22. Slow progress, 1957-1959

1957-1959

District Report 1957.

Seven years of work among one of the most isolated and primitive peoples in the world has not yet reached the stage when converts can be listed.

In the persons of the missionaries, European and Pacific Island, the church is there. But it is there in order that an indigenous church may be born. So, the missionaries preach and teach and serve in the faithful anticipation that conversions will come, and the church will emerge.

District Report 1958

The mission still awaits its first converts.

District Report 1959

There is a greater willingness to hear the preaching, to ask searching questions about the faith and to join in public prayer. Missionaries believe that God’s Spirit is at work among the people, although definite decisions have yet to come. 

When the MOM General Secretary Rev Cecil Gribble visited the Highlands again in 1958, he reported ‘It was an incredible experience to visit the area recently and to see the change that has taken place in seven years.’  Gribble first visited Mendi in 1951, when Gordon Young was just beginning the work. Now he was impressed to see the medical work, the schools and the agricultural work. Of all the mission activities, the thing that most interested him was the way in which the men and their families from Tonga, New Guinea Islands, Papuan Islands and the Solomon Islands had moved out from the centre to establish new stations. Gribble wrote:

These men, with their wives and children, have gone over mountain ranges into distant valleys, accepting hardship and difficulty with courage and faith. They have built churches, schools, and homes for themselves, and live near to the people—serving, helping and loving them.

This great new work of our Church could not have been done without them.

One example of these men was the Solomon Islander Burley Mesepitu who was the first pastor to live at Kamberep. Another visitor, Mabel Wyllie, who saw his work wrote: 

‘As well as training his children to be literate in his own language, he is attempting to keep abreast of the Government syllabus, which is in English. On Sunday he has several preaching places in his care, and at the present time he is supervising the erection of a church which is being built beside the teacher’s house. And in his spare time, there is his garden to cultivate.’

Why did the Highland people not want to listen and respond to the message of the missionaries’ teaching about God and Jesus Christ? 

The mission staff were not lazy. There were a number of reasons why the Mendi and Huli people did not take the missionaries’ message seriously. Here are some of the reasons.

First, this teaching was foreign. It was something that belonged to the white people, and to the pastors who came from other places with other languages and other cultures. It did not belong to the people of the mountains, or so they thought. They were interested and curious about it but it was strange and different from what they knew about the world.

Another reason was language. In 1957, the missionaries reported that every week ‘in the churches at the central stations and in scores of gathering places in the bush several thousand are hearing the wonderful words of life’. But what were they really hearing? Not many of the preachers could speak the local languages of Mendi and Tari. The ones who could speak some local language often made mistakes and so their message was very confusing. In Mendi, for example, the two best linguists and speakers of Mendi Angal were agriculturalist David Johnston and teacher Elsie Wilson. David Johnston often went out preaching and Elsie Wilson worked with the congregation at the head station at Unjamap. But not many of the others who went out preaching every week could speak clear messages in Angal Eneng. In Tari, Roland Barnes spoke Huli language well and John and Barbara Hutton were learning quickly. But both languages were difficult and complex and so it was easy to make mistakes. The Christian message was very confusing for the people to understand.

It was not only language. The Highland people had their own way of understanding the world, and it was not the same as the outsiders from Australia or the Solomon Islands or Germany, for example. There were many misunderstandings. Visitor Cecil Gribble wrote in 1958, ‘Today these strange, strong, primitive people know why the Church is here. In a simple way they are asking to know more of God.’ But it was not clear to most of the Highland people why the church had come to their land. They were interested in the practical skills and useful things that the newcomers brought. Some people wanted to learn to read. Metal spades and axes were sharper than digging sticks and stone tools. But they were puzzled, and not very interested, in the message that the missionaries were trying to tell them.

Dabuma, a man who was a young boy in Tari when the missionaries arrived there, remembered those early days. He told his story in 1970. He remembered the coming of the first missionaries to Hoiebia.

On their arrival we were a bit frightened to go near them because we thought they were the same as the government.  The thing that was different was that these men had no guns. At that time, I was about 12, so I was there too. These missionaries were kind to us and tried to make friends with us. When we saw this, we started to come to them, and they began to learn a few words of our language.  … We started to help them to build their houses, and after the houses were finished, they looked for some boys to work in their kitchens, so they found me and two others…

On Sundays, they preached the gospel to us, usually about 30 people coming. When the missionaries prayed to God, we covered our faces with our hands and kept watching them. 

[Roland Barnes and two pastors] continued their work, preaching the gospel and building the houses for those who came later to do the work of God there. These men tried their best to be one with the people there. When the people saw this, they were very happy to join them and do the work that needed to be done.  Every afternoon they learned some of the Huli language and taught us about the Lord Jesus. … Later, two missionaries came from the Solomon Islands. Alpheus Alekera and John Pirah. We were afraid to talk with them because of the colour of their black skins, but Alpheus Alekera started the school, and I attended with some others. …

I was with the mission for quite a long time, but I didn’t have any idea about Christianity. I only tried to do good work to please the missionaries, and I tried to get good things from them such as axes, knives and sing-sing paint. I went to school with the other boys and girls, but the school was meaningless to me, so often I asked my teacher to let me go home.

It was true that preachers went out every Sunday to tell the gospel story. By 1958 and 1959, they counted about 65 preaching places across the whole region of Mendi and Lai Valley, with more in Tari. These preaching places were scattered and often difficult to reach by the small teams of preachers. A ‘preaching place’ was often a clan ceremonial ground where local people gathered outdoors. When the preacher arrived, a man would send out a loud call or yodel, calling the people to come. When some people came to listen, the preacher would tell a Bible story, pray and perhaps sing a hymn and would then hurry on to another place. Strong men like Gordon Young walked for many miles on a Sunday to preach in distant places. There were only a few of them who were able to do this. This was very hard work, but it meant that they only stayed in each place for a short time. There was no time for the people to ask questions or try to understand the message.

Another reason why people were slow to take the Christian message seriously was because they were often busy with tribal fighting. Although the coming of the patrol officers had slowed down fighting in some places, the clans were still eager to fight. When one clan offended another clan in any way, the men would go to fight, to burn houses and wreck gardens. There was always ‘payback’. 

In 1959, teacher John Hutton wrote about tribal fighting; ‘The gardens are frequently deserted and we are told “They’ve gone fighting.”’ Dabuma remembered, ‘I went and joined my people to fight with other groups.’

The Highland people were busy with many other things related to their own customs. They continued to trade in tree oil, salt and shell with trading partners in distant tribal groups. They were very interested in listening to traditional stories told by skilful orators. There were ceremonies of initiation for youths. They worked in clan groups to build houses, or start new gardens. When anyone was sick, the first step was always to decide who had caused the sickness. Was it sorcery by an enemy or an attack from the spirit of a dead family member? When it was clear who had caused the illness, they needed to make suitable sacrifices of pigs. The people were also busy with traditional marriage ceremonies, funerals, festivals of pig kills, displays of wealth such as cassowaries and preparations for sing-sings. 

Most importantly, they had their own traditional beliefs and rituals.

Dabuma remembered

  Sometimes I went and learned more about culture from our leaders and I had to conduct spirit worship. Most of my time I was busy studying these things. Sometimes I didn’t come to school for two weeks. When I came to school again, my teachers used to ask me, “Where have you been, my boy?” I usually told them that I got very big sick when I got home.  Other times I told them my parents stopped me from coming back quickly. My teachers knew what I had been doing, but they never sent me out from school. 

In the 1950s, anthropologists from Australia and other places were very interested to learn about the customs and culture of the people of the Southern Highlands. One Australian anthropologist, D’Arcy Ryan, went to live and study the people in Mendi from about 1955-1958. Ryan spent some time visiting with the staff at the Methodist Mission, although he was not a Christian himself. He didn’t understand why they were trying to bring Christianity to Mendi and questioned their motives. He was more interested in the beliefs of the Mendi people and asked many questions about the important Timb cult.

According to Ryan, rituals and beliefs about sacred stones were common across the Highlands region. In the past, perhaps forty years earlier, the people of Mendi had followed another cult about sacred stones, but had given that up. Now the rituals of the Timb cult had become important in the Mendi Valley. Ryan wrote:

 Timb is best described as a secret men’s ritual centred around the sacred stones and is devoted to the propitiatory sacrifice of pigs to the ancestral ghosts. …

Mendi religion consists almost entirely in propitiation of family ghosts by sacrifice of pigs. Sacrifice for a sick person is seen as an offer of alternative food which it is hoped the ghost will find more attractive than the patient. When a person is sick enough to warrant sacrifice, a divination service is held to determine first which ghost is biting him, and second, where and how the pig will be sacrificed… 

There are other stone cults throughout the highlands and so, although the Timb cult itself is new, the idea of stone cults in general is old and widespread. Thus, when Timb finally came to Mendi, the ground was already prepared for its acceptance. Timb entered the Mendi valley from the south and by 1950 had moved up as far as the present government station [Murumbu]. By August 1954 it moved a further 5 miles north and by 1958 another 3 miles. 

When a clan decides to introduce Timb, it must buy the ritual from a group which already has the cult. This first part is paid for in a number of installments over a number of years, and the donor clan will teach the ritual and spells and also assist in the building of the Timb house. Timb comes in several stages, each taking several years to complete. First of all, the Timb heads are selected by the donors; these men must be strong and in the prime of life and rich enough to afford the necessary payment. Each Timb head has his own special portion of ritual which will not necessarily be known to his fellow heads.

The people at the Methodist Mission knew that the Mendi people were very busy with everything related to the Timb cult. When there was illness or accident in their families, they always wanted to make the correct sacrifices to the family spirits instead of asking for help at the mission hospital. They were interested and busy with the building of large Timb houses, that were much bigger and higher than their own houses, as well as the longhouses prepared for guests at important parts of the ritual. It was always exciting when the people of many clans met to prepare for sing-sings, and big ceremonial pig kills. There were festivals when they displayed their wealth of pigs, cassowaries and pearl shell. There was always drama and colour and display. When many clans met together for these festivals, there was economic exchange, reminders of unpaid debts, symbolic dress to send messages to allies and enemies. There was also the excitement of secrecy, with some important men holding the secrets. Women and the uninitiated were always excluded.

Insert Gepp 1971 custom Timb cycle Mendi. 

Insert: Reeson 1964 custom singsing Mendi

It was not surprising that the people of the Highlands had little interest in the message of the missionaries. Their world was busy, colourful and understood. The anthropologist D’Arcy Ryan wrote that the Timb cult would continue for some years and then be replaced by something else. He wrote:

In succeeding repetitions, the first aura of secrecy wears off and the performance of the ritual becomes more slipshod. The people become bored and the whole thing begins to run down. After five or six years it is decided to wind up the first stage of Timb. In the wind-up ceremony there is no secrecy except for the section in which the seeds of the chief food plants are be-spelled and buried inside the house. It is a big function with many pigs killed accompanied by a full dress dance. 

This ends the first stage of Timb. Next comes Lunk for several years then Timb again, this time it is permanent until a new stone cult comes in to take its place.

For that time, then, in the 1950s, the missionaries kept on working and preaching and teaching but there was no sign that anyone was very interested.

Cecil Gribble ‘Brown Missionaries have the authentic Word of God’ Missionary Review December 1958
Mabel Wyllie Missionary Review October 1957, pp6-7
The Open Door, New Zealand Methodist Church, Vol.50 No.2, September 1970. Pp 9-10. Special edition to mark twentieth anniversary of mission work in PNG Highlands Region
John Hutton, Missionary Review February 1959
D’Arcy Ryan, anthropology thesis, 1959 (?). In 1961, Margaret Reeson saw a copy of this thesis at the then missionary training college, All Saints College in Haberfield, Sydney, and copied passages from this thesis as preparation for working in the Highlands.