Weekender page

A knight in dire distress

SIMBU’S only surviving knight Sir Joseph Nombri is stricken with cancer and needs a helping hand in his hour of need, writes JACK METTA
SIR Joseph Nombri is a person who epitomises the grassroots – a down to earth sort of a guy who loves his beard, buai, cigarette, card game and beer … a classic Simbu grassroots personality, yet he exudes an aura that commands respect and admiration.
He’s the type of a guy any person, coastal or otherwise, can embrace for a chat without that perception of aggression associated with Highlanders, hanging heavily over you.
Sir Joe is a nice person to say the least and a person who is committed to what he does best --- dealing with people.
He was knighted for that --- services to his country in the public service.
He’s a go-getter for want of a better description; he gets want he wants and if his endeavours fail at the outset, well, he knows the motto; ‘if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again’.
He didn’t initially know that motto when growing up in his Pari village in Simbu province, because it was a Western phrase. But it was coined to describe a common group of people and Sir Joseph no doubt, fit the bill, as it best described him as a young man out to conquer the world, as it were.
His goals during those early years were varied and from his perspective, were worth pursuing for better or for worse.
Sir Joe admits today that his current predicament may be attributed to the ‘for worse’ pursuits in his early life.
Born in Sept 25, 1940 in Pari village to a feared warrior named Nombri Gumaingo, who stood at six feet and Anglewane, who died only last year aged about 103, Sir Joseph was “the chosen one” as he describes himself, to rise above the routine of rural life and his peers.
As a toddler, the Second World War flew by overhead in the form and sounds of scores of aircraft over the mountains and when he could understand, he observed another war --- the secular type --- involving White Catholic and Lutheran missionaries, on horseback whipping each other on the barren street of Kundiawa in heated contests for converts.
A Lutheran missionary Rev William Bergmann came into his life and figured prominently in plotting the future of the young Nombri.
“He was considered amene kumugl --- an elder of elders,” Sir Joseph recalls. “Everyone looked up to him. It was a privilege to be in his presence. He sort of picked me out of the crowd to attend school in Kundiawa. I was not surprised. I was very noticeable at the time. Kids used to call me big bel. But it was a glorious moment to be picked. I was, afterall, the chosen one,” Sir Joseph recalled with pride.
During an interview last Saturday, Sir Joseph calmly rattled off a line in Kote, a common language spoken widely in Finschhafen in Morobe province. It was to demonstrate that he is a product of a Lutheran school, which in his days, taught classes in Kote.
Thus he began his primary education at Gon, and then progressed on to the Goroka Intermediate School on a daily walking basis from Kundiawa to “see the messages in the books”.
Sir Joe remembers being taught by Papuan teachers. “There was Jim from Kerema, a Central man by the name of Tau Agaru and Sere Pitoi, who many years later became a knight himself,” Sir Joe recalls.
But with learning, came the yearning to experiment and during those formative years of his education, Sir Joseph started smoking and drinking home-made brew … and playing cards.
“Those were the days when natives weren’t allowed to touch liquor but it didn’t stop the teachers from brewing it and sharing it. I was among the older kids at the school so we were able to indulge our curiosities.”
In 1959, Sir Joseph was primed among others to pursue further studies in Australia, but because of his older age, he was redirected to Sogeri High School.
“I was very disappointed but Sogeri wasn’t so bad because this was where I met all the big boys,” he exclaims, referring to some of Papua New Guinea’s most prominent leaders and public servants, including Sir Michael Somare.
“These were very prominent people,” he says of the calibre of students at Sogeri at the time. Most of them were teachers and very hungry for knowledge. Often, I had to stand guard for a couple of them while they studied under the dim glow of lanterns near the river at the school after curfew hours.”
Sir Joe says he had never seen a bunch of people committed to satisfying a hunger for knowledge.
“These were smart teachers and the colonial administration was giving them every chance to advance their education in order to justify their promotions.”
A point of interest at the school Sir Joseph pointed out was that each student was paid five shillings and two sticks of tobacco a month.
“It was a substantial per diem in terms of its value at the time. You may wonder about the tobacco sticks. Not all students were smokers. The thing to do was trade the tobacco with the local people for other things…”
In the course of his studies, he realised he was being primed for a job in the district administration. “We were being trained to be big boys in our own land; kiaps were big boys indeed…” he joked.
He was promptly enrolled at the public service college, then at Six Mile where the current police station is, and later joined the Department of District Administration and Native Affairs as a kiap alongside colleagues in the likes of Jack Bagita and Jerry Nalau.
His job as a kiap took him all over the country before he settled for a refresher at the University of PNG for two years, where he raised a few eyebrows including that of the cops when he used to tear the turf up between the uni and Boroko on a giant Harley Davidson motorbike.
He kept in touch with his Sogeri school mates and in the mid 1960s teamed up to form a group of like-minded political radicals and formed the Bully Beef Club, later to become Pangu Pati, the first political party in PNG that set the pace for PNG’s independence.
In 1968, as founding president of the Pangu Pati, he kindly declined to contest the elections, which ultimately elevated the profiles of his party colleagues including Michael Somare, Maori Kiki, Bruce Jephcott, Barry Holloway, Julius Chan, Paul Lapun and Pita Lus into the political limelight of Papua New Guinea.
That association perhaps contributed to Sir Joe securing a diplomatic post later in live, where he spend 11 years in Japan as PNG ambassador in the 1980s.
Last month, the only surviving knight from the Simbu province was diagnosed with cancer of the throat.
“Sir Joseph presented to his hospital with an ulcer involving the epiglottis,” Dr P Molumi, an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) surgeon at the Port Moresby General Hospital wrote in a report dated March 26.
“Biopsy showed it to be a cancer (squamous cell carcinoma). Surgery to resect this cancer will involve removal of the whole larynx containing his voicebox, which he will not be able to speak again,” Dr Molumi wrote.
Sir Joseph is a former public servant of 37 years service and before his retirement in 1999, was Papua New Guinea’s ambassador to Japan for 11 years.
And as a diplomat, Sir Joe rubbed shoulders with world leaders and a lot of what he did during those moments in the service of his country, was talking or as they say in their circles, dabbling in diplomacy.
Diplomacy, as the Wikipedia explains, is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or States. It usually refers to international diplomacy, the conduct of international relations through the intercession of professional diplomats with regard to issues of peace-making, trade, war, economics and culture. International treaties are usually negotiated by diplomats prior to endorsement by national politicians.”
Dr Molumi understood the dilemma the knight faced and acknowledged that.
“He is a man of high standing in the society and needs his voice,” Dr Molumi wrote. He suggested that to save his voice, Sir Joe would have to seek relevant medical assistance abroad but at his own expenses.
“He can benefit from chemo radiation which will control the cancer and save his voice. However, these services are not available in Papua New Guinea.”
Dr Molumi estimated Sir Joseph’s treatment in Australia to cost about K100,000 and was among the first to call on the public to donate generously towards the cost of the Simbu knight’s treatment.
“We appeal to any individual and organisations to assist towards this fundraising drive,” Dr Molumi urged.
Sir Joseph’s family understands that his cancer can be treated and have embarked on a fund-raising drive to get Sir Joseph to Australia for the treatment.
He is passing on a written appeal to friends, relatives and close associates in his former line of work to make a donation towards his cause.
“The cost of K100,000 is very, very expensive and may family and I cannot afford it,” he writes. “I am therefore appealing to you as a friend to donate whatever you can to help me out in meeting the cost of treatment of my illness.”
Indeed, Sir Joseph’s plight had not gone unnoticed by a group of professional people with origins in Simbu province who have started up and initiative called the Simbu Children’s Foundation to spearhead a fundraising drive for Sir Joseph.
Calling themselves “Friends of the last Simbu Knight”, the SCF will be making concerted efforts over the next couple of weeks go assist Sir Joseph with funding for his treatment in Australia.
“I have set a target date as the end of this month to collect all donations and for me to travel for the medical treatment so I would very much appreciate it if you could respond prior to this date,” Sir Joseph writes in his letter of appeal.
The first fund raising event was scheduled for this weekend but cancelled due to Mother’s Day this weekend but coordinator of SCF Goiye Gileng said fundraising would start in earnest on June 2.
Donations towards Sir Joe’s cause can be dropped off at his house at Section 218, Allotment 8, Kekekeke St, Gordons 5 or deposited into Lady Nicky Nombri’s ANZ bank account number 11766096 at Port Moresby branch.
Sir Joe can be contracted on phone 3231919, mobile 6916328, daughter Ester Nombri on phone 3200127 or mobile 6916323 or mail to PO Box 1144, Port Moresby, NCD.
Any donation you make will be greatly welcome and appreciated for as the Wise Counsellor tells us: “Only in affliction, do we feel the sweetest love of God…”