New Ireland’s history… and the palai

Weekender

By JIM RIDGES
THE story in The National’s Weekender of 28 April about the endemic New Ireland monitor lizard (palai) varansus douarrha helped to remind us of the importance of both natural and real history, its study and keeping records, all of which are given little attention in NIP.
We are of course familiar with politicians of all ilks in their speeches, sometimes claiming that ‘it is history’ when an announcement is made, often with little justification or likelihood for it to be remembered as ‘history’.
Perhaps because the province is distant from Moresby, and therefore expensive to visit, fewer researchers over the years have spent time there, and their studies often do not produce memorable findings, or at least not to the understanding of the general public who may not be informed anyway.
Last week’s story however could have caught the public’s attention, at least in New Ireland. We all know about the palai (lizard) in the province. They have been there millions of years, long before man was living on New Ireland, but until the work of Valter Weijola, from the Zoological Museum of the University of Turku, Finland in 2012, it had been assumed that the monitor lizard species varanus indicus, common in New Britain, was the same one as on New Ireland. It’s not. It’s a different species, evolved over perhaps millions of years, that has only now recently been identified using various criteria, including DNA, and recognised as unique or endemic only to this province, nowhere else. On New Ireland, New Hanover, Djaul and Anir, and quite possibly on Tabar, Lihir and Tanga there are no indicus, only douarrha, the New Ireland palai.
What makes the naming of our palai, varanus douarrha, more interesting is that it has real New Ireland historical connections also. In 1823 a French round-the-world expedition led by Louis Duperrey in the frigate La Coquille visited Lambon harbour on the south western tip of New Ireland, and also visited Likiliki on the opposite eastern tip after rounding Cape St. George.
During their visit a palai must have been caught or obtained from the locals as René Lesson, the naturalist of the expedition, briefly described it and gave it a name, douarrha. The skin was possibly lost when it was despatched to France with other cargo, first to Mauritius on the Castle Forbes and then on the King George lV which was shipwrecked off the Cape of Good Hope on 15 July 1824. As a result it could not be officially studied and recognised as there was no specimen.
Interestingly for our now new endemic, but old palai, the name douarrha derives from René Lesson’s attempt with the Siar-Lak language to identify it with a New Ireland name. He said it was what the locals called the lizard. Weijola, when checking with a Siar-Lak speaker in 2012, found that the word for the monitor was given as ‘kailam’ but that the emerald (green) tree skink (lizard) was dawar, so Lesson either confused the two words or there has been a language change since that time, and as the locals pronounce their final syllables, douarrha is Lesson’s attempt to write the Siar-Lak dawar sounding word into French.
Another real historical and cultural fact connected to the 1823 La Coquille expedition is that at Likiliki, the visitors were the very first outsiders to observe and record the Tubuan, or as they said ‘louk louk’ (for Dukduk presumably), when it was seen, and later Jules de Blosseville made a detailed drawing of the New Ireland native types they had seen in the area, including the ‘louk louk’.
It was said that the figure was ‘startling’ and was dashing about on the beach and carried an enormous belt of shell money, which is not shown in the drawing.
Before leaving the endemic New Ireland monitor lizard varanus douarrha, we must also thank Valter Weijola and his associates because they also identified in 2012 a slightly smaller, but brand new monitor lizard to science varanus semotus, endemic to Mussau Island only. This is quite surprising as Mussau is 100 kms from the nearest point of New Hanover and 165 kms to New Ireland, and this is reflected in the official name given, semotus indicating remoteness and isolation.
There are no known plans by the authorities of PNG and New Ireland to celebrate in any meaningful way the 250 Anniversary in September 2017 of the naming of New Ireland and New Hanover by Capt. Philip Carteret in HMS Swallow in 1767. He had claimed the land, islands, ports and harbours ‘hereabouts’ for King George III of Great Britain when at English Cove in Lambom Harbour on 7 September before setting sail and discovering the St. George’s Chanel separating New Ireland from New Britain, and sailed up the coast.
On the 10 September therefore he named the land to the east New Ireland and, two days later when sighting and naming the Byron Strait separating New Ireland from another large island, he called that New Hanover.
When considering the traditions and cultures of the province and its people to the development of the province, and PNG for over 125 years, the 400 years of history and many of the events that have occurred in the province, but which interested New Irelanders are unable to learn about in their own province, even if they wish to, then it is unforgivable that seemingly, from enquiries made, no national or provincial institutions are preparing to commemorate and celebrate this almost unique event.

  • Jim Ridges is a long-time resident of Kavieng and a former member of the provincial government. He holds an avid interest in New Ireland history.