Tag: People

Alumu Bagita (c1896-c1970), Papuan policeman who worked for the trading firm Burns Philp in Samarai from 1912 to 1916 when he joined the Papuan police force. In 1922 he became a sergeant and for 40 years a member of the Criminal Investigations Branch. When he retired in 1966, after 50 years service, he held the British Empire Medal, the Australia Service Medal and the Police Long Service and Good Conduct Medal.

Nora Vagi Brash (1945- ), playwright and poet. Born into a Motuan family, Brash was educated at London Missionary Society schools, Port Moresby High School and Port Moresby Teachers’ College. She graduated from college in 1965 and wrote her first performed play while teaching at Kila Kila primary school. She received a Diploma in Teaching Techniques from the East-West Institute of Technology Hawaii Center in 1966 and taught at the Goroka Demonstration School from 1967-69. She obtained a Diploma in Journalism from UPNG in 1980 and a B.A. from UPNG in 1982. In the 1970s Brash lectured in puppetry, dance and drama at the Creative Arts School in Port Moresby and became Artistic Director of the National Arts School. She has also been an actress and directed plays. She has toured with the National Theatre Company in New Zealand, Nigeria and England, served on the board of the Theatre Company and the National Broadcasting Commission, and participated in writers’ conferences and literary selection panels at the University of Singapore, the Australian National University, the Commonwealth Institute in London and the Universities of Canterbury and Christchurch in New Zealand. Brash has lived in Nigeria, England, Singapore and Australia. Her plays include: High Cost of Living Differently, Which Way Big Man?, Black Market Buai, Sold Outright and Taurama. Her plays and poems have appeared in journals and anthologies.

Charles William Abel (1862-1930), London Missionary Society (LMS) missionary in British New Guinea (later Papua) 1890-1917, founder and director of a technical education scheme, the Kwato Extension Association. Abel arrived in Port Moresby from London in 1890, after ordination and a year’s medical training. In 1891 he and Rev. F. W. Walker established a station on Kwato Island, near Samarai, in what was then the Eastern District. In 1892 he married Beatrice Moxton. At Kwato Abel established a boarding school which developed an “industrial branch” to train Papuans in manual skills such as Western-style carpentry for house and boat construction and furniture making. In 1911 he established coconut plantations for the production of copra. These activities were opposed by LMS missionaries such as Dr W. G. Lawes who believed Abel was pursuing practical education at the expense of religious studies. In 1916, when the LMS withdrew financial support, Abel resigned, became an honorary LMS missionary, and established the Kwato Extension Association. The work of the Association was subsidized by the Administration and partly funded by supporters in Australia and America through the New Guinea Evangelization Society. The Association flourished and in 1927 the properties were handed over to the LMS which had by then accepted the importance of this form of education.

James Chalmers (1841-1901), London Missionary Society (LMS) missionary in British New Guinea from 1877-1901. In 1865 he was ordained a minister of the Congregational Church in his native Scotland. In 1877, after working in Cook Island missions for ten years, Chalmers moved to the Port Moresby station in PNG. Between 1877 and 1886 he traveled extensively on the coast, particularly in the southeast, organizing LMS activities and recording the customs of the people. He explored areas which had not been contacted by Europeans. His experience contributed to the establishment of the British colonial Administration in 1884. In 1887 he began work at the Motumotu station, near the Lakekamu River, west of Port Moresby, and developed LMS activities in the Gulf of Papua region.

Chalmers believed that the mission should provide secular as well as religious instruction and teach the English language. In 1892 he set up headquarters on Saguane Island near the mouth of the Fly River. He established stations along the coast, guided and supported the teachers he introduced, and maintained close contact with the people. In 1900 he was joined by the Rev. Oliver Tomkins. In 1901, against advice from fellow missionaries and Administration officials, he and Tomkins visited Goaribari Island in the Gulf of Papua. When they landed at the village of Dopima on 8 April, they and the ten Papuans who had accompanied them, were killed by the local people. The colonial Administrator, Sir George Le Hunte, led a punitive expedition against the Goaribari in May 1901.

Paulius Arek (1929-1973), public servant and politician. Arek was born in Wanigela, Northern Province, and educated at Wanigela Anglican mission school and Sogeri Education Centre where he completed a teacher training course in 1948. He taught in Madang, Northern District and Western District. In the mid-1960s he was president of the Northern District Workers’ Association and the Popondetta Workers’ Club and vice-president of the Higaturu local government council. From 1968 until his death in 1973 Arek represented a Northern District electorate in the House of Assembly. In 1969 he became the first chairman of the Federation of Workers’ Associations. Also in 1969 he was elected chairman of the Select Committee on Constitutional Development and traveled extensively within PNG canvassing the people’s views on the form of government the country should adopt. He also traveled overseas to look at the experience of other developing countries. In 1971 the House of Assembly accepted the basic recommendations of the Committee’s Final Report. In 1972 Arek became Minister for Information and successfully established the National Broadcasting Commission.