** Papua New Guinea








Papua New Guinea


Figure 1.--Here we see school children on the Kaibola Trobriand Islands (Papua New Guinea). They are wearing their ethnic clothing. I assume that they are dressed up for a special occassion.

Papua New Guina is the eastern half of the island of New Guinea. This is the second largest island in the world. The central core od the island has a rugged mountenous spine, the Own Stanley Mountains. The population includes Melanesian, Papuan, Negrito, Micronesian, and Polynesian peoples. Britain and the Dutch in the final era of colonial expansion divided eastern New Guina between Germany which received the the northern sector and Britain which received the southern sector (1885). Britain transferred responsibility for its sector to Australia in (1902). Substantial areas of the island well into the 20th century remained largely unexplored. Australian forces occupied the German sector during World War I (1914-18) and in the peace settlement the Germans lost all of their Pacific colonial posssions, some of which were transferred to Japan. Australia retained resonsibility for the former German northern sector which was united with the southern sector. New Guinea was the scene of bitter fighting during the Pacific War (1941-45). Japan seized the northern sector (1942), but after a series of stunning victories, a Japanese naval taskforce heading to seize Port Moresby in the south was turned back by the U.S. Navy at the Coral Sea (May 1942). Heavy fighting continued on the island throughout 1942 and 43. Australia continued to administer Papua New Guinea after the War until independence (1975). A number of islands to the east are part of New Guinea. Bougainville, another World War II battlefield, is one of those islands. A secessionist revolt (1988-97) resulted in the loss of 20,000 lives. PNG includes the Bismarck Archipelago.

Geography

Papua New Guina is the eastern half of the island of New Guinea. This is the second largest island in the world. The central core od the island has a rugged mountenous spine, the Own Stanley Mountains. The range figured prominantly in the World War II battle for New Guinea. The country includes islands to the north and east which are geological extensions of the mainland. There are ethnic and cultural connectins as well. This includes the Solomins which chose to be an uindeondent country.

History

Britain and the Dutch in the final era of colonial expansion divided eastern New Guina between Germany which received the the northern sector and Britain which received the southern sector (1885). Britain transferred responsibility for its sector to Australia in (1902). Substantial areas of the island well into the 20th century remained largely unexplored. Australian forces occupied the German sector during World War I (1914-18) and in the peace settlement the Germans lost all of their Pacific colonial posssions, some of which were transferred to Japan. Australia retained resonsibility for the former German northern sector which was united with the sounthern sector. New Guinea was the scene of bitter fighting during the Pacific War (1941-45). Japan seized the norther sector (1942), but after a series of stunning victories, a Japanese naval taskforce heading to seize Port Moresby in the south was turned back by the U.S. Navy at the Coral Sea (May 1942). Heavy fighting continued on the island throughout 1942 and 43. Australia continued to administer Papua New Guinea after the War until independence (1975).

Etnicity

Papua is tyhe misern name for the island of New Guinea. Papua New Guinea or West Papua is the western half of New Guinea and the eastern-most province of Indonesia. While Indonesia is dominated by Austronesian peoples, New Guinea ans asection of Maluku is dominated by Melanesian people. They are the the indigenous people of New Guinea or the Papuans. These peoples may have reached the islands of Wallacea and Sundaland (moderrn Malay Archipelago) by at least 40,000 years ago asnd from there . they began making sea crossings beccause of the had made the sea-crossing to New Guinea from the less wide because of the Last Glacial Maximum (around 20,000 yars BP). At the time, New Guinea was connected to the Australian continent via a land bridge, which made up the landmass of Sahul. They are the primary population of New Guina and despite repressive rule by the Indinesian government still the majority population of Papua New Guinea. The Melanesians are one of the oldest populations on earth. They are believed to date back to 50,000 BP. [Reuters} Settlement may have begun as far back as 60,000 BP. [Reuters] Thee are today something like 1,000 tribasl groups on New Guinea. speaking almost as many languages. This makes New Guinea the most linguistically diverse area in the world and as a result of great interest to mlinguists. Many of these tribes are very small. Which means that the different language are only spoken by an incredbly small numbe of people. One of the lrgt tribes is the Asmat live in the Asmat Swamp as well as some part of the Lorentz National Park in the Asmat Regency. This is a region along the southwestern coast along the Arafura Sea. Another important tribe is the Dani people in the Baliem Valley in the interior highlands. The Marind people live in southern Papua both east and west of the Bian River. Most tribes are much smaller. A good example of the small tribes are the Fayu peole of Papua New Guinea. The ancestral Austronesian peoples who dominate the population of Indomsia arrived mellenia later (about 3,500 BP). This was one part of a seafaring migration from Southeast Asia. It is thought that this began with migration from Taowan. These Austronesian people settled the offshore islands to the north and east of New Guinea, replacing thed Melnesian peoples there. As a result of these migration New Guinea has a significant ethnic diversity which was further increased by the arrival of the Austronesians and the more recent history of European and Asian settlement. [Belwood] The Dutch colonial governmnt pursued a policy of trans migration and as a result Javanese, Sundanese, Balinese, Batak, nd oyh Indomesians. Most of these Indonesian migrants live along the coast, the moutaneous jungle inteior continues to be primarily populsated by the Melenisin people. More than 300 Papuan tribes of ethnic Melanesian origin have been suppressed by the Indonesisan Government since 1963. [Franklin] Trans-migratiomn has been criticized by human rights activists who describe it as an 'an attempt to wipe out the Papuans in a slow-motion genocide". Indonesian autorities was ended because of accusations of genocide (2015). ["Indonesian ...."]

Regions

A number of islands to the north and east are part of PNG. This includes the Bismarck Archipelago. Bougainville, another Pacific War battlefield, is one of those islands, pat of the Solomons. A secessionist revolt resulted in the loss of 20,000 lives (1988-97). Another island group is the Trobriand Islands (Kiriwina Islands) to the northeast of PNG's eastern tip. Thanks to a Polish anthropolgist, the islands became the subject of intense investigation and academic interest in the early 20th century. During the Pacific Wars, the Islands were not occupied by the Japanese, but as part of the Battle for Milne Bay, a Japanese invasion force from Rabaul was attacked by Allied aircraft near the Islands (1942). A year later as part of Operation Cartwheel, American forces occupied the islands and built a landing strip there as part of the Allied ffortbto isolate Rabaul.

Families

The family section is an importabt part of the HBC country paes. We do not yet have any information avout Papuan families. We note a British famuly living there in the 1970s. The Wilson family were an American family that lived in Gorka. One photo shows the children opening the Christmas presents. A second photograph shows them playing marbles with local mates.

Schools

We do not know much about schools in Papua New Guinea. During colonial times, New Guinea was divided. The Dutch coontrolled the west. European planters (mostly British and Germans) began moving into the east (Papua) (late-19th century). The the German New Guinea Company began administering the northeastern quadrant (1884) and became a German colony (1899). The British deckared a protectorate over the southeastern quadrant north of Australia. Australia began administering the southeast as a colony which they called Papua (1906). The Germans gave more attention to developing the economy than the British and Australians, but used forced labor. During World War I, Australian forces seized the German northeast (1914). Ausrralian jurisdiction was formalized (1921). The League of Nations created a mandate system. The League mandate covered only the formerly German sector. The Japanese seized western New Guinea and northern New Guinea (1942). The result was the longest campaign of the Pacific War (1942-45). Through all of these changes as far as we know, no governmental authority established schools. Missionary societies did establish schools. Catholic and Lutheran missionaries were active, especially in the former German northeast sector. The Pacific War brought a much greater outside presence tham ever before, but as far as we know, the missions sponsored the only schools in Papua until after the War and Papua began moving toward indeoendence which was achieved (1975). Papua now has a well-established public school system.

Religion

New Guinea until the colonial period was still essentially a stone age society. There was no one dominant faith, but a wide range of highly variable animist beliefs and destinctive rituals. These wereneliefs held on New Guiea for thousands of years. These beliefs are not only colorful, but have an important compac on Papuan culture, The Europeans arrived and began to introduce Christioanity (late-19th century). Traditional tribal beliefs, however, continue to be important. Not only do these beliefs remain important, but they also increase Papuan Christianity as well. On estimate suggests that about one-third of Papuan continue to retain traditional beliefs orthise beliefs strongly color their commitment to the organized religions introduced by western missionaries. Much of the rest of the couhtry is at least nominally Christian. The largest single denomination is Catholic (25 percent). The most important Protestant denomination is Lutheran (15 percent), presumably reflecting Germany's brief colonial control until World war I. Other Protestant denominations include: Presbyterian (10 percent), Methodist/London Missionary Society (5 percent), Anglican (5 percent), Evangelical Alliance (5 percent). There are also a small number of Seventh-Day Adventist. There are a number of other Protestant denominations active (10 percent). Baha'ism also has a small following. Islam has obly a small number of adgherents, but there is mosque in Port Moresby.

Sources

Belwood, Peter. "The early movements of Austronesian-speaking peroples in the Indonersoan region," in Truman Simanjuntak, Ingrid Harriet Eileen Pojoh, and Muhamad Hisyam. eds. Austronesian Diaspora and the Ethnogeneses of People in Indonesian Archipelago Proceedings of the Internation Sympoium (Indonesian Institute of Sciences: 2006), pp. 61 ff.

Franklin, Jessica. "West Papuans: An indigenous people that the world forgot," DownToEarth (January 22, 2019).

Reuters. "Early humans lived in PNG highlands 50,000 years ago," (September 30, 2010). This new release summarized the worrk of a team of anthropologists led by Glenn Summerhayes at the University of Otago in New Zealand.

"Indonesian president to end transmigration to Papua" RNZ (June 5, 2015).







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Created: 11:07 AM 2/16/2006
Last updated: 11:35 PM 3/12/2022