A Revisit to Hanza Bay, Bogia (Madang Province) on Tourism Product Scoping Mission

I visited, Bogia's Hanza Bay nearly  Seven (7) years ago when I was working for World Vision. I did not know of the cultural and historical significance the area holds, until the locals invited me for a Tourism Product Scoping as part of my work with PNG Tourism Promotion Authority 

While working with World Vision on Community Projects, we delivered the community oriented projects from WASH to Literacy and Healthcare. Little did I know of was the historical significance the areas holds for tourism. The early European explorers and traders settlement in the area with the establishment of coca and copra plantations which later turned into battle field and Japanese strategic location on the north coast.

This time I  was on a mission for Tourism Product Scoping but was unable to complete the full mission due to severe fever relating to Malaria which caused me to retreat back to Madang and then onward to Port Moresby.

The Hanza Bay in particular holds much of the the WWII relics which are now part of their cultural heritage within some unique cultures and traditions of unexplored Bogia.

The tourism integration is just a trigger into many countless options and opportunities the people are looking forward to harness with the support of a local and community-based NGO.

I was invited to scope the area for tourism product development and had the opportunity to visit many of the sites they have identified for tourism interests.

Cultures are unique to the people of Hanza Bay and the Tumbuan Mask is one of those sacred cultures and it takes three (3) months for the families or tribe to prepare the mask for celebration and cultural show staging. Locally, the event usually hosted when the gardens, food and houses are all ready to celebrate with feast and showcase in the festival like event.

The Tumbuan Mask culture is not merely practiced and displayed like other cultural and traditional shows but it has got its own rules and sacred traditions which the Tumbuan Mask custodian has to comply and follow in order for safe keeping and put out the mask into show during a cultural parade.

These times the Tumbuan Mask culture is slowly fading due to many people in the village have migrated into the cities and towns for job, education and better life but few people in the village still value the cultures and traditions relating to Tumbuan Mask.

Maintaining and safekeeping their culture helps them shaped their life and plays some significant roles to be a good citizen in the community. They know the value that the Tumbuan Mask culture holds and its importance in their lives.

Jeffery Nambia, in his mid 60s  is one of the Tumbuan mask keepers of Numbia village and he was willing to continue from where his parents have left because he says; he has seen great things in life out of the Tumbuan Mask culture and tradition. 'There is discipline, unity, order and respect in the community if you value Tumbuan Mask and participate or keep it', said Jeffry when I approached him at his house where he used to keep one of the tribe's Tumbuan Mask.

The last participation and showcasing of Tumbuan Mask dates back to 2012 when there was a bridge being commissioned and opened by the local Member of Parliament in Bogia area.

Now they are looking forward to host a specific festival within the Hanza Bay of Bogia to showcase the Tumbuan Mask and other cultures and traditions that are well kept by the people. They have the bamboo music similar to didgeridoo, fighting swords made of coconuts, stone axes seems to be from meteoroids comes down with striking lights and many others mystic cultures and stories.

The community of Numbia have been performing in other events in Madang and Highlands which were highlights of the events and they have won several prizes out of their performances.

The communities are willingly planning for varieties of products to showcase while cultural event will be the major event that will attract tourists to Hanza Bay.

The intention for the people of Hanza Bay is to have tourism products that are tourism friendly (soft adventure) so that tourists will have much more time to see what is within the Hanza Bay area (both sea and land).

The curiosity can  form a different view when you hear from other people, the perception can deceive you when you read but when you visit and see it for yourself to experience, it is totally different from the curiosity and perception.

The Hanza Bay has an array of existing plantations like Numbia which dates back to 1900s with German administration and management. Most of the coconuts still survives to this days which is unbelievable but only radiocarbon dating and other scientific tests can prove your own doubts.

PNGTPA Officer , Nathan LATI on Leng Island Beach

 

A girl and a boy from Numbia Village near one of the Tumbuan Masks at Awar Village

Read more soon on #raonraonpng @raonraonpng #madangtourism #bogia #hanzabay #pngtravel  #pngjourneys #pngtourism #mvcb #madangprovince   

Pimaga Revisited - A Childhood Home

when I learnt that my dad will be transferred out of Pimaga Station after the 1997 National General Elections, I had restless nights and literally my nights were so terrible and I cried secretly to avoid adding pressure to mum who had a similar situation. 

Every free times, I would spend whole of the hours fishing and swimming in Wara Sura (Sura River), a river that passes through Pimaga Station. My mum likes fishing and at times we could catch big fish for the family or otherwise it became a leisure fun for all of us in the families. The families and kids from the station would join in the fishing and swimming in the afternoons. 

We the station kids from Pimaga station had a best group that goes around swimming, fishing together or at times we go to Orokana Primary for sports. We had few number of bicycles that we could take chances to ride in the station or elsewhere we want to go and take a bicycle ride for fun. My favorites were Kensa, Ronny and Heysala Lavare. At times, Vincent would lend his bicycle to me for use and take a chance to practice. 

Unfortunately, due to my dad's work relocation, I departed with my family to Mendi and attended the Kumin Primary School from Tente. Since 1997, after my grade six (6) graduation from from Tanuga Primary School I never went back to Kutubu. Those times were so really hard for me to settle in Mendi town and seeing PMVs from Kutubu coming to Mendi in the early mornings and leaving in the afternoon. I could only send my regards to the station boys and girls through the people because we do not have mobile phones and Facebook those days. Those Pimaga station kids that graduated with me from Tanuga Primary were also moving around to other new schools so we do not have consistent communications after I departed Pimaga. 

Ken and Heysala went on to Pabrabuk High School and also I wanted to tried my luck there but the homesickness drew me back to be closer to my mum who was not well at those times when we were shifted back to Mendi. At random occasion, I could meet with Heysala and Ken at Mt.Hagen with Sibi and others but that dates back to late 1990s again. Then on, we all went on our own way and thanks Facebook that we found each other and started communicating since 2010 and up.  

My two Wames aka Wamenes of Kui land Pimaga could remember everything we did as a child growing up in Pimaga Station. The visit to Pimaga this year (2018) was a surprise visit to where we grew up as kids after two decades.

As a kid growing up near Wara Sura, we could never end a day without visiting Wara Sura. If we could not catch up near the DPI station or at the end of the airstrip then the next stop would definitely be Bumsusu to play Peggy Touch over the water. We could tease each others ability to swim and play same time. So to avoid going home with a "meriman" nametag we could play a fair game over it and that was our highlight each time we visit Wara Sura

Among us the SBD boys were big guns like Sibi Kai who is a boss on his own rights and a community leader, Vincent Vege still living in Pimaga, Willie Sese lives in POM with dad and his families, Philipmon Sese is still in Pimaga and one of the influential youth leader. 

On the other nearby villages like Damaiyu Village,  Disibu Waiya still hanging around in Iputapa village and grown his dreadlogs like mine, Maraiyu Sawage lives in Goroka now and facilitates negotiations for Kandobo landowners, Manasa Bogo is now a Pastor with ELCPNG in Morota Church, Port Moresby.

During our childhood adventures, we all could hang around because we from the eastern end of Tanuga Primary School. Whilst on the western side boys from Borotage areas I could remember are Kuiboi, Kolex a local businessman now and Awamena or Albert who was the tallest boy in our class and now a contractor to Digicel PNG in Kutubu area.

From 1994-1997 we had best of our memories recorded with Tanuga Primary School and appreciate the mentors and teachers like Mrs. Jonathan Tai, Mr. Fasinambo retired and lives in Daga Village now. Mr. Esamabo of Yobob Island also retired and lives on the island. Not forgetting the headmaster; Mr. Guguambo for the leadership, he has also retired and lives in Orokana station and works for ELCPNG now. I owe it to these special people whom one way or the other played a part in my education journey.

Few of the female schoolmates from Pimaga Station those times have excelled in life and working elsewhere in the country or became public servants like my sister Roslyn Minape is teaching again in Tanuga where we started our primary school. Lyn Nick is a Policewoman now in Pimaga  station while Linda Gumong is teaching at Mubi Primary School near Mubi river.

I still remember others like; Hersely Haro is a Secondary School teacher now at Inu Seconday, Rose Ware was married to one of my countryman from Enga, Shahabo Tebia is working with Oilseach Moro, Tracy Itonu whose parents where DPI officers in Pimaga and from Samarai but is out of reach at the moment and details are sketchy. Gracelyn Tai lives somewhere in Port Moresby and working with a government department.

Whilst visiting some of those childhood dwelling places in Pimaga weren't the same used to be before, it brought tears into my eyes. One of those special places for us was the Pimiga Council Chamber where I used to live with my family. There used to be a small mango tree on a well looked after lawn. That is the place where I used to learn how to balance myself on bicycles from Heysla and Kensa then learned how to ride bicycles alone. The place is admired by many people in Kutubu because we had a separate pineapple, lemon and banana gardens surrounds the Pimaga Council Guesthouse lawn. The station kids could come around to meet with me over a pineapple or banana for lunch during weekends and then our adventure begins. 

Oh I don't forget that, Heysala was our DJ master. He could easily sneak in with him a mini radio/ cassette player (those times without boombox). We could take turns to rewind or forward the tape with sticks and pens to select the best song during lunch break or while walking home from school in the afternoon.

Heysala could even bring his big stereo to school when there was a term closing picnic in the school. We could try all our best ways to utilize the used batteries to backup the power supply so that we keep the party momentum going with music. Dried bamboo were the best ways to stalk all the dry cell batteries and connect back to the battery terminals of the radio. Now he owns a DJ set in his house and is the best place for station boys and friends to hangout with hardly sought beers of Pimaga anytime - provided your own fuel for his genset.

I remembered that we were best mates within our class and respect for each other meant so much for us. None of us could even try a nib or bottle of beer those times, even we had money, music and freedom on term holiday party at our disposal.

Looking back to these days, there's always a primary school drunk in the term closing parties or loud music everywhere from their many boombox when group of classmates walking home or to school. Chewing buai and smoking cigarettes are norm these days for primary school students but for us was totally different and when I look back. It was the sense of respect that played a major role in our lives as primary school students those days. We have had respect for our teachers with fear and classmates were our best secret keepers in anything at all.

Back in Pimaga station and nearby villages like Daga and Iputapa , most people I knew have grown old and some could not remember me well but when Heysala and Kensa took me over to Daga village for a community gathering and when we sipped in our cash contribution; there came the introduction of wonder boy Nathan David Minape, he is our son , who grew up here and attended Tanuga Primary School with us.

Now everyone could remembered me as a small skinny whiteman that hangs around at Bumsusu and at the end of the airstrip on weekends with my late mum fishing.

It would have been more fun and interesting only if more of my classmates from Tanuga Primary were around so we could track and trace those I'm missing out on this script so it provides some sense of reminiscence.

If Kensa Lavare and Hesala Lavare cannot remembered all of our classmates then I will be interested to trace the student roll book of our days at Tanuga Primary Schools and produce an interesting piece out of the different pathways we took after Tanuga Primary School.

Pics: (L-R ) Kensa Lavare , Nathan David Minape & Hey Lavare at Daga 1 Village

Aussie Completes Kapakapa Trail at 67

''What amazes me is; all the things along the track have changed a little after the war''

Kevin Wainwright -2018

It was a great honor for me to join the group from America; James, Rachael, Donna, Julie, Joe and Australians; Kevin, Peter and Stephen on the 2700km Kapa Kapa Trail.

James has written the book about the trail ''The Ghost Mountain Boy's and this time he came with her daughter Rachel. Kevin has been to nearly all the tracks in PNG with a interest in Wartime stories. Donna's grandfather was a soldier with the American Forces and first walked the track to fight and secure Buna front from the advancing Japanese.

Others on the group are enthusiastic trekkers and have special interests on the track. Kevin Wainwright is one of the older person on the group and I had the chance to meet and chat with him to write this article for him.

I could be one of the first Public Servant from Papua New Guinea to walk the full length of the track from Boregaina in Central Province to Girua in Oro Province and I have one word to describe the track and that one word is; ''Gruesome'' but gives you experiences and memories

Read the detailed story of Kevin Wainwright on this link below
Aussie Completes Kapakapa Trail at 67

PNG's Informal Economy Sustains Despite Recession

Luckily PNG got an Informal Economy that sustains the life of the citizens despite the economic recession that is affecting the country badly.

With the trade of buai/daka/cold-water/ice-block and etc with anywhere convenient without any regulation on the trade is what keeps PNG going as usual. Papua New Guinea is so lucky with the informal economic climate and everyone is minding their own business. Most people are taking economic recession of the country for fun as if it concerns only the working class people and those who pays tax through their wages and salaries. However, GST is what everyone pays to live in the cities and towns to access to goods and services;  hence,  no-one is excluded in the general economic cycle.

If we are a country with controlled economy and without the Informal Economic Sector,  then we would have a different scenario in PNG at this stage. Most of us will be left homeless or broke to death already.

By keeping the Informal Economic Sector out of the picture, the Economic Recession in PNG is real and it is happening in PNG.  We do not have to take it for granted and burden our working parents, boyfriends, girlfriends and wantoks with expectations and requests. The best we all can do is by engaging in something decent and budget wisely for the good of our own life or family  to keep afloat with little we earn from formal or informal economy.

When looking back to the reality of the economic value of our Kina, lets look into the nominal value of a One Hundred Kina note; the nominal value of K100.00 is equivalent to K34.00 when you divide K100.00 by ever inconsistent exchange rate of K0.34. So do note that your K100.00 is only K34 .00 in actual value these days.

We PNG have a tendency to accept and live each day by chances and bookings (dinao) for next fortnight and the norm continues with family commitment and customary obligations each weekend to next fortnight. It is by time, each one of us needs to teach one another about the realities of our own economy these days and try to be vigilant with the income and stop those reckless spending behond the budget with bookings and commitments.

There is already an existing gap between elites and normal citizens of PNG in which Cash is playing a major role and the cash elites are on the upper end doing everything they can with the money they have to make more money in every ways possible they can. One the other hand, the innocent citizens and honest income earners are facing the realities of living the life in the towns and cities with increasing goods and services.

The prices of goods and services are increasing each week and it seems that someone has to sacrifice all he/she earns on bills and utilities expenses only. The reality of having a decent meal for a family is not a everyday thing but families are resorting to cheaper meals like; hard scones and cordials or cold water for most of the days.

The children are going to school without breakfast and lunch which is affection the studies for our future leaders of this nation and its worrisome issue for the future of PNG. The hospitals are running out of drugs and people are  dying of curable diseases.

Adding to the offset of the economic recession is; the major investors and companies in PNG are laying-off their employees and it is leading to unemployment rate which is one of the symptoms of economic recession PNG supposed to manage it with prudent judgement and effective policies. However, it has its long story with cheap labors from Asian countries dominating the skilled/unskilled employment sector as well as technical and SME businesses leaving PNG citizens on the streets jobless.

PNG is just fine and people are fine as usual and seems to me like; we all are living each day by chance and not worried of what is actually happening now with our economy, our future in next 5 years and our children's future. Thankfully its the magic of our informal economy in PNG that keeps us going each day but the reality is; our economy is sinking slowly and the ever predicted Russian Disease is in PNG despite having high hopes in the LNG and the mining sector.

Take care, take control, be wise and manage your income wisely at these times.

Selling convenient goods, sweets, cold water, soft drinks and betel nut are part of PNG's informal sector 

We do not have a lost tribe in Papua New Guinea

the diversity of the country intertwined into the complexity of more than 800 cultures and traditions that are again connects to the nature; which the genealogy and theories will take ages to explain for Papua New Guinea & perception is 100% absurd 

Those news speculated in the media recently which are related to British adventurer Benedict Allen who got lost in a remote and isolated village in PNG mainland, get to read this article on the link below and digest the truth yourself. 

PNG is an adventurer's paradise, the highlands of PNG is tucked away in a rugged terrain with deep gorges, interconnecting ranges, fast-flowing rivers, vast swamps and valleys which forms alleys within the ranges that makes the places inaccessible and unexplored, yet an adventurer’s paradise awaits. The vegetation differs as well as the species of endemic flora and fauna which are rare to the natural habitat. 

The topography and climate also differ from the coastal low-lying islands, valleys and shores to the upper inland (highlands) with cooler climate which falls low as five degrees Celsius or zero during the morning and late afternoon. The highlands region has most of the fast-flowing rivers that have tributaries in the coast and has the highest peak at 4 509 meters above sea level which is apparent of the Bismarck range’s Mt. Wilhelm and highest in the Pacific region and half height of Mt. Everest. 

There are number of other mountains in highlands which are dormant volcanoes with height ranging from 2000-3000 above sea level; that includes, Mt. Hagen, Mt. Giluwe, Mt.Bosave and few others. 

While coastal PNG has scattered and isolated atoll to white sandy islands, fjords and tributaries of many river systems. The coastal regions have best marine biodiversity and isolated islands that are inhibited while some are densely populated. 

The highlands and coast of PNG are connected with Savanna grassland to mid-mountain forests connecting the topical and mountain rain-forests linking the interconnected ranges which ranks PNG the 3rd in the world. 

The early 30s and 60s perception about PNG is merely a hysteria in the minds of people who think they can live in the planet of the aliens to be super humans than the normal life we all humans live on this planet earth by going through changes in life by adapting into the changing world. 

PNG is a developing country and we are moving forward one step at a time with the changing world and past of the 30s life are the years gone with some generations. Looking at a country with more than 800 different cultures and ethnicity which presents Papua New Guinea uniquely diverse to the outside world. Our identities are within our cultures and traditions which we are born into and becomes the cultural values and prides of the individual’s lives, communities and the society we live in. 

It is only rational to comment on issues relating to PNG’s unexplored places and developments relating to rural villages or remote islands, only if one was born into PNG, lived and grew up in PNG then so he/she will get to say things from a perspective of a Papua New Guinean. Apparently, it is so cheap for a foreigner to speculate about a nation with twenty-one provinces and more than a thousand different tribes with diverse cultures and traditions with complex social orders and that genealogy can take ages to explain. But it’s still assumption-based theory that will never explain the whole complexity of PNG’s diversity in culture and the environment.  

The missionary's commentary on the link is fair enough to clarify the well renown media giant 'The Guardian’s speculations and perceptions related to Benedict Allen's planned adventure in Papua New Guinea that The Guardian alleged him to be lost and captured by a primitive and tribal cannibalism village in a remote inland PNG. Instead, Allen was safe at the place that he intended to visit and meet. A place that most people dream to be and meet with the assumed lost tribes that were born into cultures that intertwined into their traditions and customs which have values related to their natural environment that they live in. Hence, they live a self-sustaining life with less worry on the outside world and technology. 

How does it present threat apart from creating curiosity and interest to visit such a place that brings inquest back to hundred years with its people that have less connection with the modern world? Think again to say one negative thing out of the many positive aspects about the diversified nation of PNG which has twenty-two (22) provinces which can supposedly be states of their own or rather countries.  

Outside perceptions will never help nor change the way PNG people have lived, are living and will be living but gives insight to build resilience and patriotism in what we have compared to the outside world.

  There is no lost tribe in Papua New Guinea, we are moving with the change and developing our nation with one step at a time. Our cultures and traditions are our ways of life and connected to our natural environment which appears primitive to outside world, but Papua New Guineans were born into, they lived with and they will live through. 

Engan Male Wig and Face-painting 

On the 90th Anniversary of the First European Crossing Of New Guinea, “Explorer” Benedict Allen Claims to Have Done It For The First Time