Denis V Smith

“Many times over the decades, I have been asked by people from Papua New Guinea, “Where did these missionaries come from?”  Our parents and grandparents told us, “One day these pale skinned people just arrived in our village telling us stories we had never heard before.” “What is their story?” “Where did they come from?”

In a culture where people were dependent upon stories about their ancestors, oral tradition became the main way to know the past, keep their memories alive and inform a new generation of their history.

Some men were recognised as skilled orators and could recall stories from their past generations, identifying the clan structures of former generations. They often referred to mythical stories of identities in the distant past, giving names to them and what they did to form rivers, mountains, animals, and other inhabitants of the jungle.

Most times they carved the likeness of ancestral spirits into wood, stone, and moulded effigies in clay. They would refer to these objects as they recounted stories from their past.

Many years after we had left the mission field, I returned to New Guinea and revisited a village.  I recalled the names of people who were there years before and was informed that all of these men had died.  However, one man came to me who looked so like his father, Agarambu, it was unnerving.

As we sat with the men in the ceremonial house, the son recalled my story as his father had told him. Their children accepted the responsibility for my care while I stayed in the village. We reminisced and shared songs we had written together in their language.

“Jisas, niigoot tiikoo kiyandii

Niimoo yelavukoo liikoondii

Kwupi maawut kwinkiyendii

Apma vat tiikiyeniin ….”