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Traditional burial
practices of New Hanover
By PATRICK KARABUSPALAU KAIKU
According to burial practices
reported in some ancient civilizations, racial or religious
groupings around the world such as the Vikings of the present-day
Scandinavian countries and the various sects of the Hindu religion
on the Indian sub-continent, the common practice of cremation and
burial at sea or the disposing of ashes of cremated corpses in the
sea or river systems has been widely accepted as part of their
tradition, belief system and heritage.
On New Hanover Island in the New Ireland province, the practice of
burying or disposing the ashes of cremated corpses either at sea
or in the ground was as ancient and an inclusively practiced rite
by pre-contact Lovongais.
It was only around the early 1880s with German colonisation that
this practice slowly diminished as permanent village settlements
for the purpose of administration and colonial intervention were
enforced. The edict by the colonialists for in-land villages to
move down to the coast meant that land was compulsorily designated
for the burial of the dead in the cemetery under the supervision
of the German New Guinea Company authorities.
Given that the early people of New Hanover were predominantly
residing in in-land settlements, the accessibility to the sea for
the depositing of the ashes of the cremated corpses was beyond
them. Hence, cremation was an accepted practice and the remains
were simply deposited in the ground. Though there are reports of
sporadic sightings of remains of bones in known cannibal feasting
sites, there is no conclusive archaeological evidence on New
Hanover that any systematically organised pre-contact cemetery and
earth burial was practiced. Former feasting grounds of known
cannibals have evidence of skeletal remains especially under the
hollowed trunks of gigantic trees.
In the writer's attempt to uncover the estimated epoch when the
cremation process was discarded for land burial he came across
another related oral account. It was during the period immediately
before 1880 that organised cemetery burial was evident.
The vital clue according to a direct descendant of a vaitas
(member of the sorcerer's class) attests to the fact that in the
initial establishment of the secret male sect of the Vengevenge
(Hornbill) clan, called the Pokmaras in a village on the south
coast called Ungat, the legend there was that the founder was said
to have dug up the grave of a recently buried dead to use in the
ceremonial "life-giving" (tipus) prerequisites of his secret
society activities. This adjoining information point to the fact
that burial in cemeteries was already in vogue, though, certain
in-land settlements where the influence of the colonisers was
still deficient were still cremating on pyres or stone ovens.
Interestingly, hitherto subsistent gardeners who have made gardens
near or in the vicinity of known ancient settlements have never
come across large quantities of skeletal remains of the dead. It
further supports the view that there were no ancient burial
grounds in these settlements. Otherwise, by now one would have
uncovered ancient in-land cemeteries. And with the gradual wave of
migration closer to the coast just prior to colonial intrusion,
burial at sea became more elaborate.
The methods used in the cremation of the dead in these early
in-land settlements and subsequently near the coast were varied
into two broad categories. Firstly, one cremation process was
through the use of a mumu-type (stone-oven) method called the
kolope. This large enclosed pile of stones (quite literally a bed
of stones) was alit with firewood used as fuel with the corpse of
the dead carefully laid on the fiery stones and flames of that
burning mumu. According to one informant, such a stone structure
can still be seen in an inland village called Saula. Being an
in-land village, the past inhabitants of this area therefore used
the kolope with its ashes buried in the ground, which subsequently
turned and mixed to form soil compost.
Secondly there is another process of cremation where the dead
where placed on what is called a van (wooden chair) or pyre (a
close resemblance of that ritual used by the Kukukuku tribes in
the Morobe province) within an enclosed wooden structure called a
kitip. In certain instances, as observed by Richard Parkinson in
his Thirty Years in the South Seas, the tip of the fingers is tied
with ropes, and the arm is raised in a prayer-like pose. This is
done before the body is alit. Perhaps the last known and recent
person who was given a burial on a van was a vaitas (member of the
sorcerer's class) of the Sui clan from Solomong, an in-land
village of Tiaputuk, although his body was not set alit.
According to the writer's grandmother, Tavokolai Tangina, of the
Nguma (Crow) clan, this process of cremation and burial was
elaborate and the wooden structure was allowed to burn from dusk
to dawn. Throughout the night more firewood would be thrown or
added to the fire. It is said that the heart of the human corpse
when burnt contained great quantity of fluid/blood and was
purported to have been slower in degenerating to ashes. Hence,
close vigil and supervision of the fire was necessary.
In the early morning hours before the sun emerged, the cremated
remains or ashes were gathered into a woven basket. The immediate
clan members of the deceased would paddle with the remains to sea
and give the sea burial their clansman warranted. As noted by
Antonius, an elder of the Valus clan, the area off Metelaungung
near Tiaputuk on the south coast was one designated cremation site
where the people from the hinterland would bring their dead to
burn and dispose off in the nearby bay area.
According to Antonius, upon approaching the watery graveyard, the
members of the clan were required to verbally identify the name of
their clan and call out the name of the deceased. It was for the
purpose of safe passage that this was required. As the basket was
offloaded into the watery depths, Antonius noted that a lightened
stairway of sorts was formed and the hands of the long-dead
relatives or clansmen of the deceased were seen welcoming their
newly arrived member. Such afterlife phenomenon was even confirmed
by the writer's grandmother.
In conclusion, the idea of cremation was an elaborate ritual. Due
respect was given to the remains and passage of the dead. On the
same token, the disposal of the corpses by in-land villagers
through cremation was one way of observing hygiene. One can
rightfully deduce that the pre-contact peoples who were living in
large communities were already aware of the risks that
insect-borne germs from decomposed corpses could pose to their
population, hence, the need for cremation and safe disposal of
their dead. It had practical and spiritual reasons for the people
of pre-contact New Hanover.
 
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