Fern Ridge (Safla Rama) Digest

  A recent publication Postcolonial Literatures of Climate Change included a chapter written by John C. Ryan, entitled "Islands Within Islands: Climate Change and the Deep Time Narratives of the Southern Beech. Ryan cited two of my poetry collection: 1) Lomo'ha I am in Spirit's Voices I Call (1991) and Hembemba: Rivers of the Forest (2000). I enjoyed the analysis, which I share here on my blog:  

  I travelled home to Wewak just before the nominations for the National General Elections began.     I went home to be with my father who was very old, frail, and sick.    I had no choice but to visit my father because he was admitted to the Boram General Hospital for medical attention.    To me relief he recovered before I arrived in town.    I took one of those early flights out on Sunday morning. I arrived in Wewak on a calm Sunday morning. A tranquil and easy feeling welcomed me after many years away.   But all these were shattered as I passed through Nuigo settlement to get to my home.    Nuigo road was the very road that I walked on to get to school in Mongniol Primary School, to Wewak town, to Dagua Market, to Meni Beach or to church at Wirui in my childhood years.    In those days we literarily walked in the night to the movies at Garamut Theatre or at the Wirui Sound Shell. Our mothers waited for us to retur...

 It was good to get home recently. It was a renewal of spirit in some sense. Wewak is always a paradise in the north with beautiful beaches and sunsets.

  Even if I have not made it into the best seller list or awarded any international literary prizes, I am pleased all the same to know some of the best libraries in the world have a copy of my books as part of their acquisitions.     In my search to know which libraries have my books I came across this information. One of my books has found its way into 34 different libraries around the world.   Hembemba: Rivers of the Forest  (2000) my second book of poems, published by then Institute of Pacific Studies (IPS), at USP, Fiji seems to be doing well, above and beyond all the challenges I face in promoting my writing.    The main challenge is on how difficult it is to get published by international publishers. The other side is also true. Who indeed is willing to publish our works?   The success of  Hembemba: Rivers of the Forest  (2000) is attributed to IPS for its extensive publishing and marketing network. I am grateful to Linda Crowl, wh...

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 suc...

  Ben Carson’s   Think Big   had me thinking about how medicine is made interesting and easier to understand if it’s in the hands of those gifted and able to make the complex easier to grasp. Knowledge revealed to ordinary people can transform lives beyond oneself.     Dr. Benjamin Carson talked about medicine and the stories of those encounters he had in practising medicine every day. Ben Carson honors those who made the journey interesting and worth it, those who surrounded him in his life, and those who changed his life.    Even after I have read Carson’s book I can never forget the acknowledgement he made of the influence of his mother. His mother prepared Ben and the  elder brother, Curtis, to read. Reading was the foundation for real success in Ben and Curtis’s lives.   I sometimes wonder how anyone in the world can speak with authority about a subject without reading on the subject or even learning all there is to learn about the ...

[I had invited my students to contribute to my blog. The only contribution I received is the article written by Luther KISING, a student in the course Literature and Politics: Literature, Politics and Culture in PNG. STEW] "The Heart of gladness and thanks giving to SANA who diligently put effort to make people a nation."   By    Luther KISING ( Tuesday 2nd March 2021 🇵🇬) With great dignity and respect to share this moment of sorrow and silence to the founding father, leader and the foundation of this sovereign commonwealth nation and the independent state of Papua New Guinea, pioneer Prime Minister Sir (Grand Chief) late Michael Thomas Somare.  It is a national tragedy for us in the moment of sorrow and mourning for our foundating father who passed away on the 26th of February 2021. I am indeed humbled to acknowledge the sacred supremacy of our living God who mandated Grand Chief Sir Michael Thomas Somare to proclaim the emancipation of people who speak more than ...