Organizing the photos

July 6, 2014

Shiva's Crowd-funding Poster - Bossboi Gul with a balloon

 

As soon as Shiva learned that she had received the Hays-Mortimer travel grant, she set about looking through the whole collection of Jablonko photos that had been digitized and archived at ODSAS in Marseilles, France.  She selected a hundred images as well as a number of original Maring paintings. 

These paintings had been made on paper with the watercolors and colored pens we had brought with us in 1963 at Margaret Mead's suggestion.  It would have never occurred to us to bring such supplies, but Mead was right.  We were glad when we saw that this medium, so familiar to us, proved to be intriguing to our hosts.

Having downloaded and printed the photographs and paintings in postcard size, Shiva arranged and rearranged them on the wall of her rented room in Sydney.  Slowly she developed a sense of how they could be arranged in exhibits in university libraries as well as used for illustrations for the crowd-funding project.

 

0725

One of the Australian supporters of the "Searching for Grandfathers" project was a professional photographer. He enlarged a select few for her and framed them so they could be safely, if carefully, carried to PNG for display at the University of Goroka library and later in Madang at Divine Word University.

 

0721

One of his favorites was a portrait of a Maring boy in Dikai dancing at the konj kaiko in November, 1963.

0723

Meanwhile,  I was thinking about the best format we could create for the photos that we would be taking to the people in Simbai:

Would there be a school where we could fasten the photos to a wall?  

How would the photos hold up in the humid air of the mountains?  

How would the people carry them back to their homes?

 

Shiva showed us the location of an office supply store not too far way.

0846

0847

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Their photo service offered do-it-yourself postcard-size prints for 10 cents a piece. It also sold plastic albums. These seemed like a good bet. 

While Shiva attended to other preparations, Alvilda and I grappled with the Kodak machinery, entering individual frame numbers and quantities to be printed.

0849

We needed five copies of each, as I figured I would want to present an album to whoever was representing each of at least five different clans or families, even though I really had no idea which families had descendants fifty years on. 

Having just arrived from Europe on June 30, Alvilda was still in the fog of jet lag and, thus, perfectly suited for this mindless mechanical job.

0850

0851

Neither Alvilda nor I had been in a "big box" store for some time. We were quite impressed to see the endless aisles full of all imaginable supplies for schools and offices.  

 

Once the order was complete and we had picked it up, I spent a couple of evenings sorting the five sets and slipping each  print into the pages of the little plastic albums that I hoped would be weatherproof.

VJ 2014-07-06 10.09.29

VJ 2014-07-06 10.10.01

<<<>>><<<>>><<<>>><<<>>>

An email from the Bishop

 

March 28, 2014

1192 - Headquarters of the Anglican Church in Mount Hagen

 

 

 

Back in March, two and a half months before I had even left Italy for Australia and Papua New Guinea,  I was looking to contact someone who might be able to help me reconnect with people in Simbai.  On March 28, 2014, I emailed the Anglican bishop whose contact email I had found online in connection with an Anglican sponsored Vocational School in Simbai.   

"Dear Bishop Nathan,

"I am contacting you in regard to my hope and plan to visit the Simbai Valley later this year with my granddaughter, Shiva Yahaghi, in order to bring back photographs which my husband and took among the Maring-speakers in 1963-1964.  At that time I was one of the team members of the Columbia University Expedition to study the the Human Ecology of the New Guinea Rain Forest. We were greatly aided by Father Peter Robin and his wife, Olive, in Simbai itself, and also by Herbert and Catherine Bapera whose son, Napoleon, was a little boy, out at the Church and School they had established in Gai.  After we left PNG, we occasionally exchanged letters with Herbert, even after he returned to Popondetta, but then we lost contact.  

 

"We always wished to return some of the photographs to people who were little kids when we were there and who might remember us, as well as giving photos of their parents and grandparents to children who have been born in the many years since we were there. Then my husband died in 2002.  It is only now,  with the encouragement of my granddaughter, that this trip is becoming a reality.  I received a little travel grant from my college in the USA (Mount Holyoke College) and my granddaughter is organizing a crowd-funding to raise money for her transportation from Australia where she is spending a year working. We are planning to attend the "Our Media" conference at the University of Goroka toward the end of July. At that conference we will be presenting an exhibit of the photographs. We are also hoping to give a workshop at DWU in Madang centered around the photographs.

 

"I have not yet been able to get into direct contact with anyone who lives in Simbai.   I have just found a PNG government reference to the Simbai Vocational School run by the Anglican Church.  It would be wonderful if there were a school there.  Maybe my granddaughter and I could present the photographs to the students and teachers and then leave a small permanent exhibition with them.  Maybe they even already have a small museum of local history to which we could contribute.  In a second email I am attaching a flyer designed by my granddaughter to give you a better idea of our project. I am emailing it separately in case it takes a long time to download.

 

"We would be extremely grateful for any suggestions you may have regarding contacts in Simbai or contacts with other groups who might be interested in this glimpse into the history of PNG or of the Simbai area in particular.

 

"Sincerely,

 

"Allison Jablonko"

 

Bishop Nathan had responded immediately:

 

"Dear Allison,

"Thank you Allison. We would be more delightful to having you and your daughter visit Gai and the surrounding villages in Maring valley in Simbai district of Madang Province. In 2008 I visited  Kombaku, Mondo Gai and Numbla.

"This year I have sent Gai man with his wife to train at Newton Theological college in Popondetta  to become Priest in the Church of God. I will  pass your message to  Simbai Vocational School and the people of Maring  about your revisit into our villages. My people in the area will be more fond of meeting you and your daughter.

"Thanks  Allison.

"+Nathan Ingen"

 Then Shiva chimed in with her own email two days later:

"Dear Bishop Nathan, 

 

"It is so great to hear from you! 

 

"We are really looking forward to coming into Simbai. We have planned 2 trips. 

 

"Trip 1: 

"We will be taking a flight on July 11th from Mt. Hagen into Simbai. We will be leaving on July 18th back to Mt. Hagen. 

"It will be me (Shiva - Allison's granddaughter), Allison, Alvilda (Allison's daughter), Koumanieu (our friend from Goroka). We also have a new wonderful addition to our 'team'. These are three of my friends, Sebastian, Alicia and Philippa who travel the world making documentaries on untold stories and they will be joining us for this trip. 

 

"Trip 2: 

"We plan on coming into Simbai for a longer time on August 1st, until August 9th or 15th - depending on the situation. 

"In this trip, it will be fewer of us, and for now it might be 4 of us. 

 

"We have been told to look into the two guest houses, Simbai Guest House and Kalang Guest House. We have been given the contact of Dickson Kangi to arrange this accommodation. Do you think this is a good suggestion? Although we do not know necessarily how many nights we would stay there it would be best to book for now. If you have any advice on this, considering for the first trip it is 7 of us, we are open to suggestions. 

 

"Will you be in Simbai when we arrive? 

 

"I look forward to meeting you!

 

"Sincerely,

 

"Shiva"

 

In later email correspondence, Bishop Nathan offered to help us purchase necessary food and equipment to take into Simbai with us.

 

 

On June 3, 2014, four days before our departure from Sydney, we received this further encouraging email:

 

"We are  looking  forward to seeing you all. I have sent information to people from Gai  to meet you all at Simbai and take you to Gai. For accommodation, I have spoken with the Parish Priest in Simbai to accommodate you all. If that is okay with you please let me know.  That will not cost you much.  For the guest  House  will cost  you more. I have spoken to Fr. Samson Songriken  and he is looking forward to accommodate you all  for your information. I am in  Mt.Hagen and if time permits I may accompany you on this journey. I know that you have booked your flight to Simbai but we  also have  airstrip at Kombaku as well. Kombaku is between Simbai and Gai for your information. 

"Thanks.

"+Nathan Ingen"

 

 

We were much relieved to have all this information coming together and looked forward to meeting the bishop in person once we would arrive in Mt. Hagen.

 

 

<<<>>><<<>>><<<>>><<<>>>

 

 

 

 

Resuming my blog!

July 6, 2020

 

Six years of turning, of an eternity of changes, not least in the past six months.  The first half of 2020, as it turns out, is a pivotal time for world history.

Currently, I live in New Hampshire. My windows look out on a Norway maple, a sugar maple, a poplar, a willow, all towering over a wild cherry tree.  It is the season of day lilies.

I am "sheltering-in-place," doing what I can to responsibly limit the spread of Covid-19.  After three months of the confusion and tragedies spread by that pandemic,  the horrors of racism, always simmering half hidden under the surface for centuries, boiled over again six weeks ago.

These scourges fill me with sorrow and doubt as their tentacles cloud what clarity of thought and generosity of spirit human beings have developed in so many cultural varieties down through the ages. Where have all the glimpses of beauty and  inspirations of co-creation gone?

Walking between buildings in the town center the other day, I spied a patch of color half hidden under a flowering hosta plant. It was a hand-painted stone left by an anonymous and mischievous passer-by.

  

Its message?

Indeed! These are times in which to keep moving. Ah, but I’d suggest that movement can be fueled by memories - puzzles from the past, solved and unsolved.

 

<---------------------->

It is in this light that I turn my attention back to my days in Papua New Guinea in 2014.  In 2013, I had explored memories of my first trip in 1963 -- reminiscing about moments taken “Fifty years ago today” --  when I spent a year on the slopes of the Bismarck Mountains in what was then the Territory of New Guinea under Australian administration.   

Now it is time to look back six years on glimpses of my 2014 trip with my daughter, Alvilda, and granddaughter, Shiva, to the nation of Papua New Guinea, independent since 1975.  Though separated by fifty years, my trips to the second largest island on earth, located just north of Australia, took me to different worlds. 

My blog tale left off on June 30, 2014.  That was the day when Alvilda flew into Australia from Europe, bringing more equipment and Belgian chocolates!

 

0738

It was a day of new moon.  We still had a lot to accomplish before our departure from Sydney to Port Moresby on July 7, 2014, and onward to Simbai Station, where, if it would not be raining, we would see the full moon rising.

<<<>>><<<>>><<<>>><<<>>>

  

Six Years On ....

 

Oh, I did mean to keep blogging during the trip.

Where did my intention disappear?

During the face-to-face experiences of traveling in PNG, photos became my major "note-taking" method.

It is only now, six years later, that I have the time and attention to pull together the story as it developed.

And so, let us go back to Sydney, Australia, and, as best we can, pick up the tale from where I left off. For the world has changed considerably in the meantime!

<<<>>><<<>>><<<>>><<<>>>

 

 

 

New Moon

Ten days ago I flew across the turning earth, sleeping over the Himalayas and the Indian Ocean, until I awoke just after sunset in the southern hemisphere and watched the four main stars of the Southern Cross out the starboard side of the plane until the lights of Sydney appeared in the darkness below.

Since then I've been enjoying winter all over again …  the winter I had finally weathered in Italy and was so happy to leave behind.  

Winter in Sydney is cold in unheated houses,  but the crisp air and deep blue sky outside are as invigorating as the sights to be seen walking through the neighborhood of Glebe.  Sometimes I feel I am in San Francisco, sometimes maybe in New Orleans. 

The chimneys fascinate me.  I suppose people used to have fireplaces, but it is as though they are now in some sort of limbo between heating with firewood and using solar panels. 

The main street is lined with a repeating sequence of shops - the dry cleaners, the bar, the bookstore, the sweet shop, the Thai restaurant, the green grocer, the Italian coffee shop, the news stand. The fruits and vegetables for sale are an overwhelmingly rich assortment of  familiar and unfamiliar.  

Black Russian tomatoes next to Jerusalem artichokes. Red rhubarb stems next to silver beet - known in Italy as bietola. Orange pumpkin, white potatoes, purple sweet potatoes.  Curly kale, English spinach, curly parsley, flat parsley.  Yellow papayas, red papayas, strawberries, blueberries.  Chia seeds, mung beans, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, buckwheat, quinoa, red rice, Basmati rice. I suppose it is this neighborhood near the university that offers such choice. I'm eating heartily while I have the chance and my granddaughter, Shiva, and her friends are such good cooks!  

Days have been taken up with preparations for PNG.  Preparing for the unknown is, I find, unnerving.  Shiva asks me,  since, of course,  I'm the one who has been in PNG before, "Shall we take hiking boots?"  I explain that fifty years ago we ended up using golf shoes with cleats to navigate slippery logs over streams. "What will the trails be like now?"  How should I know the "now" of things?  "If we bring tents, will people think us rude?"  How should I know what people "now" will think?  "I'll borrow my friend's fine backpack. You ought to have a backpack, too.  How on earth do you expect to carry a dufflebag?"  I report that last time I never carried more than a camera,  since people were very eager to carry even a small shoulder bag in order to earn a few shillings.  How else could they earn money when there are no jobs in the bush,  yet they want to buy towels and kerosene at the trade store? 

I'm disoriented in another way: Where is East?  Where is North? People tell me the city center is over there to the East beyond the rooftops of Glebe. But that doesn't feel right.

We are in the Southern Hemisphere, so the sun shines at me from the North.  Now that is really unnerving.  But this evening I found a landmark, though I guess it can't really be called a "landmark" since it is in the sky:  the crescent moon like a cat's whisker, its slender curve pointing down to where the sun had just set.  That's IT!  That's WEST - a signpost to directions among all the houses where no horizon is visible.  And a signpost to the future -  the time of the next full moon which we shall be seeing from the New Guinea Highlands!

 

 

<<<>>><<<>>><<<>>><<<>>>

 

 

 

New Equipment

My daughter, Alvilda, has been preparing to join Shiva and me on our up-coming trip to PNG, and has just presented me with various "necessities" discovered in the camping equipment stores in Brussels.  Marvelously useful things that didn't exist fifty years ago: a mosquito-repelling shirt and bandana! I'm trying the shirt on for fit.

I confess to being a bit put out by all the fancy labels.

Alvilda: "It's a different experience."  

Me (grumbling):  "Advertising hype!"   

Alvilda: "But it REALLY IS a different experience!"

Well, the adventurous spirit was always there,  even if the words did not appear on any label.

Fifty years ago my mother and I had sewed the skirts and simple shirts that then served me so well.  And I used my climbing boots, already well worn from hiking in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State, although, as it turned out, spiked golf shoes were better for walking across slippery log bridges of highland New Guinea.

P.S. The climbing boots had been bought in the late 1950s at REI when it was still on the second floor of the building at 523 Pike Street in Seattle.

<<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<><<>>>

The last seven days of fund-raising

For the past month I've been contacting all my friends and colleagues with the news of the upcoming  "Across Generations" kickstarter project that Shiva has initiated in Australia. 

 

It has been wonderful to touch in with people whose lives have touched mine over the whole span of my life till now, to learn what they are up to and to feel their encouragement for this project.  

I've spent a great deal of time on my computer, and have looked over equipment that I had with me in Papua New Guinea in 1964.

My Pentax camera, my field notebooks, and the bilum bag I made out of good nylon fishing line we had brought into the Bismarck Mountains from a trade store down on the coast in Madang.  Some of the women of Gunts taught me this wonderful skill.  I hope I'll have time to relearn and practice it again.  I'll take a digital lightweight camera this time,  and new notebooks  -  but for sure paper notebooks ....  and the bilum.

<<<>>><<<>>><<<>>><<<>>>