EDITOR’S FORUM TO LIMLIMBUR, THE “WANDERERS.” REFLECTIONS ON JOURNEYS AND TRANSFORMATIONS IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA Roderic Lacey Institute of Catholic Education Victoria, Australia Thus there passed to rest a spirit which had ever been turbulent in the cause of the people, one who in life had been aptly named To Limlimbur, the Wanderer, for in his time few men, white or black, could match the restless grandeur of his vision.1 What is fascinating in these words about Sumsuma by a historian of the “Rabaul Strike” of 1929 is the writer’s vision of the man as a hero. This paper focuses on innovators of the colonial era in Papua New Guinea such as Sumsuma, Mambu, Yali, and Anton Misiyaiyai, as well as some recent urban migrants. My argument has three elements. First these innovators, and their struggles to bring about change within the confining structures of a colonial order, echo each other across genera- tions, particularly when seen as “wanderers”--men who journeyed beyond their own people, beyond the horizons of their “traditional” world and its moral order, who in their journeys had their own vision of the world transformed, and then returned and sought to bring new worlds into being. Despite differences off historical context and local Pacific Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1--November 1985 83 84 Pacific Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1--November 1985 culture and traditions, these common threads of journeys, transforma- tions, and returns are woven through these wanderers!’ life histories. A second element lies in the details of the wanderers’ narratives and their reflections of the richer, more complex, and more ancient narra- tive traditions of Papua New Guinea. Our understanding of the narra- tives and the lives of the wanderers is enriched and extended by locating them within the precolonial oral traditions about heroes, heroines, founders, traders, migrants, and initiates and their varied journeys and transformations. This premise has two corollaries. The “modern” wan- derers, their narratives, and struggles echo and build on the preexisting narrative traditions and suggest that there are continuities in the history of innovation and change between the precolonial and colonial eras. This would suggest that historical interpretation of colonial events that draws upon insights from indigenous precolonial traditions instead of relying upon sources from the colonizers adds new dimensions to our understanding. The final element of the argument, which is underlined by the detailed investigation of Anton Misiyaiyai’s narrative that begins this paper, is that this and the other wanderer narratives can be seen as par- adigms for understanding the process of innovation and change in colo- nial Papua New Guinea, and perhaps beyond, in other contexts. Anton’s Narrative: A Paradigm? Anton Misiyaiyai, a man from Moseng, an inland Sepik village, told his story to B. J. Allen in the 1970s.2 In many ways his narrative cap- tures the life of a generation of young workers who signed labor con- tracts in the 1920s and 1930s that took them far from their home village and landed them, from 1942, in the midst of a vortex of destruction and change; they survived as men transformed and restless to bring about a new world. Perhaps Anton, like a few others, is remarkable among the men of that generation for the clarity of his dreams of change and the fierce and persistent will with which he sought to make those dreams reality. For these reasons his story is worth hearing. He was born about 1920 and was still a small child when the first white man, a government officer, visited Moseng. Anton was recruited as a laborer in the mid-1930s. He recalled that he was then merely a boy with “no beard and no hair on my genitals.” Once recruited Anton set out from home on his first journey, to the coast. He was not to see his home again for another ten years, and then in changed circumstances. He and his young fellow recruits walked to the coast, signed on, and Editor’s Forum 85 sailed to Rabaul. His first contract was served in Kavieng where he “cut grass underneath the coconuts,” for three years. The work was hard, but the manager of the plantation was harder still and the workers revolted. Company officials investigated, and removed him. Anton then worked as a domestic servant in the house of the new manager. He was deeply impressed with the glimpse he caught of the for- eigners’ way of life. When I came out of the bush I was like a fool. When I saw how the whitemen lived my head went around. I saw their houses. When I became a servant I saw inside their houses. I saw their beds and their chairs and tables. Their food and clothes. I thought all these things were good. I saw the stores too. I was amazed at the things in them. The knives and clothes and all the different sorts of food. I thought this was good too. (353) After two years’ work as a domestic servant on his second contract, the Pacific War began in New Guinea in the early months of 1942. The invaders came and Anton met a new group of foreigners, some of whom were prepared to teach him new ways. A new and significant chapter had begun in this young man’s life. Anton was made a garden bosboi by the Japanese. He began learning new methods of cultivation from some of these strangers who learned to speak a little tok pisin. Anton and his fellow workers learned to plant sweet potato, arrowroot, Chinese taro, pumpkin, melon, corn, onions, and rice. He gained some ideas from these new men; in particular he began thinking about the importance of rice cultivation. When I was with the Japanese I got my first ideas. When I saw this rice, I thought, what is this? We eat rice. But what is this stuff? I watched. We planted it. I watched it come up from the ground. I thought, ah, the rice we eat, this is the way it is made. I saw the other things too, the tapioca, and the corn, but my thoughts stayed with the rice. I thought rice would be best. I thought, this is the way to get money. I took it into my mind. I didn’t write it. I don’t know how to write. (354) Anton also gained practical knowledge about rice planting and milling. His detailed memory of this process showed that he had learned well. 86 Pacific Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1--November 1985 The war came to an end with the Japanese defeat and surrender of August 1945. Now it was time for Anton to return home after many years away. His initial return was to be brief, He saw with his own eyes what had happened to his home, Moseng, and his people under the Jap- anese invader. After only a three-month stay he returned to the coast, taking with him other village men. They were employed clearing up Madang after the War. Again he was a bosboi for one year and like many workers at that time he made a lot of money for this work. His experience in the foreign plantation enclave in New Ireland, with Australians and then with Japanese, had sown a vision of change in Anton’s mind. That seed was to mature in this other enclave, the town of Madang. He went with his employer to a large meeting addressed by the bishop, who made promises that Anton sought to fulfill. The bishop held a big book. He spoke to us. He said the war is over, there will be no more fighting. We are very worried about all the Papuans and New Guineans who died. Men from all over New Guinea stood together with the Americans and the Australian soldiers. I saw them fighting and I was proud and happy. I have seen the strong men and women of New Guinea. Now I have some advice for you. If you follow it you will get the same standards of living as Europeans have. If you take no notice you will stay like your ancestors. (356) Also in Madang, Anton was taught the elements of banking by his employer. Now, after his time in Madang, he was armed to put his vision into action in order to improve the living standards of the people of his area. On his journey home with his ideas and money he stopped in Aitape. There began his long struggle with colonial authorities. The kiap (government field officer) was suspicious of Anton when he depos- ited his savings and challenged him roughly about what he planned to do with this money. This testing of his ideas helped Anton to clarify them. He resolved to begin by building a house like those he had seen out in the foreign towns and stations. Anton began his program for improvement by trying to win over the village people to his vision and plan for change. In particular he told them that, like so many other young men before the war, he had fol- lowed the common path to the new world outside the village: working on a plantation. But that was a bitter road to follow, So he had searched for another road inside his own village and now he had found it. “I have seen the way,” he claimed, and he offered it to them. His own people, Editor’s Forum 87 his own clan, seemed to him to be the people with whom he could best begin.