Writing inspiring change: Defining the perfect PNG gentleman

THE RECENT article by Nathan Lati, extracted from a paper based on his Divine Word University graduate thesis, reveals there are many thinking Papua New Guineans who are aware of their culture and the how it is being diminished by modernization.

Read more details by Michael Dom on this link; https://www.pngattitude.com/2016/04/writing-inspiring-change-defining-the-perfect-png-gentleman.html 

New Guinea Singing Dog named Iceman

Iceman’s characteristics are not matched to any of the domesticated dogs that live in the community and even his features are so complex; he is like a German shepherd and husky hybrid. His eyes are no normal, relatively slanted with prominent features that are rarely seen in other dogs and he has whole brownish-orange eyeballs that look fierce.

Read the the details of the story published by The National newspaper on the link below; 

https://www.thenational.com.pg/singing-dog-named-iceman/

A missionary’s home at the foothills of Mt. Giluwe is a home away from home.

I was not thinking of tourism when building my house, I needed a space to live after retirement. I built my house without knowing that this place will have more space to accommodate visitors. Now my intentions for the house have changed into tourism business and the Piambil Faith Missionary Home is a home away from home for visitors. - Reverend. Wane Ninjipa -

In his late 60s, one of the oldest serving missionary for PNG Bible Church, Revered. Wane Ninjipa has turned his newly built retirement home into a decent home away from home for visitors into Piambil. The village is located near the foothills of Mt. Giluwe the second highest mountain in the Pacific after Mt. Wilhelm and located in Imboggu District.

Reverend Ninjipa’s idea was to renovate and do extension on his old house and started gathering materials since 2013. However, he changed his mind one morning after looking down to the swampy area at the edge of his garden. Armed with a tape measure and a bush knife he went to the swampy area where the current Faith Missionary Home stands and asked his brothers to help clear the area to build his dream house for retirement.

The foundation work was very challenging, recalls Reverend. Ninjipa. They have to dig ditches that were back-filled with stones from the nearby creek to drain out the water and make the surface dry to build the foundation for the house.

With the local expertise and skills coming into play, the area was cleared, water drained out and foundation was suitable to build a house. The six (6) bedroom upstairs with shared bathroom, three rooms downstairs with a master bedroom, bathroom and a modern kitchen have been well-designed to appear like a work of a professional architect. Surprisingly, it was the creative artwork from one of his local tribesmen and a Secondary School Principal.

Rev. Ninjipa is a skillful man himself and when it comes to practical work in his area or elsewhere, he lives for his missionary duties, he has proven the worth of his technical skills. He was taught by the early PNG Bible Church Missionaries at Piambil and Pangia to do painting, build house, farming and other technical works that are useful to his life. The Piambil Faith Missionary Home stands out to reflect the technical skills Rev. Ninjipa learned during his early days with the missionaries. 

 

His heart to serve as missionary never stopped despite the carpenters needed his presence at the construction site. By the time foundation work was in progress, Rev. Ninjipa has been called into duty and was on duty travel to United States in early 2018.  With the supports from their four daughters and the only son, their mother turned to his family’s tribe to look for local carpenters when Rev. Ninjipa was away in the United States on missionary duties.

With things working right and in favor of Mrs. Ninjipa and her family, the local carpenters were willing to help her build the proposed house.  When the local carpenters saw the plan and the foundation work, they could not believe the design of the building to be very big; recalled Reverend Ninjipa.

‘There was no doubt I will stop or delay the building so I asked the carpenters to follow the design drafted by the local Secondary School Principal with my input;’’ added, Rev. Ninjipa.

The structures of the house were completed between 2018 and late 2019. The house took the desired shape as expected by Rev. Ninjipa himself and it was finally ready to occupy.

Towards the end of 2019, the house was ready for official opening and the name for the house was tossed around among the families, the carpenters, his close friends and relatives.  The Piambil Faith Missionary Home was the name selected among the names and it was carved into the grandstand of the car-park with colorful and native flowers to unveil the name during the official opening.

The apparently family home has opened its doors to first guests from the PNG Tourism Promotion Authority (PNGTPA) who were conducting tourism awareness and doing product scoping in the Imboggu District following an invitation from the Imboggu Open Member of Parliament and Minister for Inter-governmental Relations – Hon. Pila Ninigi.

It could be a curious story to know why someone like Rev. Ninjipa converted a new and decent family home to allow visitors to stay. It is not by surprise nor by chance for Ninjipa’s to call their family home a home away from home for visitors.  With Christian principals instilled in the family and working with people from all walks of life and background around the world, Rev. Ninjipa had met many people and made friends who would one day visit where he lives and Faith Missionary Home at Piambil will service the needs of his visitors away from their homes.

And it is inspiring to know that one of the Rev. Ninjipa’s daughters is an avid Imboggu Basket Promoter and Marketer. She has a tourism background and interests which will complement the interest to open the family home to visitors.

The Piambil Faith Missionary Home is an added value for the family to promote and support tourism in the area. There are greater effects in tourism expected in the area as the marketing and promotion of the tourism products in the area continues.

When PNGTPA officers got the chance to chat with Rev. Ninjipa, the Home Stay Concept was discussed with him and he was interested to ensure that he will provide the best for his visitors to Piambil who will be staying at Faith Missionary Home.

Undeniably, Mt. Giluwe is currently being the center of attraction in the area and Faith Missionary Home is ideally located near the foothills of Mt. Giluwe provides an ease of access to the trekkers. Such facilities are part of the tourism product support amenities and services that are required to support the core tourism products like the Mt. Giluwe and the initiative by Rev. Ninjipa will make way for better returns in tourism for the community and the district.

The Piambil village is not known to many people and the area near the foothills of Mt. Giluwe is still unexplored and home to the New Guinea Singing Dogs as well as unique flora and fauna species. Now the options have been open to affluence the hurdles in trekking Mt. Giluwe with an accommodation midway to the summit.   

 Within the same fringes, many might never knew that, the oldest Highlands Highway that once connected Southern Highlands (Mendi) and Mt. Hagen via the Tambul District and Piambil is still serviceable by four-wheel drive and whoever takes on the road gets to see the scenic beauty of the area which words will not explain better these days but cameras will surely do. 

It is indeed certain that, PNG has some of the wonderful and unexplored places like Piambil with many interesting sites that are still scared and connected to the people through legends and myths like the Wabu cave where the mythical Wenewene lives. The legends are fascinating as evidences with footprints, creeks, trees and plants near the cave have significant signs and marks to confirm the legends.   

There is a tendency whereby; we PNG people are still captivated by the interest to travel overseas for holidays when we have not yet explored our own beautiful country’s places or walked and trekked some of the rugged and rough terrains no matched to world heritage listings, unleashing into the freezing cold streams of the mountains and breath the fresh air with the sense of renewal sigh like I did near the foothills of Mt. Giluwe.  

Piambil Faith Missionary Home

Piambil Faith Missionary Home during a fine morning - at the background is Mt. Giluwe

The interior of Piambil Faith Missionary Home

L-R: (Sitting) Grand-daughter , Rev. Ninjipa, Mrs. Ninjipa, Jacinta Tai (Standing) Nathan Lati, Tonny Kandata, Norbert and Hudson Lavari

The survival story of a New Guinea Singing Dog from Mt. Giluwe

Every myths and legends in PNG have a connection to a tribe, environment, flora and fauna. The New Guinea Singing Dogs have myths and legends that are connected to tribe or environment and its people of New Guinea.

The rarely seen Wild Dogs or the New Guinea Singing Dogs are linked to many myths and legends in PNG. At some places in PNG, if you see one of them in the jungles, it’s either good or bad luck for you.

Mt. Giluwe is home to a population of New Guinea Singing Dogs but are not seen by the locals, rather they hear the songs in the nights and early hours of the morning from the caves at the peak of Mt. Giluwe where humans are unable to reach them. Their echoes from the songs makes it difficult to tell which directions they live. Interestingly, the tracks between their hunting grounds and caves are not similar to that of any other animals in the forest. The locals believe that, the New Guinea Singing Dogs have a smart technique to jump or leap over to avoid making tracks to their homes. For years, it has been hard for the local people to locate where they live at Mt. Giluwe or it’s another story to them.

For twenty-year-old Thomas Tenda from Piambil Village near the foothills of Mt. Giluwe in the Imbongu District, it was a different story for him. In 2013, there was a dry season in the area and he went hunting with his dogs upstream Aleponga River which originates from the foot of Mt. Giluwe.

He does hear stories of New Guinea Singing Dogs that lives at Mt. Giluwe but never seen one in his lifetime. ‘’I have seen few footprints, feces and remains of scavenged wild animals that are believed to have be hunted by New Guinea Singing Dogs but they have no tracks and footprints to confirm anything further’’ said Thomas.

However, that fine afternoon in May, 2013, Thomas could get to see what he was told of as legends and myths. Armed with a catapult, he walked upstream Aleponga River with his hunting dogs. After walking for a while and further upstream, his hunting dogs were barking everywhere and chasing something unusual around the banks of the river and into the tree trunks nearby. He ran over to see what the dogs were chasing and to his surprise, there were three (3) New Guinea Singing Dog pups which were chased by his hunting dogs and trapped inside a hallowed root of a big tree. He put his hands through and retrieved all the three (3) pups safely and brought them home.

It is believed that, the mother must have brought the three pups to drink water from the stream but she left abandoning the them after sensing the people and the hunting dogs were approaching.

In the village, three (3) families took one pup each and adopted them, there were two males and one of them was a female.

Unfortunately, after few months, one male and the female died because they could not survive on the normal meal which the domesticated dogs do eat. ‘They are used to raw and wild animal meat as their feed and it was difficult for them to survive on the normal food, the two were losing their weigh each day and finally died;’’ Thomas recalled.

However, one of the male puppies which was adopted by a local Secondary School Teacher survived to this day and its name is now known in the villages of Tona and Piambil as Iceman. When asked for the significant of the name; Thomas said that; ‘’the name implies to a dog that lives in the cold places of Mt. Giluwe where the temperature at the peak drops to 5 Degree Celsius and below’’.

The Iceman is a wonder-dog in the community, at night when bored, he gets to a hillside and sings (yells) alone and then stops for a while, it is like a signal looking for his tribe or either hunter’s call and off he goes hunting. He returns in the early hours of the morning from his hunting trip and sleeps near his house of his owner. And it has been a normal routine for him in the village. He appears calm too but not friendly to anyone with his fiery look and appearances.

Now he has been used to normal food and can be friendly to people when they feed him with, pancakes, rice and meat but still he is not friendly to anyone like domesticated dogs do.

Iceman’s characteristics are not matched to any of the domesticated dogs that lives in the community and even his features are so complex and likely to be a mixed breed between German Shepherd and a Husky. His eyes are no normal, relatively have a slanted eye with prominent features that are rarely seen on any other dogs and he has whole brownish orange eye ball that looks fearful. The look on the face will tell anyone clearly that Iceman is not just any other domesticated dog and its mood is unpredictable.

There are highly likely chances of cross breeding in the community with Iceman involved and it’s interesting to see a new breed of dog in the community.

The curiosity might drive an urge for others to see the reality in a place like Piambil Village near the foothills of Mt. Giluwe whilst legends and myths remains the mystery for its people and the environment or elsewhere in PNG is just the same scenario. The New Guinea Singing Dogs still remains where they belong to in their own world racing with the changes in their environment and no exception to Mt. Giluwe, where they live.

According to the locals, the population of the New Guinea Singing Dogs at Mt. Giluwe might have been affected by the 1997 drought driven bush fire that burnt the part of Mt. Giluwe. Some of the usual signs that are used to be frequently done by New Guinea Singing Dogs are no longer seen in the area.

According to the locals, the remains of scavenged animals hunted by New Guinea Singing Dogs used to be plenty in the bushes if Mt. Giluwe but are not seen anymore these days. Now it is a concern for the locals to administer and find options to monitor the activities of the New Guinea Singing Dogs living at Mt. Giluwe to help sustain their habitats and minimize natural and man-made invasions.

It is not only the New Guinea Singing Dogs but there are some rare flora and fauna species that are believed to have extinct as a result of the bush fire in 1997 that burnt the Mt. Giluwe area and most of the habitats for flora and fauna were affected by the fire.

Nevertheless, there is so much to see in Tona and Piambil Villages with the access road from Tambul to Walium remains serviceable by four-wheeled-drive, the road used to be the oldest Highlands Highway connecting Hagen and Mendi is scenic country road which a four-wheel enthusiastic needs to get under his/her bucket list and be amazed. 

Tourism developments in the area is predicted to reach a paradigm shift with the support of local elites and leaders of Imbongu District. The area has scared sites which mysterious caves like Wabu cave where the Wenewene (spirit man) used to live there long ago and have  tales and legends that are retold to these days keeping the place scared. The Aleponga river has its own mysterious disappearance at the foot of Aleponga Rock and never seen elsewhere in the area again, countless crystal waterfalls, unique flora and fauna are still unexplored.

Finally, Iceman will live to testify the local legends and myths that; there is a phenomenon co-existence of the environment connecting with people of Papua New Guinea and its natural environment which the life's of our ancestors depended on and we are connected to it. 

Iceman at Piambil Village

Thomas Tenda at Piambil Village