OCEANIA NEWSLETTER No. 102, June 2021 Published quarterly by the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies, Radboud University, P.O. Box 9104, 6500 HE Nijmegen, The Netherlands. The website of the newsletter is at: https://www.ru.nl/caos/cpas/publications/oceania-newsletter/. At this site you can download old and new issues of the newsletter in PDF-format. To receive or to stop receiving this newsletter in Word-format, contact the us at [email protected]. Our online database is at http://cps.ruhosting.nl/CPAS/public/index/. This database contains information on Pacific literature that has been listed in the issues of the Oceania Newsletter since 1993. From 1993 backwards we are adding titles of articles and books that have appeared and were reviewed in journals that supply anthropological information on the Pacific. The Pacific is Indigenous Australia, Melanasia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Literature on Asia is not included. CONTENTS 1. G.M. Versteeg's Diary of the 'First' Expedition to South New Guinea 1-6 - a review essay by Anton Ploeg 2. Journal of New Zealand and Pacific Studies, 8(2), 2020: Table of Contents 6-7 3. Received 7-8 4. New Books 8-23 5. Recent Publications 23-37 1. G.M. VERSTEEG'S DIARY OF THE 'FIRST' EXPEDITION TO SOUTH NEW GUINEA1 A review essay of: Eerste Zuid Nieuw-Guinea expeditie 1907: Dagboek van Gerard Martinus Versteeg, arts [First South New Guinea Expedition: Diary of Gerard Martinus Versteeg, physician]. Edited by Anton Versteeg. Privately published [Zwaag: Pumbo], 2020. 232 pp., maps, drawings, plates, appendices. No ISBN number. Available from https://www.boekenbestellen.nl/. Anton Ploeg Independent researcher Gerard M. Versteeg was a staff member in two expeditions to south Dutch New Guinea. The first took place in 1907 and was led by H.A. Lorentz; the second in 1912-3, led by A. Franssen Herderschee. In between was yet another expedition, again under Lorentz. An earlier expedition, in 1903-4, had attempted, without success, to explore the western reaches of the mountains (Schumacher 1955: 36; Wentholt 2003: 34). Possibly for that reason the 1907 expedition is regarded as the 'first' one. Versteeg had earlier taken part in two expeditions to the interior of Suriname (p. 320) during which he had made botanical collections, in addition to his medical work. In 1907 he did similarly in New Guinea. In the diary and the appendices he shows considerable botanical knowledge. He was also an accomplished photographer (Wentholt 2002: 99). Versteeg was born in the Netherlands. His father died when he was in his mid-teens and he had to scrape money together in order to finance his study in medicine. He welcomed the invitation to take part in the several colonial expeditions at least in part since it brought in extra funds. For the same reason he joined the colonial army in the, then, Dutch East Indies as a medical officer (Anton Versteeg, pers. comm. 2021). The editor of the diary, Anton Versteeg, is G.M. Versteeg's grandson. He had earlier edited his grandfather's diary of the 1912-3 expedition (Versteeg 2020). As is the case in this earlier book, his editorial work appears to have been slight. He has changed the word spelling to make it conform with current Dutch usage, and has internationalised the spelling of place-names. He has also added explanatory foot notes. The diary is a 1 I would like to thank René van der Haar, editor of the Oceania Newsletter, and Anton Versteeg, editor of the book under review, for their helpful comments. 1 private one. Versteeg mailed it in parts to his wife. However, although he several times addressed her in his text, he also refers to her in the third person. The expedition took place in an era of Dutch colonial expansion. It was part of that expansion. In the Netherlands the KNAG, the Royal Dutch Geographic Society (Wentholt 2003: 16ff, Bossenbroek 1996: 54) and the Maatschappij ter Bevordering van het Natuurkundig Onderzoek der Nederlandsche Koloniën, the Society Promoting Research into the Natural Sciences in the Dutch Colonies; and in the Dutch East Indies: the Indisch Comité voor Wetenschappelijke Onderzoekingen, the Indian Committee for Scientific Inquiries (Bossenbroek 1996: 56ff), were active organising such expeditions. The Indian Committee was founded in 1890 by Melchior Treub, then director of 's Lands Plantentuin, the Kebun Raya, in Bogor. The expeditions were to increase the knowledge about the country and its inhabitants, and to show the outside world the active interest that the Dutch government took in administering its vast colonial empire. The 1907 expedition was organised by the Maatschappij ter Bevordering van het Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek der Nederlandsche Koloniën. The staff of the expedition consisted of Lorentz, by training a lawyer, J.W. van Nouhuys, a naval officer, J.M. Dumas, a self-trained naturalist, C. Schultz, a first lieutenant in the colonial army and commander of the military escort of the team, and Mas Permadi, a diplomat of the medical school in, now, Jakarta. The team included furthermore Djibja, a 'mantri', a foreman at the Kebun Raya, the National Botanic Garden in Bogor, one cook, seven sailors - to man a sloop to be used in New Guinea -, 78 'koelies' [coolies], and 63 convicts (p. 113). And the military escort consisted, apart from Schulz, of four non-commissioned officers - two Europeans and two Indonesians-, two Indonesian corporals, one Ambonese nurse, one bugler, and 37 Indonesian 'fusiliers', the term the Dutch used to refer to soldiers in the colonial army (pp. 19, 113, 115). Several staff members had earlier taken part in expeditions in New Guinea. Lorentz had taken part in the 1903 expedition along the north coast of New Guinea. He appears to have been a 'gentleman-explorer' who joined the team at his own expense (Van Baal, Galis and Koentjaraningrat 1984: 44). During this expedition Van Nouhuys was the commander of the navy vessel transporting the expedition along the coast (p. 318). The expedition was to be 'wetenschappelijk [scientific / scholarly].' Lorentz was to do zoological and ethnological research, Van Nouhuys topography and geology, and Versteeg botany (pp. 5-6). Clearly, as happened also in later Dutch expeditions to New Guinea, the expertise of the staff matched the research requirements only in part. Van Nouhuys was trained in topography which enabled him to produce the detailed map added to Lorentz' book about the second expedition (1913). And Versteeg's earlier collecting in the Suriname hinterland probably helped him collect a considerable collection of botanical specimens. While he collected processed specimens, Djibja's task was to bring together live specimens, presumably for planting in the botanic garden in Bogor. The team, plus equipment, including three coffins (p. 15), and provisions, was transported from Java in two vessels, the Valk [Falcon] and the Zwaluw [Swallow]. The Zwaluw was a cast-off, with the engine removed, so it had to be towed by the Falcon. Departure from Tanjung Priok, the port of Jakarta, was on 9 April 1907; the arrival in Flamingo Bay, on the south coast of New Guinea on 2 May. From there, the Valk towed the Zwaluw up the North River, more precisely the northern branch of, in Dutch spelling, the Oetoemboewee river, later called the Lorentz river and, later again, the Unir, or Undir. One year earlier, its course had been explored by R.L.A. Hellwig, the district officer of South New Guinea (Schumacher 1955: 36). Although the river is bendy, the Valk towed the Zwaluw upstream for 115 kilometres (p. 70) where she was moored at what came to be called Bivakeiland [Bivouac island]. She stayed there for the rest of the expedition. A bivouac on the island was necessary in order to accommodate team members, gear and provisions. While there, a lively trade developed with the local population, later known as the Asmat. Other ways of interacting with them seem not to have occurred. Versteeg commented that these people seemed 'at the very lowest rung of development', but at the same time wondered 'how to agree this state of affairs with their carving' and their great skill in making long dugout canoes (pp. 55-6). He seemed offended by their nudity. The traded artefacts were taken by the captain of the Valk, to be brought ultimately to Amsterdam (p. 75). They included eight shields, but Versteeg did not mention what other artefacts were acquired. In the final stage of the expedition, he commented that the coolies and the convicts wondered whether these Papuans were in fact humans (p. 251). 2 To move along the river, the team had a number of smaller vessels at its disposal: one pinnace with steam engine, one dinghy, one flat bottomed boat, three tembangan, sloops, and four canoes. Team members used them both upstream and downstream. Progress of the team upstream was slow and bothered by abundant rainfall. The team was furthermore troubled by persistent health problems, especially by beri-beri. A number died; Versteeg did not provide a figure. He listed the names and provenance of the 'coolies', and added that of the 78, four had died (pp. 27-8). Travelling upstream from Bivouac island the team split up in several working groups. One group stayed behind, the others travelled along the river, its tributaries and the immediate surroundings to carry out their different tasks. They built a series of camps along the river. Versteeg's arrival at Alkmaar, the camp farthest upstream, was on 21 July (p. 179). Going along the bending river, Alkmaar was 50 kilometres away from Bivak island p. 172); the altitude was 70 meters (p.