PEOPLE

Nawaeb Samaritan

By GLORIA BAUAI
THIS is the account of my brief encounter with a highway Samaritan in remote Nawaeb, Morobe.
She calls herself Nature Meri, others call her Aunty Rudy; in government records, she is Rudy Gwaram.
I met her on our way to Bambok, a remote village on the edge of Nawaeb District. We were going to a Lutheran conference being hosted there.
Aunty Rudy’s family hamlet – Livusuk is strategically located along the highway tracks at Musom, just a hill away from the big village of Gawam.
Depending on the weather, the muddy track that winds uphill to turn away from Livusuk can be very difficult, if you lack experience driving in PNG’s tough road conditions.
Even our fairly new Land Cruiser wouldn’t budge, despite all the pushing and shaking.
We had been struggling for almost half an hour already with very little progress when Aunty Rudy, roughly into her mid-40s, came into the picture. She brought a rope and crowbar and her whole family to assist us.
For the next 30 minutes, they pushed and pulled. They cut plants, dug up stones and dry soil from the roadside to lay on the ground; this would give our vehicle’s tires something solid to grip on and move.

It was during this short space of time, I got to know her. A talkative or mausmeri as the locals would describe her, she wasn’t ashamed to tell me about travelling difficulties of the people of Nawaeb.
“My brother Kurup and I have been the road assistance to everyone who travel this road,” she said.
The family has been providing necessary tools and manpower to vehicles who get bogged down along this stretch of road.
Rudy said they’ve also had to shelter many weary travellers who walk either into Lae or returning home.
“We witness a lot of things and we help all types of people,” she continued.
“One time, we helped some villagers who were transporting a dead body home, when their vehicle overturned here.”
Rudy said because it rains often, the road here is really bad.
“And it’s been like this for years; not one of our members has thought of fixing it. So we do what we can to help people. No we don’t expect anything in return,” she added.
She said the PMV’s make good money collecting K60 per person in fares. And those who couldn’t afford often opted to walk.
“It’s really sad, that although we are very close to Lae, we still face this hardship,” Rudy stressed.
I noted some cocoa trees near the house and asked her about them.
“It’s hard to transport these out so we just wait for any interested buyer. It depends on how much they want to pay for per kilo; often it’s K2. And when buyers don’t come, we eat this ourselves.”
She said this was the same for all other agricultural fresh produce in the area.
By now, Aunty Rudy was covered in mud. And our vehicle had successfully passed over 20 meters of muddy patch.
“Displa maunten tasol em sigirap mauntan. Tasol mi Nature Meri ia so mi kam tatsim na kar muv! Nau bai yupla go wantaim blessing,” she said.
As we boarded our vehicle to continue our journey, she shouted: “Putim piksa blo mi lo niuspepa na ol lain long PNG bai lukim mi.”
And what was supposed to be a two-hour drive to Mambok turned out to be almost six hours of free physical massage from nature’s hand.
On our way back into Lae, it was already dark. We dropped off Aunty Rudy’s rope and crowbar with a young man who ran out to meet us at the roadside.
I never saw Aunty Rudy again; but I know she’ll be there at Livusuk, ready to help.
She would willingly jump in the mud, if she has to. She is the highway Samaritan.

Hela walk to equality

By BETTY GABRIEL WAKIA
THE famous bow and arrow combination used by Huli men during tribal fights were invented by Hela woman who also taught the men how to use it.
Women taught Huli men how to build houses and invented the first Huli musical instrument.
These innovations and others are mentioned in Hela history but men try to ignore this and regard women as inferior child bearers.
The work of these women inspires Hela today but they receive no recognition.
In Hela history, Huli women were considered as aggressive and outspoken as Huli men and had great influence in society. They contested with the men to contribute to making decisions in the akali palamanda(men’s house).
Perhaps this was because they were largely responsible for the care of the pigs, the most important Huli exchange commodity.
Huli women owned and inherited land and argued for their rights in legal disputes. Today Hela women are not as aggressive and outspoken as they once were. They hardly participate at the top level of decision making.
So far no woman has ever been among the 111 members of Papua New Guinea’s parliament. I don’t know what happened to them on the way. Is it because they’re not responsible for anything more important than a pig? Or is it that they’re too scared to come out and fight for their rights?
Huli women are considered the backbone of society, making up the majority of agricultural labourers. Most of their skills and knowledge are acquired from their mothers or elders in the village.
Gardening techniques are learned early in life. Both men and women cut bushes and burn off the dry grass, but mounding and cultivation are usually done by women.
Around the age of five, girls are given greater responsibilities, such as carrying crops home from the gardens in their bilums (net bags) and minding pigs and younger siblings. Girls are taught by their mothers to make grass shirts, bilums, bilum caps, pig-tethering ropes and the women’s pandanus rain cape.
Another important skill passed to daughters is the special mourning lament, kiabu dugu, and stories with important genealogical information and knowledge of clan structure. Today most of these skills are still taught and passed on to daughters.
In Huli traditional society, men were the centre of communities and women were said to be the quiet ones. Sons were preferred to daughters and women were expected to be subordinate to fathers, husbands and sons.
When Huli girls reached puberty, they covered their breasts with a piece of bark or empty bilum until they married and produced children. During early pregnancy, a woman worked doubly hard in her gardens so she would have sufficient food to relax with her infant child.
As pregnancy advanced, she avoided the presence of men who would feel shame at seeing an obviously pregnant woman. When the birth was due, the women retired to a small bush house with pitpit walls with fern leaves covering the ground. Huli women traditionally gave birth alone, without assistance from other women.
When it came to feasting on the pigs killed and then cooked in ground ovens, men and women received equal shares of pork. Huli men were wise and supportive towards their mothers, wives, sisters and daughters. The only taboo was that women were not allowed to speak on their behalf.
Huli men marry more than one wife to help his first wife in garden or household work. But to take another woman, he had to get permission from his first wife. Sometimes the first wife helped him find another woman.
Traditionally, violence against women was unknown in Huli society. Even though a man married more than one wife, all lived happily in one house.
But during the development and operation of the liquefied natural gas project, violence against women has become widespread. The wealth that has been introduced has affected marriage and had other negative impacts on family life and sexual relationships.
Today in Huli society, children learn hundreds of details of cultural behaviour that become incorporated into their gender identity. The Huli ideology considers women to be inferior and subordinate to men.
Women’s place is in the family where they manage the home and supply male heirs. But they still have a long way to go in their struggle for real equality in terms of educational opportunities, political rights, economic independence and social status.
In the field of education, we do have more educated women who are gradually attaining economic independence and social status. But men always have more chances to receive a better education. Despite these obstacles, there have been a few Hela women who have been political candidates and councillors.
Huli male attitudes towards women are more difficult to change than laws because gender inequality is deeply rooted in Hela culture.
Hela women were once a great inventors, teachers, singers and poets. They were mothers, producers of humankind and very hard workers.
The Huli world is created by these great woman with their powerful fertility, bodies desired by men and knowledge of arrow usage and house construction.
Huli women teach Huli men to hunt, to defend themselves, to build houses. Men depend on women for life, sex and knowledge; women are rather more independent of men.

• The author is a freelance writer, blogger and advocator. The above article is from her book My Walk to Equality.