Ryan Schram

A paper presented in the session “Textual ecologies of difference and transformation” at the 2016 meeting of the Australian Anthropological Society, University of Sydney

14 December 2016

All material quoted in this presentation is held under copyright of the original authors, and is used here strictly for personal, noncommercial purposes. These slides may only be viewed on request and will be available at http://anthro.rschram.org/talks/print

 TO THE PAPUAN TIMES
 
 Many happy returns to you.
 
 Thank you for your good work in the past. May the years ahead of you 
 bring more rich work you may do in sending out news to all parts of 
 Papua and other countries.
 
 Happy birthday to you and a few gifts for your work:-
  
  A pen, to address your
      papers.
   
  Paste, to paste your
      stamps
   
  A 10/-, to buy your ink
  
  A basket, to send you out
      in.
  
  Alice Wedega. (Papuan Times, June 27, 1951, p. 9)

As the Editor I would like to express on behalf of the Papuan Times how grateful we are for being able to keep the paper going and I am personally grateful for being able to help to save my own race with what little bit I've got. Editor (Papuan Times, June 27, 1951, p. 2)

The unsigned article entitled “Journalism for the villages: When you are sending news to the editor of the newspaper” was published in Papuan Times on September 28, 1951 (vol. 4, iss. 9, pp. 5-6)

Local news should hold plenty of names because readers like to see what their friends are doing... (p. 5)

You will find plenty of material to write about even in a small village. There are MEETINGS to report, SPORTS EVENTS to record, CROPS, RAINFALLS, MARRIAGES, WOMEN'S ACTIVITIES, VISITS of well-known PEOPLE, TRIBAL FIGHTING, NEW BUILDINGS, SCHOOL ACTIVITIES, etc. (p. 5)

In the “News of People” section of the April 18, 1952 issue, a letter from Osineru Dickson appears describing a trip on the Sandringham, a passenger seaplane which flew between Samarai and Port Moresby.

PDF transcript of "First trip on new flying boat"

In the August 29, 1952 issue, Violeta Basinauro published an account of happenings at her school at Gelemalaia, in Buhutu, on the mainland of eastern Papua.

PDF transcript of "News from Gelemalaia"

Papuan Times was produced on a shoestring. Readers were routinely asked for various kinds of support:

• Chronically short of money, supported by gifts
• First printing machine was salvaged from an Allied dump, as was paper
• In a 1951 report on the paper, the editor says all that is needed is “the backing of the people” and people “writing their news and sending it in.”

A notice printed on June 13, 1952:

NOTICE TO READERS
The price of paper and ink had gone up a lot lately. We can only keep this paper going if all help by sending their subscriptions regularly. PLEASE HELP US TO HELP YOU. (p. 7)

A filler on January 9, 1953, front page:

Tell your friends about the PAPUAN TIMES. We want more people to know about it and more people to read it, and more people to write for it this year. Ed. (p. 1)

A editor's note from February 18, 1954, a poorly printed issue:

To Our Readers
We are having great difficulty with our machine, trying to learn theways of a new one and at the same time keep the paer [sic] going outto you every week.
Please be patient with these dirty copies. We are sorry aboutthem. (p. 4)