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Pacific Islands Summit 10/27/90 [OA 7563]
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Document No. 18552669
WHITE HOUSE STAFFING MEMORANDUM
90 OCT 25 PM 5: 50
DATE: 10/24/90
ACTION/CONCURRENCE/COMMENT DUE BY: 3:00 p.m., 10/25/90
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: DEP. STATEMENT -- PACIFIC ISLAND SUMMIT,
SUBJECT:
EAST-WEST CENTER, HONOLULU, HAWAII
SAT., OCT. 27, 1990,
:
M
ACTION FYI
ACTION FYI
VICE PRESIDENT
MCCLURE
SUNUNU
NEWMAN
SCOWCROFT
PORTER
DARMAN
ROGICH
CARD
UNTERMEYER
CICCONI
Rogers
DEMAREST
WINSTON
FITZWATER
PINKERTON
GRAY
HAGIN
HOLIDAY
REMARKS:
PLEASE RETURN COMMENTS/SUGGESTIONS DIRECTLY TO CHRISS WINSTON
(RM. 122) BY 3:00 P.M., THURSDAY, 10/25/90, WITH A COPY TO
MY OFFICE. THANKS.
RESPONSE:
NSC concurs, subject to changes
W.M. October 25,1990
William F. Sittmann
Executive Secretary
James W. Cicconi
Assistant to the President
and Deputy to the Chief of Staff
Ext. 2702
CC: Chriss Winston
McNally/Simon
90 OCT 24 PH 7: 12
October 22, 1990
Draft One (B:ISLANDS)
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: DEP. STATEMENT -- PACIFIC ISLANDS SUMMIT
EAST-WEST CENTER, HONOLULU, HAWAII
SATURDAY, OCT. 27, 1990, : .M.
Distinguished friends: It has been our great pleasure to
greet you here in the Pacific -- here in the United States.
We have just completed an unprecedented new dialogue on a
wide range of mutual interests and concerns. In particular, we
emphasized that America shares the Islands' vision of the
region's future, seeing the Pacific not as a great ocean of small
islands and tiny populations -- but rather -- as an aquatic
Continent, the world's largest, covering a full third of the
Earth's surface. And like a string of pearls spread out across
the sea -- each nation is unique, each is precious, and each has
something to contribute to the beauty of the whole.
The Pacific Islands have a special place in the imagination
of the American people. And on my own visits, starting almost 50
years ago, I've seen that the reputation for the natural charm of
both the Island peoples and their lands is well-deserved.
With Island jurisdictions of our own, we are also proud of
America's special place in the Pacific family of nations. We
enjoy close relations, linked by many bonds of friendship and
family. And today we share this great aquatic sentinent as
partners in peace, bound together in an oceanic community pledged
to protect both new democracies and old warthy traditions.
During World War II, Americans like Such me journeyed to the
Pacific Islands to help protect our shared heritage of freedom
of the Natural Resources and
Environment
2
and peace. And today we have returned this time to help protect
our shared heritage of beauty and nature. And that is why, just
convention for the
last month, I signed the Invironmental Protection
of the South Pacific Region -- and promptly sent it to the Senate
for ratification. Similarly, we have directed our ambassador in
New Zealand to sign the Wellington Convention, a major new step
in dealing with the challenge of driftnet fishing.
We also described our plan to host the first round of
discussions for a framework Convention on global climatic change,
beginning in Washington next February 4th. And this effort is
SDI'
accuract? being bolstered by the(world's largest research program] program our
Administration's initiative to commit over $1 billion a year to
explore the causes and effects of climate change.
We also shared a valuable discussion on one program of
particular concern to the Island nations -- and of particular
importance to our global arms control efforts -- the destruction
are of the
of OL) chemical weapons on Johnston Island. We emphasized our common
interest in ridding the world of these terrible weapons, and
asked for their understanding and support in this significant
step towards peace and disarmament. We assured the leaders that
the safeguards we're employing ensure there will be no environ-
mental damage. And we expressed hope that they would accept our
offer for a technical team, sponsored by the South Pacific Forum,
to visit Johnston Atoll to independently monitor the operation.
Today, the United States has rededicated itself to real lasting
security in the region. A security which comes Hound not se much from
we have Plans to dispose of only The Chemical munitions from
the Pacific theatre currently Stared at Johnston Ato
as well as other absdete chemical mundrins in the pacific
islands and the relatively Small Inantity being
shipped from Germany, and that
DRAFT
3
force of arms but through nurturing of free people, free
markets, and free economies. And in order to strengthen these
economies, we were pleased to announce several
initiatives:
First, we announced our plan to begin negotiations to extend
the South Pacific -Regram Fisheries Treaty.
Second, we proposed establishing a Joint Commercial Commis-
sion with the Island nations, to meet each year -- at senior
identsy and
government levels to address trade concerns.
F
2 commercial opportunities and
third, we announced that the Overseas Private Investment
ADD I nsert
Corporation would establish an Asian-Pacific Growth Fund, similar
to the funds for Eastern Europe and Africa, and fueled by $200
million in new venture capital. In addition, OPIC will lead a
1991 mission of American investors to Pacific Island countries.
My distinguished friends: Like the early navigators, who
braved the seas alone so that others could follow, you have come
to Hawaii today to help chart a new course for the children of
the Pacific -- the children of tomorrow. Together, we are moving
forward. Together, we are racing towards the Century of the
a new era in
Pacifi
nsure it
is ind
P
3 Second joint roum.
T
hown us
friend
to identify D deld
democracy
and ec
comen. ap + trade
we look
forward
concerns
llenges of
the fu
3rd
Corporation
YS home.
part at and of G
dist. friends
-
INSERT A
And FOURTH, additional A.I.D. development assistance programs
will be implemented to enhance economic growth through private
sector development, emphasizing agricultural and marine resources
-- in the toatl amount of $28 million over their respective terms
McNally/Simon
DRAFT
October 22, 1990
Draft One (B:ISLANDS)
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: DEP. STATEMENT -- PACIFIC ISLANDS SUMMIT
EAST-WEST CENTER, HONOLULU, HAWAII
SATURDAY, OCT. 27, 1990, 2:00 P.M.
Distinguished friends: It has been our great pleasure to
greet you here in the Pacific -- here in the United States.
We have just completed an unprecedented new dialogue on a
wide range of mutual interests and concerns. In particular, we
emphasized that America shares the Islands' vision of the
region's future, seeing the Pacific not as a great ocean of small
islands and tiny populations -- but rather -- as an aquatic
continent, the world's largest, covering a full third of the
Earth's surface. And like a string of pearls spread out across
the sea -- each nation is unique, each is precious, and each has
something to contribute to the value of the whole.
The Pacific Islands have a special place in the imagination
of the American people. And on my own visits, starting almost 50
years ago, I've seen that the reputation for the natural charm of
both the Island peoples and their lands is well-deserved.
With Island jurisdictions of our own, we are also proud of
America's special place in the Pacific family of nations. We
enjoy close relations, linked by many bonds of friendship and
family. And today we share this great aquatic continent as
partners in peace, bound together in an oceanic community pledged
to protect both new democracies and old traditions.
During World War II, Americans like me journeyed to the
Pacific Islands to help protect our shared heritage of freedom
DRAFT
2
and peace. And today we have returned, this time to help protect
our shared heritage of beauty and nature. And that is why, just
last month, I signed the Environmental Protection Convention for
the South Pacific Region -- and promptly sent it to the Senate
for ratification. Similarly, we have directed our ambassador in
New Zealand to sign the Wellington Convention, a major new step
in dealing with the challenge of driftnet fishing.
We also described our plan to host the first round of
discussions for a framework Convention on global climatic change,
beginning in Washington next February 4th. And this effort is
being bolstered by the world's largest research program -- our
Administration's initiative to commit over $1 billion a year to
explore the causes and effects of climate change.
We also shared a valuable discussion on one program of
particular concern to the Island nations -- and of particular
importance to our global arms control efforts -- the destruction
of chemical weapons on Johnston Island. We emphasized our common
interest in ridding the world of these terrible weapons, and
asked for their understanding and support in this significant
step towards peace and disarmament. We assured the leaders that
the safeguards we're employing ensure there will be no environ-
mental damage. And we expressed hope that they would accept our
offer for a technical team, sponsored by the South Pacific Forum,
to visit Johnston Atoll to independently monitor the operation.
Today, the United States has rededicated itself to real
security in the region. A security which comes not so much from
DRAFT
3
force of arms -- but through nurturing of free people, free
markets, and free economies. And in order to strengthen these
economies, we were pleased to announce several new initiatives:
First, we announced our plan to begin negotiations to extend
the South Pacific Fisheries Treaty.
Second, we proposed establishing a Joint Commercial Commis-
sion with the Island nations, to meet each year -- at senior
government levels -- to address current trade concerns.
And third, we announced that the Overseas Private Investment
Corporation would establish an Asian-Pacific Growth Fund, similar
to the funds for Eastern Europe and Africa, and fueled by $200
million in new venture capital. In addition, OPIC will lead a
1991 mission of American investors to Pacific Island countries.
My distinguished friends: Like the early navigators, who
braved the seas alone so that others could follow, you have come
to Hawaii today to help chart a new course for the children of
the Pacific -- the children of tomorrow. Together, we are moving
forward. Together, we are racing towards the Century of the
Pacific. And together, we and the Island nations can ensure it
is indeed a new era of peace and growth.
Thank you, all of you, for your visit. You have shown us
friendship, and you have shown leadership in promoting democracy
and economic progress. We wish you all the best. And we look
forward to working with you as together we face the challenges of
the future. Thank you, and Godspeed you on your journeys home.
#
#
#
DEPARTURE STATEMENT
UNITED STATES/PACIFIC ISLAND NATIONS' SUMMIT
The leaders of the Pacific Island nations and I have just
completed a most useful, and unprecedented, dialogue on a wide
range of issues of mutual interest.
In addition to reviewing current global events, we focused on our
joint future in the Pacific. For our part, we advised that our
view of this great ocean is not one of small islands with tiny
Ambassador
populations. We share the vision of Renagi Lohia that this is
an Aquatic Continent, covering a third of the Earth's surface.
With Island jurisdictions ourselves, we see the United States as
a co-equal member with the Island nations in the Pacific's
extended family. We belong and share this great Aquatic
Continent with the Island nations, our partners in peace -- bound
together with them in this oceanic community of flourishing
democracies.
We share the concerns of the Island states about the natural
resources of the region, the environment that is our common
heritage. In this respect, I was pleased to note that on 25th of
September, this year, I signed the South Pacific Regional
Environmental Protection Convention, and immediately forwarded it
to the Senate for consent to ratification. On driftnet fishing,
I advised the leaders that I have directed the U.S. Ambassador to
New Zealand to sign the Wellington Convention, a major new step
to deal with this problem.
2
valuable
We had a thorough discussion of one program of particular
importance to our global arms control efforts and of concern to
the island leaders -- the destruction of chemical weapons on
Johnston Island. I emphasized our common interest in ridding the
world of these horrendous weapons and asked for their
understanding and support in this significant step toward peace
and disarmament. I assured the leaders here today that the
safeguards we are employing will ensure there is no damage to the
environment. I expressed my hope that they would accept our
offer for a visit by a South Pacific Forum-sponsored technical
team to visit Johnston Atoll for the purpose of independently
monitoring the operation there.
Regarding "global warming," I confirmed that beginning February
4, 1991 we will be hosting the first round of negotiations on a
framework Convention on climate change in Washington D.C.
Meanwhile, we are undertaking the world's largest research
program - over $1 billion annually - on the causes and effects of
climate change.
The United States today rededicated itself to real security in
the region. A security which comes not so much from force of
arms, but through the nurturing of democracies made up of sound
economies, backed by dynamic institutions.
In order to help strengthen these economies, I was pleased to
announce some initiatives:
3
Our interest in commencing negotiations, including to
extend the South Pacific Fisheries Treaty;
--
Our desire to establish a Joint Commercial Commission
with the Island nations, which would meet annually at
senior government levels to identify and address
current trade concerns;
The establishing by the Overseas Private Investment
Corporation of an Asian-Pacific Growth Fund, similar to
those for Eastern Europe and Africa, with $200 million
in venture capital. OPIC will also be leading a
mission of American investors to Pacific Island
countries in 1991.
We are fast approaching the Century of the Pacific, and together
we and the Island states can ensure that it is indeed a time of
peace and growth. While we may not speak with one voice on all
topics, we all agree on the need to keep our Aquatic Continent
free, alive, and prosperous -- both for us, and those who follow
us.
In conclusion, I am sincerely pleased to have had this special
opportunity for a personal dialogue with the Island leaders, and
to learn directly of their views, interests and concerns. I with
S
them a safe journey back to their homes.
THE COMMONWEALTH
OF THE NORTHERN
MARIANA
ISLANDS
Candidate for addition to the U.S., the
Northern Marianas have elected to be a
commonwealth, with full U.S. citizenship.
But economically the Northern
Marianas look to Japan to
support the chief industry,
tourism. On Saipan, Japanese visitors (facing
page) stand atop seaside Banzai Cliff, where
hundreds of Japanese soldiers and civilians
leapt to their death rather than be captured by
Americans in 1944. Prayers adorn wooden
memorials (right) on nearby Suicide Cliff,
where hundreds more died
An American visitor excited attention last
year. Flag-waving youngsters (below) 1985??
to welcome Vice President George Bush.
ALL BY MELINDA BERGE
National Geographic, October 1986
DEPARTURE STATEMENT
UNITED STATES/PACIFIC ISLAND NATIONS' SUMMIT
The leaders of the Pacific Island nations and I have just
completed a most useful, and unprecedented, dialogue on a wide
range of issues of mutual interest.
In addition to reviewing current global events, we focused on our
joint future in the Pacific. For our part, we advised that our
view of this great ocean is not one of small islands with tiny
populations. We share the vision of Renagi Lohia that this is
an Aquatic Continent, covering a third of the Earth's surface.
With Island jurisdictions ourselves, we see the United States as
a co-equal member with the Island nations in the Pacific's
extended family. We belong and share this great Aquatic
Continent with the Island nations, our partners in peace -- bound
together with them in this oceanic community of flourishing
democracies.
We share the concerns of the Island states about the natural
resources of the region, the environment that is our common
heritage. In this respect, I was pleased to note that on 25th of
September, this year, I signed the South Pacific Regional
Environmental Protection Convention, and immediately forwarded it
to the Senate for consent to ratification. On driftnet fishing,
I advised the leaders that I have directed the U.S. Ambassador to
New Zealand to sign the Wellington Convention, a major new step
to deal with this problem.
2
valuatte
We had a thorough discussion of one program of particular
importance to our global arms control efforts and of concern to
the island leaders -- the destruction of chemical weapons on
Johnston Island. I emphasized our common interest in ridding the
world of these horrendous weapons and asked for their
understanding and support in this significant step toward peace
and disarmament. I assured the leaders here today that the
safeguards we are employing will ensure there is no damage to the
environment. I expressed my hope that they would accept our
offer for a visit by a South Pacific Forum-sponsored technical
team to visit Johnston Atoll for the purpose of independently
monitoring the operation there.
Regarding "global warming," I confirmed that beginning February
4, 1991 we will be hosting the first round of negotiations on a
framework Convention on climate change in Washington D.C.
Meanwhile, we are undertaking the world's largest research
program - over $1 billion annually - on the causes and effects of
climate change.
The United States today rededicated itself to real security in
the region. A security which comes not so much from force of
arms, but through the nurturing of democracies made up of sound
economies, backed by dynamic institutions.
In order to help strengthen these economies, I was pleased to
announce some initiatives:
3
Our interest in commencing negotiations, including to
extend the South Pacific Fisheries Treaty;
--
Our desire to establish a Joint Commercial Commission
with the Island nations, which would meet annually at
senior government levels to identify and address
current trade concerns;
The establishing by the Overseas Private Investment
Corporation of an Asian-Pacific Growth Fund, similar to
those for Eastern Europe and Africa, with $200 million
in venture capital. OPIC will also be leading a
mission of American investors to Pacific Island
countries in 1991.
We are fast approaching the Century of the Pacific, and together
we and the Island states can ensure that it is indeed a time of
peace and growth. While we may not speak with one voice on all
topics, we all agree on the need to keep our Aquatic Continent
free, alive, and prosperous -- both for us, and those who follow
us.
In conclusion, I am sincerely pleased to have had this special
opportunity for a personal dialogue with the Island leaders, and
to learn directly of their views, interests and concerns. I
S
with
them a safe journey back to their homes.
VOL.168 NO.4
OCTOBER 1985
GRAPHIC
IN BOUNTY'S
WAKE: FINDING
THE WRECK OF
H.M.S. PANDORA 423
Arabias
TWO SAMOAS, STILL
COMING OF AGE 452.
Frankincense
USUMACINTA RIVER-
Trail
TROUBLES ON A
474
BORDER 514
THE TRIUMPHANT
TRUMPETER SWAN 544
OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL N GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY WASHINGTON, D.C.
THE TWO SAMOAS
United by cult
are separated t
Samoa, but the
strongly from V
double-hulled C
STILL COMING OF AGE
ancestors. The
searching for B
made her famoi
By ROBERT BOOTH NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SENIOR STAFF
Photographs
452
S
United by culture, Western Samoa and American Samoa
U.S.
are separated by politics. U.S. aid pampers American
Hawaii
Samoa, but the lure of the South Pacific emanates more
strongly from Western Samoa's Savai'i, where a boy sails a
SAMOA.
double-hulled canoe reminiscent of those of his Polynesian
EQUATOR
ISLANDS
PACIFIC
GE
ancestors. The H.M.S. Pandora sailed to the islands
OCEAN
searching for Bounty mutineers, and here Margaret Mead
made her famous observations of adolescents.
AUSTRALIA
W NEW
IOR STAFF
Photographs by MELINDA BERGE
$
ZEALAND
WAS ALMOST MIDNIGHT when
I
My host, High Chief Tauili'ili, handed
the moon at last escaped the cloud-
me a brimming coconut and motioned me
capped mountain and turned its full glo-
toward a banana-leaf platter piled high
ry on the sand and sea. The disembodied
with fish and fruit. "This beats the micro-
roar of surf became a line of brilliant white,
wave," he said.
marking the coral reef 200 yards offshore. A
We were on the tiny island of Ofu, one of
warm breeze stirred
three that form the Manu'a group, part of
American
the coconut palms,
American Samoa, a United States territory.
their long fronds
The capital, Pago Pago (pronounced
shadowboxing on
PAHNG-0 PAHNG-0), lay 60 sea miles to the
Samoa
the sparkling beach.
west on the main island of Tutuila. Farther
I took a deep
west still was Western Samoa, which be-
breath of soft island
came the South Pacific's first small island
air. This was Samoa! The earthly paradise
nation in 1962 (map, below).
proclaimed by author and anthropolo-
One people, two Samoas, carved up by
gist; the cradle of Polynesia, where care-
colonial powers at the turn of the century.
free brown-skinned people laughed and
Though charting different courses, both Sa-
splashed and made love all the day long.
moas remain jealous of their 2,000-year-old
Well, maybe this had been Samoa. And
culture, and-in pursuit of progress-both
maybe some of it still was. But
inevitably compromise it.
But now the delightful aroma of fish grill-
Not too surprisingly the 20th century, for
ing atop coconut-shell embers distracted
good or ill, has collided hardest with Ameri-
me. The small red fish, called malau, had
can Samoa. In the past six years alone, the *
been minding their own business just min-
territory, with a population of 35,000, has
utes before. And the green bananas baking
received nearly 250 million dollars in federal
deeper in the coals were hardly older.
funds. Most of those megabucks stayed on
(Oct 85)* x
Manase
o
20 km
o
20 mi
FAA
NGS CARTOGRAPHIC DIVISION
DESIGN: CHRISTOPHER A. KLEIN
RESEARCH: MARGUERITE B. HUNSIKER
rituals fo
PRODUCTION: CYNTHIA A. BREWER
CORAL
America
Mt. Silisili
REEF
with fa'a
Fagafau
1,858 m
6,095 ft
break da
Safua
Sapapali'i
Blood Br
Salelologa
SAVAIT
FERRY
Taga
Apia
Faleasi'u
Apolimafo
FALEOLO
INTERNATIONAL
Mt. Vaea
AIRPORT
475 m
1,560 ft
'UPOLU
SOPO'AGA
FALLS
TUTUILA
SWAINS IS
225 MILES
WESTERN
SAMOA
Pago Pago
Matafao Peak
AREA: 2,849 sq km (1,100 sq mi).
653 m 2,14211
POPULATION: 162,000. CAPITAL: Apia,
Leone
pop. 35,000. RELIGION: Protestant,
Roman Catholic. LANGUAGE: Samoan,
Taputimu IN PA
AIF
English. ECONOMY: Agriculture:
T
coconuts, cacao, taro.
454
li, handed
tioned me
biled high
the micro-
)fu, one of
ip, part of
RELOG
in territory.
ronounced
iles to the
a. Farther
WERE
which be-
nall island
ved up by
e century.
S, both Sa-
0-year-old
HOMES
ress-both
entury, for
ith Ameri-
alone, the
5,000, has
S in federal
stayed on
20 km
PA'ASAMOA-the Samoan way of
The U.S. Navy established a station in Pago
20 mi
prescribed the
Pago in 1900, when American Samoa became a
DIVISION
ERA. KLEIN
rituals for social conduct for centuries. On
RITE B. HUNSIKER
United States possession. Western Samoa, once
IIA A. BREWER
American Samoa, the Samoan way collides
a German colony and later a mandate of New
with fa'a America (above) as a group of
Zealand, achieved independence in 1962. It is
break dancers called the Famous Original
listed by the United Nations as one of the least
Blood Brothers of Samoa perform in Fagatogo.
developed countries in the world.
AMERICAN
SAMOA
TUTUILA TO
AREA: 197 sq km (76 sq mi).
SWAINS ISLAND
225 MILES
POPULATION: 35,000. PRINCIPAL
TA'U TO ROSE
AND SAND ISLANDS
CITY: Pago Pago, pop. 3,075.
90 MILES
RELIGION: Protestant, Roman Catholic.
OFU
LANGUAGE: Samoan, English.
OLOSEGA
TUTUILA
ECONOMY: Industry: Fish canning.
Ofu
Pago Pago
Fagatogo
MANU'A
CORAL
Matafao Peak
REEF
Mt. Pioa
653 m 2,14211
Faga
(The Rainmaker)
ISLANDS
TA'U
Leone
Nu'uuli
524 m 1,718 ft
Taputimu
PAGO PAGO
INTERNATIONAL
AIRPORT
F
d
d
E
455
Paufs
the all of you are descended from mongator,
nger gen-
Palagi is aform of papalagi, which means
But surely the most influential palagi ar-
and so toda
outside.
"sky burster"-the name given to the
rival was the Reverend John Williams of the
the land.
strange white men whose impossibly tall
London Missionary Society, who sailed into
noney in
ships rent the horizon 250 years ago.
Samoan life in 1830 and changed it forever.
head, to
The first was Dutch explorer Jacob Rog-
As one contemporary Samoan put it, "The
nes. The
geveen in 1722, though he passed by without
missionaries came here to do a job, and by
) provide
landing. Half a century later the Frenchman
God they did one!" Today every village has a
ut it will
Louis-Antoine de Bougainville arrived. Ac-
church, often several. They are always the
cording to one account, he found the people
largest buildings, and pastors nearly always
"less trusting than the Tahitians; they dis-
live in the largest homes.
hed-roof
played no eagerness to get iron. But their ca-
The last bell was still ringing in my ears as
e but for
noes were skillfully made, with triangular
Ili and I slid into a pew in Ofu Congregation-
e in Ofu
sails, and followed the ships a good distance
al Church, bright and airy, with beautiful
eighbors,
out to sea, [sailing] round them as easily as if
woodwork detailing. As the organ started
oof, and
they had been at anchor." De Bougainville
up, the people swung into effortless four-
so-called
was impressed, and named the islands Les
part harmony. Samoans love to sing, and
).
İles des Navigateurs.
they sing loud and well.
ober 1985
The Two Samoas
first called by a Frandum 457
This was the Sunday when a collection
HE NEXT DAY I bade Ili tofa and Today the harb
was taken for the pastor's monthly salary.
Toward the end of the service, as is the cus-
T
boarded a boat for Tutuila. Seven economy. The nor
hours later we nosed into Pago Pago's two tuna canneries
tom, a deacon rose and read out the names of
bay. Most imposing of the islands, Tu-the Sea, that are th
the donors and how much each had given.
tuila rises abruptly from the sea like thesector. They get ta
The total came to $3,200. Later Ili told me
fabled Bali Hai. It is stunningly green; theto leave, they say),
that the pastor's house and food were pro-
bay area averages 200 inches of rain a year people, most of
vided by the village. "I don't know what he
The bay, which nearly splits Tutuila inaliens who will wor
does with the money," he said. "There are
two, is actually the caldera from a series ofwage. This year th
people here who have a monthly income of
prehistoric eruptions (all the islands are volmillion dollars' wo
$200 and give the pastor half of that."
canic). The harbor, one of the deepest and.S., one-fifth of a
I spoke with the Samoan pastor, a Rever-
best protected in the Pacific, was what orig On a spit of land
end Salatielu, a burly man in his 60s. His fa-
inally drew U.S. interest and impelled the 200-room Raini
ther and grandfather had been preachers
Navy to open a coaling depot here aroundrom the magnificer
before him. He liked Ofu. "The people are
1900. In 1951 the Navy turned the territori which it is named. 1
very generous," he said.
over to the Department of the Interior.
quate, and the kitch
i tofa and
Today the harbor remains central to the
heard of local fish or produce, but the view is
la. Seven
economy. The north shore is dominated by
great and the cheeseburgers aren't bad.
ago Pago's
two tuna canneries, Starkist and Chicken of
Most food on this island is imported, be-
lands, Tu-
the Sea, that are the mainstays of the private
cause most Tutuilans no longer live off the
a like the
sector. They get tax breaks (or they'd have
land. And why should they? Nearly half the
green; the
to leave, they say), but they do employ 3,000
workers hold well-paying jobs in the local
ain a year.
people, most of them Western Samoan
government. They may raise some taro and
Tutuila in
aliens who will work for the $2.82 minimum
bananas, but mainly they stop by the super-
a series of
wage. This year the canneries will ship 250
market on their way home from the office.
ds are vol-
million dollars' worth of tuna home to the
Most households have color TVs and VCRs,
eepest and
U.S., one-fifth of all consumed.
and many people own cars.
what orig-
On a spit of land near the harbor mouth,
There are some 50 miles of paved road on
pelled the
the 200-room Rainmaker Hotel sits across
Tutuila-and 4,000 vehicles. Usually half
ere around
from the magnificent hulking mountain for
are trying to get into Pago Pago while the
ie territory
which it is named. The rooms are only ade-
other half try to getout. Gridlock in paradise.
erior.
quate, and the kitchen seems never to have
The main road runs right by the hotel, a
Guarded by Matafao, a peak 2,142 feet
high, Pago Pago's deep sheltered harbor
(left) lies within an ancient caldera.
A Taiwanese long-liner in dry dock
(above) takes a respite from pursuing
tuna, the island's chief export.
459
short walk from the business district. Like
HEY'VE ALSO DONE the same thing
most villages, Pago Pago is squeezed be-
tween mountain and sea. In fact only 2 per-
T
with American-style government.
The governor and 21-seat House of
cent of bay-area land is level enough to build
Representatives are elected, but the
on. You stroll past the sprawling container
18 senators are chiefs, selected, following
dock, stacked three and four high, and
Samoan tradition, by other chiefs. That
realize there's nowhere else to put them.
doesn't sit well with 35-year-old former
Farther along is a small museum with
Representative Letalu Moliga.
thatched fale outside, preserved for tourists.
"Our traditions should be practiced by the
Inside, I don't know; the air conditioner was
individual, by the family, by the village, but
broken, so the museum was closed.
not by the government," he said, "because of
On the landward side of the street a mod-
the conflict with participatory democracy. I
ern two-story mall houses a score of shops
hear our leaders talking about preserving
and offices. Most of the other downtown
our culture. We need to think about what we
buildings are relics from the Navy days. One
are preserving and what we really want to
such is the former boardinghouse in which
preserve."
slatternly Sadie Thompson seduced the self-
One of those leaders is Peter Tali Cole-
righteous Reverend Davidson in Somerset
man, the governor who was first appointed
Maugham's 1920 short story "Rain."
in the 1950s and finished serving his second
"Davidson was real, and so was Sadie
elected term last year. "I disagree that the
Thompson," said Joe Theroux. "She lived
matai system should stay out of politics," he
here and [played] around quite a bit." We
said. "In my assessment, there is far more
were talking over dinner at Soli and Mark's,
wisdom in the Senate than in that free-for-
Pago Pago's best restaurant. Theroux, 33
all in the House.
and stocky, with a thick mustache and a
"And certainly, one of the most important
salty tongue, was a Peace Corps volunteer in
challenges we face is the protection of our
Western Samoa ten years ago before coming
traditions. Among some of our younger peo-
here to teach. Like his (temporarily) better
ple today there is a restlessness-an impa
known brother, Paul, Joe is an author.
tience with our system. But it has served us
"The missionaries have gotten a raw
well for a long time."
deal," he was saying, "because people think
I did hear frequent grumbling during my
of Davidson. I've met some great mission-
weeks in American Samoa, though usually
aries, honest to God."
affectionate and not exclusively by the youn-
I asked him about rich Samoan pastors.
ger generation: "We are an unimaginative,
"Samoans have 'samoanized' Christianity,"
self-satisfied bunch of idiots!" exclaimed
he explained. "The pastor has become a
John Kneubuhl, 65, a retired writer and
chief-a religious chief. He gets paid be-
educator and now the territory's unofficial
cause he is a man of rank.
historian.
"Look at Samoan cricket," he continued.
To visit with John, I had driven out the
"Iti is unrecognizable to a British cricketer. If
main road to the village of Taputimu. Wind-
your team loses, you can buy your way back
ing along the coast, I passed a group of boys
into the tournament. And don't play check-
selling octopus, still dripping wet from the
ers with Samoans. They can jump back-
sea. Where there were breaks in the reef, big
ward when they're not kinged. They can
Pacific rollers, heaped up by the stiff trade
jump over the whole board. You say, 'I've
winds, slammed into the rocky shore, send-
never played like this.' They say, "This is Sa-
ing spray above the palms. In Nu'uuli I
moan checkers.' They've done the same
passed the boutique that had sponsored the
thing with Christianity."
first island break-dance contest a few days
Bursting into exuberant dance, cannery workers-one wearing part of a sign
as a collar-celebrate a vote against unionizing the Starkist tuna factory in
Pago Pago. Most of the workers come from Western Samoa; the $2.82 cannery
minimum wage is too low to attract their American Samoan kin.
460
National Geographic, October 1985
earlier, and
za Fale.
"I don't t]
last very mi
Signing up for U.S. Army
had made 01
enlistment, Michael Pale
room. "For
Taamilo (left) in Pago Pago
many of the
joins the exodus of young
system. Anc
people leaving the islands.
ing their po
Football, with its promise of a
"In prem
scholarship to a stateside
was final. T
school, provides another way
a few month
out; high-school teams tangle
one of the n
in a downpour in Leone
(below). Mosi Tatupu, running
history took
back for the New England
[the main is
Patriots, and Jack Thompson,
tack anothe
"the Throwin' Samoan," a
before the a
quarterback for the Tampa Bay
lage, and he
Buccaneers, made it big.
or ten years ( (
earlier, and across the road, the Matai's Piz-
her for me.' You might think it was sexual.
za Fale.
No. She was roasted. He ate her. But his
"I don't think the matai system is going to
warriors became disgusted and clubbed him
last very much longer," said John, after we
to death."
ny
had made ourselves comfortable in his living
As the afternoon wore on, I asked John
e
room. "For one thing, there are too damn
about the possibility of the two Samoas be-
'ago
many of them now. That's cheapened the
coming one. "We all want reunification, I
g
system. And centralized government is kill-
think," he said, "though it's a great question
Is.
ing their power.
whether Samoa was ever unified. Tutuila
se of a
"In premissionary days the chiefs' word
was a subdivision of a district on 'Upolu; it
e
was final. They could be terribly cruel. Just
was a place of exile. But Manu'a was never
way
a few months before John Williams landed,
part of a historical Samoa.
angle
one of the most powerful chiefs in Samoan
"As it stands, American Samoa would
unning
history took his army from 'Upolu to Savai'i
have very little to offer. We are a hand-out
d
[the main islands of Western Samoa] to at-
society; we have no resources. 'Upolu and
pson,
tack another important family. The night
Savai'i are potentially wealthy islands. Sa-
a
before the attack they were resting in a vil-
vai'i is huge, and people forget that 'Upolu
pa Bay
lage, and he saw a beautiful little girl, eight
is nearly the size of Oahu and every bit as
or ten years old. He said to his men, 'Prepare
blessed in natural fertility."
463
At dawn I rose to watch the boys prepare
in Samoa was growing short, but I had one
the ити, or stone oven. After being heated
more appointment to keep.
white-hot in a coconut-shell fire, the fist-size
stones were mounded together with taro and
F ALL the paradise-starved palagi who
bananas; breadfruit and leaf-wrapped fish
and palusami were placed on top. In an hour
O
ever found their way to these islands,
Robert Louis Stevenson is held dearest
all was ready.
in Samoan memory. He was already a
Taito and I ate first, as is customary. In
famous man, author of Treasure Island and
Samoan fashion we sat on the floor and ate
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. H yde, when he arrived in
with our fingers. Fourteen-year-old Tivoli
1889. He was ill, however, and had come,
fanned flies from our plates, and another
"only to grow old and die, but
it is a fair
child brought finger bowls.
place for the purpose."
I ended up staying that day and night with
Stevenson built his home on the slopes of
Taito and his family, and set out again the
Mount Vaea, a few miles outside Apia. And
following morning. On the southwest coast,
his health improved: "I can walk," he wrote,
at Fagafau, I passed a notorious lover's leap,
"I can ride, I am up with the sun." As time
still used occasionally, I was told. At the bot-
passed, he developed a close bond with the
tom of the vertical cliff it was not uncommon
Samoans. "I love the land," he told them,
to see sharks slowly patrolling back and
"and love the people. They called him Tu-
forth. At the village of Taga I turned the last
sitala-teller of tales.
major corner and headed for a shower and a
He died suddenly, on December 3, 1894,
hot meal at the Safua Hotel not far from the
at the age of 44. His Samoan friends
ferry landing.
worked around the clock hacking a path to
The Safua is a charming cluster of ten pri-
the summit, where, as he had wished, they
vate fale surrounding a large central sitting
buried him.
and dining area. The nightly buffet rivals
In the cool of the morning I set out to visit
Aggie Grey's. The hotel was designed and
his tomb. At first the trail climbed gently,
built by Moelagi Jackson and her late hus-
past an occasional coconut palm ("that gi-
band. "Now that my husband is gone, have
raffe of vegetables," wrote Stevenson), but
to widen my shoulders," she said. An articu-
soon it steepened, switchbacking upward
late, no-nonsense woman, quick to smile,
through the thick mountain rain forest.
Moelagi holds the high title of Vaasiliifiti. Of
Small black lizards scattered from the path.
20,000 matai in Western Samoa, she is one
After about an hour I emerged on the sum-
of only 100 titled women.
mit. In the center of a clearing lay the simple
"I am not worried about Savai'i being
limestone tomb. Far below, beyond the dis-
spoiled by tourism," she said. "If too many
tant church towers of Apia, beyond the
palagi lodge in villages, that will tend to
white fringe of reef, two tugboats were
hurt. But if we have a few small hotels, the
standing out from the harbor entrance,
tourists will come and go, and Savai'i will be
waiting to greet a cargo ship just coming into
the same.
view. It was a marvelous panorama.
"Samoans are a proud people," she said.
I turned to the tomb. Engraved on one
"Look at what's happened to the Hawaiians
face was Stevenson's poignant elegy, which
and the rest of Polynesia. We still have our
ends with these lines:
system. We have our language. And we
have our land. You cannot sell communal
Here he lies where he longed to be;
land. As long as the land is held by the peo-
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.
ple, there will not be dramatic changes.
They will take a long, long time."
Ilingered with the Tusitala for a few min-
The next day I said farewell to Savai'i
utes more, then started back down the
and boarded the ferry for 'Upolu, My time
mountain.
"The first love, the first sunrise, the first South Sea Island are memories apart,"
wrote Robert Louis Stevenson, whose tomb lies atop Mount Vaea on 'Upolu.
472
National Geographic, October 1985
OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY WASHINGTON, D.C.
COTLAND'S DEER OF RHUM 556
888
RED DEER: THE ANCIENT QUARRY
WALL AGAINST THE SEA 526
THE DUTCH TOUCH 501
NEW PACIFIC NATIONS 460
RE THEY AHEAD? 420
Y
S
TVNOID
OCTOBER 1986
ON OZI ПОЛ
In the Far Pacific
Birth
Nations
By CAROLYN BENNETT PATTERSON
FORMER SENIOR ASSISTANT EDITOR
Photographs by DAVID HISER
and MELINDA BERGE
vew flags in the Pacific go on proud display
(below) at Truk state's Xavier High School, still
scarred by World War 11 shells. Traditions are
kept on Yap state's island of Mogmog, where
Western dress is discouraged (right). Such are the con-
trasts among three new nations and a commonwealth,
THE REAL
sponsored by the United States of America, that now
are about to step onto the world stage.
FLAGS SHOWN CLOCKWISE FROM 12 O'CLOCK: YAP STATE, TRUK STATE. REPUBLIC or THE MARSHALL ISLANDS, POHNPEI STATE. REPUBLIC OF
PALAU, AND THE REPUBLIC OF KIRIBATI, FORMERLY THE GILBERT ISLANDS, WHICH WERE NOT PART OF THE TRUST TERRITORY UNDER THE U. $.
460
BOTH BY DAVID HISER
DAVID HISER
Maze of unsurpassed beauty, the Rock Islands of the
Speedboats carrying tourists, mostly Japanese, carve
Republic of Palau set tropical gardens atop coral ridges.
glass-clear waters filled with a fantasy of sea life.
462
National Geographic, October 1986
New Nations in the Pacific
463
tomorrow
when me
follow the
sun
U.S.S.R.
JAPAN
North
CHINA
Ocean
Specks
Islands the
Aleutian Islands
Pacific
Taiwan
OF COMMONWEALTH the NORTHERN
Agrihan
MARIANA ISLANDS
Guguan Alamagan Pagan
Anatahan. Sarigan
Saipan
Aguijan
PHILIPPINES
M
Tinian
Guam
following under Commonwealth some the the 160,000, will Nations. be the Now U. S., domination Wake Island (U Islands a Move territory. size of first the
of
Maug Is. Farallon Asuncion de Pajaros
Faralion de
States of the of in the and,
Rota
(U.S.)
Ulithi
Atoll
Mogmog
C
S.)
Kayangel Is
Yap Ngulu 1s.0 Colonia
Islands Palau Babelthuap
Atoll
MARSHALIC
Sorol
Faraulep Atoll. Gaferut. Pigailoe
Atoll
Atoll.
Peleliu
Fayu
Sonsorol Is.
Atoll
Elato
Enewetak.,3 OFTANDS
Hawaiian
Namonuito
P
Koror
Eauripik Woleai Atoll
Atoll
Ifalik
Pulo Anna
Atoll
Puluwat Pulap
Atoll
Atoll
Hall Minto
Bikinini Taka
Islands
Moen
Merir
Satawal
Pulusuk Tamatam Etal Atoll Dublon
& Truk Oroluk.
Islands Atoll
Kolonia
Tobi,
Helen
Pohnpei
Ujelang
>!
Atoll
Island
Ant (Ponape), Atoll
Atoll Rongelap
Bikar Atoll
Satawan Atoli Lukunor
Ujae Atoll
Utirik Atoll
FEDERATED
Atoll
Mokil Atoll.
The Caroline Istands,
STATES
Pingelap
Ebeye Atoli in Wotje Ailuk Atoll Atoll Mejit Island
@
Kosrae
®
are divided of Micronesia. the Federated
Atoll BAur Atoll
OF
Namorik
Atoll
Atoll
Arno
Kapingamarangi Atoll
MICRONESIA
Atoll
Kili
Atoll
Ebon Island Atoll
Knox Atoll Ine
INDONESIA
NEW PAPUA GUINEA
:
EQUATOR
South
Pacific
the Gilbert
Ocean
Kolonia National capital
A
by
as
SOLOMON ISLANDS
/
Scale in - - - shown
AUSTRALIA
REPUBLIC OF KIRIBATI
NGS perspectives view.
MAP 170° PAINTARING EDITOR: JOHN T.T. LOTHER KLEIN
140°
150°
160°
BLOZIS
TUVALU
180°
ROM THE SEA Puluwat is every-
The wall John went to leap was figura-
States under United Nations auspices. In
to jump over a wall, the wall of my own ig-
F
man's dream of paradise: an island
tive, built of conditions that separated him
May the United Nations Trusteeship Coun-
norance about the area.
set in the blue depths of the Pacific,
and fellow islanders from today's world-
cil recommended to dissolve this last trustee-
Pipe-smoking and patient, Sam Mc-
ringed by a coral reef that encloses a
isolation, poor health care and education,
ship. The dissolution now awaits a Security
Phetres came to my aid. Archivist for the
crystal clear lagoon.
and few financial resources. In good health,
Council vote, which will formalize the new
trust territory government, he recounted
Ashore it looks like a garden, with tower-
John had a plan to overcome the others. He
arrangements.
how the islands were settled in prehistory
ing coconut palms lining the broad sandy
would go to college in the United States—
Under new flags, the Marshalls in the east
by intrepid peoples who sailed there from
paths and great old breadfruit trees, their
the first from his island to do so.
and Palau, a group of islands in the western
Southeast Asia. After the region's discovery
roots clutching the earth like gnarled fists,
Aided by a scholarship, John succeeded.
Carolines, have voted to be republics, while
by Europeans-Magellan came through in
rising majestically above the green banana
He graduated from Minnesota's Bemidji
the other islands in the chain have united
the 1520s-trouble followed. Spain, claim-
and taro patches.
State University, married an American girl,
as the Federated States of Micronesia-
ing everything, lost everything in the
And the people. The men bare to the sun
and eventually returned to Truk in the Fed-
Kosrae, Pohnpei, Truk, and Yap.
Spanish-American War of 1898. The United
save for their thus, a bright swath of cotton
erated States of Micronesia, where I met
Although self-governing, all three nations
States took Guam and the Philippines as ter-
stretched tight between the legs and tied
him. There he serves the governor as a mu-
are to be closely tied to the United States by a
ritories; Spain sold the other islands to Ger-
around the waist with loose ends swinging.
nicipal affairs officer, in an area that in-
compact of free association, an arrangement
many, which lost them to Japan in the early
The women in long skirts, their breasts un-
cludes his home island of Puluwat. Having
unprecedented in U.S. constitutional prac-
days of World War I.
covered, bending low in obeisance when-
jumped over the wall himself, John Uruo
tice. Under the compact the U.S. will ap-
Under a League of Nations mandate, Ja-
ever they meet older males. The youngest
now helps others do the same.
portion among the three a total of 2.7 billion
pan energetically colonized and cultivated
children, naked.
Recently I spent nearly three months
dollars, including adjustment for inflation,
the islands until World War II, when the
It was like this on Puluwat, one of the Car-
among three Pacific island groups known as
over a period of 15 years. (Palau's compact,
United States got them the hard way, with
oline Islands, 18 years ago when the people
the Marshalls, the Carolines, and the North-
presently being contested in Palau's Su-
the lives of its fighting men. In 1947 the U.S.
held a feast to bid 21-year-old John Uruo
ern Marianas, in a part of the world called
preme Court, would run for 50 years but
Navy set about administering the islands as
after the 15th year would be funded out of a
a United Nations trust territory; the U.S.
70-million-dollar investment fund.) In addi-
Department of the Interior took over the
Man of two worlds, John
tion the U. S will continue to provide airline
administration in 1951.
Uruo, left, pilots an
and airport-safety services, public health
"But it was not quite that simple," said
outrigger sailing canoe on
and weather prediction, currency, an inter-
Sam. "Having fought our way across the Pa-
a visit to his home island
national postal service, and disaster relief.
cific, island by bloody island, our country
of Puluwat in Truk state.
For the Republic of the Marshall Islands,
wanted to be sure they would never again be
Some 18 years ago he left
where on Bikini and Enewetak Atolls nu-
used against us. The territory was declared a
Puluwat for college in the
clear devices were tested from 1946 to 1958,
'strategic trust,' a status that gave us the
United States, believing
the U.S. has agreed to set up a 150-million-
right to fortify it with military bases and
that he was leaping over a
dollar trust fund to benefit islanders affected
wall to the modern world.
close off certain areas if necessary.
by the tests. *
Today, as a municipal
"In fact," said Sam, "we're sitting in one
affairs officer for the
Finally, the United States assumes all re-
of those once closed-off areas right now."
governor of Truk, he helps
sponsibility for the defense of the three
His office in Saipan, the administrative cen-
such islands as Puluwat in
states, asking in exchange that they remain
ter of the trust territory and capital of the
the struggle for a better
closed to the military forces of other nations
Northern Marianas, was built in the 1950s
life. John's American wife
unless the U.S. agrees otherwise.
by the Navy for the Central Intelligence
and two teenage daughters
The fourth group in the Trust Territory of
Agency as part of a supersecret complex for
live mostly in the U.S.
the Pacific Islands-the Northern Mariana
training Chinese Nationalist troops to oper-
because he wants the girls
Islands-elected an even closer bond with
ate inside the Communist-ruled homeland.
to be educated there.
the U.S., the status of a commonwealth. Its
The Kwajalein Missile Range in the Re-
residents receive regular benefits from a
public of the Marshall Islands is another
DAVID HISER
wide range of U.S. government agencies,
case in point. With the 600 native people
farewell. Related by blood and extended
Micronesia. The islands sprinkle a vast
and their territorial government is given fi-
moved out, "Kwaj" harbors 3,000 Ameri-
family to most of the islanders, John at
ocean kingdom about the size of the conti-
nancial grants for special needs. Ultimately
can civilians in a 900-acre setting that most
his leave-taking drew a large crowd, who
nental United States but with less land area
they will become U.S. citizens.
resembles a golfing condominium complex
brought to the feast homegrown bounty-
than the state of Rhode Island and a popula-
in, say, the state of Florida (pages 472-3).
roast pig, fried fish, boiled breadfruit, taro
tion of only 160,000.
VERYWHERE on my travels I
root and leaf cooked in coconut milk, small
Today the islands are emerging into the
E
But the purpose of the island's develop-
looked for such walls as John had
ment is far from frivolous. Situated at one
sweet bananas, and coconut wine.
light of self-government, taking their places
leapt and found many still standing.
end of the world's largest atoll, Kwaj is the
After the elders' speeches John rose. "I go
on the world stage after nearly 40 years as a
Others are crumbling, and some
to jump over the wall," he said.
trust territory administered by the United
have disappeared. But I found that I too had
*See "Bikini-A Way of Life Lost," by William S.
Ellis, in the June 1986 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC.
466
National Geographic, October 1986
New Nations in the Pacific
467
Pacific terminus of a U.S. missile range,
bowling alley, swimming pool, and golf
Other officials agreed. Who to believe?
was in Majuro, it was reported in the press
where experts measure the splashdown ac-
course. The bulletin board announced the
High prices and poor selection of food? It
that the republic's department of health had
curacy of ballistic rockets fired from Van-
Commodore's Ball up at the Yacht Club,
is explained that the merchants on Majuro
overspent its budget, and that all other
denberg Air Force Base, 4,500 miles away in
$17.50 a person for cocktails, petit filet mi-
supply Ebeye's shops and don't appreciate
departments would be cut to provide the
California. The facility is expected to play
gnon, and dancing under the stars.
subsidized U.S. competition from Kwaj.
necessary funds.
an important part should President Rea-
I was glad my fellow Americans had such
And what about the scant water and elec-
Iasked President Amata Kabua about the
gan's "Star Wars" technology go forward.
a good life on Kwajalein. But I wondered
tricity? I'm told that new plants will be
story, and, sadly, he admitted that it was
For the use of Kwajalein and the other is-
about the stark contrast on Ebeye. So I put
finished this year.
true. "But what are we to do?" he appealed
lands in the missile range, the United States
some questions to various officials: Why the
Shortly after I left the Marshall Islands,
to me. "We are a Christian nation. We can't
pays a rent of more than 10 million dollars a
terrible crowding? It's due, they say, to the
the U.S. use agreements on Kwaj expired,
simply allow people to die when doctors in
year. The money goes to the Republic of the
traditions of the people and their belief in
and some of the landowners occupied sever-
Honolulu can save their lives."
Marshall Islands, chiefly for transmittal to
the extended family. For example, if you are
al islands on the missile range, asserting
The Marimed Foundation, established
5,000 landowners, most of whom live on
in need and a relative is getting rent money
their right to the land and demanding signif-
by two altruistic Bostonians, Dr. Lonny
nearby Ebeye. Many work on Kwajalein,
or good wages from Uncle Sam, you move in
icantly increased rent and direct negotia-
Higgins, a gynecologist, and her lawyer hus-
commuting to some 600 jobs there.
with the relative.
tions with the U.S.
band, David, expects to address this very
And why no insulin in the hospital? From
During that uncertain period, the U.S.
problem with its specially designed sailing
"
LUM OF THE PACIFIC," I had
Majuro, capital of the Republic of the Mar-
Congress enacted the Compact of Free Asso-
ship, equipped with the latest in medical
heard Ebeye called, but, even so, I
shall Islands, the secretary of health services
ciation, which will provide to the Marshall
technology. The Higginses plan to enlist
was unprepared for its squalor when
sends word: "Ebeye never out of insulin."
Islands government nearly 400 million dol-
doctors and nurses for limited volunteer ser-
I arrived at dusk from Kwaj. Along
lars over 30 years for payment to the Kwaja-
vice. Sailing among the islands, they will use
a pocked asphalt lane, houses of sheet metal
lein landowners in direct income and for
their diagnostic, surgical, and treatment
and cinder block crowded wall-to-wall with
projects. Their development plan calls for a
skills, while teaching preventive medicine.
no space for grass or trees. Bands of chil-
causeway to link Ebeye to six other islands,
I accompanied the Higginses on a medical
dren, some mere toddlers, ranged the street,
their only playground on the 78-acre island
VOTE
new roads, elementary schools, a high
excursion to Arno Atoll, a three-hour motor-
school, renovated housing, and a new dock.
boat trip from Majuro. We arrived at Ine at
where 8,000 people live (pages 474-5). Spot-
ting me, the youngsters crowded around,
DADDY
Hope for Ebeye rises as the walls that en-
twilight, but already a huge full moon had
close it promise to fall.
risen, creamy white in a gray-blue void.
incessantly calling "Hello."
Lonny's supplies went from our motorboat
The next day I visited the hospital and
PEDROC.
LTHOUGH EBEYE is in the worst-
to a rowboat and finally into our arms as we
met the public health nurse. To the question
ARRIOL
case category, its problems are
waded ashore through the gentle surf.
"How are things?" she answered: "How can
shared to some extent throughout
A 15-minute stroll down a rutted lane
I make a progress report to the United Na-
the trust territory. Despite an im-
brought us to the dispensary, where we dis-
tions when there is no progress? We need
mense flow of American money, effort, and
covered that the health aide was off-island,
help! Today, for example, we have no insu-
goodwill, many islands still suffer from
taking a refresher course in Majuro.
lin." A serious matter when at least a third
a shortage of water and power, poor to
The dispensary was far from clean: The
of the adult population on Ebeye, as else-
nonexistent roads, struggling educational
refrigerator didn't function for lack of elec-
where in urban areas of the Marshalls, have
systems, meager public services, few job op-
tric power on the island. The broken toilet
diabetes, due to genetics and diet.
portunities, limited natural resources, and,
was useful only with water supplied by a
Making the steamy rounds of the several
at the top of the list, inadequate health care.
bucket. The few supplies included a cream
dimly lit, unair-conditioned, and expensive
Much blame must be laid to the region's ge-
for burns, a clamp for an umbilical cord, test
grocery stores, I found Ebeye lacked other
ography, especially difficult when it comes
tapes for diabetes, vitamins for pregnancy.
things: fresh meat and fish, fresh fruits,
to delivering adequate health services.
The single bed even lacked a mattress.
fresh vegetables. In the freezer of the largest
In the Marshall Islands, as elsewhere, ev-
My husband, Pat, and I headed for the
store there were only a few chickens and two
ery island is supposed to have a health aide,
beach, where we unrolled our mats and slept
cans of orange juice.
operating out of a well-equipped dispen-
under a full moon. Then about 3:30 a.m. we
The next day I strolled about neighboring
sary, with access to a radio in the event of an
MELINDA BERGE
awoke in eerie darkness. Totally unexpect-
Kwajalein, where the banning of passenger
emergency. In a life-or-death situation a pa-
Hitching a vote, the daughter of Pedro
ed to us, with the impact of a miracle, there
cars gives streets over to the pleasantries of
tient is picked up by boat or plane, if possi-
C. Arriola helps daddy win a seat in the
was a magnificent full eclipse of the moon.
bicycles and foot traffic. The shops were
legislature. During a general election last
ble, and taken to the nearest hospital, often
The next day, stripped to the waist in the
filled with the plenty of their stateside coun-
year, American-style politics swept
hundreds of miles away, or to Hawaii.
terrible heat, David Higgins scrubbed down
terparts. And as with U.S. military com-
Saipan like a tidal wave, bringing
The bill can be astronomical. And it is
the dispensary walls while Lonny drew sim-
missaries worldwide, they were off-limits to
massive rallies with free beer and food,
paid for by the government. The Republic of
ple, colorful pictures of the human reproduc-
the natives, who work on the base.
blaring loudspeakers, and posters that
the Marshall Islands is going broke trying to
tive organs as a way of teaching her patients.
I noted three playing fields on Kwaj, a
papered every vista.
meet the cost of modern medicine. When I
Then they
(Continued on page 476)
470
National Geographic, October 1986
New Nations in the Pacific
471
REPUBLIC OF THE
MARSHALL
ISLANDS
Oceanic bull's-eye, Kwajalein Atoll is the target for rockets
(above) launched 4,500 miles away in California. The 3,000
Americans on the 900-acre island (right)-mostly civilians
employed by private contractors to the U.S.
Army Strategic Defense Command-enjoy
such amenities as the supermarket dubbed
"Surfway" (below). Some 8,000 Marshallese, many
commuting to jobs on "Kwaj" by boat, occupy 78-acre
Ebeye (distant island, right). The U.S. pays more than
10 million dollars a year for use of the Kwajalein land.
U.S. ARMY STRATEGIC DEFENSE COMMAND (TOP): MELINDA BERGE
472
Pollution in paradise, junk
Free lunch for senior citizens
overwhelms a beach on
in Majuro, capital of the
crowded Ebeye (above).
Republic of the Marshall
People flock to the island
Islands, reflects a weakening
because the Marshallese
of the extended family that in
tradition of extended family
earlier times would have
obligates an islander with
provided for its own elderly.
good wages or rent money to
Western-style education,
care for less fortunate
where long hours in the
relatives. Ebeye's busy main
classroom preempt time once
street (left) contrasts with
spent in traditional pursuits,
Kwaj, where private vehicles
tends to break down the
are forbidden. The U.S. is
heritage of island culture.
financing an intensive
Few young men of Majuro, for
program to improve living
example, now know how to
conditions on Ebeye.
sail an outrigger canoe.
ALL BY MELINDA BERGE
474
National Geographic, October 1986
New Nations in the Pacific
475
(Continued from page 471) began arriving.
strictness, is Kosrae's most powerful force.
we could dredge the canals, we could make
lobby area. Positioned for privacy, thatch-
That day, assisted by three women who
Women are modestly clothed-bathing
the place look like the old days."
roofed guest cottages are screened to permit
had come with us from Majuro-a public
suits are too risqué, even for visitors-and
When Leluh was at its height, the king
the full sweep of Pacific breezes.
health nurse, a social worker, and Jinnie
Sundays are strictly for churchgoing.
and high chiefs owned all the land and lived
The island's town, Kolonia, is capital of
deBrum, a Marshallese member of the Mar-
The American presence today appears
with their servants in this city of more than
the state of Pohnpei as well as capital of the
imed Board-Dr. Lonny Higgins examined
beneficial, as we saw upon arrival on Kos-
a hundred walled compounds. The com-
Federated States of Micronesia. Although a
27 women. She discovered a pelvic mass, a
rae's enormous new jet runway (pages 478-
pounds of royalty were used for burial as
new FSM capitol building is in the planning
thyroid abnormality, and several bleeding
9), a legacy of the trusteeship and big enough
well as worship of Kosraean gods.
stage, the seat of government at present is in
disorders. Of27 Pap smears taken to Hawaii
for 727s, although such planes have yet to be
"Those gods must have been really pow-
the remodeled Navy hospital, a one-story
for testing, six signaled follow-up tests.
scheduled through Kosrae.
erful," Teddy said with a smile, "because
frame left from the 1940s. The national con-
And that night another seeming miracle
We were met by Madison Nena, Kos-
Kosraean legend claims that magic moved
gress meets in the old operating room; the
transpired. As darkness fell, we heard sing-
rae's 34-year-old director of tourism, and
these stones, since the people had no ma-
president's office was the children's ward.
ing and saw a procession of lanterns swing-
Christopher O'Connor, a 25-year-old Peace
chines to transport such heavy material."
Calling on President Tosiwo Nakayama,
ing down the road. The island chief and a
Corps volunteer assigned to develop tour-
Teddy invited us to dinner at his two-
learned the story of his life-another tale of
laughing crowd of women and children had
ism. Slender and dark with a neatly
room, concrete-floored home, where we met
walls and extraordinary effort to scale them.
come bearing gifts of bananas, fish, pork,
trimmed mustache, Chris, a hotelier, came
his wife, nine children, and a lively group of
Nakayama's father was a Japanese busi-
and breadfruit. And time slipped away in
to Kosrae from New York City's Waldorf
Americans, mostly government advisers,
nessman sent to Truk before World War II.
dancing, singing, and speeches from a host
Astoria, where he worked in guest services.
who like to hang out at Teddy's. Teddy is an
He married a girl from the island of Ulul in
of grateful hearts.
Aside from the island's beauty the major
admiring listener to the swirling conversa-
the Namonuito Atoll.
sight is the Leluh ruins, whose huge stone
tion. "I learn so much every night," he told
When the Pacific war broke out, the fami-
OVING EVER WEST, we flew to
walls, canals, and kings' tombs speak of a
me. He is, in fact, an intellectual but is too
ly, now with several children, settled on
M
Kosrae, one of the four Federat-
highly developed culture that flourished 500
innocent and modest to discern it.
Dublon in Truk Lagoon, Japanese head-
ed States of Micronesia, where
years ago. Teddy John, Kosrae's historic
Thirteen Americans on the island are
quarters. It was from Dublon, at the age of
in the 19th century diseases
preservation director, guided us through the
in the U.S. Army, part of a Civic Action
nine, that young Tosiwo heard the "omi-
Team. They live at spick-and-span Camp
nous, incessant, ever louder drone" of the
Wilbur L. Trahan and work on civic proj-
U.S. airplanes that sank a Japanese fleet of
Tears flow as a Civic
ects such as road and bridge construction,
60 naval and cargo vessels.*
Action Team "Doc" on Yap
government buildings, and school play-
At the end of the war the United States
investigates an injured
grounds. Everybody is invited to their
sent home all the Japanese nationals living
foot. Composed of men
monthly outdoor movies. Hundreds find
in Micronesia, including the elder Na-
from the United States
help from "Doc," their medical corpsman.
kayama. Deprived of his father, the young
Army, Navy, and Air
The team's Doc, Sgt. Leonard Resler
Tosiwo took on the responsibility of his fam-
Force, Civic Action Teams
from Boulder City, Nevada, explained:
ily. He went to work and earned enough
regularly spend several
"Each Civic Action Team stays for six
money to take his mother and sisters back to
months on duty in the
months, and we're getting ready to pull out,
Federated States of
her relatives on Ulul. Only then, at 16, did
but I am grateful for this experience. I have
Micronesia, responding to
Tosiwo voice his ambition: "I want to go to
needs identified by the
the feeling that we have really helped."
school." He had never spent a day in a class-
state governments. They
room up to that time.
build bridges and roads,
HE SAME FEELING prevails at
T
Nakayama eventually went to the Uni-
repair buildings, improve
The Village, a hotel in Pohnpei that
versity of Hawaii on a U.S. government
playgrounds, entertain
employs some 50 neighbors to serve
scholarship, where the quality of his mind
with free movies, and
guests in but 21 rooms. By employ-
and personality attracted attention, and he
provide medical care.
ing a large staff only part-time, the innova-
was set on the track of leadership.
tive American owner-managers, Bob and
DAVID HISER
What kind of influences shaped the young
Patti Arthur, run a first-class hotel while
Nakayama, I wondered. I decided to visit
brought by traders and American whalers
jumble of stone, still in private hands and
recognizing native habits and traditions.
the island of his mother's people, Ulul-a
nearly wiped out the native community.
littered with beer cans.
"The people here value their leisure
resolve that sent me on the unforgettable
Incidentally, I was told that the seagoing
A burly man with black hair and beard,
time," said Patti. "They also need time for
voyage of the Micro Dawn.
visitors of that day so habitually uttered a
Teddy spoke with deep regret about the con-
their pattern of living. A funeral, for exam-
All the outer islands in Micronesia are
certain four-letter expletive that islanders
dition of the ruins and of his hope that the
ple, takes four days."
supposed to be regularly served by such
gave all white people the name "ohshits."
government could buy the land and stabilize
The Village demonstrates how tourism
ships, sent by the various governments to
When the Congregational missionaries
the stone structures. "When I was a boy, wa-
might proceed in today's Micronesia. Built
deliver supplies (Continued on page 486)
arrived, Kosraeans flocked to Christianity.
ter still flowed through the canals, and I
on a hillside, the hotel rises in a tropical
*See "Life Springs From Death in Truk Lagoon," by
Now the church, clinging to past-century
could dive off the walls," Teddy told us. "If
garden with an open-sided dining, bar, and
Sylvia A. Earle, in the May 1976 GEOGRAPHIC.
476
National Geographic, October 1986
New Nations in the Pacific
477
FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA
of commoners, who farmed and fished.
KOSRAE
With the coming of the Europeans, that way
of life ended. Diseases brought by whalers and
copra traders so ravaged the islanders that at
one time only 300 people were counted.
Built with American dollars, a runway (below)
Congregational missionaries converted the
long enough for large jets is the gateway to the
entire population, and religion is now the chief
state of Kosrae, but at present a 16-passenger
force ordering social life.
propeller plane is the biggest
On the economic side Kosrae, noted for its
#*
aircraft that regularly serves
fine tangerines, limes, and oranges, promises to
the island, one of the largest in
become the vegetable and fruit basket of the
the trust territory. Five hundred years ago
Pacific (right). A project is under way to
the tribes on the island united under a
restore giant clams, once plentiful, to the
powerful king and built Leluh, a city of more
surrounding reef, using juveniles raised in the
than a hundred basalt-walled compounds
Micronesian Mariculture Development Center
threaded by canals. There the king, his
in Palau. And with the ruins of Leluh as an
servants, and a few nobles lived off the labor
attraction, tourism is viable.
BOTH BY MELINDA BERGE
478
National Geographic, October 1986
New Nations in the Pacific
479
MELINDA BERGE
FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA
"Diamond Head of Micronesia," the volcanic
it the ravages of combat. Torrential rains
Federated States of Micronesia often decries
plug known as Sokehs Rock helps guide ships
continue to play a beneficent role in the
the underdeveloped state of his nation.
to Pohnpei's harbor. The
life of Pohnpei, nourishing its lush foliage
"Alas," he told the author, "we have no
POHNPEI
island's tortuous terrain and
and floral displays and feeding the
bargaining chips to get more aid for
heavy rainfall contributed
countless waterfalls that keep the sound
development, because the FSM has nothing the
to the U.S. military decision to bypass the
of rushing water often in earshot.
American military wants." But he added,
island during World War II, thus sparing
President Tosiwo Nakayama of the
"That's not all bad either."
480
National Geographic, October 1986
New Nations in the Pacific
481
The way of death on Pohnpei speaks to a way
made from the root of a pepper plant pounded
of life steeped in family care, traditional
into pulp and strained through hibiscus fiber
values, and long-revered ceremonies. The body
After the funeral, in the tradition of sharing,
of 80-year-old Tadius Fricht (below right) lies
the leftover food is divided and sent home with
in state at his home on Mwahnd Island, a reef
the mourners.
just off Pohnpei, as the women of his family
Although mostly Christians, many of the
keep vigil. Money on his casket is contributed
people of Pohnpei still revere the 700-year-old
as a token of respect. Although Mr. Fricht will
ruins of Nan Madol (right), an immense
be buried within 24 hours of death because of
complex of 93 man-made islets walled by
the island's hot climate, other gifts
"logs" of basalt, that spread
demonstrating respect will pile up at his home
across 150 acres. Its canals still filled with
throughout the four-day funeral feast. Most are
water, this Venice of the Pacific is similar to
gifts of food, such as pig, taro, dog-regarded
Leluh on Kosrae but less damaged by time.
as a delicacy on Pohnpei-and yams.
Nan Madol has been declared a U.S. National
This 1,500-pound yam (below), in a cradle
Historic Landmark as an aid to its
borne by 25 men, was grown especially for
preservation. Here the last light of day lingers
funeral use. With the feasting, Pohnpeians
on part of the city's outer wall, a shield before
drink sakau, a slimy, mildly narcotic beverage
a burial vault of Nan Madol's kings.
ALL BY MELINDA BERGE
482
R
FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA
between islands but are now used for lightering
TRUK
cargo, local fishing, or simply for pleasure.
Canoe building is still an art on Puluwat
(below), where Aidnor Bisalen uses an adz to
fashion a 14-foot vessel from a breadfruit log.
Only link to the outside world, save for radio,
The secrets of canoe building are closely held
the Micro Dawn rides the swells off Pulusuk
and passed from father to son.
(above). Such government ships irregularly
Change exacts a heavy price in Truk state,
sail from Moen, capital of Truk
which has one of the world's highest suicide
state, to its various islands,
rates for males from 15 to 24. Authorities cite
bringing food, supplies, and
anger and fear of shaming the family as the
services. They pick up copra and handicrafts
major causes. The family of Atarino Pau, a 24-
made for sale by the islanders.
year-old suicide, gathers atop his tomb (right)
Outrigger canoes once carried commerce
near the family home.
ALL BY DAVID HISER
484
National Geographic, October 1986
(Continued from page 477) and people and
Westerns," replied the priest. And sure
senior high school students once had to go to
pick up island produce-copra, woven
enough, that night we sailed for Pulap,
was the Miss Namonuito, resigned to exile."
Ulul for classes. To keep their early teen-
mats, handmade rope, and the like. The
home island of the ship's captain.
agers at home, Puluwat built the Puluwat
trips last from one to three weeks, depend-
I tried to see things as philosophically as
HEN WE LEFT TRUK, we
Middle School, a cluster of cottages with
ing on distance.
Father Fahey, who laughingly explained:
thatched roofs, latticed walls, and sand for
flew, of course, on Air Mike, the
Sam McPhetres warned me: "All field
"Out here we are constantly faced with ei-
nickname for Continental/Air
floors. Puluwat's own college graduates
trips are late getting off, all take longer than
ther a crisis or an emergency. We are often
have returned to staff the school.
Micronesia, the only jet service
expected, and there is no regular schedule."
chagrined but not surprised."
linking all the new nations of Micronesia.
On our third day at Puluwat, the char-
On a tight schedule myself, Ihad hoped for a
We stayed at Pulap four days, living out a
But Air Mike is more than an airline, it is a
tered boat Miss Namonuito finally turned
one-week trip out of Moen, the capital of
pattern that would repeat itself at each stop.
up after having been lost. Since the boat's ra-
lifeline. Dividing planes into cargo and pas-
Truk, and was assured that I would have it.
Outside the island's encircling reef the Mi-
dio didn't function while the motor was run-
senger sections, it carries everything, in-
Sam volunteered to go along. And the gover-
cTo Dawn launched two deck boats with out-
cluding automobiles.
ning and the 26-year-old first-time captain
nor of Truk assigned John Uruo to accompa-
board motors that shuttled back and forth
The airline's "island hopper" is a kind of
failed to inspire confidence, we decided to
ny us, my first meeting with the young man
throughout the day.
trolley car of the Pacific, with the down-
stay with the icro Dawn, despite whatever
from Puluwat. Things looked good.
We all went ashore, leaping from a ladder
home flavor of the neighborhood streetcar.
time it took.
on the side of the ship into a small boat as it
Stopping at island after island, the 727 picks
After a stop at Pulusuk the Micro Dawn
N THE SAILING DAY we moved
bobbed up and down in the heavy swells,
up presidents and governors, missionaries
lost an engine as well as its radar and ran low
on board the Micro Dawn and
hoping not to fall into the sea and attract the
and teachers, entrepreneurs and lawyers-
on both food and water. Under the circum-
watched it being loaded. Into the
four enormous sharks that hung around the
all of whom know one another. To travel on
stances the captain decided to return direct-
forward cargo hold went the stock
stern feeding on ship's garbage.
Air Mike is like being at a party-daily evi-
ly to Moen to refit and resupply. We sailed
for island customers to buy after they had ac-
On the island the men loaded copra onto
dence of how small the vast Pacific truly is.
into Truk's capital 11 days after leaving it.
quired some cash from the sale of their co-
the boats while the women barbecued a deli-
For Air Mike's arrivals on Yap, the last of
I never did get to President Nakayama's
pra. Into the main hold went box after box of
cacy, turkey tails, bought frozen from ship's
the four states of the Federated States of
island of Ulul.
canned goods and other foodstuffs from the
stores. The doctor set up a clinic, and the
Micronesia that I would cover, the sense of
United States: sweet potatoes, peaches,
government people went about their respec-
evaporated milk, soy sauce, mixed vegeta-
tive assignments.
Tragedy of war turns into
bles, shortening, green beans, and huge
We sailed for Tamatam, 15 minutes
a windfall. During World
bags of rice, flour, and sugar-much of it
away, and spent another two days-a delay
War II American aircraft
destined for the school-lunch program.
that killed any prospect of reaching the rest
sank a fleet of some 60
Then came the passengers, the men in
of the Westerns, much less Ulul, in the
Japanese vessels in Truk
their thus with sleeping mats and lethal-
hoped-for span of a week. So, we radioed
Lagoon. The sunken ships
looking machetes; the women with coconut-
Moen to send a chartered boat to pick us up
entombed many of the
frond-wrapped parcels of food and bags of
at Puluwat, the Micro Dawn's next stop,
possessions of the dead,
while live coral and
coconuts for drinking; the children, racing
and were told that a 40-foot fishing boat,
tropical fish gradually
madly around the ship.
Miss Namonuito, would come.
turned the graveyard into
The cabin passengers were a dedicated lit-
Then on to Puluwat, where John Uruo
a choice destination for
tle band of government people working to
was clearly a star as the local boy who made
hundreds of scuba divers
bring some services to the islands: two edu-
good. He introduced me to Eric Sanford, a
from around the globe.
cators testing students, a nutritionist check-
Peace Corps volunteer, who told me a story.
These shoes and a wine
ing on school food programs, a health officer
After a 1982 cholera epidemic in Truk, a
bottle may well have been
examining needs of the handicapped, and a
campaign to provide all the islanders with
set out by a guide for a
young American physician, Dr. Don Pres-
latrines got under way. Eric himself helped
diver to "discover," before
being stored away for the
ton, a graduate of Oregon Health Sciences
install 60 of them.
next visitors to "find."
University serving in the Public Health Ser-
"I spoke to each family, emphasizing the
vice, accompanied by a health aide. They
importance of toilets to everyone's health,"
DAVID HISER
would inoculate the infants and tackle any
Eric said. "Yet today only 10 percent of
But a footnote. A report came to me from
medical problem that arose.
the islanders use them." On the other hand,
Moen: "I thought you'd like to hear what you
party heightened. A crowd of Yapese, led
Another cabin passenger, Father John
Eric also helped build 29 water catchment
by Governor John Mangefel, met the plane,
missed by not taking the Miss Namonuito
Fahey, a Jesuit, joined us at railside. He
tanks and improve seven others, providing
to welcome incoming passengers and visit
back to Moen. Once more the crew got lost,
ministers to the people of Pulap, Tamatam,
healthier drinking water and the frequent
with those on-going, who invariably debark
and this time wound up in Ulul. Then they
Puluwat, and Pulusuk, an island group in
showers that everybody loves to take.
for just such talks during the short layover.
set out from Ulul and got lost again. At last
Truk state collectively called the Westerns.
And the islanders are ambitious for their
The air terminal is a metal-roofed shed di-
radio report the captain was going to give up
"But isn't the Micro Dawn going to Na-
children. Although Truk state supports an
vided by woven bamboo half walls. Its gift
sailing. When we stopped by Ulul this trip
monuito?" I inquired. "Yes, but after the
elementary school on the island, junior and
shop is a counter where trays of betel nuts
to drop off the high school students, there
are sold; a snack (Continued on page 492)
486
National Geographic, October 1986
New Nations in the Pacific
487
DAVID HISER
FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA
No female eyes may watch these male dancers
Micronesia, still cling to their own island dress
men, and many live today much as their
in the village of Omin on Yap as they dance out
and abide by old-time taboos that separate
the erotic story of the capture of
ancestors did. But change is coming. An
villages by caste, with the upper, or "pure,"
American-style high school enrolls both boys
YAP
***
a young woman from another
caste expecting menial labor from the lower,
village and her fate in the men's
"polluted" caste.
and girls, and bright students often have a
house of her captors. Many people of Yap state,
Except in the most educated families,
chance for higher education, regardless of their
women of both castes are regarded as below
village background. There is even a troop of
the most traditional of the islands of
Girl Scouts on Yap.
488
National Geographic, October 1986
New Nations in the Pacific
489
BOTH BY DAVID HISER
chant loud enough for the village to hear: "The
menstruating one, ho-o-o!" This triggers hours
of erotic dances by both the women in the
house and the men of the village. Living in the
women's house, the girl may not cook food for
the men or eat with others for eight days; after
another six days she may leave, but then only
to live apart in her own hut.
As these taboos disappear, so too do bamboo
and thatch building materials give way to
more typhoon-resistant concrete walls. These
men (right) raise such a wall for a new
house on Mogmog.
Ruled by custom, women of Mogmog, an
island in Ulithi Atoll, while away the day in
the ipul, or women's house, where they must
remain during their menstrual period. Most
women enjoy this break from their normal
labors and spend the time happily talking or
weaving on looms, at left and upper right.
The onset of puberty once called forth a far-
reaching set of taboos throughout the islands of
Yap. Today only the most remote still require a
young girl, at the first sign of her first period,
to head immediately for the women's house. As
she approaches, the women within begin to
REPUBLIC OF
PALAU
Second only to fuel oil in import value,
beer comes by the containerful to Palau
(left). Of more lasting value, the
Micronesian Occupational
College in Koror, capital of
the Republic of Palau,
offers practical courses in a part of the
world where technical skills are limited,
and the arrival of an electrician on an
island is welcome news. Young men and
women taking the police-science course
break tradition by training together.
Virginia Ikeye (right) practices defense
against an assault.
Putting his talents to work while
serving time in the Koror jail, a
prisoner carves a Palauan legend in
wood to earn income (below). The
concept of storyboards was introduced
by a Japanese artist during Japan's
occupation of Palau and adapted by the
islanders to record their traditions.
REFUL.
ALL BY DAVID HISER
New Nations in the Pacific
495
Geography added to the carnage in the battle
ground, they counted 216 plants in one plot
for Peleliu, one of the bloodiest in the Pacific
alone. "They were laid out in perfect rows,"
in World War II, costing more than 13,000
recalls police officer Bill Stinnett, the leader
Japanese and American lives. From the air,
of the raid. Recently it was estimated that
island heights looked like rolling hills, but,
authorities on Peleliu in one raid seized
bared of foliage by shelling and flamethrowers,
marijuana worth several times the entire
they showed up as a horror for attacking
annual budget of the state-$120,000.
Americans-jagged coral in bizarre shapes
Government is a third source of island
pocked with caves that the Japanese had
income. When the author visited Peleliu on
fortified (right). Now Peleliu is dotted with
election day last year, she learned that although
memorials (lower right) to men of both sides,
only 400 Peleliuans live on the island, five
and many survivors return for visits that give
candidates were running for governor, with
the island a steady income. A downed Japanese
an undetermined number standing for
Zero (below), near Koror, lies in waters shallow
lieutenant governor and the state legislature-
enough for visitors to drop into the cockpit.
a situation similar to that in Palau's other
Another important source of Peleliu income
15 states. "The most overgoverned place on
is illegal: the growing of marijuana, usually in
earth," says Fred Radewagen, publisher of the
50-gallon oil drums. During one raid in 1983
Washington Pacific Report and a longtime
police identified 16 fields from the air. On the
observer of Micronesia.
ALL OY DAVID HISER
497
(Continued from page 493)
one Sunday,
out Governor Pedro P. Tenorio of the new
Believing surrender dishonorable and
beliefs and ways of life, have never truly
showing us, himself, the incredible beauty
Northern Marianas commonwealth. We
fearing that victorious Americans would
been assimilated, and are now, at last, free
of his realm. In white shorts and shirt, devil-
lunched together looking out on the gardens
kill, torture, and rape, hundreds of Japanese
to govern themselves, to make their own
may-care at the wheel of his own speedboat,
of a luxury hotel filled with Japanese honey-
settlers and soldiers leapt to their death from
decisions, to handle their own affairs.
President Salii took us darting among the
mooners, as are most hotels in Saipan. Japa-
cliffs now known as Banzai and Suicide.
"The best thing we may have done is to
myriad Rock Islands, onetime coral reefs
nese money had built the hotels with foreign
I had stood atop Banzai Cliff, rising sheer
help educate and train exceptional island
that through time have been lifted above the
labor, because the labor force on Saipan, as
from the foaming sea, and, in my mind's
leaders," she said. "In the four and a half
sea, carved by wave action, and dressed in
elsewhere throughout Micronesia, is mea-
eye, saw the horror. Whole families came to
years I have been here, I've seen them grow
tropical foliage (pages 462-3).
ger and largely untrained.
jump, the children lined up by age with the
and mature, at home and at the UN."
"There are a thousand private beaches
"The Japanese didn't treat us badly before
youngest at cliff's edge. On-command, each
Lazarus Salii too had spoken of these
here, just a quick boat ride from our hotels,"
World War II," said Governor "Pete" Ten-
child pushed off the one in front, until the
leaders. They had all once served together in
he said with a smile that transformed his
orio. "Their policy, I believe, was to keep us
father pushed the mother and he turned and
the territory-wide Congress of Micronesia-
face. "And a million wonders in the water."
native Chamorros out of harm's way. Before
jumped with his back to the sea, so as not to
FSM President Nakayama and Bethwel
Snorkeling, I saw live soft coral waving in
the Americans invaded Saipan in 1944, the
lose his nerve. And all the while, Americans
Henry, Speaker of the FSM Congress; Gov-
a rainbow of hues and tropical fish in a fan-
Japanese had us move from our home on the
in small boats offshore broadcast pleas in
ernor Resio S. Moses of Pohnpei, Governor
tasy of sizes, shapes, colors, and markings,
coast to our farm in the hills. We kids never
Japanese for them not to jump and attempt-
Mangefel of Yap, Governor Tenorio of the
representing at least 1,500 types. We pad-
knew about the suicides until later."
ed to save those who survived.
Northern Marianas, President Kabua of the
dled over giant clams, some four and a half
The governor grew up to go to high school
Marshalls, and President Salii himself. The
feet in diameter and weighing 200 pounds,
and college on Guam, working his way. He
Congress of Micronesia had limited power,
believed to be more than 60 years old. We
started his business career on Saipan with a
subject to veto by the U.S. high commis-
marveled that these beautiful creatures
single gas pump that led to a rental agency
sioner but with an advise-and-consent voice
grow so huge, thanks to symbiosis with tiny
for jukeboxes and electronic games, then
in appointments. It was their training
but abundant one-celled algae. This natural
slot machines, and now poker machines, a
ground-and they had all been together.
food production encourages several Micro-
popular hotel entertainment.
"There was a time when many of us
nesian islands to farm the clams for human
But politics is Governor Tenorio's deepest
hoped," said Salii, "that we could have a
consumption.
interest, as I observed firsthand during his
United States of Micronesia-one nation.
President Salii may be fun-loving on his
run for a second term as governor. The cam-
But it was not to be
day off, but he takes his job seriously. After
paign was a corker, with public debates
I remember my last meeting in the Feder-
Palau's first president, Haruo Remeliik,
turned wild with accusations, massive ral-
ated States with Tosiwo Nakayama, Beth-
was assassinated in June 1985, Salii ran for
lies fueled by free beer and food, newspaper
wel Henry, and Resio Moses. I had invited
president, promising to resolve the impasse
crusades, and illustrated posters nailed to
them and their wives to lunch at The Village
with the United States that had prevented
every tree and post. The political tempest
on Pohnpei, and we were served delicious
the negotiation of a compact.
was brewed in the teapot of a mere 7,000
fresh crab and breadfruit salad in the big,
The problem? The Palauans had voted
voters, 90 percent on Saipan, virtually all
breeze-swept dining room. As we lingered
for a constitution that banned nuclear de-
the rest on the islands of Rota and Tinian.
over glasses of white wine, a tropical storm
vices. Salii then initialed a compact agree-
blew up, and in the fury of wind and rain we
ment with the U.S. allowing American
S
AMERICAN as the election was,
seemed to draw closer to one another.
ships and planes of all types to operate in Pa-
however, Janet McCoy, the High
Once I had mentioned to President Na-
lau. A court ruling held the compact illegal
Commissioner of the Trust Territo-
kayama that I had heard the American ad-
without a 75 percent referendum vote, a
ry of the Pacific, sees the islanders
ministration of the trust territory described
constitutional stipulation.
as little changed by the U.S. presence in
as the "scandal of the Pacific. And he had
Salii dissented, arguing for a more flexible
fundamental values and sense of identity.
been quick to respond. "Not so. We owe ev-
interpretation of the constitution: "It does
"Of course, I've seen the improvements
erything to the United States. You gave us
not say we cannot allow nuclear-powered
brought by our country," she told me, listing
our freedom, the right to speak our minds.
ships if they are in transit." If an appeal
DAVID HISER
airplane runways and COMSAT stations
And education."
fails, he could ask his countrymen to give
At gift-giving time at Xavier High
in each capital, maternal and child health-
Now he spoke again of the United States
him the 75 percent endorsement at the polls.
School on Truk, Santa Claus, wearing a
Difficult? Maybe. But the agreement won a
traditional thu, hands out gaily wrapped
care programs, Head Start classes, and
and the difficulty of having a brother so big,
practical gifts such as corned beef,
many college-educated young people. "But
so powerful, so flaunting with nuclear pow-
72 percent referendum last February.
toothpaste, and soft drinks. This school,
what I see most is a group of people who,
er. But it was of a family that he spoke; peo-
The Palau compact also allows the Ameri-
offering a liberal-arts education to some
down the centuries, through occupation
ple in the islands understand about families.
can military the option of using the nation's
of the best young minds in Micronesia,
by four totally different governments—
As for me, I felt I had been witness at a
big island of Babelthuap for bases if the
and the Pohnpei Agriculture and Trade
Spanish, German, Japanese, and American
birth in that family. The birth of nations that
U.S. should lose those in the Philippines.
School are run by Jesuits. Both are sorely
-have managed to retain their own culture.
are forever bound by memory of the days
At the end returned to Saipan and sought
needed in the Pacific's emerging nations.
They have remained true to their own
they were one, in trust.
498
National Geographic, October 1986
New Nations in the Pacific
499
The tall trees of 'Upolu shelter small
farm plots, where the smoke from stone
ovens on a Sunday morning hangs heavy
as fog. Western Samoans live mainly by
subsistence farming, largely abandoned
by their cousins on American Samoa.
was left with seven children and very little
money," said this 89-year-old grande dame
of the Pacific, daughter of a Samoan mother
and an English father. Aggie denies being
James Michener's inspiration for the charac-
ter of Bloody Mary in South Pacific.
"I bought some whiskey and made a little
bar," she said. "A few tables, a few mats on
the floor, a kitchen out back. And I started to
put people up."
Today the hotel has 120 pleasant rooms
encircling a lush tropical garden. The dining
room serves the best food in Samoa, includ-
ing such local dishes as palusami-coconut
cream baked in young taro leaves. After din-
ner Aggie often mingles with the guests and
can be persuaded to dance the siva: "It
makes me happy to dance. IfI didn't, I think
I'd be in a wheelchair."
Two years ago Aggie received a surprise
from Queen Elizabeth: "When I read the let-
ter that I was to get the QSO [Queen's Ser-
vice Order], I nearly passed out. The New
Zealand high commissioner came here and
pinned me. We had a big party. The medal
was so heavy, I said to him, 'You know I
have only a small chest; now you flatten
it more!' I always say what I think. That's
my trouble.
"I'm frightened of the new airport," she
A GRICULTURE is the backbone of our
works 350
told me. "The big planes with hundreds of
economy," said Prime Minister Tofi-
lands of 'Up
people coming in-the island can't take
lau Eti Alesana, a large cordial man.
in the 1950:
them. This is a pretty little place. I don't
"In 1984 our exports totaled 15 mil-
and their fo
want to see it spoiled."
lion dollars, three times the 1981 figure.
house not
Aggie is also disturbed by what she feels is
Growers are getting more for their products,
high Sopo'a
a growing trend: "There are too many peo-
but the cost of living is going up. We need to
when I visi
ple sitting around relying on money from
stimulate foreign exchange. That means we
medical stu
family overseas. They should be working
must curb imports and export even more."
"Cattle U
the land."
The government controls extensive tracts
Birdie, as h
So-called overseas remittances, 20 mil-
of cultivated land, mainly in coconuts and
tion. "But
lion dollars last year (much of it from Ameri-
cacao. It also controls prices paid to small
theft. So n
can Samoa), are a big chunk of the economy.
producers, most of whom farm at or just
making cop
The country as a whole receives aid too-
above the subsistence level. There are a
the drying
some 15 million dollars last year from a mul-
growing number of progressive farmers,
deal in who
titude of foreign sources. But the fact is that
however, who look at farming as a business.
"Econom
most people are working the land.
One of those is Birdsall Ala'ilima, who
has been ter
466
National Geographic, October 1985
The Two San
our
works 350 acres in the remote eastern up-
are a cigarette factory and a brewery: The
Cofi-
lands of 'Upolu that his matai father cleared
tobacco is all imported, and the ingredients
ian.
in the 1950s. Birdie and his wife, Marléne,
for the beer are all imported. The govern-
mil-
and their four small children live in a frame
ment should be developing local industry to
ure.
house not far from spectacular 228-foot-
encourage local products. Like integrated
cts,
high Sopo'aga Falls. Staying with the family
processing of coconuts-using the whole
d to
when I visited was Birdie's sister Sisilia, a
nut, not just the meat."
we
medical student at the University of Hawaii.
Back at the house, he and Sisi expanded
re."
"Cattle used to be our mainstay," said
on the idea. "The technology has been
acts
Birdie, as he showed me around the planta-
around," said Sisi, "but Third World coun-
and
tion. "But we were having problems with
tries have been slow to exploit it. The husk
nall
theft. So now it's coconuts. We've been
makes coir fiber, twisted fiber used in car
just
making copra recently," he said, pointing to
seats. The shells make high-quality acti-
e a
the drying shed, "though we would prefer to
vated charcoal-industry uses it in anti-
ers,
deal in whole nuts.
pollution equipment. And coconut milk has
ess.
"Economic planning by the government
potential as a carbonated beverage."
who
has been terrible. Two major industries here
"The price for a nut now is six cents," said
985
The Two Samoas
467
Birdie. "With integrated processing it could
As soon as the association got on its feet,
"We are
be 14 cents."
Sisi was going back to Hawaii but vowed to
told me. "C
The Ala'ilimas had started a petition
return and practice medicine in the villages.
ger the com
among nearby villages in support of the idea
"The country has need of doctors," she said.
be catching
and planned to present it to the government.
Sisi's return will be an exception to the
heart disea
"In this place," said Birdie, "it's hard to get
rule. Thousands of people leave Western Sa-
cers. Food is
action as an individual."
moa every year for American Samoa, New
more on imp
The petition is the first act of what they
Zealand, and the U. S. While that migration
chicken ba
hope will be a national grass-roots farmers
offsets a high birthrate (nearly half the popu-
corned beef-
association. "People haven't been getting a
lation is under 15), many who leave are edu-
en by most 1
fair price from the government," said Bird-
cated young adults-the hope of the future.
One of th
ie. A newsletter would inform villages about
Returning physicians are especially wel-
trends is the
prices, markets, and new techniques.
come and equally rare.
people. It m
Sisi had taken a semester off to help form
"The average salary for doctors here is
thoritarian ]
the association, yet sounded a note of re-
something like $5,000 a year, said Director
cal," said Ve
serve: "By giving this information to the vil-
of Public Health Dr. Walter Vermeulen in
altercation V
lages, we are implying that their lives have
his Apia office. "And we are at the top of
drinks weed
been incomplete. But as far as they're con-
the wage scale. That's not much motivation
looks like a
cerned, their lives are complete and always
to come back. The sirens of affluence are
wardly, we }
have been. If government and progress just
very strong."
But Verme
disappeared, the villages would survive.
Vermeulen, a warm, graying man in his
moa is bless
But the farmers should know their options
mid-40s, is Belgian by birth but married a
healthy pop
and decide the future for themselves."
Samoan and became a naturalized citizen.
healthy. No
Worship wears white on Sunday morning as women in flowing puletasi escort
children to the Congregational church at Sapapali'i on Savai'i (above).
Praying youngsters close their eyes in rapt concentration (right). Here the
Reverend John Williams of the London Missionary Society landed in 1830 to bring
Christianity to Samoans, now among the most fervent churchgoers in the world.
468
National Geographic, October 1985
The Two Samoa
"We are basically a healthy country," he
drive from one of our health centers or dis-
told me. "Our biggest problems are no lon-
trict hospitals. That is true even for the most
ger the communicable diseases. We seem to
distant villages on Savai'i."
be catching the diseases of the West, like
heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, ul-
AVAI'L Samoa's big island, bigger than
cers. Food is one variable. People are relying
more on imported food, much of it inferior-
S
all the other islands combined. Some
say it is the legendary Hawaiki, from
chicken backs, mutton flaps, low-grade
which the great Polynesian navigators
corned beef-stuff that would never be eat-
set sail to discover every habitable speck of
en by most Americans."
land in the boundless mid-Pacific. It has
One of the most alarming recent health
been called the soul of Samoa. Here the 20th
trends is the high suicide rate among young
century has put down the shallowest roots,
people. It may well stem from the rather au-
and the fa'a Samoa-the Samoan way-has
S
thoritarian life-style in the villages. "Typi-
the most meaning.
cal," said Vermeulen, "is the son who has an
The ferry to Savai'i is a once-in-a-lifetime
altercation with his father and goes out and
experience, I was told. That is, you should
drinks weed killer. From the outside Samoa
experience it once and only once. But it
looks like a peaceful, pleasant society. In-
wasn't all that bad. The World War II land-
e
wardly, we have conflicts."
ing craft had room for half a dozen vehicles,
But Vermeulen remains an optimist. "Sa-
including my rental car, along with maybe
S
moa is blessed with a good climate and a
50 people and their assorted animals. We
a
healthy population," he said. "Poor but
plowed across the potentially ferocious 13-
healthy. No one is farther than a 15-minute
mile channel in relative calm.
ng
85
The Two Samoas
469
Until fairly recently, travel on Savai'i was
restricted to either walking or paddling, but
Australia put up the money and the exper-
tise for paving a road around the island.
When the ferry docked at Salelologa, Ihead-
ed counterclockwise.
Savai'i has the feel of a large landmass. At
its center is 6,095-foot Mount Silisili, highest
point of all the islands, but the ground slopes
so gradually that you don't notice it.
As I drove through village after village, I
caught glimpses of Samoan life: boys return-
ing from the plantation, weighted down
with baskets full of coconuts; older men
gathered in a fale, sitting cross-legged with
their backs against the support poles-vil-
lage chiefs, debating the day's business. In
other fale I saw women tirelessly plaiting
pandanus mats. Farther on, a group of men
were fishing in a lagoon, beating the water
as they converged on a central point. In one
village a wedding was in progress, with
much singing and dancing and exchanges of
food and fine mats, the intricately woven
units of ceremonial currency.
In many villages the malae, or town com-
mon, had become an athletic field, where
young men were playing volleyball or crick-
et or rugby. Young Samoan men are seem-
ingly always big and powerfully built.
Dressed in their waist-to-knee wraparound
skirts called lavalava, they look about as
effeminate as the Los Angeles Raiders.
Several Samoans, in fact, play professional
football in the U.S.
Before rounding the island's northeast
corner, the road cuts inland and crosses a
bleak expanse of lava from the most recent
eruption, which ended in 1911. Here and
there a few green shoots poked up defiantly.
Dexterous fingers weave pandanus
leaves into fine mats (facing page,
HE PAVEMENT temporarily runs
T
foreground) for ceremonial gifts. Fare for
out at the tiny north coast village of
a feast (above) includes-clockwise from
Manase. There Chief Taito Muese
the roast pig-bananas, corned beef,
and his wife, Rasela, invited me to
breadfruit, palusami, or coconut cream
spend the night. They didn't speak much
baked in taro leaves, taro, opened
English, and I spoke less Samoan, but never
palusami, fish, cocoa, and coconut.
was I made to feel more welcome.
A technician (top) dusts flowers of a
Sixteen-year-old Auckland, one of four
coconut palm with pollen from Solomon
daughters and six sons, took me for a walk
Islands trees to produce a more fruitful
strain. The United Nations Development
along a picture-postcard beach. Her English
Programme helps fund the project to
was unmistakable: "I want to get far away
bolster Western Samoa's economy.
from Samoa," she said. Why, I asked her.
There is no money here," she replied.
The Two Samoas
471
the morning to pursue their sport. Of course, as many of you ladies
808
587-0047
know, that tradition exists today on the mainland, except it's called
Nathan
golf.
Kow-I
ancesters of Hawaiians
Ka-why
descended from gods
Napo Ka
There's a Kauai legend about an ancient group of natives known as
State Historic
Peservation
the Menehuene (Men-a-hoon-a), a physically short and mischievous people
office
who lived in the island's thick forests and canyons and were similar to
Ireland's leprechauns.
The Menehuene were master builders who toiled by the light of the
moon, or so it was rumored, because no one ever saw them at work, but
saw only the finished precision of their labor. If they couldn't
Must be
finish a project in a single night, they abandoned it forever. But
McNAlly
distant
this rarely happened.
cousim
One of the Menehuene's more famous accomplishments is a large
fishpond that includes a 900-foot dam with holes allowing young fish to
enter but too small to let grown fish escape. Which I think you'll
agree is a rather clever accomplishment.
Friends, I tell you the legend of the Menehuene because I believe
there's a message in it for us: Bigger is not always better. Size is
not a measure of ingenuity, intelligence, or enthusiasm. Value is the
delectability of the fruit, not the size of the vine.
Companies today are waking from a corporate slumber to find a
condensed management structure. A structure which in essence
establishes smaller operating units out of what once had been
divisions. This approach takes advantage of a smaller profit center to
increase responsiveness, innovation, and accountability.
We apply this philosophy at American Brands to companies in our
core businesses -- namely tobacco, distilled spirits, and financial
- 2 -
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Blue Horizons Paradise Isle of the Pacific
199 pgo. 1985
Isles of the South Pacific 211 pep 1968
Pacific Island Summit Set for Hawaii
It's time for another summit-this one in Hawaii.
President Bush will meet in Honolulu Oct. 27 with
leaders of 13 Pacific island states of Micronesia, Mel-
Cook
anesia and Polynesia, the White House said yesterday.
The following leaders have been invited:
Aug 1967 p 203-231
Prime Minister Geoffrey A. Henry, Cook Islands;
Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, Fiji; Pres-
ident Ieremia T. Tabai, Kiribati; President Amata
Kabua, Republic of the Marshall-Islands; President
Tonga
John R. Haglelgam, Federated States of Micronesia;
President Bernard Dowiyogo, Nauru; Premier Robert
Dec 1974 p 782 - 793
Rex, Niue: Prime Minister Rabbie Namaliu, Papua
New Guinea; Prime Minister Solomon Mamaloni, Sol-
omon Islands, King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, Tonga;
Mar. 1968 p 299, p322-343
Prime Minister Bikenibeu Paeniu, Tuvalu; Prime
Minister Walter Hayde Lini, Vanuatu; and Prime Min-
ister Tofilau Eti Alesana, Western Samoa:
p345-367
-Molly Moore and Stuart Auerbach
Sovereign
Tvvalu
Nauru
July 1947 p131-148
Sept '76 344-353
May 1946 P:617,-640
new Duined
Micronesia
July -48 73-104
May '62 583
Dec 59 767-815
June' 242 759-785
Mar 'SI 327-370
Marshall Islands
Papna N.G.
Oct. 86 460-499
Ap '88 424-457
June 86 813-834
Aug 83 147-169
Jan 83
46-65
July 148 73-104
July 46 97-116
Aug '82
150-171
July 77
124-146
May 1/6 617-640
Sept '73
354-381
July 69 148-156
Solornons Is land
Fine
Oct 68 445-491
March 51 327-370
Oct 58 526-561
July 47 131-148
July 50 121-140
May 46 617-640
Western Samoa
Ap 43 485-524
Oct 85 452 - 473
Oct 62 573-602
Kiribati
Carton Is. Phoenix 1s, Gilbert Is, Vanuata
Jan 55 117-132
Mar 51 327-370
May 46 617-640
Aug 44 229-256
Feb 45 129-162
Dec. 70 799-817
Jan 43 1-92
Jan 55 77-92
July 47 131-148
Jan 72 57-83
May 74 706-715
April 88 458-467
(219)
OUR IMMUNE
SYSTEM
THE WARS
WITHIN 702
1986
AUSTRALIA'S
TEA AND
TEA TEA AND
SUG R'TRAIN
THE was
TH THE WORLD
0 OFTOLSTO OY 75 758
JUNE 1986
OF LIFE :
OF LIFE
SOT
of
A
V
E64 please YOUS
VOL VOL.169 169 NO. 6
OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY WASHINGTON, D. D.C.
TRACKING
A Way of Life Lost
By WILLIAM S. ELLIS
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SENIOR WRITER
Photographs by JAMES P. BLAIR
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTOGRAPHER
The year was 1946. World War II had just ended in a flash of atomic
fury that even the bomb's inventors didn't fully understand. For
further tests, the American military chose a remote island cluster
in the Pacific called Bikini Atoll. Its inhabitants agreed to vacate
their homes, assured that they could return when the tests were
over. Today, 40 years and 23 nuclear explosions later, the Bikinians
are still waiting, on a cramped, isolated island 500 miles from
home. For as instruments on Bikini show (below), their atoll is still
dangerously radioactive.
THIS PAGE FOLDS OUT
813
U.S.S.R.
HEY SANG when they left, and
Islands. Of the 23 set off at Bikini, there was
Route of the nuclear nomads
T
now that they were back, they
one called Bravo, the most powerful bomb
ever detonated by this country. The com-
T WAS A TEMPORARY MOVE the
people
of
sang again.
bined power of all the weapons fired in all
JAPAN
Bikini thought in 1946, when they for uninhabited
Sitting on the beach at night,
they raised their strong, good
the wars of history would fall short of that re-
HAWAII
Rongerik Atoll. Within two years they were starving:
many local fish were poisonous and coconuts searce.
voices until the harmony carried out over
leased by Bravo over the 242 square miles of
Bikini
Evacuated to a U.S. naval base on Kwanalein. they
the black waters of the lagoon. They sang of
the Bikini lagoon. When the testing ended-
Atoll
Marshall
Islands
were moved eight months later to Kill. 14 here about half
love, a song about the fragrance in the morn-
when the tens of thousands of servicemen,
ing lingering from the night before. They
technicians, and scientists had all left, when
MICRONESIA
their numbers remain. The rest are scattered throughout
the Marshall Islands. Enewetak Eniwetok) Atoll, also
sang too of a spirit lost at sea, waiting to be
the ships of the target fleet had either sunk,
used for testing, was partly resettled in 1980 after
caught up in a great current and to be borne
sailed, or been towed away, when the shock
radioactive soil and debris were removed. Bikinians
to everlasting peace.
waves stood the waters of the lagoon on end
AUSTRALIA
hope such a plan may one day end their 40-year odyssey.
Nearly 40 years had passed since that
for the last time-Bikini island was still
Sunday in 1946 when Commodore Ben Wy-
there with its coconut palms and pandanus
Bikar Atoll
att of the United States Navy met with them
trees, a testimonial, seemingly, to surviv-
Enewetak
Bikini Atoll
1946
RELOCATION
1954 BRAVO NUCLE AR
TEST HIGH-INTENSITY
after church services to say that their island
ability in nuclear action.
Atoll
(ENLARGED BELOW)
FALLOUT PATTERN
was needed for a project that would benefit
(ENLARGED BELOW)
Rongerik Atoll
Utick Atoll
UT THE ISLAND and some of the 22
Ailinginae
mankind. He implied that an authority
Atoll
Rongelap
Taka Atoll
higher than any on earth would be pleased if
others in the atoll were not the same
Atoli
they decided to cooperate.
then and are not the same now. Ra-
Being both a devout and benevolent peo-
dioactive material remains in the soil, and
Ujelang
ple (and not without awe over America's
after two score years the people of Bikini
Atoll
1948 RELOCATION
Alluk
Jemo
Atoll
Mejit
Wotho Atoll
Island
Likiep
Atoll
military power), they announced this deci-
have not been able to return to their home to
Wotje Atoll
sion, through their chief, Juda: "If the
live. Rather, they remain on a small, isolat-
Erikub Atoll
Ujae Atoll
Lae
United States government and the scientists
ed island some 500 miles away, an island
Marshall
Atoll
Maloelap
of the world want to use our island and atoll
without a lagoon, a mere dot of land of 230
Kwajalein
Atoli
Atoll
for furthering development, which with
acres standing naked to the sea. Its name is
Islands
Lib Island.
Aur
Atoll
Namu
God's blessing will result in kindness and
Kili, the place where they live, and the old
0
Atoll
200 km
benefit to all mankind, my people will be
men and women there remember a way of
Jabwot Island
Arno
200 mi
Atoll
pleased to go elsewhere." All 161 members
life that is now lost.
NGS CARTOGRAPHIC DIVISION
Ailinglapalap
DESIGN JOHN LOTHERS
Atoll
of the 11 families were transported to anoth-
Kili, like Bikini and Enewetak, is part of
RESEARCH JOHN TREIBER MARGUERITE B. HUNSIKER
1948 RELOCATION
Majuro
PRODUCTION ELLENJ LANDSMAN
Atoll
er place aboard a Navy LST. They took
the Marshall Islands group of Micronesia
with them the thatch from their 26 houses,
taken from Japan in World War II and ad-
Mili
Pingelap Atoll
Atoll
along with the dismantled church and com-
ministered by the United States as a United
(Caroline Islands)
Jaluit Atoll
Knox Atoll
munity hall.
Nations trusteeship. Divided into two
Namorik Atoll
Kill Island
Less than six months later, on July 1,
chains, the Ratak ("sunrise") on the east and
Kosrae
(Present home
(Caroline Islands)
1946, a B-29 bomber known to its crew as
the western-facing Ralik ("sunset"), the 34
of Bikinians)
Dave's Dream appeared over the lagoon,
atolls and single islands of the Marshalls lie
Ebon Atoll
and from its belly there fell an instrument,
2,400 miles southwest of Hawaii.
For the most part these are not Pacific is-
Bogon
hurtling toward one of some 93 unmanned
Enewetak
Bikini
target vessels at a speed of 300 miles an hour.
lands in the Gauguinesque sense of flowery
Atoll
Atoll
At 34 seconds after nine o'clock in the morn-
bliss. These atolls, coral reefs built up on the
Engebi
BRAVO
ing the device exploded at an altitude of
slopes of sunken volcanoes, barely rise
Aomon
Nam
Aomen
about 500 feet. For a wrathful moment then,
above the water. Many of them are like flag-
it seemed as if the sun had risen for a second
stones in a path, trodden by violent winds
time that morning.
and waves, some under recurrent drought,
Runit
Bikini
And then the world came to know about
others lush from almost daily rainfall.
Between 1948 and
1958, 43 devices were
this island and its atoll, a place in the west-
Once, the Bikinians were expert sailors,
exploded on land, in
Site of 23 tests from 1946
taking their outrigger canoes across many
the air, underwater, or
to 1958, including Bravo,
ern Pacific called Bikini.
Japtan
from barges.
the first deliverable
The testing of nuclear weapons in the Pa-
miles of water to visit other islands in the
hydrogen bomb.
Eneu
cific by the United States had begun. In the
atoll. They fished and gathered turtle eggs.
next 12 years, more than 60 explosions
Their other foods were coconuts and arrow-
Parry
NUCLEAR
Eneman
would follow, most of them in the lagoon of
root. With the disruption in their lives, they
TEST SITE
NUCLEAR
Enewetak
TEST SITE
Enewetak (Eniwetok) Atoll in the Marshall
became landbound, and their seafaring
O
km
10 km
10 mi
Channel
10 mi
National Geographic, June 1986
"For the good of mankind," Bikinians
left home to make way for the Able and
!!
Baker atomic tests: American negotiators
found the missionary-educated Bikinians
especially open to religious appeals. Here
an advance construction party of U.S. Navy
Scabees and Bikinians loads supplies onto
a landing craft for the trip to Rongerik.
shown what the government is doing to
make the island habitable. Most of them
were elders who had spent their early years
as fishermen and boatbuilders, and they
were the ones for whom the departure from
Bikini in 1946 was most painful.
"Bikini not long now." Lore Kessibuki
looked out of the window, down to where
the Pacific lay sunstruck and still. We had
stopped at Kwajalein, the largest island in
the largest coral atoll in the world, and were
glad to be gone from there, for it is a place
where outsiders are not made to feel wel-
come. Kwajalein Atoll is where missiles
land after being fired from Vandenberg Air
Force Base, some 4,800 miles away in Cali-
fornia. They are seldom far off target as they
slam into the lagoon or the sea nearby, un-
nerving fish and bird, and prompting one
person on the plane to observe, "I have no
doubt that in the event of a war, the United
States can knock the hell out of Kwajalein."
T
HERE IS no landing strip on Bikini,
so we put down on Eneu, in the south-
east corner of the atoll. No one lives on
the 304 acres of Eneu, and the runway dates
from the nuclear testing period.
Tomaki Juda, the mayor and son of the
late Chief Juda, may have been the one who
caught the first fish from the boat taking the
delegation from Eneu to Bikini. It was a 45-
pound yellowfin tuna, taken on a handline
NUCLEAR
with only a few strands of burlap for a lure.
skills died as the old men died. As wards
protest. Their culture does not permit that.
coral, there is a stir of excitement among the
Unfished for many years, Bikini lagoon
of the U.S. government, they now receive
"They promised us we could go back,"
Bikinians. Except for the radio and periodic
gave generously that day of its tuna and oth-
food from the Department of Agriculture,
said Sorry Jelang, an elderly Bikinian, "so
visits by a government supply ship, it is their
er fish, all free now of radioactivity. The 17
such as peaches soaked in heavy syrup.
all we can do is stay here and wait. But we
only link with the rest of the world. It also
vessels in the target fleet that sank during
Diabetes is a major concern among the
need more money, more food. You tell them
brings them new stocks of Fanta grape soda.
the testing act as convention halls for marine
Bikinians, and such food only adds to the
to give us a big bank. Look at my hair, all
In July of last year the plane-then the
life, including sharks in menacing numbers.
problem.
white now; on Bikini, only black."
only operational one of the Marshall Islands
Lore Kessibuki was among the first onto
They also suffer from despair, and so their
On the days when the airplane comes to
airline-left Kili with the mayor of the com-
the beach. He is an old man, but he stood
comments to outsiders are weighted with
Kili, banking lazily to the left before thread-
munity and members of the council among
there with his back straight and his head
complaints. But there is never rancor in
ing the eye of the needle between palms and
the passengers. The destination: Bikini.
tilted upward, like a visionary at a time of
what the Bikinians say, no confrontational
the sea to set down on the runway of crushed
They were returning not to stay but to be
revelation, and said, in a whisper, "Bikini,
S16
National Geographic, June 1986
Bikini-A Way of Life Lost
817
U. AIR FORCE (ABOVE): U.S. NAVY/NATIONAL ARCHIVES
Bikini." He was finally home, if only for a
to 90 years before the cesium on Bikini has
Ringside seats for the "bomb" were a hot ticket in 1951, when military and
civilian VIPs (above) watched from the officers club on Enewetak, just 12.5
few days.
been reduced to acceptable levels. Howev-
miles from ground zero. Naïveté was the order of the day during the 1946 tests,
er, there may be quicker ways of cleaning
when radioactive target ships were boarded within hours of a blast, and men
HERE is one radioactive substance
the island, and in the forefront of those seek-
assigned to scrub down the decks (below) routinely ate on board.
almost totally responsible for prevent-
ing them is Dr. William L. Robison of the
ing Bikinians from living on their
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
island. It is called cesium 137. Established
in Livermore, California.
in the soil, it contaminates the groundwater
"It took us years of work just to get a data
and food crops. That is not to say that a per-
base so we could make radiological assess-
son eating a coconut from a tree on Bikini is
ments of Bikini," Robison said. "Now we
going to die or even become ill. But a steady
are looking at possible remedial measures,
diet of locally grown foods could result in
such as blocking the uptake of cesium into
serious health problems.
the food crops, or reducing the radioactivity
That was the case during a ten-year peri-
by removing some of the soil."
od starting in 1968 when President Lyndon
It is possible to do the first, Robison be-
B. Johnson declared Bikini to be safe. By
lieves, by applying fertilizer rich in potassi-
1971 some Bikinians had returned, but by
um to the ground at Bikini. The second
1978 they were found to have ingested more
measure would require scraping off the top
cesium than was considered acceptable.
12 inches of soil to reduce the cesium hazard.
Once again the island was evacuated.
Clearly, the use of fertilizer would be less
Cesium 137 has a half-life of 30 years,
expensive and less destructive. To take
meaning that after 30 years its strength is re-
12 inches off Bikini's 560 acres could cost
duced by half. And then in another 30 years,
as much as 80 million dollars and destroy
it is again reduced by half (by contrast, plu-
25,000 trees and all the beneficial organic
tonium 239 has a half-life of 24,360 years).
matter now in the soil. Finally, disposal of
By such calculations it will take another 80
the "hot" material would present a problem.
National Geographic, June 1986
818
For those reasons scientists hope that the
soil will not be removed but rather that fer-
tilizer will be applied. Whatever the cost, it
would be a pittance compared with the bil-
lions of dollars spent to test the weapons.
"There is no question that we owe them
rent, and we owe them renovation," said
Dr. Henry I. Kohn, professor emeritus of ra-
diation biology at Harvard Medical School.
"I feel the United States owes it to Bikini's
people to return their atoll as close as possi-
ble to its original condition.'
Kohn is chairman of the Bikini Atoll Re-
habilitation Committee (BARC), a group of
scientists appointed by Congress to make
recommendations on how to make Bikini
livable again. He was among those who vis-
ited the island last summer, when the Bikin-
ians were there.
IKINI WAS SELECTED as the test
site because it is isolated from sea and
air routes, and because the winds in
the atoll blow in predictable directions,
thereby controlling the drift of radioactive
clouds. But once the winds shifted at the
time of a test shot, and because of that the
Bikinians remain nomads after 40 years.
Bravo was the first test of a deliverable
hydrogen bomb, a surface shot detonated in
1954. It was an explosion of about 15 mega-
tons, or 15 million tons of TNT (the bomb
exploded over Hiroshima had a force of
15,000 tons of TNT), making it the most
powerful weapon ever activated by the
United States. A freight train carrying Bra-
vo's equivalent in TNT would span the
North American Continent.
The errant winds showered radioactive
pulverized coral and other material over
a vast area-perhaps as much as 50,000
square miles. Those caught in the fallout
"
5. AIR FORCE/DEFENSE NUCLEAR AGENCY (FACING PAGE):
BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY
included some 250 Marshallese from the is-
"Bikini snow"-bits of radioactive ash and
lands of Rongelap and Utirik; 28 weather
coral-showered Rongelap Atoll when
station personnel on Rongerik; and 23 crew-
winds shifted during the Bravo test in 1954.
men of a Japanese fishing vessel, the Daigo
Curious natives played in it, even tasted it,
Fukuryu Maru (Lucky Dragon No. 5), one of
and many-like Iroji Kebenli (facing
whom died of radiation exposure. To this
page)-suffered burns. He recovered, but
day the tragedy of Bravo haunts the U.S.
three out of four children under ten later
developed thyroid tumors. Lekoj Anjain
government and its victims.
(top) had his thyroid removed, free of
Had it not been for the power of the explo-
charge, by New York's Brookhaven National
sion and the shift in winds from northward
Laboratory in 1968. He died in 1972
to eastward, Robison would not be kneeling
(above) of radiation-induced leukemia.
down in the dirt of Bikini 31 years later,
821
Bikini-A Way of Life Lost
examining vegetables and other crops being
tions, contradictions, and confusion have
crater, still clearly defined beneath the wa-
grown in an experimental garden. In one
left the people with an eroded sense of trust.
behind my house. I jumped up from my mat
ter. Nearby were old reinforced concrete
"We don't really understand these experi-
and ran to the tree, but the breadfruit was
place the hot soil had been removed, and in
bunkers in which automatic cameras re-
gone. Someone had beaten me to it."
another, fertilizer had been spread on the
ments," said Kilon Bauno, at last. "The only
corded the infernal turmoil of atoms gone
He went on to recall the time that he and
ground. Robison rose and squinted in the
thing we understand is that you poisoned
berserk-the steamy, dirty clouds rising
our island and that I am old, with not too
four Bikinians set out offshore in a small
bright sunlight as he explained to the mayor
tens of thousands of feet in the air, the waves
and members of the Bikini council that sam-
many years to live. So all we say is get us off
boat to fish. "If we hadn't been so hungry,
of heat and sound and motion breaking
ples would be tested for cesium content.
of Kili and give us lots of money so we can
we wouldn't have risked the trip in that
across the atoll, the complete destruction of
boat," he said. "The motor gave out, and
"It may be that we can get rid of some of
live comfortably until Bikini is safe."
an island, its beaches and birds and trees all
two of the Bikinians went into the water to
the cesium by flushing salt water through
Lest the scientists take offense, another
gone to vapor and dust.
swim to shore for help. They never made it.
the soil," he told them. "We are experiment-
Bikinian added: "It's true that we do not un-
As we passed the islands in the north of the
They were eaten by sharks."
ing with that." The Bikinians listened and
derstand your work, but we do know that
atoll, sounding the ship's whistle to send
said nothing.
you Americans are very smart."
the terns and petrels rising from the trees,
Also present were Dr. Frank L. Peterson
the Bikinians spoke among themselves of
of the University of Hawaii, a hydrogeolo-
O
N ANOTHER DAY we traveled by
the times they sailed here. "If we started out
gist; Dr. Earl L. Stone, adjunct professor of
boat across the lagoon, over the
before the sun came up, we'd be here by mid-
soil science at the University of Florida; and
place where the U.S.S. Saratoga lies
morning," one said. They knew the owner of
Dr. Arthur S. Kubo, a nuclear and civil en-
on the bottom, her flight deck only a hun-
each parcel of land on each island, for noth-
gineer at BDM Corporation in McLean,
dred feet below the surface. The honored
ing is more important to a Bikinian than
Virginia, all members of BARC and all ac-
carrier went down during the second shot of
land. In their culture a man without land is
tive in working to decontaminate the island.
the testing, settling upright on her keel, her
denied his dignity, his very reason for being.
The scientists share a deep concern for the
planes still arrayed on the hangar deck.
The Bikinians are a people with no writ-
welfare of the Bikinians, but past decep-
Then we sailed over the mile-wide Bravo
ten history. It is not certain where they origi-
nated, although the Marshall Islands atoll of
Wotje is often cited as their ancestral home.
Regarded as inferior by the Germans and
Nuclear
Japanese, who controlled the islands at dif-
scoreboard
ferent times until the end of World War II,
Bikinians came to hold themselves in low es-
HE ATOMIC CLUB
teem. Even among other Micronesians they
T
had one member-the
were considered backward, doltish.
United States-when
They withdrew among themselves but
testing began in 1945. The
retained a tenuous link to an outside iroij
Soviet Union made its
lablab, or paramount chief. Only with the
debut in 1949. Since then
arrival of missionaries in the early part of
four more players have
this century did they accept the teachings of
joined the group, which
others. They became staunch Christians.
through 1985 conducted
1940s
1,525 known tests.
'50s
Fallout from intensive
'60s
atmospheric testing
U.S.-761
70s
N
O ONE understands all of this better
ABOUND
than 44-year-old Ralph Waltz from
during the 1950s and
SOB,
Menominee Falls, Wisconsin, who
early '60s peaked in 1963,
UNDER
came to Micronesia with the Peace Corps
when it added some 7
FRANCE-
and stayed on to marry a Bikinian and settle
percent to the dose of
GREAT
on Majuro, the capital of the Marshalls. For
radiation we receive
a time Waltz lived on Kili and came to know
naturally. The increase
the hunger that gripped the people in their
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTOGRAPHER DAVID ALAN HARVEY
today stands at less than
one percent, thanks in
/
exile, when the arrival of supplies was de-
Luck ran out for the Lucky Dragon
layed by heavy seas and a shortage of ships
when Bravo's gritty fallout covered the
part to the 1963 Limited
and by indifference on the part of the Trust
Japanese fishing boat and its 23-man
Test Ban Treaty signed by
Territory administration.
crew, causing one death and many
the U.S., U.S.S.R., and
"I was lying in bed at four in the morn-
illnesses. Crew member Matashichi
Great Britain that began
ing," he told me, "and I was still awake. You
Oishi (above) sits on the renovated
the era of underground
testing.
can't sleep when you're hungry. I heard a
Dragon with his own model; both are
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ART DIVISION
breadfruit fall to the ground from a tree just
part of a Tokyo memorial to the tragedy.
DATA SOURCE: STOCKHOLM INTERNATIONAL
PEACE RESEARCH INSTITUTE
National Geographic, June 1986
Bikini-A Way of Life Lost
823
Unlike the Bikinians, Waltz shows
research material on Bikini, "the social im-
Pieces of red coral glistened in the sand,
went outside to the beach, and, sitting there
flashes of anger about their plight. This an-
pact on the people has been tremendous.
while giant turtles slumbered in the lee. The
by a fire fed with driftwood, they sang their
ger has served them well, for he is employed
They have lost virtually all their fishing and
beach was heavy with flotsam, mostly Japa-
songs of love and sorrow.
by the council as its liaison officer.
sailing skills."
nese Suntory whisky bottles (not a message
So they left the next morning. It is likely
Even more of a counterpoint to the timid-
from a castaway in the lot) and mangled flip-
that Lore and some of the other elders will
ity of the Bikinians is the voice and untiring
TILL, they try: There was the mayor,
flop sandals. There are no dwellings, no
never see the island again. At the same time
work of Jonathan M. Weisgall, a Washing-
Tomaki Juda, standing in the surf off
people living on Nam, and being there in the
most young Bikinians show little sincere in-
ton, D. C., attorney who shepherds their
Nam, the largest island on the north-
harsh sunlight, numbed by the solitude,
terest in going there. It may be, therefore,
lawsuits for compensation through the
west rim of the atoll, grinning and waving a
gives cause to wonder if this isn't the loneli-
that even if the cesium is removed, Bikini
courts, who appears before congressional
spear from which flapped a small rabbitfish.
est place on earth.
will remain abandoned.
committees on their behalf. Weisgall, too, is
They used to fish that way. On Kili they use
Nam covers 115 acres. It used to be larger,
Those who were born after the 1946 evac-
driven in no small measure by the steam of
a hook and line, sometimes floating on coco-
but Bravo carried away a piece of it and the
uation of the island have grown attuned to a
outrage.
nuts placed under their armpits, their heads
island of Bokonejen to its west. The nearby
world broader than the traditional social or-
"In addition to all else," he said, sitting
down, moving silently, stalking the catch.
island of Bokbata was also blown away in a
der of their parents. And, as wards of the
in his Washington office amid a clutter of
It was a jewel-like day, that time on Nam.
later explosion.
U.S. government since birth, they have be-
"That island was a pantry for us," said
come addicted to welfare. They are fed and
Lore Kessibuki, speaking of Nam. "We'd
housed, and their illnesses are tended to,
sail there and stay two or three days, and
more or less. There is no turning back now to
then we'd go home with turtle eggs and birds
fishing and gathering for the Bikinians. It is
and other things." Even now, going back to
too late. They like Spam.
Bikini, there was a 300-pound turtle on its
back in a skiff being towed by our vessel.
T HAD RAINED for four hours on Kili,
Someone suggested that the Bikinians re-
buckshot rain pinging on the metal roofs,
lease the turtle, but the past had reached out
and the water lay in chalk-colored pools
to touch them; and they liked the feel. The
from one end of the mile-long island to the
turtle, they insisted, would go with them to
other. All around, the sea swells beat against
Kili when they returned.
the shore. Here and there pigs rooted in gar-
bage thrown on the ground while chickens
T
HERE would be one more day on Bi-
performed in their interminable fandango of
kini-time enough for Lore Kessibuki
walking and pecking, walking and pecking.
to visit the graves of two of his sons.
Generators fed power to the houses in noisy,
"They got a fever and died," he told me as he
fitful surges.
looked down at the mounds overgrown with
And everywhere there were children; the
brush. There were markers on the graves,
birthrate on Kili must be among the highest
chiseled out of coral.
in the world. They have few toys so they
Lore is the poet, the lyricist of the commu-
squat in the sand and juggle pebbles. They
nity. The evening before they were to go
walk with their mothers to the beach and
back to Kili, he sat in the old schoolhouse be-
watch as soiled diapers are discarded in the
ing used as a dormitory and said to the scien-
surf. Then they play in the water, imagining
tists: "The thing I want to do is thank you for
themselves as sharks and ships and madcap
the work you're doing on this island, the
monsters risen from the deep.
ways you are looking for to get rid of the poi-
Shem Jamore, Toshiro Jelang, and Uraki
son in the ground. All the things you are do-
Jibas stood together in a doorway and
ing are amazing to me. Just a little while ago
waved to the driver of a pickup truck pass-
GORDON
TRIBBLE.
or
U.S.
NAVY/NATIONAL
I saw a beautiful cloud in the sky. I saw that
ing by. There are six pickups on Kili, and for
The nuclear lagoon of Bikini holds the World
with my eyes. With my mind I see America
a fare of a quarter a Bikinian can climb into
War II carrier U.S.S. Suratoga (above), one
being thousands and thousands of miles
the back and be driven around the island. It
of many vessels purposely targeted to
ahead of all others scientifically. I see too
test damage. Saratoga sank during test Baker,
is a fine way to catch a breeze on a hot day,
that Bikini people added to America's ad-
a 1946 underwater blast that raised 100-foot
especially racing down the airstrip.
vancements in science by giving up their
waves and shot water from the lagoon
"Right here, where we are, is downtown
island. and so there should be an under-
more than a mile high. Radioactivity showed
Kili,' Toshiro said, laughing. "At that end is
up in a surgeonfish (right) that had eaten
standing between Americans and our peo-
Chinatown, and on the other end is the high-
contaminated algae.
ple. Well, I just wanted to say that."
rent district."
He and some other council members then
There are no Chinese on Kili, and there is
824
National Geographic, June 1986
Bikini-A Way of Life Lost
825
no rent. high or low. Toshiro had meant to
would they want to return to the island?
mock the suffocating confines of the island
and the sameness of the 75 or so houses made
S
OMETHING ELSE: An agreement
of plywood and metal. There is also an ele-
with the United States, through
mentary school, a church, and a restaurant
which the Bikinians received 20.0
that may or may not be open on any given
million dollars for resettlement, stipulated
day to serve chicken and rice-hardly ever
that they must find a place to live within the
anything other than chicken and rice. The
Marshall Islands. Also, it has been made
sale of alcohol is banned on the island, al-
clear by a citizens group on Maui that the
though soda pop is available through a pro-
people would not be welcome there.
cess laced with mystery and intrigue.
There has been other financial compensa-
"You want a soft drink?" Toshiro asked.
tion in addition to the resettlement fund to
"It is very expensive. Seventy-five cents.
ease the many hurts, but nothing like the 450
And it may take some time. After half an
million dollars they are seeking in a lawsuit
hour the drink appeared, but not before fur-
as payment by the U.S. for taking and dam-
tive consultations behind a water cistern.
aging their atoll. This action was scheduled
The reason for this was never made clear.
to go to trial last October, but it has been de-
Toshiro and his friends Shem and Uraki
layed because of a major development in the
are all too young to have been born on Biki-
status of Micronesia as a trust territory.
ni. They know little, if anything, about sail-
Under recently signed congressional leg-
ing an outrigger canoe or tending coconut
islation the Marshall Islands, to which Biki-
palm trees. Ask them where they would like
ni belongs, will become a "freely associated
to live and they will answer, as one, Maui,
state," independent except for matters of de-
Off-limits forever for habitation is Runit (below), where 111,000 cubic yards of
in Hawaii.
fense. (This same surge toward political au-
radioactive soil and debris scraped from islands in Enewetak Atoll lie entombed in
Maui is the first choice for a homesite
tonomy within the Trust Territory will also
a bomb crater beneath an 18-inch-thick concrete dome. The effort earned Enewetak
among most Bikinians. Many say they want
create the Federated States of Micronesia,
a clean bill of health, but medic Kunio Joseph (above) says fearful islanders think
to live there until Bikini is ready, but after
the Republic of Palau, and the Common-
"maybe 'they' put radiation in the ocean, and that is why there is always sickness here."
that intimate exposure to the outside world
wealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.)
827
Time passes slowly on Kili,
Although most of its islanders favored
the 230-acre island (right)
creation of a new Republic of the Marshall
While the future of the Bikinians hangs
Islands, as it will be called, 89 percent of the
now in a dark limbo, their numbers have
where many Bikinians have
grown from the 161 who were taken from
lived since 1948. Fed and
Bikinians voted against it. They are reluc-
tant to break their strong tie to the U. S. for
the island in 1946 to more than 1,260 today,
housed by the U. S.
government, even able-bodied
fear the welfare will end.
of whom about half live on Kili. And they
pass their days there waiting-the old
young men (below) have little
"Without the government food my diet
incentive to battle the island's
would be something like four crabs and a
men with faces like book bags, lumpy and
pounding surf for fish. This
strapped with wrinkles, the young girls with
scoop of rice each day," said Tomaki Juda.
leaves 650 Bikinians with
large combs in their black hair, the teen-
"Also, we would not feel comfortable if the
nothing to do but watch for the
age boys surly with boredom-waiting for
supply plane or dream of being
Marshallese government was put in charge
their flight from despair. They have reason
somewhere else. "All we can do
of our money. There are now many pro-
enough to curse those errant Bravo winds.
is stay here and wait
wait,"
grams beneficial to the Bikini people, but
Also because of their fallout:
says one islander.
we have concerns that they may not con-
A man named Gene Curbow seeks redress
tinue under a compact of free association.
from the government, claiming his health
has suffered. As a weather specialist in the
Air Force, he was one of 28 servicemen sta-
tioned on the island of Rongerik at the time
of the blast. The government paid him $53,
the cost of the clothes he had to leave behind.
He claims to have received 117 rem of ex-
ternal radiation in two days (200 times the
maximum annual dose allowed by federal
radiation standards) from those heavy,
powdery flakes they called Bikini snow. He
had three heart attacks by the time he was
42 and now has three clogged arteries in his
body. He attributes all this to Bravo.
The people of Rongelap, also caught in
Bravo's poisonous dust, claim to be plagued
with illnesses. They have developed a high
number of thyroid tumors, some cancerous.
The claim that their women give birth to
grossly deformed babies is highly contested.
Last year the people were taken by the
Greenpeace organization to another island
in the Marshalls.
Roger Ray, a gentle and thoughtful man,
struggles against the forces that would have
him change his feelings of regret to those of
guilt. As a physicist he was present at Bikini
for Bravo. Subsequently, as the U.S. De-
partment of Energy program manager for
the Marshalls, Ray devoted the last 14 years
of his career to exorcising the terrible legacy
of the bomb from the lives of the islanders.
There are those who charge that the gov-
ernment, knowing that the winds had shift-
ed, went ahead with the detonation of Bravo
with the thought that those caught in the
fallout would serve as guinea pigs for the
study of the effects of radiation. Roger Ray
disputes that, and so does Gene Curbow.
"It was incompetence," Curbow told me.
828
National Geographic, June 1986
Bikini-A Way of Life Lost
829
"That's all you can flat outright say about it.
what happened, and that has led to such
If they set me up as a guinea pig, why
things as this exodus of the Rongelapese
haven't they been around to check on me?"
from their ancestral homeland."
The people of Rongelap and Utirik caught
in the fallout continue to have their health
AD THE TESTS of 1946 shown the
monitored and their illnesses treated by the
naval fleet to be obsolete, useless as a
Brookhaven National Laboratory of Long
war machine? Certainly there was
Island, New York, working as a subcon-
nothing for the Navy to cheer about as five
tractor for the government. Dr. William
ships went to the bottom in just the first shot,
Adams, who is in charge of the program,
while others burned with the hidden fires
contends that there is no medical reason for
of radiation. But there were ships that sur-
the people to have left Rongelap last year.
vived, ships that steamed from the scene
"Obviously, there was fallout over these
after taking a battering unequaled in the an-
atolls, and some residual radiation in the
nals of fury at sea. Decision: too close to call.
soil. But the radiation the people received on
There was widespread ignorance about
Rongelap since they moved back there in
nuclear weapons at the time of the testing.
1957 is less than if they had lived in Denver
Thus, the errors, the miscalculations, the
all that time."
orders that had sailors scrubbing the wood-
Adams and other physicians travel to the
work of a ship to remove radiation while
islands twice a year to examine and treat the
the brushes may have worked the poison
people. There are thyroid problems among
deeper into the pores. The devices used to
the population, he said, and two pituitary
monitor radiation were inadequate in many
tumors have been diagnosed. "A great deal
cases; also the men sometimes took off their
Paradise lost, the island of Bikini (below) has what Kili lacks-a sheltered
has been made about malignant disease and
gloves in contaminated areas, necessitating
lagoon and plenty of space. Several Bikini families moved back in 1971 after
removal of the outer layer of skin with acid.
the U.S. pronounced it safe. By 1978 they had ingested, through their diet,
the radiation exposure," Adams said, "and
unacceptable levels of radioactivity and were re-evacuated. In July 1985 members
while I do not want to make light of it at all,
Yet, at the time of the first two tests there
of the Bikini council returned (above) to observe current decontamination efforts.
there are groups that magnify the horror of
was not a single recorded death or serious
831
USA
Harskall
Islands
Radioactivity will linger on Bikini unless
injury due to radiation among the more than
Enewetak left tons of hot debris and soil.
the island of Enewetak. "I have run out of
its soil is decontaminated. That's the
40,000 servicemen and others present at
It took three years to clean the atoll, at a cost
supplies," he said. "I meet the plane every
verdict delivered to the Bikini council by
Bikini. The atoll was evacuated; the target
of 120 million dollars, and the rug under
time it comes in, hoping there is something
Dr. William L. Robison (left), director
ships were unmanned; test personnel were
which the dirt has been swept consists of 358
on it for me. I am down to one aspirin."
of the Bikini Atoll project of Lawrence
stationed safely upwind.
panels of concrete domed over a hole 30 feet
On Kili, Uraia Jibas complained that he
Livermore National Laboratory in
Still, it was messy.
was out of bandages. On a table there were
California. Foods grown on the island show
deep and 350 feet wide. And still there re-
bottles of pills, one of which was marked
high levels of radioactive cesium 137 (pink
main loose on Runit 160 grams of plutonium
spike on screen, above). The contaminated
N THE EASTERN SIDE of Enewe-
oxides, a mere thimbleful, but enough of this
Worms, another Arthritis, and a third Sca-
O
fruit held in Dr. Robison's right hand
tak Atoll there is a small island
toxic metal, in its elemental form, to wipe
bies. Nothing was refrigerated. In all the 68
shows reduced radiation; it was grown in
called Runit, and on that island there
out an entire population.
clinics in the outer islands of the Marshalls,
an experimental pumpkin patch (top)
is a massive concrete dome called Cactus
Kunio Joseph worries about the plutoni-
there are fewer than a dozen refrigerators
where the top 15 inches of soil had been
Crater, under which lies buried the deadly
um, but he worries much more about his
that work.
removed. High-potassium fertilizer or
garbage of radiation (pages 826-7).
empty aspirin bottle. For the past six years
For want of a medicine costing 85 cents, a
saltwater irrigation may further block the
The 43 explosions around the lagoon at
he has held the job of medical assistant on
local paper reported, a child on an outer
uptake of radioactivity.
832
National Geographic, June 1986
Bikini-A Way of Life Lost
833
"There are no words to express my depression," sang Lore Kessibuki (standing,
foreground) when he left Bikini 40 years ago. His dream of returning burns brighter
during a visit to the atoll, and he believes that those who ruined his home are
still his best hope-"It is not impossible for the United States to do anything."
island died last year. The infant mortality
filling that small hall with a devotion in
rate in the outer Marshalls is at least three
song. It is then that the outsider comes to
times as high as the United States average.
know a certain truth about these people, a
More than 50 percent of the deaths last year
people at peace with their lives: There is
were of children under five. Small Styro-
great strength yet in their souls, and only
foam caskets are neatly stacked on the floor
when they sit in those wooden pews, fanning
of a store on Majuro, as if on display for a
themselves and reaching deep for the pieces
weekend special.
of voice that fit together in glorious harmo-
ny-only then does the strength come forth.
UT THERE IS NO DEATH on this
So on this Sunday morning they are not
Sunday morning in Kili. Rather,
only singing and worshiping. They are once
someone is striking the empty steel
again sailing their outrigger canoes, and
oxygen cylinder that hangs from the old
they are fishing and clawing in the sand for
breadfruit tree in front of the church, strik-
turtle eggs. They are fathers smiling as their
ing it with a length of pipe to produce
sons make their first climb to the top of a
a sweet but muscled sound, like a requiem
coconut tree.
for a tsar.
It is not the sea that they hear outside,
It is the call to church, and soon the Biki-
pounding Kili's unprotected shores. It is the
nians are sending up their voices to Zion,
ghost of a lost culture calling out to them.
834
National Geographic, June 1986
VOL in 163
982
FION
SEOGRAPHIC
Papua
New Guinea
NATION THE
MAKING 193
JOURNEY THROUGH (1)
e- TIME 150
FLORIDA ATIME
FOR RECKONING
PLIGHT OF THE
BLUEFIN TUNA
PARAGUA PARADOX the TX
OF SOUTH AMERICA
MELVILLE BELL GROSVENOR
4
MASS
1901-1982 270
OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY WASHINGTON, D.C.
T WAS NOT UNCOMMON for
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
students at the University of Pa-
pua New Guinea to change their
names. Flash Gordon attended a
class I taught, and there was a
Joseph Stalin on campus. Others
Nation in the
took indigenous names. But the
person behind the name remained
the same, secure in his or her tribal
identity. Their land has changed
Making
its name several times, most re-
cently to Papua New Guinea, but
By ROBERT J. GORDON
the people's identity remains
firmly fixed-ethnically diverse,
Photographs by DAVID AUSTEN
fiercely independent, and egalitar-
ian in spirit and instinct.
The students take pride in their
new nation. One told me: "This is
one of the centers of the world."
From the perspective of prehistory,
he had a point. The island was a
stepping-stone between Asia and
Australia in the great migrations
that took place more than 30,000
years ago.
Four hundred and fifty years ago
Europeans discovered and named
New Guinea. In 1975, after less
than a century of colonial rule by
Germany and Britain, and later
by Australia, the island's eastern
half became the state of Papua
New Guinea and the United Na-
tions' 142nd member state.
The rugged topography of the
main island and its 600 smaller
islands presented formidable geo-
graphic barriers to colonization.
The dominant form of Western
penetration has not been by road
but by air. Today Papua New
Guinea probably has more air-
Seven years independent, Papua
strips per capita than any other
New Guinea adds new ways to age-
old values. Disco rocks the capital of
country.
Port Moresby, while in the highlands
The isolating effects of rivers,
an umbrella replaces a banana leaf
forests, and mountains have
for shelter. But the carryall bilum bag
helped preserve the rich linguistic
has no modern peer.
143
and cultural mixture of Papua
New Guinea. Perhaps a sixth of
the world's languages are found
there. However, recent research
confirms a complex pattern of
precolonial trade routes, commu-
nications networks, and migra-
tions linking the mountainous
interior and the coast. There has
always been a continuous process
of adapting ideas, language, and
artifacts; in recent years this
process has been speeded up with
the improvement of long-range
communications.
One example of such adaptation
is the development of Tok Pisin, a
pidgin language that has fast be-
come the foremost lingua franca. It
is resplendent with creative and
ambiguous words like "grisman,"
meaning grease man, a flatterer,
a fat person, and "mauswara,"
literally mouth water, to talk non-
sense or make idle promises
like politicians.
If there is one lesson to be
learned from the peoples of Papua
New Guinea, it lies in their ability
to coexist in spite of language and
cultural barriers. When fighting
does occur, it usually involves re-
lated clans.
My dominant impression, after
three years of teaching and re-
searching at the university in Port
Moresby, is the people's lack of eth-
nic tension and their tolerance of
outsiders.
Pidgin warning translates "Work
on road, all cars must stop when you
see the red sign." A land of some
700 tongues, Papua New Guinea
(PNG) promotes pidgin as a
common language. Some 20 percent
of the population speaks English.
phic, August 1982
Papua New Guinea
145
This can be seen in the way many
Papua New Guineans had to be
nudged unwillingly by the Austra-
lians into accepting independence.
It is epitomized by the fact that the
prime minister, Sir Julius Chan, is
half Chinese. The educational or-
ganization Freedom House cites
PNG as one of the better Third
World countries in respecting
human rights.
Perhaps an important clue to
this remarkable tolerance lies in
the nation's ethnic diversity: No
group is strong enough to dominate
others at the national political
level. Loose, ever changing coali-
tions, rather than a few dominant
parties, are the motive forces in
PNG politics.
To govern such a fragmented ter-
ritory, Australia was forced to de-
velop a very large administration,
and at independence it bequeathed
Legacy of Australian rule, a catamaran
the two and a half million Papua
sprints toward high-rise offices in Port Moresby,
PNG's overwhelmingly largest city. Australia
New Guineans a public service of
governed the land before independence and still
28,000 employees. In the first five
contributes more than a quarter of the national
years of independence the public
budget. The foreign population declines as
nationals gain higher roles in business and
service continued to grow apace,
industry.
almost doubling in size to about
Totem of success for hunters of the Iatmul
50,000. It is clearly the major
tribe in the Sepik River area, a wooden statue-
growth industry of the country. It
probably carved in the early 1960s-comes
also provides the most visible man-
clean of mold at the National Museum in Port
Moresby (above). The museum purchases and
ifestation of national integration.
preserves such artifacts, which are still revered
Many observers believe that an
by many citizens.
important factor, which makes for
the melding of national identity, is
Dr. Robert J. Gordon, born in Namibia
the so-called Indonesian threat.
and now a professor of anthropology at
The western portion of the island
the University of Vermont, taught and did
research in Papua New Guinea for three
was taken over from the Dutch by
years. François Leydet, a noted writer on
Indonesia in 1963, and some Pa-
the American West and wilderness, has
pua New Guineans feel that the
contributed seven previous articles to
next exercise in Indonesian expan-
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. David Austen
(see On Assignment in this issue) traveled
sionism will involve them.
to many corners of the young nation to make
Papua New Guinea can be de-
the photographs with both articles.
scribed economically as having
two circuits. The upper one is
!982
Papua New Guinea
147
urban biased and cash dominated.
Characterized by large mining and
timber projects, it is more strongly
integrated into the world economic
system than is the second or lower
circuit. This larger circuit is based
on the traditional subsistence ac-
tivities of the rural majority. In the
highlands, however, where about
40 percent of the people reside,
large profits are made from a cash
crop-coffee.
But the money from the crop is
not used to transform traditional
farming. Rather, it is spent on con-
sumables, and also at large and
elaborate traditional ceremonial
exchanges in which a prosperous
grower attempts to gain prestige as
a "big man."
The expansion of the public ser-
vice was in part due to the need of
the government to legitimize itself
by tackling the problems of pover-
ty, malnutrition, illiteracy, rising
unemployment, and lawlessness.
Many officials now realize that a
lot of the country's problems are
themselves the product of develop-
ment. Thus, the government re-
cently withdrew a request to the
United Nations for famine relief,
perhaps fearing that such a prece-
dent would increase the country's
dependence on outside donors.
Such a move, even if only sym-
bolic, bodes well for Papua New
Guinea's future.
***
The face behind the mask is a
practical businessman. "Mudmen"
of the Asaro Valley now enact their
rituals mainly for paying tourists
and photographers. Fame spawns
imitators in other regions. The
origin of the practice is obscure.
Guinea
149
T WAS A LOVELY sunny morning on
blouses and skirts of bright contrasting
Umboi's quiet little Simbana River, me-
prints; the men and boys wore shorts or lap-
andering between banks lined with nipa
laps (mid-calf-length wraparounds).
palms and taller trees. A large fertile is-
A village leader, a wide-awake young
land of volcanic origin in the strait separat-
man named Jacob, told me in English, "We
ing New Britain from Papua New Guinea's
have plenty of everything we need here in
mainland, Umboi feels remote. It is. With a
Gauru. Yams, sago palm, tapioca, kaukau
group of 15 European tourists off a small
[sweet potato], coconut, vegetables, cash
cruise ship, I was aboard a launch about
from copra and cocoa. We have plenty fish
three kilometers upstream from the river
from the river and sea, plenty pig and cattle
mouth when we were greeted by shouts.
all around in the bush."
There atop the
I noticed three piglets trotting across the
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
high right bank
square, and Jacob laughed. "We have a
a throng of men,
small health station here, and we tell the
Journey
women, and chil-
people to keep the pigs outside the fence, for
dren stood wav-
good health. But with some, words go in
ing and calling to
here"-he pointed to his right ear-"and out
Through Time
us-a spontane-
there"-pointing to his left ear.
ous and charming
"You like this place?" Jacob said as we
welcome. Later
parted, pleased by my open enjoyment of it.
By FRANÇOIS LEYDET
we learned that
"You come back and stay longer!"
the villagers had
My tourist companions were voluble in
never seen such a large party of tourists.
their praise of Gauru's charm, and this and
Mobil
I clambered up the steep, slippery bank
other such villages may be seeing a lot more
and followed a path beneath coconut trees to
like them. Though Papua New Guinea
the village of Gauru. An old man met me,
(PNG) is still no tourist mecca-fewer than
shook my hand, and said in pidgin, "Yupela
40,000 people visited it in 1980-the num-
kam na kisim win insait long dispela haus-
ber of tourists attracted to its many physical
You-all come and catch your breath in this
splendors and the colorful diversity of its
house."
ways of life has been steadily growing.
He led me to a thatch-roofed, unwalled
PNG's Diversity Charms Visitors
platform on stilts-the men's clubhouse, he
said-and invited me inside. Then he add-
Just what kind of country is this Papua
ed, pointing to the ladies in our group, "Ol-
New Guinea they are going to see? It is a con-
geta meri olsem-and all the women too. In
stellation of islands, including roughly half
a country where women generally occupy a
of the world's second largest island, New
subservient position and are rarely allowed
Guinea, which it shares with Indonesia's
in the men's meetinghouses, this invitation
province of Irian Jaya (map, pages 154-5).
went beyond the call of hospitality.
Its population of a little over three million
After a smoke with my aged friend I
is divided into more than 700 linguistic
walked around the attractive, prosperous-
groups, whose customs differ almost as
looking village. The thatched, rectangular
much as their languages.
stilt houses were beautifully built with walls
Though customs and languages are an-
of planks hand-adzed from driftwood, and
cient, PNG is a very new nation. September
the bare earth of the village square was tidy.
16, 1975, marked the end of nearly a century
The people seemed healthy, cheerful, and
of colonial rule-first by imperial Germany
neatly clothed. Some older women were
and Great Britain, then by neighboring
bare breasted; the younger wore shifts, or
Australia. Papua New Guinea became a
Almost 160 kilometers from the nearest competitor, Haraula Kapali's backyard gas
station in Tari fuels Highlands Highway traffic. He himself owns no car. Such contrasts
abound in this land where some communities still talk by drums, yet others converse via
one of the first solar-powered microwave telephone systems.
150
sovereign state within the Commonwealth,
In the village of Kasena, which lies north-
they
with Queen Elizabeth II as chief of state,
west of Goroka, headquarters of the Eastern
smoke
a governor-general, a prime minister, and
Highlands Province, enchantment has not
Pigs,
a one-house parliament of 100 (now 109)
arrived. Set among small plantations of
wand
elected members.
shiny-leaved coffee trees, the village con-
The
Independence has not yet become an un-
sists of two rows of low, circular huts ranged
from I:
alloyed boon, and in some places the new
on either side of a long strip of bare earth.
dropp
tourists will be shocked that life still seems so
The houses are picturesque, with walls of
betel r
primitive; others will find it enchanting. It
decoratively plaited matting and smoke
log, th
depends upon the tourist-and the place.
seeping through the roof thatch. But inside
bill W:
152
National Geographic, August 1982
Papua
north-
they are dark, unventilated, redolent of
Only 50 years ago-and mainly by
smoke and of human and porcine effluvia.
air-did the outside world penetrate the
Eastern
highlands, home to 40 percent of PNG's
has
not
Pigs, chickens, and emaciated little dogs
population. Coffee, the nation's most
of
wander in and out at will.
lucrative crop, now flourishes in these
ge
con-
The ground between the houses, muddied
altitudes. Here along the upper Ramu
ranged
from last night's rain, was smeared with pig
River, sugarcane farming and
earth.
droppings and red splotches from chewed
processing begin to supply the country
walls
of
betel nuts. A shriveled old woman sat on a
with sugar, a commodity once entirely
smoke
log, throwing kaukau peelings to a pet horn-
imported, despite native cane.
inside
bill with clipped wings. A young widow
?ust
1982
Papua New Guinea
153
St. Matthias
145°
Group
150°
Admiralty
Vanimo
Islands
Kavieng
Tabar
Islands
New
Lihir Group
Maprik
Wewak
Bismarck Sea
Ireland
Tanga Islands
Rabaul
6 Feni Island
Sepik
Kanganaman
INDONESIA, IRIAN JAYA
Star
Palimbei
Bogia
Gree
Mountains
Hauna
Karkar
CACAO
CACAO
COPRA
Isla
Central Range
COPRA
HEADQUARTERS OF Mt. Hagen
Ramu
Madang
Ok Tedi
WESTERN
3,777 m
TIMBER
Hoskins PALM OIL
COPPER
HIGHLANDS
392
HIGHLANDS
Saidor
PAPUA-NEW GUINEA
Strickland
12
HIGHWAY
H1,835 m
GOLD
PROVINCE
Umboi
Kundiawa COPRA
6,020ft
TIMBER
Tari
Mount
Goroka
COFFEE
COFFEE
4,121 m
New
Bougainv
Mendi
Hagen
Kainantu
+13,520 ft
Britain
Mt. Bosavi
HEADQUARTERS
2,397
OF SIMBU
Asáro
HEADQUARTERS
Lae
Lake
7,863
River
OF EASTERN
Murray
Turana
Kikori
PROVINCE
HIGHLANDS,
TIMBER
PROVINCE
COPRA
Kikori
WESTERN
Bamu
Wau
Solomon
Sea
PROVINCE
Kerema
Mount
Fly
Strong
3,587 m
11,767 ft
Kaibola
Bereina
Popondetta
Trobriand
Gulf of Papua
Mount Victoria
PALM
Islands
Woodlark
Daru:
4,036 m
OIL
Island
13,240 ft
Port
COPRA
Torres Strait
Moresby
Stanley
Entrecasteaun
Range
Islands
Kupiano
COPRA
Cape
Coral Sea
Alotau
York
Great
Louisiade
Airfield with runway
Barrier
Archipelago
O KM
100
o MILES
100
AUSTRALIA
Reef
DRAWN BY JOHN G. WEBER
COMPILED BY GRAHAM J. TRUSCOTT
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ART DIVISION
stood zombie-like near her house, her face
representing a dog, a pig, and a fly con-
hornbill C
painted in mourning with gray-green mud.
veyed the message that allowing these an-
But such
I photographed an older man, whose ap-
imals inside the huts causes diarrhea in
from
pearance was fairly typical of the men of the
humans-a condition vividly acted out.
ogy; fron
region: short, muscular, strong featured,
The second skit was a plea for birth con-
self-relia
with aquiline nose and deep-set eyes. He
trol, featuring a drunken husband and a
clan, or t
was arrayed in traditional finery: feathered
young woman who dies in childbirth. I won-
What
headdress, quill piercing the nose, pig-tooth
dered whether the audience of a hundred or
A young,
necklace, loincloth, and asgras (an apron of
so, which was howling with laughter, was
ty of Tech
leaves that covers the buttocks).
getting the serious message behind the com-
with an
The excuse for this festive garb was the
edy. Children outnumbered the adult view-
Aussies E
presence of the Raun Raun Theatre, a troupe
ers by something like six to one.
counselo
of actors from all parts of PNG. They had
While watching the show, I was struck by
the socia
come here today to entertain and educate the
the contrast between the pretty, scrubbed-
taking pl
villagers with some skits about health.
looking actresses in nurses' uniforms hold-
primitive
The performance began on the ground
ing up posters illustrating birth-control
Lukis
outside one of the houses. Actors with masks
devices, and the old crone with her clipped
the App₁
National Geographic, August 1982
Papua N
154
155°
Tabar
rieng
19th century when Germany
Islands
annexed the north and Great Britain
Lihir Group
New
the south. Australia assumed
Ireland
Tanga Islands
control of the south (Papua) in
1906 and of the German colony
Rabaul
6 Feni Islands
after World War I. Indonesia rules
CACAO
Green
the formerly Dutch western half
COPRA
Islands
of New Guinea (inset), world's
5°
second largest island. AREA:
PALM
463,000 sq km (178,765 sq mi).
loskins
OIL
ISLANDS
POPULATION: 3,006,000 mainly
CACAO
NEW
Melanesian, with some 30,000
New
Bougainville
COPRA
Kieta
PAPULOMON
Europeans and Asians. CAPITAL:
Britain
Port Moresby,
Panguna
COPPER
pop. 122,750.
Choiseul
140°
GOLD
Island
GOVERNMENT:
PHILIPPINES
Pacific
A sovereign state in
Ocean
Sea
the Commonwealth;
MALAYSIA
PAPUA
olomon
Papua
EQUATOR
NEW GUINEA
Queen Elizabeth II,
head of state.
INDONESIA
New Guinea
Indian
LANGUAGE: English,
Ocean
Kaibola
pidgin, hiri motu,
AUSTRALIA
obriand
Islands
Woodlark
tribal languages.
Island
T
AIL HALF of the dragon-
LITERACY: 32 percent.
shaped island of New Guinea
RELIGION: Protestant, Roman
'Entrecasteaux
plus hundreds of out islands
Catholic, traditional. ECONOMY:
Islands
10°
compose Papua New Guinea,
Industries: copper and gold mining.
independent since September
Export crops: coffee, forest products,
Alotau
16, 1975. PNG's
cacao, copra, palm oil. Domestic
Louisiade
Pocklington
mountain spine
consumption: rice, fish, sweet
Archipelago
Reef
became a political
potatoes, yams. LIFE EXPECTANCY:
boundary in the late
50 years. PCI: $750.
fly con-
hornbill or the widow with her mask of mud.
Institute, seemed to think the foreigners
hese an-
But such is PNG today-in uneven transi-
were partly right. "Development has not
rrhea in
tion from stone tools to 20th-century technol-
touched the people in the bush," he told me.
out.
ogy; from colonial dependency to national
"They still carry on in the old ways-hunt-
irth con-
self-reliance; from allegiance to the village,
ing, subsistence farming, warring with
d and a
clan, or tribe to a sense of national identity.
neighboring clans. They don't know what
h. I won-
What has independence meant to PNG?
independence means. Most are where they
ndred or
A young, educated national at the Universi-
were a hundred years ago."
iter, was
ty of Technology in Lae parried my question
The institute fosters simple technology,
the com-
with an accusation. "In Australia I've met
labor-intensive projects at the local level,
ult view-
Aussies and other foreigners," said student
such as charcoal kilns, micro-hydropower
counselor Peter Tasin, "who have no idea of
stations, and sundry small industries. He
struck by
the social, economic, and political changes
feels that these projects may be of greater
crubbed-
taking place here. They think ours is still a
benefit to the 85 percent of the people who
ms hold-
primitive headhunter culture."
still live in small villages than the huge min-
1-control
Lukis Romaso, the assistant director of
ing or timber operations that attract foreign
r clipped
the Appropriate Technology Development
capital to the country.
gust 1982
Papua New Guinea
155
It is fair to keep in mind that when inde-
the country. On the main island, coastal
pendence came, almost overnight PNG's
swamps and jungles, threaded by innumer-
few highly trained professionals had to run
able streams and swarming with malarial
a country where many people "first saw a
mosquitoes, rise inland to a jagged labyrinth
wheel on the nose end of a plane" (as a U.S.
of high mountain ranges. In mountain val-
Embassy official put it to me).
leys a number of hostile clans harass one an-
Communications were, and remain, diffi-
other in sporadic warfare. Wide stretches of
cult. The road system is fragmented-the
ocean separate PNG's myriad large and
capital, Port Moresby, for instance, has
small islands.
no highway connection with the rest of
One thing the diverse PNG tribes have in
common is that most, even the nominally
Christian, believe in spirits and in the prac-
tice of sorcery. But a Star Mountains tribes-
man, clad only in a penis sheath, and a
Trobriand islander, paddling his outrigger,
are worlds apart in looks and customs. That
they share a common nationality may mean
little to either one.
Young Nation Faces Serious Problems
This cultural fragmentation is one of
many frustrations the newly independent
nation faces. At the Roman Catholic mission
in Taraka, I spoke with Father Guy Clou-
tier, a tall, black-bearded, ascetic-looking
young French Canadian, who was worried
about PNG's difficulties. He was familiar
with many of them from his work in Taraka,
a "settlement"-part government housing,
part shantytown-on the outskirts of the
port city of Lae, which is second in popula-
tion to Port Moresby and PNG's largest
industrial center.
"There is high unemployment, and the
great majority of the employed are semi-
skilled or unskilled," Father Cloutier said.
"An unskilled laborer makes 60 kina-
about $84-a fortnight. This may be enough
for a man who's drifted in from the high-
lands or the islands to send home for his
wife and children. Or just as likely he'll not
send for them, marry a local woman, start
another family, then ferry between them.
Polygamy is legal here."
Father Cloutier continued: "The typical
PNG's first woman lawyer, Meg
laborer lives in a two-room shack with half a
Taylor lobbies for a new women's prison
dozen other adults and many children. On
with Goroka police commander James
Nanatsi (above). The jail, housing both
the average a woman will have a baby every
sexes, lacks women's toilets and facilities
two or three years. Very little family plan-
for nursing mothers; PNG bans baby
ning. Four or five kids are common."
bottles unless prescribed. Taylor grew up
The government's efforts to improve con-
riding horses on her family's coffee
ditions have not taken hold, Father Cloutier
plantation in the Asaro Valley and now
believes. "It is putting all its priorities on
tests her skill in the sport of polocrosse.
superstructure
(Continued on page 161)
156
National Geographic, August 1982
Success stories spun in a nation of
Party, became PNG's second prime
healt
new opportunity include 36-year-old
minister in 1980. Though a stickler for
grow.
Renagi Renagi Lohia (below, at left),
self-reliance, Chan advocates the use
year
head of the Public Services Commission
of foreign capital to increase industrial
Allie
and former vice-chancellor of his alma
and large-scale agricultural output. The
Mari
mater, the University of Papua New
nation's first prime minister, Michael
draw
Guinea. Shouldering stalks of bananas,
Somare, leader of the Pangu Party,
a chil
he greets relatives during a food-
counters that the country is best served
meni
exchange ceremony honoring recently
by encouraging grass-roots development.
right
deceased elders of his native fishing
Chefs taught from scratch at the
worri
village 28 kilometers from Port
catering division of Lae Technical
With
Moresby. Clan bonds remain strong,
College (right center) will feed the
down
even for those who move away.
nation's infant tourist industry and
prom
At ease with power, Sir Julius Chan
also work in hospitals and schools.
a nat
(right), leader of the People's Progress
Health care expands as the corps of
famil
RAL
le
health extension officers
er for
grows. In her second
use
year at the College of
strial
Allied Health Sciences,
it. The
Maria Waria, age 17,
hael
draws spinal fluid from
V,
a child to check for
erved
meningitis (bottom
pment.
right). A nurse's aide and
e
worried mother look on.
With infant mortality
e
down, the government
id
promotes birth control in
S.
a nation of large
OS of
families.
OF
OF
LTC
CATERING
SCHOOL
LTC
LTC
RAL
PRONCE
159
rather than basics-on things that show,
like nine million kina for a new wharf. Not
much of this helps the people."
Because of its uneven development, tech-
nology in PNG ranges from the wooden dig-
ging stick with which the highland woman
works her patch of kaukau to huge machines
scooping up copper ore on Bougainville at
Panguna, one of the world's largest open-pit
mines. The 15 percent of the population who
live in urban centers are relatively sophisti-
cated, but even in the bush change has been
occurring, sometimes subtly.
An "expat" (resident foreigner) in
Madang opened my eyes to this. We were
having a drink together in the pleasant
north-coast port town, and I couldn't help
comparing it with the highland village of
Kasena, where the Raun Raun Theatre had
taught concepts of modern hygiene.
"Appearances can fool you," the expat
cautioned. "Those highland villages may
look dirt poor, but there's a lot of cash up
there, mainly from all the coffee they grow.
Not too long ago this fellow came down into
Madang with a group of his friends. He was
the real thing-nose plug, asgras, and all.
To look at him, you wouldn't think he had
two toea to rub together. He walked into a
local car dealer, looked over the stock, and
asked the manager, 'How much for three of
these?' The manager figured it out, told him
the price. 'I'll be back,' the highlander said.
"Half an hour later he and friends were
back, with a bag that he emptied out on
the manager's desk. There was the exact
amount for the three cars, to the last toea.
Come back in the morning, he was told; the
cars will be registered and ready. 'Nogat,'
the highlander growled. 'Here's the money;
Harnessing skilled manpower-
we want the cars today!' His friends began to
PNG's greatest need-the Electricity
growl too. 'All right, you win,' the dealer
Commission Training College in Port
said. 'You'll get them today.' And they did!"
Moresby aims toward less dependence on
Automobile salesmen aren't the only ones
foreign labor. Future linemen (above)
intimidated by highlanders. Though tribal
practice above their teacher, himself a
graduate.
warfare is a thing of the past in most of the
At Ramu I Hydro-Power Station
country-and cannibalism and headhunt-
(left) students and instructor, in glasses,
ing no longer exist-it has resurged in the
synchronize generators that tap the
highland provinces since independence,
upper Ramu River. River-rich PNG
with the departure of the tough but savvy
surges with hydroelectric potential, but
Australian kiaps, or field officers.
with few technicians it still relies largely
At a curve of the Highlands Highway be-
on imported oil. Less than 20 percent of
tween Goroka and Kundiawa, I passed a
the population has electricity.
man sitting on a rock, cradling a dog in his
Papua New Guinea
161
Bonanza of copper and gold makes the
Bougainville mine PNG's leading industry.
Senior operator Stanis Mataria and his
family (below) live in company housing built
for foreign workers before the mine opened in
1972. Above mine buildings Katherine
Kontarinu and a grandson harvest vegetables
near where they once lived. Mine expansion
has twice relocated their village.
lap and tenderly stroking its head. I waved
Although the bloodshed is minimal com-
say women,
to this fellow dog lover; he grinned and
pared with loss of life in PNG highway acci-
be injured or
waved back, calling out pinun, masta!-
dents, outbursts of tribal fighting worry
should be bi
Afternoon, master!" (the term of address
local authorities. In 1981 the premiers of the
but they hav
usually used for Europeans). On a rock by
five highland provinces pressed the national
Land, wo:
his side lay a bow and a sheaf of arrows. Sev-
government to declare a state of emergency,
issues over
eral times in the next few days I passed men
but Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan refused
tribes have
walking along the road armed with spears or
to do so.
were wars to
carrying bows and arrows.
This disturbed Nambuga Mara, the pre-
full-time wa
"Are those men hunting?" I asked a Gor-
mier of the Western Highlands Province,
forced by fi
oka national. "No," he said, "they're armed
who said that what concerned him most was
men of a prir
for self-defense in case they run into a per-
that the warriors were not fighting by the
The high
sonal or tribal enemy with a score to settle."
rules. "Our traditional rules of tribal fighting
warriors, b
162
National Geographic, August 1982
Papua New (
al com-
say women, children, and chiefs should not
Public-health services introduced by West-
be injured or killed and that no person killed
erners have contributed to a population ex-
ay acci-
should be burned. These are sacred rules,
plosion in a region that already was densely
worry
but they have not been observed lately."
inhabited when the first white men "discov-
'S of the
Land, women, pigs-these have been the
ered" it in the 1920s and 30s.
ational
issues over which neighboring highland
Dr. John Christie, Eastern Highlands
rgency,
refused
tribes have long waged wars. When there
Provincial Medical Officer, told me: "Popu-
were wars to fight, the men became almost
lation growth is about 3 percent per year-
full-time warriors. The pax australiana en-
more than doubling every 24 years. High-
he pre-
forced by field officers thus deprived the
land families were always large-to be a 'big
ovince,
ost was
men of a principal role in their lives.
man' you had to have a big family. But then,
by the
The highlands may be losing their
if a woman had ten children, six or seven
ighting
warriors, but they are gaining babies.
would have died; now seven or eight live.'
1st 1982
Papua New Guinea
163
Another mixed blessing laid at the door of
Coast Road from Madang and saw how land
then, he rt
Westerners is coffee planting. Australians
there was being used. In the 50-kilometer
lage, 'You
brought it into the highlands in the 1950s,
drive to a point across from the island of
next village
and now most of the plantings are owned
Karkar and its restless volcano, I passed
there. One
by nationals. Lukis Romaso, who worries
through an almost uninterrupted succession
to work bu
about appropriate technology, also worries
of coconut plantations, many owned by the
get built. }
about "inappropriate" coffee.
Catholic and Lutheran churches.
wait for th
"In Simbu Province," he told me, "coffee
"All the good soil along the coast," Ma-
body to bri
has taken over a lot of the good flatland.
dang Deputy Premier Galen Lang told me,
The son
Farmers have to grow their food crops on the
"is taken for cash crops. There's good soil in-
in the Gog
hillsides, where the soil quickly washes
land, too, where it's flat, but the problem is
is Jant, t.
away. Soon they end up with nothing but
that there are no roads, so the people can't
company 1
cash, and cash is no substitute for land. With
get their produce to market."
jungle tree
a fast-growing population and much of the
Logging Brings New Roads
puhafo, ay
land growing coffee instead of food, there's
a loop driv
suddenly a real land shortage. That's one
Why don't the villagers themselves build
jungle is in
cause of the fighting in the highlands."
their own roads? Peter Colton, provincial
vegetation
Cash crops-coffee, cocoa, and copra are
planner for Madang, explained: "It's not
and ferns a
the big ones-almost equal copper's share of
that easy to build roads through the jungle
embrace 0
PNG's exports, and together the "4 C's" con-
with hand tools. Probably, though, the vil-
clear-cut 1
tribute 80 percent of total exports-and all
lagers could do more for themselves."
tions cut
involve gobbling up the land.
Mr. Colton was an Australian patrol of-
grown ove
One sunny afternoon I took the North
ficer in the highlands 20 years ago. "Back
ary forest
**E
Survivors of World War II, caves tunneled for Japanese landing barges lure bat
reclaimed
hunters in Rabaul, on New Britain. Captured in 1942, Rabaul served as Japan's
Associatio
command post in the southwest Pacific. Three cemeteries honor Allied forces that
PNG's tim
164
National Geographic, August 1982
Papua Ne
W land
then," he recalled, "the kiap would tell a vil-
Masapuhafo informed me. "What happens
ometer
lage, 'You build a road to that point'; the
to the wildlife?" I asked him. "A lot of it dis-
and of
next village would be told to pick it up from
appears," he said.
passed
there. One day a week the men would be put
The principal benefit of the logging to the
:ession
to work building roads, and the roads would
villagers is the roads. Before the timber op-
by the
get built. You can't do that any more. They
eration, the rural population was being
wait for the gavman [government] or some-
whittled down, but now more of the young
" Ma-
body to bring the roads to them."
people are staying home. They can travel to
Id me,
The somebody doing the road building
jobs without having to move away.
soil in-
in the Gogol Valley southwest of Madang
olem is
is Jant, the big Japanese-owned timber
Cottage Industry Flourishes
e can't
company whose plant in Madang converts
Neither timber trees nor coconut trees fuel
jungle trees into wood chips. Arenaso Masa-
the economy along the Sepik River, which
puhafo, a young forestry officer, took me on
spills into the Bismarck Sea 200 kilometers
a loop drive around the valley. Where the
northwest of Madang. Here I found a cash
; build
jungle is intact, it is a delirious exu berance of
crop of a different kind: "Mipela laikim tur-
vincial
vegetation: lofty trees adorned with mosses
ist. Igat kaving hia-We like tourists. There
t's not
and ferns and orchids or wrapped in the fatal
are carvings here."
jungle
embrace of strangler figs. Elsewhere large
The crude, hand-lettered sign, large
he vil-
clear-cut tracts look devastated, but sec-
enough to be read from a passing boat,
tions cut only six months ago are already
stands on the bank at a small village on the
rol of-
grown over with thick brush. "The second-
lower Sepik. Masks, animal figures, wood-
"Back
ary forest grows a few meters a year," Mr.
en drums, and other such artifacts used to be
re bat
reclaimed the islands in 1945. Members of the Rabaul Japanese War Veterans
pan's
Association mourn their fallen at a shrine above the city. Leading investor in
es that
PNG's timber industry, Japan is the top customer for PNG's products.
st 1982
Papua New Guinea
165
produced for ceremonial use only. Today
In Kanganaman, another Sepik village, I
such carvings have become an important
watched a woman preparing sago. Mashed
cottage industry in the handsome but
from the fibrous heart of the sago palm, it
mosquito-ridden villages that border the
emerged as an orange mush that would dry
mighty river, and are sold directly to art
into a sort of flour. Sago and river fish are the
dealers or to tourists from excursion boats.
staple diet, though nowadays they are sup-
One of the oldest and most beautiful of
plemented by other food.
such villages, on the middle Sepik, is Palim-
I happened to be out of cigarettes, so I
bei. At either end of a long grassy mall, bor-
climbed a ladder to the platform where the
dered by huge trees and flowering shrubs,
little village store perched. There I bought a
rears a spectacular haus tambaran, spirit
couple of packs of PNG-made Cambridges
house. Halfway between them stands the
from a charming young girl, who invited me
skeleton of an older haus tambaran, bombed
to inspect the merchandise. There was little
during World War II-leaving only the
to buy other than tinned mackerel and beef,
massive carved tree trunks that had sup-
bags of rice and sugar. All of these, I noted,
ported the structure.
were imported-from Australia, the Philip-
I was invited into one of the spirit houses,
pines, or Japan.
a long, two-story building faced with intri-
cately woven matting, the roof thatched and
Fewer Imports, More Self-sufficiency
soaring to a peak at either end. On the
PNG's dependence on imports is a major
ground floor, men sat on platforms smoking
concern of the government. When I talked
twist tobacco or chewing betel nut; this is
with Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan in his
strictly men's territory. Grotesquely beauti-
reception room at the parliament building in
ful, eerily powerful, carved masks and fig-
Port Moresby, he said, "We import 20 per-
ures stared at me from the ceiling beams and
cent of our food. Sugar, rice, tinned meat
columns.
and fish account for 75 percent of that.
On the second floor, initiation ceremonies
We've got to cut that down!"
are held: The boys' backs are incised, leav-
The prime minister, a small, spare,
ing patterns of raised scar tissue that resem-
youthful-looking man whose features reflect
ble a crocodile's skin. No initiations today,
his mixed ancestry-his father was of Chi-
but a stirring performance for my benefit.
nese blood, his mother a New Ireland wom-
Two men performed, each on a garamut, a
an-spoke in a quiet, firm, precise voice,
drum made of a hollowed tree trunk. Louder
looking directly at me. "We will soon be pro-
and louder, faster and faster, the syncopated
ducing our own sugar," he went on. "We
rhythms boomed out as the men walked up
plan to grow a lot more of our own rice. But
and down with a dancing motion alongside
you don't become a rice-producing nation
the great drums, striking them in perfect
overnight. Rice growing is a traditional
synchrony with large wooden sticks.
skill-people who've been growing it for
As I was leaving, a man sold me a ritual
centuries have developed strong backs"-
flute-a long bamboo tube that can play
here Sir Julius stood up, went through the
four mournful notes. I was about to walk
motions of planting rice in a paddy-"so
outside with it when the man stopped me,
they can bend like this all day."
took the flute from my hand and walked
Then, with a little smile, he sat back in
back into the building. Returning, he hand-
his chair and continued: "Self-sufficiency
ed me back the instrument wrapped in a taro
means more than just growing our own rice
leaf. "Itambu-it is forbidden," he ex-
and kaikai [food]. We have huge potential
plained, "for the sacred flute to be seen by
resources and small population. There's a
ol meri bilong ples-the village women."
lack of appreciation of why we must go
Pork rides piggyback as hunters wade home to the village of Hauna near the
Sepik River. Wild pigs are easier-but still dangerous-game when November-to-
May monsoons flood the region. Revenue from crocodile skins and a canoe-borne
store augments Hauna's bank account in the town of Wewak, three days away.
166
Death of a clan member-even by accident-demands swift highlands-style
justice, called payback. A Wabia village woman was killed when she jumped from
the moving truck of a Yangome villager. He gave her parents money and 22
pigs-prized as status symbols-but now his clan must also account. Wabians
bristling with arms (above) arrive at a meeting ground near Tari to collect the
negotiated payment of 225 pigs. A Yangome leader in a wig (left) keeps order in
his ranks as Wabians argue over distribution (below). PNG courts encourage pig
and cash exchanges in hopes of ending cycles of revenge killings. Perhaps a third of
the men in this region prefer Western dress.
169
big. Small is beautiful, but big is useful. So
while the Bougainville deposit is declining.
improved
we welcomed foreign investment at the
Critics of Sir Julius's approach tend to
lieve we
Bougainville mine and now at Ok Tedi." A
see it as a repudiation of the program of his
You talk
1.5-billion-dollar project, with participa-
predecessor, Michael Somare, PNG's first
talking al
tion by PNG and firms from Australia, the
prime minister. I met Mr. Somare, now
Specifi
United States, and West Germany, Ok Tedi
leader of the opposition, in his office in Port
rural de
will mine gold and copper in the Star Moun-
Moresby. He is not a big man physically, but
velopmer
tains of Western Province. It is expected to
he is a bik man in the eyes of his countrymen.
economy
produce a major share of Papua New Guin-
"Chan goes for the quick buck," he said,
gradually
ea's export earnings by the mid-eighties
"the shift to a cash economy, but this hasn't
capital ai
170
National Geographic, August 1982
Papua Ne
Face of the future, 12-year-old Fidelis
Pukue of eastern New Britain attends a
Roman Catholic mission school and
harvests coconuts for copra on weekends
and holidays. Resting with her broom
from after-school chores, she stands as
proud as her fledgling nation.
in-aid of some 200 million dollars, which
currently finances more than a quarter of
the national budget.
Many foreign residents in PNG, although
aware of the country's serious problems,
seem guardedly optimistic about the future.
Chris Bryant, director of CUSO (Canadian
University Service Overseas) in Port Mores-
by, told me, "The movement in the last 50
years has been formidable. It used to be that
foreigners made all the decisions. Now Pa-
pua New Guineans are making their own.
They're questioning the status quo. You
ought to hear them in parliament."
Significant Changes
More to Come
At a morning session of parliament I
heard the speaker, Sevese Morea, seated in a
high chair on a platform dominating the
house, open the proceedings in his sonorous
baritone voice: "The chair recognizes the
honorable member from Maprik."
The honorable member, Sir Pita Lus,
came to his feet. He was wearing a lap-lap,
long-sleeved shirt, and large boar-tooth
necklace. He launched into an impassioned
oration in Tok Pisin, or pidgin, in favor of a
motion of no confidence in Police Minister
Warren Dutton. The speech was frequently
interrupted by shouts of "Hear, hear!" but
the motion failed to carry.
Later I asked Mr. Morea about Sir Pita.
"He has had little formal education," the
speaker said, "yet he's a very effective mem-
ber, one of the most eloquent orators in the
improved the life-style of the people. We be-
house. Many of our members can't read or
lieve we must build from the ground up.
write. To you that may be an anomaly. To us
You talk about real development, you're
it's the way things are, and may be for some
talking about the villages."
time yet."
Specifically, Mr. Somare is talking about
Governor-General Sir Tore Lokoloko,
rural development versus industrial de-
when I visited him at Government House
velopment. He wants a more self-reliant
above the harbor, reconfirmed this national
economy, down to the humblest village,
philosophy of patient growth. "We are a
gradually weaned from imported goods and
happy people. We don't ask too much of oth-
capital and from Australia's annual grant-
ers. We just want to go steady and slow.'
Papua New Guinea
171
THE MAKING OF AMERICA: DEEP SOUTH
W
VOL. 164, NO. 2
AUGUST 1983
NATIONAL
APHIC
THE
BIRD MEN
198
LIVING THEATER
IN NEW GUINEA 147
DELIGHT-SIZED
DELAWARE 171.
CASE OF THE KILLER
CATERPILLARS 219:
THE MISSISSIPPI'S
DISAPPEARING DELTA 226
SRILANKA'S WILDLIFE:
ATHISTORY - AND FUTURE
OF PRESERVATION: 254
OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY WASHINGTON, D.C.
Living Theater
New Guineas
Highlands
By GILLIAN GILLISON
Photographs by DAVID GILLISON
"H
URRY! Light more torches!" shouts Noru behind his enormous
mask, a sheet of bark painted with a yellow sun and surround-
ed by a rainbow of red flowers and luminous leaves (left). "We
need the light to finish my costume!" The performer is one of
some 10,000 Gimi-speaking people in the Eastern Highlands of Pa-
pua New Guinea, and the Gimis represent one of more than 700 lan-
guage groups in the New Guinea archipelago.
My husband, David, and have come to know the Gimi people, to
share their daily lives in a village sur-
140°E
rounded by rain forest, remote from the
GIMI-LANGUAGE
AREA
world at large. We first arrived here with
NEW
our six-year-old daughter, Samantha, nearly ten
IRIAN JAYA
GUINEA
5°S
years ago to study Gimi arts and culture, to learn
(INDONESIA)
the Gimi language, to comprehend Gimi views of life
PAPUA
NEW GUINEA
and the universe. I was engaged in anthropological field-
work, and David conducted a separate study of art and ritual
(see the July 1977 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC). Now we have re-
turned, working together to understand Gimi theater.
Highlanders make few of the elaborately carved ceremonial ob-
jects for which New Guinea is famous. Those are-or at least
were-produced mainly along the coast or on outlying islands. High
in the more densely populated interior, traditions of plastic art seem
never to have developed. But the Gimis possess an elaborate per-
forming art, staging short dramas and farces with costumes and
props made from feathers, marsupial furs, leaves, flowers, berries,
mosses, barks, and colored clays. Though these materials are dis-
carded or dismantled after use, leaving no collectible artifacts, Gimi
theater is, to us, an art form as complex and full of interest as the fab-
ulous lowland sculptures now housed in the world's museums.
147
Leaving Noru and his attendants to
put the finishing touches on his cos-
tume, I walk through the cool, humid
night toward the center of the hamlet.
In the flickering light of bamboo torch-
es I see fantastic creatures-men and
women who have transformed them-
selves into trees, birds, mountain spir-
its-milling near doorways, waiting
for the chance to make an entrance. I
ease my way through the crowd into a
low smoke-filled thatched house.
T IS WELL PAST midnight. I sit
cramped, part of a swaying, chant-
ing crowd. Suddenly four brilliantly
decorated, flower-covered dancers
(right) push their way into our midst,
forcing us to clear a "stage" around the
central fire, the only source of light in
the room.
The intruders begin to pound the
hard mud floor with water-filled bam-
boo poles, making the sounds of turbu-
lent, churning water. "Shush, shush,
shush," they chant, imitating the
sound of the current surging against
the banks. "Look at me, I am the riv-
er," they sing, addressing the onlook-
ers as if they were wild sugarcane
lining the shore. "I am the swollen tor-
rent, hitting you as I run down, down,
down
"
Women give the night's first perfor-
mances: five- to ten-minute portrayals
of rivers, wild taro, bandicoots-fast-
moving or abundant things of the for-
est floor that symbolize the fertility of
primordial women.
Before marriage and society existed,
Gimi myths say, women had easy ac--
cess to the rain forest, the source of all
reproductive power. They did not
once were indistinguishable. But men
o
need husbands to hunt game or to help
began to fight among themselves, cre-
d
bear children. Original women had
ating divisions in the world. Now the
male qualities, animals once were hu-
sexes are separate and live in hamlets
n
manlike, and forest and settlement
fenced off from the forest. Now men
e
148
National Geographic, August 1983
N
e. But men
own the game, father children, and
With this mildly contemptuous song,
selves, cre-
dominate their wives.
the men dismiss the women after three
d. Now the
"Disappear, you frogs, disappear!"
or four performances, then announce
in hamlets
men chant as the line of women players
their own acts.
Now men
exits. "Make way for us birds to fly in!"
Traditional Gimi society, like most
;, August 1983
New Guinea's Living Theater
149
in the Papua New Guinea highlands, is
shaped by antagonism between the
sexes. Many of the men and boys of our
village still sleep in barracks-like
men's houses built at the centers of
muddy, fenced compounds (right).
Mothers, wives, and children are ordi-
narily forbidden to enter men's houses
or even to walk on paths leading to
them. They must live in smaller, pe-
ripheral houses located at the edge of
each compound. But, as performers,
the women can break taboos and enter
the men's houses.
Some 15 compounds scattered along
a mountain shelf make up our village.
Surrounding it, in increasingly distant
rings, are sweet-potato gardens, dense
pandanus orchards, and heavily for-
ested slopes. Here, too, the sexes have
separate realms. The men clear the
land and build fences; the women do
arduous daily garden work, but sel-
dom venture into the orchards or for-
ests where the men hunt birds and
small mammals.
Once in five years or more, men of
neighboring compounds organize
marathon celebrations to initiate sons
and marry off daughters. Hundreds of
people converge on the host settlement
for a week or more.
Men as well as women spectators
may congregate in a woman's house to
await the dramatic entertainment.
Night after night, troupes of actors
stop at each house to perform mimes
and farces. On a single night in any one
house, there may be eight or more per-
formances, each lasting ten minutes or
so and separated by intervals of sing-
ing. Anyone who can persuade one or
two others to join in may organize an
afternoon rehearsal in the forest and
wait their turn at night in the com-
pounds amid the crush of other expec-
tant players.
150
"Ifyou reveal these secrets to
their mothers. Now the youths will live with
the need
your mothers, sisters, or
their fathers, who forbid them to visit wom-
elders, to
younger brothers, we will cut
en's houses, to take food from mothers'
the enemy
hands, or to eat anything with female associ-
This rit
your throats with axes and
ations, such as frogs-which squat like
of childho
dump you in the river!"
women-or flying foxes, owls, and other
mothers
a:
birds with short beaks. Gimi men disparage
enacting a
AYING THIS, the masked man menac-
such creatures as having "no noses"-an-
the rain fo
S
ingly runs his tongue along pig teeth
other way of saying they have no penises.
to flee far
glued into the jaws of his gourd mask
Above all, men warn, the boys must not
and hungr
(above). Pig tusks and a bamboo rod
divulge to women and children what they
imals to sh
that pierces the septum of the mask's nose
see and hear inside men's houses.
dead pare
identify him as a ferocious warrior. He seeks
For nearly a week, as guests assemble in
boys peris]
to terrify initiates with mock threats, to fill
the compounds, men subject the secluded
ant pigeon
them with contempt for the world of wom-
initiates to ordeals of manhood. They seat
humanlike
en, which they have inhabited until now.
the boys beside hot fires and withhold food
Like any
Men confine pre-adolescent boys in the
and drink. They deprive the sweating lads
be remem}
men's houses, forcibly separating them from
of sleep, haranguing them relentlessly about
it strikes th
152
National Geographic, August 1983
New Guine
with
the need to avoid women, to heed clan II
AREFUL! Don't let those creatures near
vom-
elders, to hunt successfully, and to vanquish
the enemy in battle.
C
you!" Someone shouts the warning as a
hers'
pair of grotesque figures grunt and
ssoci-
This rite of passage, which signals the end
stagger about the dark hut, selecting
like
of childhood, is a time of exquisite sadness for
spectators to intimidate (following pages).
other
mothers and sons. Their grief is expressed by
Wet clay covers their flat masks and clings to
arage
enacting a story about a group of boys lost in
dried vines and leaves wrapped round their
-an-
the rain forest (above). Orphaned and forced
bodies. Red blossoms protrude from
ses.
to flee far into the mountains, they are alone
clenched fists to show they have stumbled
st not
and hungry, wandering in search of small an-
through dense vegetation from their homes
they
imals to shoot and calling plaintively for their
in mountain caves.
dead parents. Eventually, uncared for, the
Suddenly one figure lurches toward the
ble in
boys perish and are transformed into pheas-
fire, sending ash into the air. "They see fire
luded
ant pigeons, birds known for their haunting,
but have no fear!" exclaims a man in the au-
y seat
humanlike cry.
dience. The monsters are ancestral spirits-
1 food
Like any Gimi theater piece, this one will
eternally rivalrous brothers-who drama-
g lads
be remembered and performed again only if
tize the importance of rules of conduct just
about
it strikes the hearts of the audience.
imposed on initiates and brides.
st 1983
New Guinea's Living Theater
153
"It's ugly men that women
"Where is my wife? Have you seen my
front row
like, and ugly men they
wife?" the old man asks one spectator after
tiful girl,
marry!" yells a spectator.
another, in a voice altered by his disguise.
"Watch out
He pokes the floor with the tip of his arrow
The hus
as if searching for footprints. Suddenly he
wife, but S
MAN brandishing bow and arrows
spies his wife: Another performer, decorat-
A
formers rev
bursts into a woman's house. His face
ed with flowers and holding a digging stick,
encounter,
is blackened with soot and contorted
a symbol of woman's labor, has slipped un-
their faces.
by vines that press his nose flat against
noticed into the hut. She stands demurely
the ugly hu
his face. The intruder, I'm told, portrays a
beside the fire while her husband jumps for
lovely girl.
villainous husband-"an ugly old man with
joy and shoots an arrow into the thatched
ence erupts
no nose."
ceiling. "Heh!" complains a woman in the
Now a th
seen my
front row. "You're so excited over that beau-
hero of the play, the woman's kind and
or after
tiful girl, you're stepping all over me!"
handsome lover. Like the husband, he car-
lisguise.
"Watch out for that arrow!" yells another.
ries weapons and wears a warrior's feather
is arrow
The husband moves toward his errant
headdress. His face is disfigured by vines
lenly he
wife, but she backs off so that the two per-
too-not to make him ugly, but to hide his
decorat-
formers reverse positions. They repeat their
identity from the furious cuckold.
1g stick,
encounter, giving everyone the chance to see
At first the rivals are oblivious of each oth-
ped un-
their faces. A man in the audience addresses
er. Each circles the fire, staring at the floor in
emurely
the ugly husband: "I'd like to marry that
search of footprints. "The two of them are
mps for
lovely girl. You can't have her!" The audi-
crazy about her, crazy about her," someone
hatched
ence erupts in laughter.
shouts out of the darkness near the door. "A
n in the
Now a third performer arrives. He is the
nice girl like that always marries a bad sort!
And look what happens!" adds another.
The unhappy wife stands with her flower-
covered head bowed in the shadows beyond
the firelight. With a burst, the two male per-
formers collide, trampling several in the au-
dience. The men disengage, and the whole
performance is repeated, subdued scenes
dramatically alternating with violent ones.
In the end neither man wins the lady.
This play is being performed to celebrate
the weddings of three young women of the
village who are marrying into distant com-
munities. When it is finished, the audience
laments the loss of the young women: "Red
orchids, fire of our forest," they sing, "we
send you far away now. Woe are we!"
The brides have been secluded in this
woman's house for days. Older women have
kept watch over them, made sure they hard-
ly ate or slept, and railed at them about the
need to care well for their husbands and to
obey their mothers-in-law.
The brides have sat slumped in an airless
corner, listening to songs that compare their
virtues to the iridescence of scarab beetles,
the sweet taste of mountain streams, the suc-
culence of pandanus fruit. The songs may
soothe them, but the theater demonstrates
that marriage will soon bring strife.
In other versions of this drama, the main
character is an ancestral spirit, the woman is
a widow, and the other man is her son. Al-
ways the ugly villain wants the woman, but
she is torn between him and the hero-
whether he be her son or her lover.
If we consider that this play is directed
toward girls about to leave home and boys
whose fathers have just forced them apart
from their mothers, then we may see why the
ugly man is always a villain. He may repre-
sent the father, who claims the bride's affec-
tions or "takes away" the initiate's mother.
157
"I shoot at these birds but
E LOOKS DOWN at his prey, a row of
takes cove
they do not fear me!" shouts
white cockatoos who silently return his
The cocl
the hunter, a man completely
gaze. "Why do they look back at me?"
hats, bam
covered in white clay and
he asks.
vertically
holding bow and arrows.
At the beginning of this drama, the hunter
lessly into
burst into the hut alone, noisily twanging his
Now th
bow and running around the fire. Then he
place and
moved into the crowd the way a hunter
turn their
ey, a row of
takes cover the moment he spies his quarry.
shoots again. "What is this?" he asks in
ly return his
The cockatoos-men with banana-leaf
amazement. And from the audience comes a
ack at me?"
hats, bamboo masks, and white clay drawn
reply: "You are shooting at your brothers,
vertically over their bodies-crept sound-
don't you know?"
L, the hunter
lessly into the room.
The birds embody spirits of the hunter's
wanging his
Now the hunter emerges from his hiding
dead kinsmen, a bond that accounts for their
re. Then he
place and shoots at the birds. But they only
fearlessness. The play dramatizes the idea
y a hunter
turn their heads. Unnerved, the hunter
that hunter and hunted are fated to meet.
159
"I'm on my way to the river's
source to find pure water and
a wife," the ugly old man
tells the boy.
N A PATH outside the settlement the
0
two have met, and the boy has asked
the old man, who carries a walking
stick, where he is going. From their
short exchange, repeated four or five times,
the audience recognizes the start of a rather
complex myth.
In this story the boy's widowed mother
goes deep into the forest to the river's source
to collect wild foods for her children. The
ugly old man follows her upriver, looking
for pure water to drink. When he reaches the
widow, he accuses her of muddying the wa-
ter and kills her. Thus he gets neither a wife
nor pure water.
The old man returns to the settlement dis-
guised as the widow and attempts to fool her
children. He soon kills the widow's son, the
boy he met on the path. But the boy's sister
discovers his body and realizes that the
"mother" is an impostor. She kills the evil
old man while he sleeps. Then she runs
away, carrying her brother's corpse inside a
net bag.
The girl climbs many mountains until she
finds the man she will marry. He puts her
dead brother inside the hollow trunk of a
tree and seals it shut. Soon beautiful sounds
emerge from the tree. When the sister-now
a bride-strikes the tree, the trunk opens
and birds of paradise fly into the world for
the first time.
What does the story mean? Why is it en-
acted during marriages and initiations?
Many initiates are actually younger brothers
of the brides. In the myth the heroine's mar-
riage makes possible her brother's rebirth as
a bird, the Gimi symbol of a full-fledged
male. The girl must leave home and find a
husband before her younger brother can be
initiated, before he can "fly" into adulthood.
This myth is one of a collection of morality
tales that are enacted for the benefit of the
brides and initiates, separately sequestered
in women's and men's houses. The dramatic
and often violent stories symbolically fore-
tell the tragic complexities of life as they en-
ter the adult world.
160
"Wake, brother, wake! See
HIS PLAY is a sequel to the one featur-
his wall
the butterfly that clings to my
ing the older sister in the previous skit.
obliviou
As the sister and her new husband lie in a
at their
:
walking stick!"
garden sharing intimacies, the groom's
A Gin
younger brother arrives on the scene to find
the fema
out how babies are made. He tries to distract
of the fet
his elder brother by poking the lovers with
vessel-
e one featur-
his walking stick. He dances around the
deposits the ingredients to make a child.
orevious skit.
oblivious pair, demanding to have his turn
The performers who play the soon-to-be-
isband lie in a
at their "game." Laughter fills the room.
wed pair are both male. When plays are ris-
, the groom's
A Gimi theory of procreation holds that
qué, the sexes do not act together. But Gimi
: scene to find
the female contributes little to the formation
theater is a place where tabooed subjects can
ries to distract
of the fetus. She serves merely as an empty
be broached, relations between the sexes
e lovers with
vessel-a hollow tree-into which the male
ridiculed, and tensions eased.
163
"Hwa! Hwa! Hwa!" shout
HE SCENE is war. The enemy-an
abandon h
the warriors, giving the
traditional battle cry as they
I
actor sheathed in protective layers of
body, char
banana stem-is being shot full of bam-
and the pla
boo arrows. In a moment he falls as
shoot stage arrows into a
it. "To the
though mortally wounded, then is lifted by a
well-padded foe.
riors cry, n
comrade-in-arms.
The obje
But the Gimi warriors continue to shoot at
life-force t}
the figure, finally forcing his comrade to
emy to fly t
my-an
abandon him. The victors then surround the
the future, the spirits of dead men-both
ayers of
body, chanting the names of clan ancestors
clan members and their victims-can be re-
of bam-
and the places those ancestors' spirits inhab-
used to animate new generations of the clan.
falls as
it. "To the caves of Mount Hana!" the war-
In days when the Gimis fought constant
fted by a
riors cry, mentioning one such place.
wars, enemies' spirits were precious booty.
The object of the chants is to persuade the
Until the Australian government pacified
shoot at
life-force that is escaping from the dying en-
the area in the late 1950s, Gimi men raided
rade to
emy to fly to the forest. There, stockpiled for
other villages in the hours before dawn, am-
bushing the villagers and destroying their
gardens. Nearly the whole male population
between the ages of 15 and 50 kept them-
selves perpetually combat ready. To do this,
warriors had to be pure, which meant they
had to avoid contact with children and
women, whom Gimis consider highly pol-
luting because of their association with men-
strual blood. If a man tastes food cooked in
a fire whose embers were blown alive by a
menstruating woman or by a new mother, or
if any woman or child merely steps over his
legs or hands, he is liable to fumble with his
weapons in the heat of battle or fall helpless
before the enemy.
For men in their prime to have regular
contact with women and children once
meant subjecting the entire community to
the risk of attack. Since the Australians end-
ed guerrilla wars, some of these taboos have
been relaxed. But the fear of women and the
ideals of warriorhood still dominate much of
Gimi life and its rendering in Gimi theater.
Many in present-day audiences were once
enemies. Merely by attending the celebra-
tion, they now peaceably relinquish a part of
what their hosts once tried to take by force:
their vital energy. The songs that the guests
must sing loudly until dawn are more than
an entertaining way to pass the long night
hours. "Songs are our spirits," Gimis say.
By singing, the revelers release their spir-
its into the rafters. The owners of the houses
thus acquire these spirits, and so regain
some of the life-force they themselves have
expended by staging the rituals.
In the Gimi way of thinking, a host com-
munity that entertains others thereby gives
up part of its own life-force-part of what
collectively enables the community to bring
forth new life, to bear and raise future brides
and initiates, to herd more pigs, to raise new
crops. When members of other settlements
and clans come together to sing all night
long, they help replenish the hosts' precious
supply of life-force.
165
"Hey! Brave man!" yells a
the ends of the palm bow close enough to
spectator, "she put something
slip on the bowstring (below). Each time he
in your food!"
fails, the audience laughs wildly.
Strewn over the wife's net bag are bril-
HE "SHE," a boy streaked in white clay,
liant red poinsettia petals, symbolic of men-
crouches in the foreground near the fire
strual blood. Seeing these, the audience
(left). He plays the part of a wife prepar-
knows the husband is poisoned. He col-
ing a meal by rotating a bamboo tube
lapses, then gets up to begin the play again.
filled with vegetables in the hot ashes. The
The farce is Gimi men's version of how
husband arrives shouting, "I will not eat!
women get the better of them. It says to
I must be ready for trouble whenever it
brides: "We see your treachery.' And to ini-
comes!" But his wife implores him, and
tiates: "Be ever wary of your wives." The
finally he sits down beside her to eat.
gales of laughter from the audience do not
Finishing his meal, the husband reaches
mean that the Gimis take menstrual pollu-
for his weapons. He tries to string his bow
tion lightly, but that humor releases the ten-
but cannot. Again and again he tries to pull
sion such a topic creates.
New Guinea's Living Theater
167
"We know why you've come,
an early patrol. While he explains his gov-
of generation
you've come to see your home
ernment's business and announces a census,
credulous at
again!"
his ghostly Gimi counterpart-shrouded in
boats who, t.
a blanket in the right foreground-arises
cestors sailin,
WO SPIRITS of the dead meet-one an
from the grave to welcome him.
distant nethe
T
Australian patrol officer, the other a
New versions of plays are often intro-
Some playl
Gimi ghost-in a dramatization of one
duced by visitors to the festival. As soon as
about the ori
of the first encounters with white men.
this performance ended, men who had
ety. Others, a
Gimis once believed that all whites were re-
walked four days to reach our village quietly
such as sus
embodied spirits of dead kinsmen. In this
left the house. They returned hours later,
feuds, create
scene the man in Western clothes, his face
disguised in costumes of dried banana leaves
formed again
and lower legs covered in white clay, plays a
and speaking a Papuan coastal language.
When a F
government officer arriving in the village on
They were portraying Papuan shell traders
reach out to p.
168
National Geographic, August 1983
New Guinea's
nowadays, cash in the hands of performers.
By doing this, they acknowledge that they
are utterly overwhelmed, that parts of them-
selves have "died"-simply left their bodies
and gone into the performers. The day after
the performance, players must return twice
the quantity of feathers or money received.
They must compensate the "victims" of their
art or else risk ridicule.
Some young men see in theater an oppor-
tunity to break through the confining world
of bride payments and arranged marriages.
By the skill or daring of his performance a
man can "strike" a woman in the audience-
that is, drive her to flout convention and
elope with him. This is a way for someone of
low social status to win a desirable mate.
After the last performance, slow, reso-
nant singing begins again and continues un-
til the crowing of roosters signals first light.
Inside separate houses, brides and initiates
sleep undisturbed by their chaperones for
the first time in more than a day. Hunger
moves the rest of us, and, one by one, we
leave the stale warmth of the hut.
I stumble into the cold, misty dawn, ach-
ing with tiredness, and walk toward our
house in the next compound. Before I reach
the fence, I hear frantic squeals of pigs being
clubbed. The daytime routine of the festival
has already begun. Men will slaughter most
of their herds in order to provide lavishly for
their guests and implicitly to challenge them
to make an equal return someday.
On the narrow, muddy path I exchange
greetings with women and children on their
way to the gardens. By late afternoon great
quantities of food will be ready for visitors.
Tonight, and for the next four or five
nights, houses will be jammed with people
singing. As the nights wear on, weariness
is gov-
of generations ago. The traders appeared in-
will overtake the singers, and their voices
census,
credulous at the sight of tall white figures in
will fade to a low, monotonous drone. Into
uded in
boats who, the traders imagined, were an-
the midst of the crowd will come provoca-
-arises
cestors sailing home from some strange and
tively swaying dancers, cruel husbands,
distant netherworld.
melancholy birds, or monstrous ancestors—
1 intro-
Some playlets are much repeated classics
all to startle and delight the spectators.
soon as
about the origins and history of Gimi soci-
As I reach our house, I see David waiting
10 had
ety. Others are satires of everyday events,
for me in the doorway. Above us, hidden in
quietly
such as suspected infidelities or family
the crown of a fig tree, a bird of paradise
'S later,
feuds, created for one occasion and not per-
calls loudly to its companions across the val-
aleaves
formed again unless they are instant hits.
ley. As the sun breaks through the heavy
iguage.
When a play is successful, spectators
morning mist, David splits firewood to cook
traders
reach out to place plumages, pearl shells, or,
our breakfast.
ust 1983
New Guinea's Living Theater
169
a
1888 . CENTENNIAL 0 1988
VOL. 173, NO. 4
APRIL 1988
NATIONAL
GEOGRAPHIC
SMITE
CEN
Ghosts of War
IN THE SQUTH PACIFIC 424
WRECK OF THE COOLIDGE 458
M
UGANDA -LAND BEYOND SORROW
468
TEXA Sill BLOOM 493.
WILDFLOWERS ACROSS AMERICA 500. ,
FINDING/A PHARAOH S/FUNERAL PHARAOH S/FUNERAL OR'S FUNERAL BARK 513
RIDDLEO THE PYR MID BOATS 534. ¥
4
SEE "MYSTERIES OF MANKIND" WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, ON PBS TV
Wrec
NORTH
Espiritu
Santo
Coolidge
wreck
riganville
o
20 km
mi
L
/IGHT SEEPS,DIM and blue
from the surface of the
southwest Pacific 135 feet
above us. We are diving on
the President Coolidge,
and the promenade deck
is littered with equipment
discarded in mortal haste
by the ship's last passengers:
rifles, gas masks, metal
boarding ladders. My diving
partner Kev Deacon, an Aus-
tralian underwater cinema-
tographer, examines steel
helmets (right). Kev's wife,
Chris, acting as safety diver,
hovers above us. The sea has
coated the ship with marine
growth and has spread a veil
of wet, brown-green dust
over everything.
The Coolidge was a luxury
liner converted into a troop
transport for service World
War.II. During her seventh
military mission, on October
26, 1942, as she entered the
harbor of Espiritu Santo in
the New Hebrides Islands
(now Vanuatu), the ship
struck two U.S. mines
and sank.
Today nearly half a cen-
tury later, her-hulk seems
full of voices, shouted orders,
curses, the clump of boots.
458
OUBILET
tographs
the harbor. "I saw.a blinker.
light flashing on shore, he
says, "but the code was too
fast for meto read." Others
missed the same message: a
$
S
warning that the Coolidge
was headed straight for a
minefield. The fog of war,
some call it. Someone didn'
get the word.
heard an explosion-
and then another,
says
surgeon Henry M. Farmer
The ship began listing at
S
HE WAS a grand ship,"
(below). The lady is an Eliza-
once." The time was 9:30,
notes Allan Power, an
bethan figure with a unicorn
and the second mine killed
Aussie diver who fell under
(right) atop a marble fire
fireman Robert Reid.
the spell of the Coolidge:19
place. The rare woods have
Engines stopped. Below-
years ago and stayed on'as a
been eaten by teredo worms
decks, lights and communi-
kind of keeper of the wreck.
Survivors of the Coolidge
cations went out. An oil
The 22, 000-ton luxury ship
remember that bright Octo
slick began'spreading on the
was built to sail from San
ber morning. With 5,440
water. But the first word
Francisco to the Orient. Her
men, mostly from the 43rd
we got was that the ship
interiors were paneled in rare
Infantry Division plus arms
wouldn' tsink," remembers
woods, draped in silk, lit by-
and equipment, the ship had
Bill Stebbins, then a.major
skylights of cathedral glass.
crossed the Pacific in 14 days
We were ordered to our
When she went to war, the
and was now entering Espir-
duty stations."
finery was ripped out-"all
itu Santo, staging base for
Web Thompson returned
but the 'lady;' " notes Allan.
hard-pressed Allied troops
to his station belowdecks.
"I'll show her to you."
on Guadalcanal.
"I had 200 men to take care
We swim into what was
First Lt. Web Thompson
of-in the dark with water
the main smoking lounge
was near the bow, admiring
coming in."
FROM KEV DEACON (TOP)AND*ABOVE)
T lidge promptly ran the
THE CAPTAIN of the Coo-
things. Starboard ladders
around - but no panic:
Web T hom
didn't reach the water, and
The ship was/tipping
noncoms
ship aground, but she listed
some life rafts, already low-
over more all the time, says
the fantail
dangerously to port
'It
was
ered, began drifting away
Joseph Parsons then a staff
ty:raft: W
about 20 minutes later when
On D deck, Capt Warren
sergeant. ""Finally I was
till had a
we got the word to abandon
K. Covill and mess officer
able to walk down the star-
pants, he
ship, says Bill Stebbins
Câpt. Elwood Euart found
board side and jump into
On D ded
We passed the word below-
a rope. Euart held one end
water that was covered with
all their me
decks, and men got life jack-
and I held the other, so the
oil." He swam toward shore.
tains Euart
ets and started using the rope
men could pull themselves
Stebbins recalls that most
bled toward
and metal ladders: Fortu-
along it, says Covill (far)
of the men got off the ship in
thought Eu
nately we d had two months
right, as he is today)
the last 20 minutes I climbed.
hind me E
training in amphibious
Belowdecks:near the head,
into one of the last boats from
jumped off
operations Discipline was
Web Thompson could hear
a bow rope ladder.
board when
excellent.
water rushing in through
Dr. Farmer/also crawled
the reef and
The list to port complicated
the toilets and guns sliding
down a net and into a boat.
first. I was
NATIONAL ARCHIVES, (ABOVE AND BELOW)
Web Thompson and two
in a minute I came up. They
noncoms slid down a rope off
told me later Ihad been in an
the fantail-and into an emp
air bubble.
ty raft: When I got ashore,
Captain Euart went down
I still had a crease in my
with the ship; he was posthu-
pants, " he recalls.
mously awarded the Distin-
On D deck, having pulled
guished Service Cross
all their men to safety, Cap-
At 10:55, just one hour and
tains Euart and Covill scram-
25 minutes after hitting the
bled toward the exit. "I
mines, the Coolidge settled
in
thought Euart was right be-
onto the channel floor, with
hind me. Everyone else had
empty lifeboat davitsreaching
jumped off I was still on
upward as they do today-
board when the ship slid off
sprouting growths of black
the reef and went down stern
coral like strange tufts of
first. I was underwater. But
hair (below).
BRETON LITTLEHALES
H
ARBOR BOATS picked
up the oil-soaked men
swimming toward shore.
Amazingly only five lives
were lost, fireman Reid and
four soldiers-5, 435 were
saved: Dr. Farmer treated
the injured, "mostly cuts and
scratches when they jumped
from the ship. But more se-
rious was the Atabrine we
lost. The ship was carrying
all the medicine available for
malaria on Guadalcanal."
In fact, the stranded men
needed everything. "We had
900 men with nine rifles,"
says Web Thompson. "We
borrowed a hundred mess
kits from the Seabees sta-
tioned ashore."
Next day Bill Stebbins
flew out of Espiritu Santo
"to scrounge supplies-
enough for a couple of
months." But reequipping
the troops for battle took
much longer. "We didn't get
to Guadalcanal until March
of 1943, " notes Dr. Farmer.
Loss of the Coolidge delayed
Allied operations by weeks.
The much needed equip-
ment still lies in that silent
hulk of history: Allan Power
and I float into enormous
holds, where we see a jumble
of crushed jeeps (left) mixed
in with piles of tires and the
body parts of trucks, artillery
pieces, and typewriters.
Allan finds a Thompson
submachine gun, its cleaning
rod still in the barrel. Marine
growth makes the gun resem-
ble a plush toy (top right).
Off the promenade deck
again, Allan beckons me into
another compartment, the
enlisted men's starboard
head. Ranks of toilets line the
walls. Marine animals are not
growing on the porcelain, yet
the toilets are filled with the
ocean's detritus, an abysmal
vision of ultimate gasistation
grime (right)
inch gun aims aims.into the depths
circle it and find the
ready ammunition locker
filled with ith a barrage of tin
I
E SWIM back along the
starboard rail until we
reach the the for forward guntub
The long quenched three
W
tTh
great waste
bathed with a blue light The
angélfish swims between
y
become a museum of war S
We rise and the ship fades
coated with red sponge. An
and then a warship, has
the bubbles from our tanks.
the gun S breech, which is
Coolidge, once a luxury liner
Allan and Kev, and plays in
fish. Allan turns his light on
ths