Elep Returns: How it was written

By ARNOLD MUNDUA
Many people asked me if I had been to Japan after reading my book Elep Returns: The Story of a Tree and its Conversion into Paper.
I said no!
There are of course many other similar questions asked about the book. Phil Fitzpatrick and Iriani Wanma of PNG Attitude and Crocodile Prize fame recently commented that Elep Returns was the first book they have read which has a tree as the protagonist (main character).
Onthe book’s 10th anniversary after it was officially launched by the Papua New Guinea Forest Authority (PNGFA) in September 2007, I felt it would be a good idea to tell how I conceived the idea and wrote it.
Elep Returns tells the story of how a tree named Elep which grew in Kandrian on the south coast of West New Britain and was cut down and exported to Japan as a round log. In Japan Elep was converted into paper that eventually returned to PNG, via Brisbane in a Grade 10 certificate presented to the child who used to enjoy its nuts when Elep was a tree in his forest.
Elep, the main character narrates its own story.
I purposely wrote this book for school children in PNG to give them an overview of forests, foresters and forestry, with particular emphasis on how the log export industry works in PNG.
Between 1995 and 2003 I was seconded from the National Forest Service, the implementing arm of the PNGFA, as a log export inspector to the Swiss Surveillance company, SGS PNG Ltd. In this job I was responsible for checking, inspecting and monitoring exports of round logs.
Quite often, during my inspections, a sad feeling often ran through my spine when I watched the logs go, especially when they were towed out on pontoons by tug boats to the waiting log ships anchored out in the open sea. The scene was much like seeing your countrymen rounded up and taken away as captives to a far away destination never to be seen again.
One night as I was settling down to work in Akinum Camp near Kandrian on the final report for a shipment of logs that were bound for Japan, a thought hit my mind to write a story about these ‘poor fellows’ who had just left on the foreign monster ship.
The thought remained in my head and almost immediately I began to work on the plot.
I decided to present my story in a novel form – fiction based on facts, unlike any other common literature on forestry, in order to reach a wider reading audience. I particularly had school children as my target audience.
Plant science was a mandatory subject taught in PNG schools so I decided it would be a good idea to let a tree tell its story to the children.
Popular animals and insects had been used as main characters in popular children’s story books so I decided to use a tree as the protagonist.
Also, forestry in general is a process and I saw that there were a lot of ‘missing links’ when the subject is discussed in the classrooms; for instance, how trees are planted in the forest, how they get their food to grow, what happened to the logs that were taken away on the big ships, and the role of a forestry officer.
These ‘missing links’ needed to be connected in the minds of children to understand forestry clearly. And I realised the best way to link these gaps would be to allow a single tree to ‘tell’ its own story from the beginning to the end. In that way I knew the entire (or at least some) forestry process would be linked and brought to light.
The story line was easy. A big tree starts from a small seed so I decided to take a single tree’s journey from pollination right through to its adult stage and subsequently its final product.
I chose Kandrian for the setting of my story. And to better link the story with the children I chose to use a tree that was popular with children, a tree that has a cultural significance as well as commercial value. I settled on Canarium indicum, a tree that has a cultural value for its nuts (popularly known as galip) in Kandrian and PNG, and commercial value as a round log at the international log market.
I named it Elep after interviewing my friend, Paul Hoffman, a local from Amumsong village just outside Kandrian. Elep was the local tokples (Arup) name for Canarium indicum. I also amassed information and folk tales about Kandrian from Paul to set the background scenes for the story.
Satisfied, I started work on the manuscript. I tried as best as I could to link and cover all plant science subjects (forest ecology, tree physiology, plant biology and all other relevant plant science subjects) in the story from Elep’s point of view in my opening chapters. I presented the subjects in a way that the children will reflect on what their teachers taught them.
When Elep reached maturity I relied on my past experiences as a forest surveyor, logging foreman and logs export inspector to write on Elep’s conversion into a log.
I eventually got stuck after Chapter 13. I had not been to Japan or any other country before and had no idea what to write about this part of Elep’s journey in foreign lands.
But luck always came my way when I needed something most for the book.
After an inspection in Open Bay in East New Britain I boarded the log ship mv Yayasan Lapan when the ship was departing for Rabaul to get customs clearance after completion of loading. The round logs were bound for Japan and I would be getting off in Rabaul.
During the long cruise around the Gazelle Peninsula I was fortunate to have a long talk with the Filipino captain when he appeared in the wheel house from his cabin.
During that conversation I gathered what I needed to know about the ship’s journey after it departed Rabaul and what would happen to her cargo when the ship reached Japan.
This vital information from the ship captain would later form the background story in Elep’s journey from Kimbe to Japan.
But I further got stuck again after taking Elep across the Pacific Ocean. I knew for sure that the Japanese ports would be completely different from PNG ports due to Japan’s mega international trade links and I had no idea what the sea ports in Japan looked like. Although my book was fiction I wanted to present the story based on facts and needed some factual information about the ports in Japan.
I began the search for information on major sea ports in Japan. At Sauren logging camp in West Arowe, west of Kandrian, while on an inspection assignment I found a shelf in the room that I was allocated littered with Asian pamphlets and magazines.
During the week, as I went through these piles of papers, I came across a brochure of the international port of Nagoya. The brochure listed plans, the layout, new constructions and in minute detail everything about the sea port of Nagoya. Coincidently, most of the information contained in that brochure was just what I needed for my story.
After thoroughly going through that priceless document, the port of Nagoya was where I gratefully took Elep ashore.
In Nagoya a paper factory was needed to send Elep in for conversion into paper.

At Akinum logging camp, east of Kandrian I asked my friend Michael Mota, another SGS inspector to identify any paper factory in Japan that he was familiar with.
“No idea,” he replied. “Just come up with a Japanese name,” I said, and he shouted back, ‘Tatachi!’ And so, somewhere in Nagoya, Michael Mota created the, ‘Tatachi Paper Mill’ where Elep was converted into a paper.
With the Japanese leg of Elep’s journey covered, the focus was Australia, Elep’s next port of call. But I did not want to go through another lot of headaches to research Australia. Instead, I decided the best thing to do was keep Elep locked away, and so during the journey between Japan and PNG, Elep was kept locked up in the container until it reached Port Moresby.
Soon after completion of the manuscript in just over 12 months I decided to include illustrations to enhance the story, and leave an indelible impression in the minds of the children.
I always admired Jada Wilson’s illustrations and when I phoned him at the Word Publishing House in Port Moresby from Kimbe, he agreed to illustrate in colour and charged K35 per drawing. I placed an order for 21 illustrations to be included in each of the 21 chapters, detailing him on what to paint.
I also decided on a map of Elep’s journey to the foreign lands for inclusion in the book too, to give the kids a thorough insight of Elep’s travel. I was looking for suitable maps when I walked into a book-loving missionary family from USA.
Bryan Girard and his family were missionaries from the Anchor Baptist Church based in Kandrian. Like all missionaries Bryan was a kind and open man.
One evening when I was invited for dinner I was surprised to find a huge library in their house with a collection of books that occupied a section of the living room. When I revealed that I was working on a book and asked Bryan if he’d like to have a look at it he got interested and asked me to bring it along.
Bryan went through the manuscript. He assisted with the editing and proposed Elep Returns as the title for the book.
When I mooted to Bryan the proposed map I was surprised to discover that his wife Tina was a brilliant artist. She agreed to work on the maps and produced individual maps of Kandrian, New Britain island, PNG, Japan and Australia.
I took the maps to Kimbe and another talented graphic artist friend Blasius from Manus scanned and neatly arranged the maps in their respective locations, producing a single map of South East Asia. The map was later boxed in and Elep’s routes marked out for the children to follow Elep’s journey in the foreign lands.
When the manuscript was ready for publication I notified CBS Publishers of India that had earlier published A Bride’s Price. Bryan again assisted and allowed me to use his family’s email to send away the manuscript. Bryan’s daughter Jael worked tirelessly to see that every page went out and that all incoming mails from the publisher were delivered to me.
When the book was set for publication I was confronted with the biggest problem ever. I needed funding to finance the publication.
I made several enquiries but like always, no one showed any interest.
While on this trail I remembered the fellowship programme offered by the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO).
Elep Returns was 100 per cent based on tropical forestry. It was educational and would be a good reading book for school children that will enhance their forestry knowledge of tropical forestry.
I decided to find out if ITTO could fund the publication of Elep Returns through its fellowship programme.
When I sent an application together with a bound copy of the manuscript to ITTO’s headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, the organisation through its fellowship programme approved to fund the publication of Elep Returns. It was a great relief.
ITTO allowed its logo to be placed on the cover as the funding agency responsible for the book’s publication and requested two copies of it when it was published. At a cost of over US$3000, 1000 copies of Elep Returns were published and shipped to PNG through the ITTO fellowship programme.
I later provided a fellowship report that was published in the ITTO’s quarterly newsletter, Tropical Forest Update Volume 16, No 2 2006, titled ‘Do trees have feelings?’ giving an overview of Elep Returns.
In September 2007 with the support of PNGFA through the tireless efforts of Dambis Kaip, Elep Returns was officially launched in Port Moresby by Patrick Pruaitch, then Minister for Forests at the Airways Hotel in front of a crowd that comprised PNGFA officials including then managing director Kanawi Pouru, media personnel and over 60 international delegates from 110 ITTO member countries that had convened in Port Moresby for the 42nd International Tropical Timber Council (ITTC) Session.
The international ITTO delegation members were complimented with a copy each, courtesy of PNGFA.
This brief basically sums up the story of how Elep Returns was written.
From the two books I’ve written so far I consider Elep Returns as my best work.
In September 2009, Dr Jane Awi and her Literature students at the University of Goroka dramatised Elep Returns in a stage play titled, Elepesimi. It was a brilliant performance put out by the students, even though I was slightly unhappy as they did not seek permission from me before adapting the book into a play.
A year earlier (2008) an Iranian PhD forestry student from Tehran University requested permission to translate Elep Returns into Arabic. Communication ended when nothing was heard from him again after three or four correspondences.
I had high hopes for Elep Returns when I worked on the book, knowing too well that it would be a successful book and a very educational reading material in schools. Regrettably that is not the case now.
As it turned out no one seems interested in the book, not even the Education Department.
This proved right something I once heard from former Governor-General Sir Paulias Matane: “Papua New Guineans are good talkers, not good readers!”
But I still have hope for Elep Returns. In this era of digital technology I firmly believe that Elep Returns, which is classified science fiction, does have the potential to be converted into an animated movie series one day.
It has a perfect storyline. And when that happens I might not be around but I am pretty sure the PNG Education Department will want to have a much closer and a very good look at Elep Returns.