Mekeo totem poles removed peacefully

By PHILOMENA OAEKE SALIAU
As I stride around the corners of my home, I think of my culture for without it, who wilI I be and where will I be?
It’s our culture that brings us together to share our ideas, customs and art. Mekeo is one area in Central that has many traditions but they are slowly fading away due to urbanisation. The young generation of today are slowly adapting to new circumstances and forgetting their culture. Our culture creates a sense of belonging.
Last Sunday a very significant and historical event, both in terms of Mekeo culture and the Catholic faith, took place at the Mary Queen of the Pacific Parish in Waigani, Port Mort Moresby.
It was when the okay was given for the old Mekeo totem poles that had been erected when the parish started decades ago to be finally brought down to make way for the construction of a new church building.
Mekeo chiefs and councillors attended the special ceremony to make peace between their culture (people) and the parish.
Councillor Ben Afaisa of Ward 2 in the Mekeo LLG said after the occasion: “The reconciliation between the Catholic people of Mekeo and the Mary Queen of the Pacific Catholic Parish at Waigani last Sunday marked a historical event this year.
The gifts of betel nuts, live chickens and bananas presented as offerings meant ‘peace be with you Waigani Parish’. The Mekeo chiefs and people will not have any dispute or any form of disrespect over the totem poles.”
Fr Albert Boudaud, the longest serving priest from Spain,
Mekeo totem poles removed peacefully
was among the Mekeo people to witness the reconciliation and signing of a memorandum of understanding. Fr Boudaud who speaks the Mekeo language fluently, carries a bilum full of betel nuts and knows Mekeo tradition (Kangakanga) very well.
The Waigani Parish reconciled with the Mekeo chiefs and people, and the Mekeo chiefs wished for each parish to prosper as according to the will of God. The six Mekeo village chiefs on behalf of the Mekeo people accepted the reconciliation payments in the form of six pigs, K6,000 and refreshments offered by Waigani Parish.
The six totem poles at Waigani Parish belong to the Mekeo villages of Veifa’a, Aipeana, Amoamo, Inauwi, Inauaia and Eboa. The totem poles were prepared through customary practices of the Mekeo people and presented to Waigani Parish in 1973 in the presence of the late chief, Bishop Sir Louis Vangeke to signify inculturation in the Catholic Church in the diocese of Bereina and Papua New Guinea.
Wikipedia says inculturation is the term that Catholic leaders and theologians have used in recent decades to denote a process of engagement between the Christian Gospel and a particular culture. The term is intended conceptually both to safeguard the integrity of the Gospel and to encourage sensitivity to various cultural contexts.
Sir Louis achieved a lot in life but when he was a child neither he nor his friends could have dreamed of what the future held for him. By the time he was a young man he was chosen by Catholic missionaries to study for the priesthood. He was sent to Madagascar, an island of the east coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. This was a time when very few Papua and New Guineans were educated and travelled overseas.
In 1937, after 10 years of strenuous study, Louis returned home. The Mekeo people welcomed him as a hero and presented him with high traditional honours. His contribution to the nation’s religious life was recognised in 1980, when he was made a knight.
When Chief Louis Vangeke became bishop he was first based in Port Moresby at Waigani Parish. As a Mekeo, he was a sorcerer chief of Veifa’a village. Therefore as a bishop and a Mekeo chief sorcerer, he requested for the commencement of in-culturation in PNG and started that process by laying down his own Mekeo culture at the feet of the Universal Church, the Catholic Church.
To symbolise the laying down of the Mekeo culture by a sorcerer chief, warrior and war lord, customary practices (all represented in the six totem poles), the late bishop requested for the poles, one each from Veifa’a, Aipeana, Amoamo and Eboa, Inawi and Inauaia villages.
The chiefs from the six villages with deep respect for the late bishop had the six totem poles made by the people of the Opogo (totem) lineage. These six poles are considered very sacred items because of the rituals and fasting, customary activities around their construction.
The Waigani Parish removed the totem poles to allow for developments in the Parish.
In the Mekeo culture any person caught abusing the totem poles or the chiefs platform would be penalised with a fine of one pig and cultural items of value such as decorated armshells and other artifacts.
On behalf of the Mekeo Catholic people and chiefs, Chief Louis Akaina thanked the Parish priest of Waigani, Fr Robert Saballo and the Waigani Parish for their hospitality, co-operation and assistance in preparation for the successful reconciliation ceremony.

• Philomena Oaeke Saliau is a freelance writer.