HISTORY

The National Weekender

Celebrating our queen

Cylinder box with “Hymn Sung by Takai, a Hula Girl” written in pencil. Recorded on June 5, 1898. – (© British Library Board).

By VICKY BARNECUTT and DON NILES
THIS month, as Papua New Guinea welcomes Princess Anne to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s platinum jubilee, marking 70 years on the throne, we wanted to share news of a recording of “God Save the Queen” from Hula made 124 years ago.
The Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies (IPNGS) in Port Moresby is a partner in an international research project called True Echoes, based at the British Library in London. True Echoes is funded by the Leverhulme Trust and the UK Government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
The project is investigating early sound recordings from Papua New Guinea, the Torres Strait Islands in Australia, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia. IPNGS is a national cultural research institute under the National Cultural Commission of the Ministry of Culture, Arts, and Tourism.
The recordings were made on wax cylinders using a phonograph machine; they have been digitised and shared with partner institutions for research. Most of these early recordings were made by British anthropologists, and we were excited to find out that the earliest known recordings made in the Pacific region were from Papua New Guinea, from June 1898.
These recordings were made by Sidney Ray, a member of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Strait. He was very interested in languages and his writings continue to be fundamental to linguistic studies today.

Practising using the phonograph at Hula (Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge N.34988.ACH2).

Four members of the expedition team travelled to New Guinea, landing at Delena, in present-day Central Province, on May 27, 1898. They then stayed for a few days in Port Moresby and later travelled down to Hula to watch a “grand dance” that was going to take place there. They stayed at the London Missionary Society station at Irupara, close to Hula.
They made 11 recordings in Hula. The first ones that we can date precisely are two hymns recorded on June 5, 1898. The first hymn had not yet appeared in a printed hymnal, but the second hymn was identified as Number 38 in what was presumably a London Missionary Society hymnal. This second hymn was sung by Takai, a girl from Hula.
The next day, the researchers made another recording of Takai, this time singing “God Save the Queen.” Of course, the queen that the song referred to in 1898 was Queen Victoria, who died in 1901.
“God Save the Queen/King” would have been sung here to honour Queen Victoria, and then Kings Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII, George VI, and finally Queen Elizabeth II when she became queen in 1952. It was sung until 1974, when Australia began using “Advance Australia Fair,” but still retained “God Save the Queen” for regal occasions. Of course, Papua New Guinea’s national song became “O Arise All You Sons” at our independence in 1975.
We do not know who Takai was, but the British anthropologists did take some photos in Hula, so she is probably one of the girls featured in them.
The expedition members stayed in Central from May 27 to July 20, 1898, when they returned to the Torres Strait Islands. Ray made a total of 28 recordings during this time, from Mekeo, Roro, and the Port Moresby area, as well as Hula.
In September of the same year, four members of the expedition visited Kiwai Island in Western Province for a few days. Sidney Ray stayed on for two weeks to study the language there and made 11 more recordings.
Takai sang God Save the Queen 124 years ago to honour British New Guinea’s queen. We think that is also a wonderful way to celebrate the platinum jubilee of Papua New Guinea’s queen this year and the history of recorded sound here as well.

  • Dr Vicky Barnecutt is a research fellow for the True Echoes Project, based at the British Library. Prof Don Niles, PhD, OL, is Director of the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies and co-investigator for the True Echoes Project.

Studies for district public servants

Philip Kapu (right) with a colleague after the graduation ceremony in the DWU Madang campus last month.

By KEVIN PAMBA
OUR public servants from the national headquarters in Port Moresby right down to the districts and local level government (LLG) areas are continuing to take up studies in Divine Word University (DWU).
The civil servants have been enrolling in the university programmes mostly through the flexible learning (FL) mode of study that DWU has been promoting since 2000.
Over the cause of the last 20 years, a good contingent of public servants and professionals in other sectors has graduated from different academic programmes in DWU offered through the FL mode.
Some provinces and districts have regularly sent their officers for studies in DWU over the course of the two decades.
The public servants based in the rural and remote districts have made time for their studies despite the challenges of distance, unreliable telecommunication coverage, irregular power supply, family and community commitments and so on.
Ialibu-Pangia in Southern Highlands is one such rural district that has seen a number of its public servants graduating in the Bachelor of Management and Bachelor of Public Administration programmes over the cause of the last 10 years.
Among them is the current district administrator and chief executive officer (CEO) Samson Wereh who graduated in the Bachelor of Management programme several years ago. Wereh has since moved on to enroll in the Master of Public Administration programme in DWU, Madang campus also via the FL mode.
The other officers from Ialibu-Pangia district administration are Michael Ariando and Andy Andia who both graduated with Bachelor of Public Administration degrees in 2020.
Last month (March), Philip Kapu, another officer from Ialibu-Pangia district administration, graduated with his Bachelor of Public Administration during the 40th graduation ceremony of the Madang campus.

Ialibu-Pangia District-based public servants Andy Andia (right) and Michael Ariando (behind Andia) on queue to receive their Bachelor of Public Administration degree papers in 2020. Manus Governor Charlie Benjamin (standing fourth) also graduated with them.

For Kapu, the graduation on March 11, 2022 was a special moment as it was his second time to receive a certificate from a Madang-based tertiary institution. His first graduation was with a Diploma in Primary Teaching from Madang Teachers College in the early 2000s. After teaching in remote schools in Madang since graduation, Kapu returned to his native Karanas Primary School in the Kewabi LLG of Ialibu-Pangia and led the school to many successes, especially improvement in school infrastructure and increase in teacher and student numbers. Owing to Kapu’s leadership, Karanas Primary School had become the epitome of growth due to school leaders and the community working together.
Kapu’s trend-setting achievements as headmaster of Karanas Primary School led him to attain a Diploma in Public Administration at the Pacific Institute of Leadership and Governance (formerly Public Administration College) in Port Moresby. His efforts have not gone without notice after he secured a position in the Ialibu-Pangia district administration as the manager of the Kewabi LLG.
Kapu’s recent graduation with the Bachelor of Public Administration from DWU adds to his wealth of knowledge and experience as a public servant based in a rural district. The commitment of Kapu and other public servants to attain university qualifications and then staying put in the rural districts can auger well for the people who need them on the ground to serve with distinction.
The DWU on its part has consciously chosen to assist public servants stationed in the rural districts and urban centres alike with their leadership and management skills with academic programmes.
In 2012, DWU introduced the Bachelor of Public Administration and Master of Public Administration in addition other programmes it already had for adult learners like public servants. The two programmes originally came about as a result of a partnership agreement between DWU and the Department of Personnel Management through the latter’s Public Sector Workplace Development Programme (PSWDP) in 2011.
The two programmes are currently housed in DWU’s Department of Governance and Leadership within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
The two programmes are open to public servants and professionals in other sectors as well. Those who are interested to study can contact the Flexible Learning Centre on [email protected] or visit the DWU website www.dwu.ac.pg

  • Dr Kevin Pamba PhD is a senior lecturer in Governance and Leadership in DWU.