The patrol officers and Tom Kabu: Power and prestige in the Purari delta

Journal of Pacific History

Volumn 40, Issue 1, 2005, Pages 71-90

  Yeates, Anthony ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 61249179849     PISSN: 00223344     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00223340500082335     Document Type: Article

References (47)

1. Jack Keith Murray to James Reginald Halligan, 18 June 1949, Pacifie Islands Shipping Service -Miscellaneous - Sale of Ketch ENA at Fort Moresby by Disposals Commission to Tommy Kabu for 3,000 pounds, Canberra, National Archives of Australia (hereinafter NAA), A518, BA112/5, CA 10/15/1
2. In 1951, Herbert 'Lynn' Clark spoke of the 'Beara Government - or myself'. H.E. Clark, Beara Patrol Report 1, 1951/1952. Gulf Province Patrol Reports 1912-74, Port Moresby, National Archives and Public Records Service of Papua New Guinea (hereinafter NAPRS), A9844 (1989) microform
3. Robert F. Maher, 'The Purari River Delia societies, Papua New Guinea, after the Tom Kahu Movement', Ethnology, 23:3 (1984), 218
4. The word guidance was often used in the patrol reports as a synonym for control. Commonwealth of Australia, Report to the General Assembly of the United .Nations on the Administration of the Territory of .New Guinea, 1 July 1947 to 30 June 1948 (Canberra 1948), 29
5. Peter Fitzpatrick, Law and Slate in Papua New Guinea (London 1980), 128
6. For a detailed evaluation of Kabu's impaet in the Purari Delta see Joshua Bell, 'Intersecting histories and material culture; examining social transformation in the Purari Delta, Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea' thesis, Oxford University, in completion
7. In 1887 Captain J.M. Hennessy described a journey in the upper Vailala River country, east of the Purari, as one 'ample for the most greedy globe-trotter. Mud, mud, mud; nothing but soft, slimy mud covered mostly all the way, with about 6 inches of water'. J.M. Hennessy, 'Report of a trip to the western part of the south coast of British New Guinea', Proceedings and Transactions of the Queensland Branch of the Royal Geographical Society of Australia, 3:2 (1887-88), 65
8. Maher, 'The Purari Delta societies', 219
9. Robert F. Maher, 'Tommy Kabu Movement of the Purari Delta', Oceania 29:2 (1958), 76. Tom Kabu was usually referred to as 'Tomu Kabu' in patrol reports written for the Department of District Services and Native Affairs
10. According to Francis Williams, taubada was a Motuan word meaning 'big man" or 'old man'. F.E. Williams, 'Natives of Lake Kutubu, Papua', in Erik Schwimmer (ed.), F.E., Williams: 'The Vailala Madness' and other essays (Brisbane 1976). 323, n.4
11. Sam Tua Kaima, 'King Tommy's ideal dream is shattered', Times of Papua New Guinea, 5-12 Sept. 1986
12. Nigel D. Oram, 'Rabia Camp and the Tommy Kabu Movement', New Guinea Research Bulletin, 14 (1967), 8
13. Norman S. Pixley, 'Tommy Kabu of Papua', Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland 11:3 (1981-82), 6, 3
14. Kaima, 'King Tommy's ideal dream is shattered', 4. Robert W. Robson, editor of the influential journal the Pacific Islands Monthly, succinctly summed up the idea of white prestige in 1951 when he wrote that 'the average Caucasian is a better specimen of humanity then the average of any other race'. Pacific Islands Monthly, Sept. 1951, 6.
15. Tom Kabu quoted in Maher, 'Tommy Kabu Movement of the Purari Delta'. 220
16. Graham Hassall, 'The failure of the Tommy Kabu Movement: a reassessment of the evidence', Pacific Studies. 14:2 (1991), 44
17. R. Kent Wilson, 'Village industries in Papua-New Guinea'. New Guinea Research Bulletin. 20 (1967), 30 1
18. R. Kent Wilson and Ross Garnaut, 'A survey of village industries in Papua-New Guinea', New Guinea Research Bulletin, 25 (1968), 5
19. Nigel Oram. 'Tom Kabu - a remarkable Papuan leader', Post-Courier. 13 Oct. 1969, 4
20. Albert Maori Kiki, Kiki, Ten Thousand Tears in a Lifetime (Melbourne 1968), 171, 179
21. Hassall, 'The failure of the Tommy Kabu Movement', 44
22. R. Thomson, 'Community development in the Purari Delta', in South Pacific Commission, The Purari Delta: background and progress of community development (Noumea 1952), 15
23. L.W. Allen, 'The Purari Kompani', ibid., 1, 9
24. L.G. Bridges, Beara Patrol Report 2, 1954/1955, Gulf Province Patrol Reports 1912 74, NAPRS, 2
25. In 1970, patrol officer J. W. Roves visited villages west of the Vailala during the Christmas period and found it remarkable how much livelier they were with the presence of children and visiting relatives. By the time he finished his patrol, the New Year had passed, and 'the usual atmosphere of depression and apathy re-asserted itself. J.W. Boyes, Ihu Patrol Report 10, 1969/70, Gulf Province Patrol Reports 1912-74, NAPRS
26. Francis Williams writes that similar ventures had been introduced prior to the war, when the Elema people initiated the hahi expedition to trade sago for shell ornaments and money with the Toaripi people in the eastern Gulf. Williams, 'Trading voyages from the Gulf of Papua', in Schwimmer (ed.). F.E.. Williams, 52
27. Oram, 'Rabia Camp and the Tommy Kabu Movement', 11
28. Thomson, 'Community development in the Purari Delta', 18
29. Brian Jinks, 'Bibliographical guide', in 'Policy, planning and administration in Papua New Guinea, 1942 1952 Sydney, with special reference to the role of Colonel J.K. Murray', PhD thesis, University of Sydney (Sydney), 18
30. Harry H. Jackman, 'Tommy Kabu', in Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 14: 1940-1980 (Melbourne 1996), 597
31. The Ena refund episode would not be resolved until 1966-20 years after the ketch had been destroyed - when a meeting of the Baimuru Local Government Council, attended by Kabu, decided that the money should be placed at the disposal of the Council, so that they could purchase a boat. Seven years later, a boat was built at Baimuru and delivered to the Council at a cost of around $6,000. Maher, 'The Purari River Delta societies', 221
32. John Gunther in John Wilkes (ed.), New Guinea and Australia (Sydney 1958), 56
33. Allen, 'The Purari Kompani', 7
34. Francis Edgar Williams, 'The Vailala madness and the destruction of native ceremonies in the Gulf Division', in Schwimmer (ed.), F.E. Williams
35. See, e.g., M J. Denehy, Ihu Patrol Report 1, 1954/55, Gulf Province Patrol Reports 1912-74, NAPRS
36. Williams, 'The Vailala madness', 354-9
37. According to Peter Worsley, cult activity was a reaction to the new order that had been imposed upon the people of the Purari by the Europeans. It was an act of rebellion against the indigenous people's subordinale position within this new hierarchy. Peter Worsley culls in Melanesia (2nd edn, New York 1968), 89
38. T.W. White in Commonwealth of Australia, Home of Representatives Debates. 3 Dec. 1947, HR195, 3141
39. White in Commonwealth of Australia, House of Representatives Debates, 3 Dec. 1947, HR 195, 3141
40. Allen, 'The Purari Korapani', 3, 5, 7
41. Maher likewise wrote that Kabu kept some Communist Party literature, along with articles from Reader's Digest, in a makeshift office. Maher, 'Tom Kabu Movement of the Purari Delta'. 79
42. Allen, 'The Purari Kompanie', 8, 5
43. Catherine Snowden, 'Copra co-Operatives', in Donald Denoon and Catherine Snowden (eds), A Time to Plant and a Time to Uproot (Port Moresby 1981), 188-9
44. James Sinclair, Kiap: Australia's Patrol Officers in Papua New Guinea (Sydney 1981), 39
45. Territory of Papua and New Guinea, Departmental Standing Instructions: General Field Administration, vol. 1 (Port Moresby 1970), 4
46. Snowden, 'Copra cooperatives', 201
47. M.G. Atyco, Bcara Patrol Report 2, 1959/1960, Gulf Province Patrol Reports 1912-74, XAPRS