Abstract

The Kaliai area came under colonial rule in the early 20th century. The Germans appointed a headman or luluai who was accountable for his village to visiting patrol officers. This system of indirect rule continued under Australian colonial administration. It ended when local councils were set up in 1967 (Counts 1968:10-38). Present administrative control is hindered by a total absence of roads into the Kaliai interior. The major patrol posts (Gloucester and Talasea) can be reached only by a one-day boat journey along the coast. There is a smaller patrol post at Iboki which is on the Kaliai coast and located about one-half to two days' walk from most interior villages. Most government officials find the walk into the Kaliai interior troublesome and tend to visit the bush villagers only two or three times a year. The Catholic priest at Kaliai makes visits of similar frequency. Government and church officials, along with coastal villagers, generally regard bush villagers with disdain and fear. Bush people are seen as being ignorant, superstitious, irreligious, wild, and even primitive. The absence of ready transport into the Kaliai bush means that trade stores are found mostly on the coast and major rivers, along with the growing and processing of coconuts for copra. A government ship travels along the coast every week collecting copra and delivering trade store goods. The biggest form of cargo that bush Kaliai villagers remember coming into the interior was with the Americans during World War II. This perhaps explains why it is Americans rather than Australians who tend to figure in bush Kaliai cargo cult narratives.2 The recent setting up of a school, a trade store, and an airstrip at Amkor by American New Tribes Missions has had the effect of reviving bush Kaliai cargo cults. Apart from American missionaries at Amkor (which is two days' walk from the coast), there is only one other white person permanently in the area-a plantation manager at Iboki. Bush villagers tend to not send their children to school or pay taxes; the major exceptions being the villagers of Bolo and Salke which are closer to the coast. Many villagers find government imposed workdays odious. Some have chosen to settle further inland so as to escape the control of councillors, teachers, and the scrutiny of government officials. Most people are familiar with the plantation

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