Losing the forest but not the stories in the trees: Contemporary understandings of F.E. Williams's 1922 photographs of the Purari Delta

Journal of Pacific History

Volumn 41, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 191-206

  Bell, Joshua ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 33846315882     PISSN: 00223344     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00223340600826094     Document Type: Review

References (79)

1. D.J.F. Griffiths, 'The career of F.E. Williams, government anthropologist of Papua, 1922-1943', MA Thesis, Australian National University (Canberra 1977);
2. M. Young with J. Clark (ed.), An Anthropologist in Papua: the photography of F.E. Williams 1922-1939 (Adelaide 2001);
3. see also I.C. Campbell, 'Anthropology and the professionalism of colonial administration in Papua and New Guinea', Journal of Pacific History, 33 (1998), 69-90.
4. F.E. Williams, The Natives of Purari Delta. Territory of Papua Anthropological Reports No. 5 (Port Moresby 1924).
5. See Rev. J.H. Holmes, In Primitive New Guinea: an account of a quarter of a century spent amongst the primitive Ipi & Namau groups of tribes of the Gulf of Papua (London 1924);
6. R.F. Maher, New Men of Papua: a study in culture change (Madison 1961).
7. Williams, The Natives of Purari Delta, 246 (italics added).
8. J. Fabian, Time and the Other: how anthropology makes its objects (New York 1983).
9. Holmes, In Primitive New Guinea (London 1924), 21, 37, 23;
10. Maher, 'Koriki chieftainship: hereditary status and mana in Papua', Ethnology, 13:3 (1974), 244-5.
11. M.R. Trouillot, Silencing the Past: power and the production of history (Boston 1995), 27.
12. J. A. Bell, 'Looking to see: reflections on visual repatriation in the Purari Delta, Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea', in Laura Peers and Alison Brown (eds), Museums and Source Communities: a Routledge reader (London 2003), 111-122;
13. idem, "Intersecting histories: materiality and social transformation in the Purari Delta of Papua New Guinea', PhD thesis, University of Oxford (Oxford 2005).
14. A. Fiernup-Riordan, 'Yup'ik elders in museums: fieldwork turned on its head', Arctic Anthropology, 35:2 (1998), 49-58;
15. Edwards, 'Visualizing history: Diamond Jenness's photographs of D'Entrecasteaux Islands, Massim, 1911-1912 - a case study in re-engagement', Canberra Anthropology, 17:2 (1994), 1-26;
16. idem, Raw Histories: photographs, anthropology and museums (Oxford 2001);
17. idem, 'Talking visual histories: introduction', in Peers and Brown, Museums and Source Communities, 83-99.
18. K. Neumann, "Finding an appropriate beginning for a history of the Tolai colonial past: or, starting from trash', Canberra Anthropology, 15:1 (1992), 1-19.
19. See J. Binney and G. Chaplin, 'Taking photographs home: the recovery of a Maori history', Visual Anthropology, 4 (1991), 431-42;
20. S.A. Niessen, 'More to it than meets the eye: photo-elicitation amongst the Batak of Sumatra', Visual Anthropology, 4 (1991), 415-30;
21. R. Poignant with A. Poignant, Encounter at Sagalarramba (Canberra 1996);
22. J.E. Staunton, 'Snapshots on the dreaming: photographs of the past and present', in Peers and Brown, Museums and Source Communities, 136-51.
23. T. Petr (ed.) The Purari: tropical environment of a high rainfall river basin (The Hague 1983).
24. J.H.P Murray, 'Introduction' in Williams, The Natives of Purari Della, iii;
25. Williams, The Vailala Madness and the Destruction of Native Ceremonies in the Gulf Division, Territory of Papua Anthropological Reports No. 4 (Port Moresby 1923);
26. idem, 'The Vailala Madness in retrospect', in E.E. Evans-Pritchard et al. (eds), Essays Presented to C.G. Seligman (London 1934), 369-79.
27. Only 14 years had transpired since Lt. Governor Murray had led a punitive expedition to the Purari in 1908 in retaliation for the threatening of two European traders. Similarly, the Delta Division's administrative headquarters at Kikori (some 100 kilometres west of the Purari) had only been established in 1912. See Papua, Papua: annual report for the year ended 30th June, 1908 (Melbourne 1908);
28. J.H.P. Murray, Papua or British New Guinea (London 1912), 173-8;
29. B. Craig, 'The ashes of their fires: the Hubert Murray Collection in the National Museum of Australia', COMA, 26 (1995), 18-32.
30. Murray, 'Introduction' in Williams, The Natives of Purari Delta, iii.
31. Murray, Anthropology and the Government of Subject Races (Port Moresby 1921).
32. idem, 'The Pairama ceremony in the Purari Delta, Papua', Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 53 (1923), 361-87.
33. Williams, The Collection of Curios and the Preservation of Native Culture, Territory of Papua Anthropological Reports No. 3. (Port Moresby 1923);
34. idem, The Vailala Madness.
35. In his monographs and field notes, Williams is quiet about his photographic practice. If and when he does mention photography, he does so obliquely and unrellectively, as in the following comment: Very few would even venture into the little hut at Kimiri, where five decrepit and weather-beaten kanipu [a type of mask] were hanging, though one boy of 'plantation' experience put on a costume readily enough to be photographed. However, several years later in a letter to Beatrice Blackwood, Williams comments, 'I find I have a hatred of photography, and any good results are by chance'. While little evidente remains as to the nature of Williams's photographic practices in the Purari, it is possible to discern the following. In all likelihood Williams used an ICA Tropica 9 × 12cm. In a letter dated 1936, Williams remarks that this was his 'old official camera'. While 14 years had transpired since his work in the Purari, a sample measuring of Williams's plates and prints taken during this period conforms to the ICA Tropica's plate size. First introduced in 1912, the Tropica was made by the German camera manufacturer ICA A.G. until 1931. It was a well-known camera for the tropics, and Walliams could have purchased the camera in England before taking up his post. Extant correspondence (9 Oct. 1922-8 May 1923), between Williams's superior, William M. Strong and the Government Store Keeper reveals that Williams had requested two-dozen photographic plates to be sent to him monthly while he was in the Purari. Owing to the lack of stock, this procurement request ran into diffirulties. In his last written comment on the matter, the Store Keeper notes 'the last shipment brought 10 dozen plates, since that date no further supplies have been received'. While it is unclear when this 'last shipment occurred and hou many plates were sent to Williams, this exchange gives one a sense of the photographic limitations he faced. While these problems did not prevent Williams from taking photographs, the availability of plates might have been limited, thus focing Williams to use great care in composing his images. F.E. Williams, The Natives of Purari Delta, 205;
36. F.E. Williams to B. Blackwood, 25 Aug. 1939, Pitt Rivers Museum, General Correspondence, Blackwood Papers;
37. F.E. Williams to Government Secretary, 23 Jun. 1936, F.E. William Papers, National Archive of Papua New Guinea (hereinafter NAPNG), Port Moresby, A447 ML MSS 5/l, 61/2989;
38. W.M. Strong to Government Storekeeper, 7 May 1923, (NPNGA) A447, ML MSS 5/1, 61/2989.
39. Edwards, 'Surving culture: photography, collecting and material culture in British New Guinea, 1898', in M. O'Hanlon and R. Welsch (eds), Hunting the Gatherers: ethnographic collectors, agents and agency in Melanesia, 1870s-1930s (Oxford 2000), 103-26;
40. M. Young, Malinowski's Kiriwina: fieldwork photoraphy, 1915-1918 (Chicago 1998).
41. Edwards, Raw Histories, 133-81.
42. cf., idem, The Vailala Madness (Port Moresby 1923), 60.
43. Papua, Papua: annual report 1921-22 (Melbourne 1923), 54.
44. Kikori Patrol Report 7 1922-23 (NAPNG), Gulf Province Patrol Reports.
45. Papua, Papua: annual report 1921-22, 116;
46. Kikori Patrol Report 4 1921-22, (NAPNG), Gulf Province Patrol Reports;
47. Kikori Patrol Report 8 1921-22, (NAPNG), Gulf Province Patrol Reports.
48. Holmes, In Primitive New Guinea.
49. Maher, New Men of Papua.
50. Idem. 'From cannibal raid to copra kompani: changing patterns of Koriki polities', Ethnology, 6:1 (1967), 309-31;
51. Idem, 'The Purari River Delta societies, Papua New Guinea, after the Tom Kabu Movement', Ethnology, 23:3 (1984), 217-27;
52. N.E. Hitchcock and N.D. Oram (eds), Rabia Camp and the Tommy Kabu Movement (Canberra 1967);
53. Oram, 'Tommy Kabu: what kind of movement?" Canberra Anthropology, 15:2 (1992), 89-105;
54. Anthony Yeates, 'The patrol officers and Tom Kabu: power and prestige in the Purari Delta', Journal of Pacific History, 40 (2005), 71-90.
55. C. Filer with N. Sekhran, Loggers, Donors and Resource Owners (London 1998), 182;
56. H. Holzknecht, 'Pro bono publico?: conservation and appropriate resource management strategies m Papua New Guinea', in Filer (ed.), The Political Economy of Forest Management in Papua New Guinea (Boroko 1997), 368-90.
57. Boll, 'Looking to See'.
58. J. Hoskins, Biographical Objects: how things tell the stories of people's lives (London 1998).
59. R. Eves, The Magical Body: power, fame, and meaning in a Melanesian society (Amsterdam 1998);
60. O'Hanlon, Reading the Skin: adornment, display, and society among the Wahgi (London 1989);
61. A.B. Weiner, 'From words to objects to magic: "hard words" and the boundaries of social interaction', in D. Brenneis and F.R. Meyer (eds), Dangerous Words: language and politics in the Pacific (Prospect Heights 1984), 161-191.
62. R. Ropo, 31 Jul. 2001, taped interview with Bell.
63. Bell, 'Looking to See', 118.
64. M. Langford, Suspended Conversations: the afterlife of memory in photographic albums (Montreal 2001), 21.
65. Kikori Patrol Report 2 1921-22 (NAPNG), Gulf Province Patrol Reports, 3-4.
66. See A. Rumsey and J.F. Weiner (eds), Emplaced Myth: the spatial and narrative dimensions of knowledge in Australia and Papua New Guinea (Honolulu 2001).
67. Aukiri died in 1976 and by my reconstruction was born sometime around 1900. He became a medical aide and assisted on medical patrols throughout the Gulf until his retirement in the 1950s. In what most likely is a reference to Aukiri, on an undated page of his notebook from 1922, Williams scrawled over one of his pages 'Inft [sic] Aukiri f[sic] Iare (Hosp. boy).' Later Aukiri is mentioned by patrol officer Liston-Blyth on his entry for June 14th, 'Returned to Rest House and was busy on cases till 10 pm Medical Assistant Aukiri, is here, he is a native of this village and I greatly doubt that he spends much of his time at IVIRA [medical station on the coast], while the G M O is away tho [sic] he is nominally in charge.' Williams, 1922, (NAPNG) A447, ML MSS 5/7 68/2993;
68. Kikori Patrol Report 23 1926/27 (NAPNG), Gulf Province Patrol Reports, 5.
69. Personal communication Ke'a Aukiri, 3 Oct, 2002.
70. While the patrilineal succession prevails in the Purari, women could be initiated if they were the chief's only child. As I learned during my fieldwork, I'ai women of chiefly lineages could (and did) pass on titles, and in some cases land rights to their eldest son. These trees may have also been a gift bestowed upon Aukiri by Ikoipie's brothers, his maternal uncles. The maternal uncle was responsible for the initiation of a child into the long house cult, as well as for the child's well being and frequently gave them things. Williams, Natives of the Purari Delta, 153-64;
71. Information regarding this drilling project can be found on the Inter-Oil website, hltp://www.interoil.com.
72. Maher, 'Koriki Chieftainship'.
73. Edwards, 'Talking Visual Histories', 91.
74. D. Newton, Art Styles of the Papuan Gulf (New York 1961);
75. B. Knauft, South Coast New Guinea Cultures: history, comparison, dialectic (Cambridge 1993).
76. Langford, Suspended Conversations, 153.
77. M. de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley 1986), 115.
78. Edwards, 'Visualizing History', 11-12.
79. J.F. Weiner, 'Afterword', in Rumsey and Weiner, Emplanced Myth, 236, 243.