Panapompom Island (Deboyne Group)
Today dawns dull and a bit showery, but not cold. We make our way towards Panapompom Island, where we will spend much of the morning ashore in Nulia village, one of several small settlements strung out along the southern side of this attractive island, whose hilly interior separates the two populated littorals. The bulk of the population, and the elementary school and clinic, are on the north shore. We land close to the local United Church, whose Pastor, Isaiah, tells the advance party that teacher Elsie Ronnie, who lives locally, is organising dances for us by her small students, aided by the boys’ instructor, Elijah. Unfortunately, the rest of the children from the local school are still on the other side of the island and won’t be coming because today there is a big sports carnival being held there; people from here will also be attending, but after our departure later in the morning. Steven Solomon, an articulate young man from Nulia, will be helping today as a guide. He is a fully certificated heavy machinery mechanic, educated on Misima, then at Lae, then Mount Hagen. He has worked at the gold mine on nearby Misima Island, until the operation closed down in 2004.
We are very fortunate to see a big ocean-going kula canoe launched and having its mast raised offshore. Steven says that this canoe, the third built here this year, will be sold on Sudest Island, which is one of Panapompom’s two kula partner islands, in exchange for pigs and kula valuables.
There are pigs and chickens on Panapompom, but no cattle, and the locals eat mostly fish. Their main crops are yam, bananas, taro, sweet potato, sago and manioc. The island is in the sixth year of a seven year island-wide ban on diving and reef gathering, and next year these islanders will open their coastal waters for only one month.
We are free to wander into the village and neighbouring hamlets, or down the beach to visit the small hamlets strung along the south shore, and almost everyone is keen to see the big kula canoe that carpenter Leo and his apprentice Joel are building in a shed about a hundred yards from our landing point, and many questions are asked and answered. The local man who commissioned this canoe, for K500 to the carpenter, plus the cost of the materials and labor, will present it to his parents-in-law as part of his bridewealth payment (a major Melanesian institution, and common worldwide in tribal cultures, this payment is given in compensation to the wife’s family for the loss of their daughter’s reproductive and productive powers). The canoe, which can carry 20 to 30 people, has a life expectancy of 10 to 12 years. Panapompom has many men active in the ceremonial exchange system known as the kula ring, with Sudest Island and the Woodlarks their two neighbouring exchange and trading islands.
Eventually, we assemble to see the dance performance, and the beautifully decorated children put on a very good show, and are extremely cute. The stocky canoe-maker’s son, Kelly, has wonderful timing and is threatened with kidnapping by many of the onlookers because he’s such a good little dancer, with his gentle threat spearing gestures, perfect skip-hops and rhythm, as he moves towards us.
The rain has mercifully held off and many of us really enjoy peacefulness and the low-keyed atmosphere here. Steven says he’s going to fly from Misima to Lihir next week to begin a contract as a mechanic there and will be gone for a month; he then returns to his wife Rhona for two weeks, when he’ll decide whether or not he wishes to continue with the contract. He says he doesn’t want to work fulltime; he has done that, which explains his relative wealth, and the fact that his local, well-stocked trade store is still running, despite the long list (on prominent display inside) of debtors, who are in arrears to the tune of many thousands of kina. Melanesian stores like this come and go at a great rate, ruined by the pressures to allow relatives to book up on credit. As they say in Pijin, ‘Isi blong kaon, ha:d blong payem’ (easy to borrow, hard to pay back).
The last Zodiac departs before midday, and by then there are already many guests visible on the lovely white sand beach of Nivani Island, while others are already in the water, snorkeling no doubt near the Japanese Zero on the same island as last time. Nivani is now uninhabited, but its coconut plantation, and those on Panapompom, bespeak an earlier era in which European copra-growers were common in many of these islands. Dusty Miller’s house foundations are still visible a short distance from the beach on which we land, but he is long gone, and now departed, the locals tell us.
Today dawns dull and a bit showery, but not cold. We make our way towards Panapompom Island, where we will spend much of the morning ashore in Nulia village, one of several small settlements strung out along the southern side of this attractive island, whose hilly interior separates the two populated littorals. The bulk of the population, and the elementary school and clinic, are on the north shore. We land close to the local United Church, whose Pastor, Isaiah, tells the advance party that teacher Elsie Ronnie, who lives locally, is organising dances for us by her small students, aided by the boys’ instructor, Elijah. Unfortunately, the rest of the children from the local school are still on the other side of the island and won’t be coming because today there is a big sports carnival being held there; people from here will also be attending, but after our departure later in the morning. Steven Solomon, an articulate young man from Nulia, will be helping today as a guide. He is a fully certificated heavy machinery mechanic, educated on Misima, then at Lae, then Mount Hagen. He has worked at the gold mine on nearby Misima Island, until the operation closed down in 2004.
We are very fortunate to see a big ocean-going kula canoe launched and having its mast raised offshore. Steven says that this canoe, the third built here this year, will be sold on Sudest Island, which is one of Panapompom’s two kula partner islands, in exchange for pigs and kula valuables.
There are pigs and chickens on Panapompom, but no cattle, and the locals eat mostly fish. Their main crops are yam, bananas, taro, sweet potato, sago and manioc. The island is in the sixth year of a seven year island-wide ban on diving and reef gathering, and next year these islanders will open their coastal waters for only one month.
We are free to wander into the village and neighbouring hamlets, or down the beach to visit the small hamlets strung along the south shore, and almost everyone is keen to see the big kula canoe that carpenter Leo and his apprentice Joel are building in a shed about a hundred yards from our landing point, and many questions are asked and answered. The local man who commissioned this canoe, for K500 to the carpenter, plus the cost of the materials and labor, will present it to his parents-in-law as part of his bridewealth payment (a major Melanesian institution, and common worldwide in tribal cultures, this payment is given in compensation to the wife’s family for the loss of their daughter’s reproductive and productive powers). The canoe, which can carry 20 to 30 people, has a life expectancy of 10 to 12 years. Panapompom has many men active in the ceremonial exchange system known as the kula ring, with Sudest Island and the Woodlarks their two neighbouring exchange and trading islands.
Eventually, we assemble to see the dance performance, and the beautifully decorated children put on a very good show, and are extremely cute. The stocky canoe-maker’s son, Kelly, has wonderful timing and is threatened with kidnapping by many of the onlookers because he’s such a good little dancer, with his gentle threat spearing gestures, perfect skip-hops and rhythm, as he moves towards us.
The rain has mercifully held off and many of us really enjoy peacefulness and the low-keyed atmosphere here. Steven says he’s going to fly from Misima to Lihir next week to begin a contract as a mechanic there and will be gone for a month; he then returns to his wife Rhona for two weeks, when he’ll decide whether or not he wishes to continue with the contract. He says he doesn’t want to work fulltime; he has done that, which explains his relative wealth, and the fact that his local, well-stocked trade store is still running, despite the long list (on prominent display inside) of debtors, who are in arrears to the tune of many thousands of kina. Melanesian stores like this come and go at a great rate, ruined by the pressures to allow relatives to book up on credit. As they say in Pijin, ‘Isi blong kaon, ha:d blong payem’ (easy to borrow, hard to pay back).
The last Zodiac departs before midday, and by then there are already many guests visible on the lovely white sand beach of Nivani Island, while others are already in the water, snorkeling no doubt near the Japanese Zero on the same island as last time. Nivani is now uninhabited, but its coconut plantation, and those on Panapompom, bespeak an earlier era in which European copra-growers were common in many of these islands. Dusty Miller’s house foundations are still visible a short distance from the beach on which we land, but he is long gone, and now departed, the locals tell us.
