Long gone sister returns to Seigu

By ZACHERY PER
A truly early Christmas family reunion was witnessed in Seigu village in Goroka recently when 73-year old Rita Black Nye returned home with daughter Kana’e Nye after living in Australia for decades.
The emotional reunion at Seigu residences of Rita Black Nye’s younger siblings Jackson Appo and Jack Gopave was a real heroine’s welcome for a ‘warrior princess’.
Rita of Goroka-Adelaide (South Australia), was born in the colonial days to early Highlands explorer and World War II veteran John Black and native girl Zahazame Kauto in violation of a stringent colonial administration rule forbidding relations between expats and locals.
In fear of repercussions from the administration Black took on board his very close associate, Appo Genori of Seigu village on the eastern fringe of Goroka town to look after the child and mother when he retired to his home in 120 Sixth Avenue in Adelaide, South Australia.
Rita grew up in Seigu with other siblings including Jackson Appo and Jack Gopave as her brothers who are now prominent figures in Goroka.
Later Rita traveled to Adelaide and after some years, she married Dough Nye, a pioneer NRL rugby league player. They had two children, David and Kana’e.
In 1969, Rita and husband Doug Nye came to Goroka with son David when he was two years old. While in Goroka Doug played for Norths in Goroka Rugby League.
Doug then coached the famous Goroka Brothers in 1974. Some of his products were former Kumul props Joppa Gomia, Paul Kobunari, Terry Shirley, Himony Lapiso, John Wayaki, Paul Landu, Uve Sabumei, Martin Landu and several others.
They returned to Australia in 1989 then Rita came back to PNG with daughter Kana’e to participate in a documentary on the re-enactment of the famous Hagen-Sepik patrol of 1939 by Rita’s father John Black and Jim Taylor.
It was described as an extraordinary journey of exploration – 3,000km by foot, from March 1938 to June 1939, through the formidable mountains of the western highlands of Papua New Guinea. The Hagen-Sepik Patrol was Australia’s last great exploring expedition, and it marked the end of 450 years of European land exploration worldwide. It mapped and described unknown country, made first contact with many Highlands peoples, established outposts including Mount Hagen and found a major goldfield.
Highlanders remember wondering who these strange visitors were. Pale skin suggested that they were spirits – sky people. How should they be treated? Local people repeatedly asked New Guinea’s perpetual question, ‘Why have you come?
Over 350 people were on the patrol. Most were carriers from Highlands’s areas already familiar to Europeans. About 40 New Guinean police came from distant coastal places. Jim Taylor led the expedition, accompanied by two other Australians, John Black and Pat Walsh.
Many of the people who made the journey, and many of the Highlanders who saw white men for the first time, lived long enough to tell their story directly. – Bill Gimmage, Sky Travelers.
“After 29 years mum (Rita) and I are back home in Seigu; we are over joyed to be with our brothers and sisters, it is exciting to see mum shed tears, hug and converse fluently in local Seigu dialect with her long-gone peers,” daughter Kana’e said.
She said it was important to keep in touch with family members in Goroka and those in Australia, therefore she accompanied her mum to Goroka.
“It is important to re-connect with the family and maintain the relationship and pass them on to new generation,” Kana’e said.
Rita expressed satisfaction and joy to be back with the Appo Family and to show the younger generations to keep the family spirit of unity alive as they move into the future.
The elder of the Appo children Jackson Appo welcomed his elder sister Rita and her daughter Kana’e back to Seigu village just outside the eastern end of Goroka town.
He said it has been a long wait to have Rita come back this time with daughter Kana’e to join the Appo family in Seigu.
Jackson Appo who is currently the public health special epidemiologist with the Eastern Highlands Provincial Health Authority in Goroka was happy to know that Kana’e was a health care specialist and would like to spread her work in PNG.
Kana’e said she was the director of Human Performance Provider of Health Care Stations and Education in occupational and mental health.
She said because of her uncle (Jackson Appo) who is in the field of health, she would return and help out with health work in PNG.
Kana’e is currently talking with the Department of Health to take up a contract to help out in come of the needy areas.
She is married with two children and lives in Brisbane running her private health company while her brother David Nye lives in Sydney and married with five children and works with Qantas Airlines.
Historically, Appo Genori was one of the first typical Highlanders to interact with the ‘white man’ and has been very close to early explorers specifically John Black and Jim Taylor.
Genori supported Black during World War II in Madang, Morobe, Bena and in Goroka areas, before he became one of the first local businessmen.
Genori passed away peacefully at his Seigu village in 1976 while his close associate John Black died in Adelaide in 1989. Zahazame Kauto (Rita’s mother) passed away in Goroka in 1992.