Name, Shame and Blame Criminalising Consensual Sex in Papua New Guinea
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Name, Shame and Blame Criminalising Consensual Sex in Papua New Guinea Name, Shame and Blame Criminalising Consensual Sex in Papua New Guinea Christine Stewart criminalising consensual sex in Papua New Guinea Published by ANU Press The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Email: [email protected] This title is also available online at http://press.anu.edu.au National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Author: Stewart, Christine, author. Title: Name, shame and blame : criminalising consensual sex in Papua New Guinea / Christine Stewart. ISBN: 9781925021219 (paperback) 9781925021226 (ebook) Subjects: Sexual consent--Social aspects--Papua New Guinea. Prostitution--Social aspects--Papua New Guinea. Prostitution--Law and legislation--Papua New Guinea. Homosexuality--Law and legislation--Papua New Guinea. Homosexuality--Social aspects--Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea--Social conditions. Dewey Number: 306.7409953 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Cover design and layout by ANU Press Cover photo: The bilum, the string bag made originally from bush twine, is the symbol of womanhood and femaleness throughout Papua New Guinea. The rainbow colours denote the global LGBT movement. The frangipanis represent the PNG Friends Frangipani sex workers network. Photo by Christine Stewart. Printed by Griffin Press This edition © 2014 ANU Press Contents List of Illustrations . vii Dedication . ix Acknowledgements . xi Glossary . xv Maps . xxiii Prologue . The Perfect Storm . xxv 1 . Through the Window . 1 2 . From the Bush . 39 3 . In the Courtroom . 81 4 . On the Streets . 137 5 . In Trouble . 191 6 . At the Intersection . 225 7 . Where to Now? . 267 Appendix 1 . Respondents . 305 Appendix 2 . Sample Antecedent Report . 309 Appendix 3 . Review of Homosexuality Cases . 313 Appendix 4 . Summary of Sentences . 319 Bibliography . 321 v List of Illustrations Figures 1.1. A main street in Boroko today—all the trees planted in the 16 colonial era have grown and gardens flourish. 1.2. A ‘tuckerbox’ store constructed in a fence beside a suburban 17 road in Tokarara, heavily screened for security. The graffiti are unsurprising. 1.3. High-covenant houses and apartments built to take maximum 18 advantage of the spectacular ocean views. The houses are owned by politicians and other elites, and the apartments are mainly rented to expatriates. 1.4. ‘Sodomy Shock.’ Front-page headline from the Post-Courier, 36 21 January 2006. 2.1. Kiap presiding at a Native Affairs Court hearing, 1950s. 49 2.2. Thomas Vinit, ‘SEX IS SACRED AND SPECIAL.’ 63 4.1. Poro Sapot outreach workers leave the Project yard to conduct 139 site visits. 4.2. MSM drop-in centre in Poro Sapot’s front yard. 139 4.3. FSW drop-in centre at the rear of the building. A literacy 140 class, conducted by a teacher funded by Dame Carol Kidu, is in progress. 4.4. Many women sleep, dress and prepare themselves for work at 141 the FSW drop-in centre. Their only possessions are stored in bags in the rafters. 4.5. Laundry at the tubs. 142 4.6. Project workers in their condom costumes, ready for the 144 motorcade around town, World AIDS Day Port Moresby. 4.7. Here the police are shown placing posters on their escort 145 vehicles. 4.8. Market—selling soft drinks, boiled eggs, ice blocks and 153 vegetables—and in the background, sex, 2006. 4.9. Up-market—free-lance workers wait outside one of Port 155 Moresby’s classier hotels for security guards to summon them to work, 2006. vii 4.10. Harbourside sales. This landfill site has now been built over 158 and no longer exists. 4.11. Typical club, with bar and snooker table. 159 4.12. Drag show contestant. 181 4.13. Notice of MSW meeting posted on the ‘notice-board’ at Poro 182 Sapot. 4.14. The Ela Beach beat downtown. 184 5.1. ‘Males “freed” …but 31 suspected female prostitutes charged!’ 197 5.2. Front-page, ‘Forty held in capital city brothel raid,’ Post- 200 Courier. 5.3. Post-Courier report of 1998 raid, referring to a ‘forced march.’ 201 5.4. Aito Paka Paka, flowers, brightly coloured sarongs, outrageous 215 hats … and fruit. 6.1. Poster (carried by a man) from the ‘Stop Violence Against 236 Women’ march of 2006, displaying some of the prevalent arguments against nightclubs. 6.2. Good or Bad? – A cartoon from 1981. 258 Maps 0.1. Map of Papua New Guinea. xxi 0.2. Map of Port Moresby. xxii 1.1. Port Moresby today, showing the harbour at upper left, the 11 original town site on the peninsula, the steep slopes of the coastal hills, the urban and suburban development inland to the east and the airport to the far right on the eastern edge of the city. 4.1. Aerial view of Hanuabada (HB), beside and in the harbour, with 178 the Yacht Club to the upper right. Each row of houses is arranged by family and clan relationships. 7.1. Prostitution laws of the world. 280 7.2. LGBT rights by country or territory. 283 Table 3.1. Formal court system in PNG before and after Independence. 86 § For Anna, Clemence, Christopher, Johnny, Kuragi, Mama, Margaret, Monika, Peter, Piku and all their sisters and brothers who have suffered the full force of the law’s justice and to the memory of Carol Jenkins, Jason Lavare and John Ballard. ix Acknowledgements Without the encouragement and support of several wonderful people, this book would never have been written. Two amazing women have long provided inspiration for my work in HIV and gender. The late Dr Carol Jenkins was a wonderful colleague and co-conspirator since we first met twenty years ago in Port Moresby at a Health Department National AIDS Committee meeting. Together (she the biologist and medical anthropologist, I the lawyer) we wrangled, tested ideas, hatched the original plan for the PNG National AIDS Council, played devil’s advocate to each other. PNG lost a wonderful asset when she was forced to leave in the late 1990s. Dame Carol Kidu, three times elected Member of Parliament in PNG and Minister for Community Development from 2002 until the political turmoil of 2011, inspired me to carry on. Her efforts to assist the ‘meek of the earth’—battered wives, evicted squatters, illiterate street-dwellers, the sick and needy, and the stigmatised, harassed and bullied sex sellers and gays of the city—have marked her as extraordinary. She has achieved far more than I could ever hope to do. PNG has been lucky to have her, and I have been lucky to know her. Professor Margaret Jolly of The Australian National University blessed me with her mentoring at all stages of this process, through some very trying times. Her encouragement, guidance, wisdom and faith in me and my project, despite all reservations, have been the foundation upon which this book has been constructed. It has been an immense privilege to have been associated with her, first as a doctoral student in the Gender Relations Centre of the former Research School of Pacific and Asian studies, and then as a Visiting Fellow with her Australian Research Council Laureate Project. The late Dr John Ballard, a friend from UPNG days of long ago, supported my first faltering steps back into academia after an absence of several decades. He provided an excellent supply of background information and later, a meticulous reading of my drafts, as well as being a comprehensive source of information about life in Canberra. I was immensely flattered when, at the conclusion of my project, he retired from academic life with a satisfied sigh, declaring: my job is done. Professor Jean Zorn, law teacher in New York and Florida, has been a firm friend since UPNG days, where she started teaching my UPNG law class about Torrens title and livery of seisin by introducing us to the notion of customary law. We have shared much together, and her thoughtful insights on many things, particularly feminist law, customary legal systems and scholarship on intersectionality, have been most welcome. xi Name, Shame and Blame: Criminalising Consensual Sex in Papua New Guinea Dr Katherine (Kathy) Lepani has also been a good friend from PNG, and is now a colleague at The Australian National University. She helped immeasurably by sharing many useful insights and hints into the research process, as well as much information from her work with HIV in PNG. From the outset, she has provided sage advice and reading suggestions, and has always been ready to act as a sounding board for many of my ideas and theories. I owe much to many other teachers, near and far (both in space and time), and particularly (in chronological order): Professor Peter Lawrence, who nearly made a full-time anthropologist of me; C.J. (Joe) Lynch, who first introduced me to law by showing me how legislative drafting can be a truly exciting, creative, significant process; Professor Peter Fitzpatrick, who, Buddha-like, taught jurisprudence under a tree behind the UPNG Forum, and recently, with Ben Golder, imparted much new insight about Michel Foucault. The staff and students of the former Gender Relations Centre at The Australian National University, and of the current School of Culture, History and Language, and many other academics and staff of the former Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, gave willingly of their friendship, support and camaraderie. Particular thanks go to Aileen Pangutalan-Mijares, Dr Frances Steel, Dr Greg Dvorak, Dr Cathy Hine and Dr Ruth Saovana-Spriggs, for sharing office spaces, lunches, discussion, tips and workload generally.