Fern Ridge (Safla Rama) Digest

  Balimo may be way out west of Port of Moresby, but it is a beautiful part of the country. It is blessed with so much water around it. Lakes, lagoons, and water ways make the mesmerizing landscapes picturesque. Balimo may be small and remote but the water lilies on the lakes and lagoons hides the secret of the people deep beneath the surface of the water. White egrets and other birds of the lakes watch over the marshes, water ways and lagoons of Balimo. Awaba, Pisi, Kawito, Kotale, Kewa, Uladu are reached via the Aramia River. Awaba has an active airstrip used often by MAF/SDP for delivery of educational and medical support services and supplies.     Balimo is in the Middle Fly area of the Western Province. Home to the long Gogodola canoes, and is the township governed by the Balimo Urban LLG has its share of development dilemma. Other Middle Fly districts are Nomad Rural LLG, Lake Murray Rural LLG, and Bamu Rural LLG.    Economic activity is minimal, concentra...

  Inspiring the Next Generation, is really what I am doing every time I get a call to address school graduations. 

Writing for children is fun, exciting, and wonderful. My children wrote their stories in their grade five composition class at Waigani Primary School. Their stories were edited with illustrations by Peter Ella and Thomas Ella, artists famous for the mural walls of the Sir Hubert Murray Stadium.     These books bridge the gap between these young children in the Middle Fly schools and the rest of the world.     It was a dream to see books written for children end up in their hands. It is as beautiful as the water lilies in the lagoons of Balimo.     The children’s books that my children wrote and published are now in the hands of the children of Balimo. At Auwaba primary school I witnessed school children read my book   Muruk na Pato   and daughter Cheryl’s book   Two Sisters and Nokondi’s Head . The children at Miti Primary school read   Jupi and the Magic Feather,  and   Two Brothers and a Wild Dog    by Langston Wind...

  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...