Table of Contents
Lukim gud / Gudpela nius
Lukim gud / Gudpela nius: The seeds of ethnographic citizenship in educational newspapers of postwar New Guinea
Ryan Schram
SSPS Governance Theme Works-in-Progress Workshop
University of Sydney
May 23, 2024
Slides available at https://anthro.rschram.org/talks/lukim
Waiting in the villages for the peoples
(With apologies to Namzul Sultan [2024])
Papua New Guinea (PNG), past and present
- Colonial possession by Britain, Australia, and Germany begins ca. 1880s
- Interior region of the Highlands first found to be populated in the 1930s
- Most people in the country have sustained contact with colonial government after 1945, under a UN mandate to decolonize
- Independence in 1975
- Current population estimated to be between 9.5 and 11.7M (most recent census conducted in 2011)
- Over 800 languages are spoken in the country
- Approximately 85% of the population reside in rural areas, making it the most rural country in the world
"Niuspepa bilong yumi"
After the end of the second World War, the newly established department of education produced a number of newspapers in Tok Pisin, which was already a widespread creole language in PNG.
Many of these papers present themselves as “niuspepa bilong yumi” (our newspaper). Umm, really!?
The colonial state is characterized by epistemic anxiety
Colonial states are knowledge regimes; The state governs governs a subject population by exhaustively defining and ranking the types of people within it (Stoler 2010).
Yet, colonial domination by definition takes place in a contact zone. People's engagement with the colonial order outstrips the capacity of the state to rationally comprehend it. Officials, as knowers, struggle to “catch up” to the historical changes that they imagine they are supposed to control (Stoler 2010, 4).
The Australian administration believed Tok Pisin was an inferior, broken English; yet it needed Tok Pisin speakers to be tanimtok (translators) in order to communicate with people who spoke many different local languages.
"Yupela lukim gud dispela toktok"
| Original | Translation |
|---|---|
| TAMBU LONG LAITIM PAURA. | PROHIBITION ON IGNITING GUNPOWDER. |
| Yupela lukim gud dispela toktok. Laitim PAURA nau I TAMBU. Sapos Polis i painim man i laitim PAURA orait i nogat moa tok oli putim em sitaret long KOT. | You all look closely at this message. Igniting GUNPOWDER now is FORBIDDEN. If the Police find a man lighting GUNPOWDER, then there won't be another warning, they will put him straight to COURT. |
Lae Garamut. 1949. “Tambu Long Laitim Paura,” January 8, 1949.
"Husat i laik...?"
- Who wants to crew a government schooner?
- Who wants to drive [be a driver] in Erap?
- Who wants to operate telephones?
- Who wants to [come and] become a driver?
Sitori bilong peles
Lae Garamut. 1949. “Husat Igat Sitori Bilong Peles?,” January 8, 1949.
Lae Garamut. 1947. “Yupela Lukim Pinis Ol Toktok Bilong Tarosi,” December 6, 1947.
Tarosi, Advent. 1947. “Toktok i Kamap Long Niuspepa Bilong Didiman.” Lae Garamut, December 6, 1947.
A trading network in Papua New Guinea
Making pots in Salamaua
We the people of Salamaua would like to put down the prices of our things in this newspaper so that all of you will see them. We would like this message to all of you people in villages in the area of Markham River and Finschhafen.
Now you all see the prices for all these things and then you all will get it right. So, prices for them are like this: If you see a pot for 4/-, then you pay with (givim long) two big pandanus of 4/-. If a pot for 2/-, then you pay with (givim long) a pandanus of 2/-. The reason is you all always just bring pandanus and get pots. So, you all don’t know the price (pei) of these things. And so, we put them for the pots so that you all can see them.
If a pot is 5/-, or L1, then you must pay (pei) directly with money. It is not good that you should give pandanus for 5/- and L1 and get a pot. You know that the work of a pot is not like the work of pandanus - Pots are harder work than pandanus, so you must pay directly for big pots with real money.
The work of pots is like this:- The very first thing, they must dig the ground and they get really deep. After that, they bring it to the village and the work of women now begins. The women bake the earth in a really big fire - They bake this earth so that it becomes really strong. This work isn’t easy. It’s really hard work. Many days pass, and then the pot is now finished and a man can cook food in it.
We say this because you all have put down many things of yours - So we see this and so we Salamaua people, we support you all. Our message is finished. We all the people of Salamaua.
“People of Salamaua.” 1948. “Pei bilong sosopen.” Lae Garamut (28 August) 2(23): 4.
References
Lae Garamut. 1948a. “Husat i Laik Boskuru Long Skuna Bilong Gavman?,” February 21, 1948.
Lae Garamut. 1948b. “Husat i Laik Daraiv Long Erap?,” October 30, 1948.
Lae Garamut. 1949. “Husat i Laik Wok Long Telepaon,” January 22, 1949.
Lae Garamut. 1949. “Husat Igat Sitori Bilong Peles?,” January 8, 1949.
Lae Garamut. 1947. “Yupela Lukim Pinis Ol Toktok Bilong Tarosi,” December 6, 1947.
Lagasai. 1949. “Husat i Laik Kam Draiva,” July 23, 1949.
Rabaul News. 1951. “Niuspepa Bilong Yumi: ‘Rabaul News’ Namba(5)Faiv Yar Long En Nau Long Rabaul,” September 22, 1951.
“People of Salamaua.” 1948. “Pei bilong sosopen.” Lae Garamut (28 August) 2(23): 4.
Sultan, Nazmul. 2024. Waiting for the People: The Idea of Democracy in Indian Anticolonial Thought. Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Stoler, Ann Laura. 2010. Along the Archival Grain: Epistemic Anxieties and Colonial Common Sense. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Tarosi, Advent. 1947. “Toktok i Kamap Long Niuspepa Bilong Didiman.” Lae Garamut, December 6, 1947.