Fern Ridge (Safla Rama) Digest

When you have the lights beamed right into your eyes the immediate thoughts are for you to run. The best you could do is move away from those bright lights. You are immediately looking into the darkness. You know there are people there. You cannot retrace your footsteps back. You are the center of focus. Right now you have to say something quick. That was the feeling I had last Saturday at the Waigani Arts Centre during the poetry recital evening. It was an evening to remember. The poetry recital and musical arrangement from the talents of our students under the watchful eye of our Sanguma , Tony Subam, made the evening memorable. Tony also gave an impromptu recital in the evening to my amazement. The students from MIAC showed the musical talents through their original compositions. The evening jazz set the scene. I had invited a couple of writers, especially poets living in Port Moresby to turn up for the poetry recital. It turned out that only Nora Vagi Brash and I were the ones re...

   35th Independence Anniversary celebrations at UPNG 16 September 2010   The celebration of nationhood is one moment in our lives when we celebrate our Independence from our former colonizers. We think of Independence as a political event that changed the political landscape in Papua New Guinea. We also think of Independence as an act of orchestrated collective will to free ourselves from the shackles of colonialism. In every celebration we renew our strength and vision to be a progressive and free nation. Our sense of nationhood is refreshed, revitalized, and re-energized in such a way that whatever we do we resolve to abide by the Constitution that holds us together. The Constitution of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea is the single most powerful document in this nation. It is the source of law, state, politics, and the foundation upon which the visions of the nation was engraved in. Since Independence in 1975, one would think by now the Constitution sh...

Indigenous knowledge systems in PNG embodies our way of life, our belief systems, our cultural practices and the very social political foundations that weld our relationships to one another. To have a sense of what indigenous knowledge is we turn to a new PNG book: Reframing Indigenous Knowledge: Cultural Knowledge and Practices in Papua New Guinea. The book was released last month, even though it took five years to have it published after a conference organized by the Melanesian and Pacific Studies (MAPS) of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences , University of Papua New Guinea in 2004. The following people had their papers published in the book. Peter Baki, then Secretary of the Department of Education opened the conference with his challenge on promoting indigenous education in Papua New Guinea. Baki discusses the reform school curriculum, which considers indigenous knowledge systems, and ways of doing things in Papua New Guinean. He challenges tertiary institutions to use...

Port Moresby Public Art Scene Often human society is such that a man’s life is celeb   rated more after his death. The success and accomplishments of an individual are never talked about much, rewarded, or celebrated in the days that individual is alive. We may feel let down as humans, but that is the way it is since creation. In our midst and days of our lives the experiences of death, loss, remorse, and haus krai, people have come to develop subculture of pay respects or show your face to the dead for two hours only and forget the experience for the rest of your life. It’s again another of those human frailties we have to live with. We only remember the dead for two hours of respect. No body seems to care after that two hours whether you have lost a loved one or some dear and respected person in your life. That’s what we do as humans, is probably the best comfort one would get when people forget our losses. I have never forgotten one person, from a list of others long go...

Regis Stella's new novel 2010 Last week we launched a number of great old books during the Buk2Buk Fair staged before the Waigani Seminar at the UPNG campus. The reprints of some of the classics include Sana: Michael Somare’s autobiography, two books written by Amirah Inglis: Karo: The Life and Fate of a Papuan and Not a White Woman Safe: Sexual Anxiety and Politics in Port Moresby 1920-1934, and a number of other books of note to Papua New Guinea. All these books are now on sale at the Unibookshop. In opening the Buk2Buk Fair, the Pro Chancellor of the University of Papua New Guinea and the Chairman of Univentures, the business arm of UPNG, Mr. Camilus Narokobi, challenged Papua New Guineans to write more books. The establishment of the Univentures saw the amalgamation of the UPNG Press, the Unibookshop and the UPNG Printery come under one business umbrella. It is noted that the book trade business is only one aspect of the Univentures Inc. Mr. Narokobi wasted no time in anno...

Take the advice of successful writers if you want to become a great writer. In his book on the art of writing, the science fiction writer, Stephen King has plenty of advice to give to a novice writer. He says: “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.” King is a slow reader, but makes sure he reads at least 80 books in a year. The book list is crowded with works of fiction. He does not read fiction to study the craft of writing fiction, but to enjoy the stories told in these books. “Yet there is a learning process going on. Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones.” King relates how a book that he read in grade eight changed his life. The writing was so poor King felt he could write a better book than the book he read at that time. King went on to write master piece horror st...

The 2010 Waigani Seminar will take place between August 19 and 20th at the University of Papua New Guinea Main Campus. The theme for this year is Customary Land Tenure and Evolving Democracy in Papua New Guinea. The Waigani Seminar takes place every two years. Many leading legal experts, development consultants, academics, researchers, and customary land owners are expected to meet at the Waigani Campus this month. The organizing committee had decided that this year’s seminar will only run for two days. Past seminars lasted for a week at most. With time reduced to two days it is expected that the seminar will consider the Government’s position in relation to the PNG Vision 2050 Vision, the legal perspective and how laws can effectively govern and protect landowners, the social and cultural complexities of customary land ownership, models of sustainable life systems and sustainable land use and the crucial training for effective land administration. As interesting as the academic d...