Fern Ridge (Safla Rama) Digest

Lasitewa Dormitory I was 21 years old when I lived in Lasitewa dormitory during my second year of studies at the University of Papua New Guinea. It was a time I had to decide what I wanted to do in my life. I was struggling with myself to understand whether I should pursue the vocation of Marist Brotherhood as it became clearer that soon my superiors would be asking for me to take my vows of celebacy. It was the most difficult of decisions for a 21-years old, with no family members in Port Moresby that I can talk to about the decision. That was 1985, a year after Pope John Paul’s first visit to Papua New Guinea. That visit was fresh as we had celebrated mass at the Sir Hubert Murray Stadium. I was also struggling to make the decision between studying political science and public administration or to pursue the study of philosophy. I opted for the study of philosophy instead. I found myself developing an interest in the field of literature. As

Spoken Tokpisin is second nature to most Papua New Guineans. We use it without worrying about how it forms, sounds, or about its variants. We also use it with zest and pride without needing to be grammatically correct. Tokpisin has come to be our main language of communication. Yet when it comes to written Tokpisin we encounter difficulties and fumble our way through. We make so many mistakes and remain unconcerned about the development of written Tokpisin.  Written Tokpisin is harder for even those who were born speaking Tokpisin. The elements of written Tokpisin are difficult to master.   Translating English to Tokpisin in written expression is even harder or vice versa.  Many may believe it is easy to translate an expression in English to Tokpisin. The contrary is true. The difficulty arises out of the grammatical principles that govern the operation of each language. English observes the grammatical rule that the subject comes befo

This national election is important for women of Papua New Guinea. Before the election the parliament rejected the proposal to appoint women into Parliament. The proposal failed to get the vote it needed to become a statutoreeey law enabling women a place in the decision making chambers of parliament.  That leaves women in Papua New Guinea to challenge their male counterparts in this election. In this year’s election a number of women have taken the call to prove their worth just as the male folks.   A good number of women are contesting this election against men. Some of these women are contesting as Independent candidates. Others are supported by the political parties. Two woman lead political parties as party leaders. Some of these women have contested in previous elections. Others have just raised their hands to be noticed. I hope that the results for women in this year’s National Elections will change the political history of

A folklore narrative that has intriqued me and other scholars is the cassowary women narrative. It is a folktale with lessons for the tellers, listeners, and researchers. The forest is home to cassowaries. On a sunny day the cassowaries took off their cassowary skin to bathe in a river. They become human women after they took off their cassowary skins. They swam in the river the whole day. A male hunter stumbled on to the site. He hid nearby and watched in amazement. He decided to steal the smallest of the cassowary skin. He hid the cassowary skin and himself. When it was time to go, the women put their cassowary skin back on and became cassowaries again. They all left except for the youngest cassowary; she did not find her cassowary skin. She began to cry until the man came out of hiding. He asked the young woman, naked and alone in the forest, how she got there, and why she was naked. The woman told him in her grief that

Trobriand Islanders are known for mouthing away in their language with ease as with their knowledge and skills of yam planting. There is an intricate connection between their language and the knowledge of yam planting and harvesting. Anyone outside of this Milne Bay society would never understand the deep attachment to land and culture their language plays in their lives. The languages of the indigenous communities have a direct link to the cultural explanations and understanding of the natural and social world. In the Waria River area of Morobe Province in Papua New Guinea the older generation of villagers complained that the younger generation was unwilling to learn the names and knowledge of medicinal plants used in the area. The younger generation complained that fewer older generations were left, but were unwilling to teach the younger generation of the knowledge of medicinal plants. This dilemma emerged as a result of voluntary shift

Interests in traditional pharmacopoeia and medicinal practices of peoples in Latin America, Asia, Indian communities in North Americas and the Pacific were generated, largely due to the interests by pharmaceutical companies in discovering new drugs, spread of life threatening diseases, and the environmental concerns over large scale forest exploitation. Another approach is taken by linguists, anthropologists, and ethnobotanists in their research on biolinguistic diversity and cultural knowledge systems. One of the most interesting research work carried out to transfer cultural knowledge from a Papua New Guinea language to a permanent form was the work done by late Ian Dr. Saem Majnep with the linguists Andrew Pawley. Their work was carried out among the Kalam people of Papua New Guinea. Dr. Majnep, from the Kalam society, had earlier worked with the anthropologist and ethnobiologist Ralph Bulmer. After Bulmer’s death Majnep collaborated late