Beiers help to decolonise the minds of PNG writers and artists

By Patrick Matbob

 

In September 1967, an expatriate couple and their baby son arrived in the Territory of Papua New Guinea to teach at the newly established University of Papua New Guinea.

 Ulli and Georgina Beier had previously been teaching at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria where they had become famous for their work in facilitating and encouraging African writers, poets, playwrights, and artists.

While holidaying in England, they saw an advertisement for an English lecturer to teach ‘new English writing from developing countries’ at the University of PNG. Ulli had been looking for an opportunity to do just that. Professor of Literature at UPNG Frank Johnson had heard of Ulli and knew his magazine Black Opheus.  After a short discussion, in which Ulli’s request to write a new literature course for UPNG was accommodated, the couple agreed to take up the new challenge in the Pacific. It was a challenge that would give them a place in the history of the birth of PNG, especially their efforts in inspiring and promoting the country’s first group of writers, poets, artists and visionaries.

Ulli and Georgina’s experiences in PNG has been captured in a memoir titled Decolonising The Mind: The impact of the University’s culture and identity in Papua New Guinea 1971-74.

After working in an independent country in Africa, the couple was stunned when in Port Moresby they encountered the colonial racist attitudes towards indigenous Papua New Guineans. Their first experience happened when they went to the Papuan Hotel and tried to order two cups of coffee. The expatriate Australian woman refused to serve them because they were not wearing any socks. The rule of socks they realized was similar to the rule of ties in British Africa where ties could not be worn with African gowns thus most native Africans were excluded from bars and restaurants. Similarly, most Papua New Guineans wore the rubber thongs while unofficial Australian uniform was shorts and long white socks. They went on to encounter many such discrimination against Papua New Guineans especially in the supermarkets were natives could not enter but were served through a hatch instead. However, it was the language that most Australians used that was most upsetting for them. The natives were called ‘boys’ or ‘bush kanakas’ or even ‘rock apes’.

On the other hand, the University of PNG headed by Dr John Gunther was much more progressive. Gunther had began his career in PNG as director of medical services and was responsible for introducing the dokta bois who pioneered the development of government medical services in the rural areas of PNG. Ulli, who had served in six Universities on three continents, said he had never felt ‘at home’ in any of them, except UPNG.

“I always felt like an interloper in academic institutions. I found them hierarchical, of pompous, full of petty intrigues and mostly top-heavy with administration.”

UPNG was different. It tried to develop courses that were relevant and meaningful to the students, it was a small institution with only 300 students, so staff and students got to know each other and interacted well. The students were also aware of the privileges they enjoyed and the responsibilities they bore, and were highly motivated.

One of the first Papua New Guinean that the Beiers met was Sir Albert Maori Kiki. They met Kiki at Brisbane airport and Ulli describes the meeting as a ‘good omen’ because Kiki, they found out, was from Orokolo in the Gulf Province, a place they had read about in the only book on PNG they could find at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria! The meeting was fruitful as it resulted in the hugely successful book Ten Thousand Years in a Lifetime by Kiki.  The book, a first ever written by a Papua New Guinean received raved reviews and was translated into Swedish, Japanese and there were paper back editions in Germany and New Zealand.

Georgina Beier, a gifted artist, also became involved in helping the first PNG artists to draw and paint. Interestingly, her first art classes were conducted at the Laloki Mental hospital just outside Port Moresby. It was a project she had embarked on to try and help ease the boredom of the patients locked up at that institution. It was there that she discovered artists such as Tiabe from Enga, Hape from Gulf, and Mathias from Aitape. Georgina recalls that when the Laloki paintings were first exhibited at the University of Papua New Guinea they caused some ‘shock waves and even mild antagonism’. The exhibition was the first ever mounted in PNG, and also the first of contemporary art in the country. The work was also shown in London, Edinburg, Brighton, Geneva, Manila and Bombay. Later individual artists also exhibited in Los Angeles, Prague and Sydney. The reviews were very positive wherever the work was exhibited.

Ulli became busy in making his University students interested in the literature of their people – something which has never happened before in the country. Arming them with tape recorders, the students spent their Christmas breaks in the village recording and translating oral literature. This included love songs, magic formula, ballads, myths, chants, etc. The result was a fascinating collection of poetry published in small booklets called the Papua Pocket Poets that sold for 50 cents. Amongst the names to emerge were Leo Hannet, Apisai Enos and Kumalau Tawali.

Ulli also inspired the first novel by a Papuan, Vincent Eri, titled The Crocodile. The novel attracted a great deal of attention for its portrayal of Hoiri, the boy from a hill village who grows up, marries and becomes a carrier for the Australians during the war against the Japanese.

Ulli’s creative writing class had pioneer writers such as John Waiko, John Kasaipwalova, Arthur Jawodimbari, Rabbie Namaliu, Leo Hannet, Russel Soaba, John Kadiba, Kaka Kais. Most of their work was published in Kovave which was edited by Beier and printed at the University. Kovave was later succeeded by New Guinea Writing, Bikmaus and Ondobondo. The publications were widely available at the time in most school libraries and were to create an interest amongst young Papua New Guineans in PNG literature.

The plays written by the students were eventually performed on stage by the University Drama Society which was headed by another gifted University staff Peter Trist. Some of the plays such as Leo Hannet’s The Ungrateful Daughter, Arthur Jawodimbari’s Manki Masta, and How Missionaries Inspired Cargo Cult were politically ‘hot’ plays and became controversial especially amongst the colonial administrators in PNG at the time. From the amateur theatre, PNG was later to develop professional theatre companies – the National Theatre company and the Raun Raun Theatre. New playwrights such as Albert Toro, William Takaku and Nora Vagi Brash also emerged.

The book also has a chapter dedicated to Akis of Tsembaga in Madang whom the Beiers fittingly described as the pioneer of contemporary PNG art. Akis was a revelation and Beier says his impact on Papua New Guineans cannot be overestimated. Akis broke new ground, and even Mathias Kauage, the most successful of all contemporary artists in PNG, might never have begun to paint, had it not been for the inspiration and hope he received from Akis’ first exhibition in February 1969.

Another two chapters document the work of Mathias Kauage who was one of the many labourers who came to see Akis first exhibition in 1969. With the help and encouragement of Georgina, Kauage became a success story for PNG exhibiting worldwide and many of his works are found in international public collections. He met Queen Elizabeth II when she opened the Glasgow Museum and the queen was fascinated by him. She gave him a lift back to his hotel, and Kauage later sent her a portrait he had painted of her. He received an OBE in 1999.

A chapter of the book is also dedicated to the tragic story of Marie Taita Aihi of  Waima, a Roro village in Central Province. Marie, who was raised by the Catholic nuns became a textile designer under the direction of Georgina. Soon she was a key figure in the Hara Hara Prints, a company set up by Georgina to produce screen-printed textiles based on local designs. However, Taita’s sudden rise as a talented artist and a business woman did not fit in well with her people’s culture, especially their view of the role of women. Eventually, an incident in her life would affect her so much that she would abandon her textile design skills and a promising business future to return to a subsistence life in the village.

The cases of Kauage and Marie highlight the uncertainty that haunts artists in PNG who may be gifted and talented, but yet find no support in a national art industry or culture in PNG. Many, like Marie fall back on the security of a subsistence life in the village, or, a wage employment to ‘fit in with the society’ and make ends meet. The contemporary artists like Kauage eventually realize that their work is only recognized, valued and rewarded in progressive western societies. Marie’s case also highlights the overpowering beliefs in sorcery that is prevalent throughout the PNG society.

Decolonising The Mind is a valuable documentation of the contribution of the Beiers to PNG at a crucial time in its history. While they spent only a short time in the country, they had a genuine concern for PNG cultures and their efforts have helped to raise consciousness amongst Papua New Guineans to appreciate and value their cultures. Georgina’s efforts in ‘discovering’ contemporary PNG art is unique and one must wonder if there are other Akises or Kauages out there waiting to be discovered. Taita’s textile designs had inspired in the 70s the consciousness for a national dress which has sadly gone astray in recent times. How appropriate would it be if PNG had its own national dress for men and women that suited our climate and conditions rather than to be attired in the cheap imitation of western clothing.

Decolonising the Mind is published by Pandanus Books, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, ANU, Canberra. www.pandanusbooks.com.au.