Credit: Ondobondo magazine I learnt about the ogre in my course on Oral Literature and Traditions under the tutelage of the venerable Indian scholar, Prithvindra Chakravarti. I was introduced to the ogre killing child story that is prevalent in many Melanesian societies of the southwestern Pacific, particularly in the western and northern regions and the Massim district of PNG, the Bismarck Archipelago, the Solomon Islands, Tanna in Vanuatu, and Malaita. It is absent in Fiji and New Caldonia. The two well documented versions are from Mekeo and Buka. In the Buka version the monster Burjangio is a spirit pig who arrives in a village bringing with it massive earthquakes that destroy a village. The word “ogre” has its first use in the French language, through the French writer, Charles Perrault, in 1697. Charles Perrault, (1628–1703), French writer is remembered for his Mother Goose Tales (1697), containing such fairy tales as ‘Sleeping Beauty’, ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, ‘
Chronicles the stories of education, books, writing, and reading in the life of Steven Edmund Winduo, PNG writer extraordinaire, literacy advocate, social literary activist, literary scholar, & teacher. Fern Ridge is a translation of Safla Rama, where home is for SEW.