstration school at Goroka Teachers College. “This was my favourite posting,” she says.

In 1971, Val returned to Australia and joined the South Australian Education Department specialising in teaching English as a second language, in which she was the matriculation curriculum developer and chief examiner for three years.

In 1994 she resigned to set up a small tourist business in Burra, South Australia, where she lives to this day.

During her seven years in PNG, as so many people did, Val collected various artefacts, some would be of considerable value.

And now she’s donated them for sale – with the proceeds to go to supporting national literature in PNG.

Val tells me is enthusiastic about seeing a PNG home-grown literature flourish and she sees this as being a way she can assist.

Right now, I am receiving almost daily parcels from Val containing artefacts ranging from carvings to grass skirts to rare books.

I’ve yet to work out exactly how I’m going to do this, but the intention is to offer them for auction and – when they're sold – to apply the funds to the development of literature in PNG.

The photos here show a couple of the objects Val assembled to give you a taste of what’s in the entire collection – above is a petit bamboo flute (provenance unknown) and, right, an intricately carved buai and lime holder from Dregerhafen.

You’ll be hearing more about this project in the coming weeks and months.

Comments

[Elin Farrell]

We were in the Loughlin Islands and given items in trade and I would like to find a home for them

[Neil Yamelu]

I suggest these valuable artifacts will help PNG's home grown literacture flourish and also gives the identity of where in PNG the artifacts came from.

Thanks Mrs Val for sending back something that once belonged to the people PNG.

[Jeff Febi]

Thank you Val. This genuine gesture will surely help PNG literature.

[Phil Fitzpatrick]

This is something that Keith and I debated in a roundabout way when we kicked off the Crocodile Prize Cygil.

It is a very pertinent question and one that is difficult to answer.

I especially like poetry written in Tok Pisin. It has a very distinct flavour all its own that you can't reproduce in an English translation.

However, PNG now exists in a globalist world whose language of choice is English. If a writer wants to reach out beyond PNG shores then it is wise to do it in English.

If you think of all the African and Asian writers that you might have read you will have done so in English, simply because you don't understand their native language.

I'm very sympathetic to a literature in Tok Pisin, and even Motu, which is a beautiful language,but I can't really see how it could be supported.

I'd be very interested in the views of other people on this matter.

[Cygil Glasper]

I feel that those who wish to develop literature in PNG need to address the key question, which is, should PNG literature be written in English or Tok Pisin?

There seems to be this default assumption that PNG literature should be in English. But Tok Pisin is more the language of the common man and English is more the language of the elite.

Currently literature in PNG is in a situation much like England after the norman conquest, when all the novels were Norman French romances, inaccessible to those who spoke no French.

It was only after English authors dared to write in English that an truly English national literature emerged. When PNG finds its Chaucer, I believe he will be writing in Tok Pisin.

[Nevegapa Abeya Sam]

I am happy with what Val has done for PNG. Although she returned to her own country, she did not forget all about us.

She is still working on the development of PNG and I am proud of her.

Our government should encourage these kinds of people to our country instead of encouraging thieves and selfish people.