Northern embarking on project to record, preserve history

THE Oro government has embarked on a project to record and preserve the history of major events, including the eruption of Mt Lamington in 1951.
In line with this plan, Governor Gary Juffa launched the project during the 70th anniversary of the eruption of Mt Lamington (known locally as Sumbiripa) last month.
Juffa urged the people of Oro to observe the importance of their history and continue to tell their stories to the next generation.
He said the Oro government would be allocating funding on a new project to ensure vital information about Oro’s history was preserved and taught to future generations.
“I am considering a project whereby we can identify loved ones, our people who were victims by name,” he said.
“By doing this project, we can ascertain the exact number of people that perished as a result of the eruption of Sumbiripa in 1951.
“Their stories suggest that the figure is far beyond the 5,000 that was originally estimated as the number of people who perished.”
Juffa said Northern was a disaster-prone province and many natural disasters had occurred and history could repeat itself.
“Sumbiripa is still active,” he said. “I would propose, especially to the younger generation who have access to these persons who possess great history, to start interviewing and recording them.
“We’ve done an oral history project with the Australian National University, whereby we’ve recorded stories by persons who lived during World War II and we’ve discovered so much.
“We carry out a similar effort here by doing an oral history project and start collecting and collating all these stories so that we do not forget what happened.”
Juffa said the provincial executive council would be allocating funds to build a monument to honour the eruption and those who died. He said names of people who perished during the 1951 eruption would be identified as part of preserving the history.
Meanwhile, Juffa plans to change the name from Mt Lamington to Sumbiripa.
“I don’t think it should be called Mt Lamington,” he said.
“I believe it should be known by its traditional.”