Tubuans a symbol of Tolai culture

CULTURE

By MICHAEL PHILIP
THE Tolai are one of the most distinctive ethnic groups in PNG due to their unique colonial history.
As their homeland became a major administrative and commercial centre with the coming of Europeans, they lost almost 40 per cent of their arable land, but they took advantage of a range of new opportunities arising from the situation. They were among the first indigenous groups in the previous Territory of Papua and New Guinea to form local government councils and co-operative societies.
They also had unparalleled access to Western education over the years, first through mission schools and then through government schools, which allowed a number of Tolai to seek white-collar jobs within and outside their area.
Consequently, the Tolai stood out as an indigenous elite in the territory. At the same time these changes occurred in the 1950s and 1960s, they became increasingly aware of wider political and economic issues adversely affecting their lives under colonial rule. Their frustration culminated in 1969 in the formation of the Mataungan Association, a Tolai-led anti-colonial movement that played a prominent role in establishing self-government in 1973 and national independence in 1975 for PNG.
Accordingly, the Tolai emerged as one of the most educated and influential groups in the new country, a position they manage to maintain even 40 years after the nation’s independence.
The Tolai are also unique for successfully retaining much of their traditional culture despite having closer links with the outside world than many other groups in PNG. The cultural continuity of Tolai society, which is epitomised by the persistent ceremonial and utilitarian use of the indigenous shell currency called tabu, was largely conditioned by how the Tolai came to be engaged in a wider economy during the earliest contact period.
While most indigenous people at that time had no choice but to offer themselves as labourers for European-owned plantations far away from home to make money, many Tolai could earn incomes relatively easily by selling a surplus of coconuts and garden produce to Europeans on their own customary land. This tendency was not only achieved by the location of their area in a colonial town, but also facilitated by their predispositions towards trade and wealth accumulation that had developed through the use of tabu. Thus, the Tolai generally refused to work on local plantations, which made their European owners import labourers from other parts of the colony.
Accordingly, unlike many other indigenous groups, the Tolai did not allow themselves to be fully absorbed into the labour structure, or to become totally dependent on Europeans. As a result, they adapted well to the new economic realities without significantly changing their lifestyles or leaving their customary practices behind.
The tubuan tradition has survived strongly until today even though many early European observers in the area predicted that it would quickly vanish under the influence of European civilisation. In these days, Seventh-day Adventists and Pentecostals, who have increasingly made their presence felt in the area, denounce the tubuan as a satanic cult and therefore refuse to engage in any associated activity, but most Tolai continue to find it relevant to their real lives.
The tubuan is a masked figure with a conical headdress and spherical leafy dress, which is believed to embody the soul of the deceased. It is controlled by men initiated into an exclusively male society whose members strictly guard its secrets from the uninitiated, particularly women. The tubuans “raised” on ceremonial occasions at a sacred ground located in the middle of the bush, to which only the initiated are granted access and the uninitiated are prohibited from even getting close.
Women are also prohibited from approaching or looking directly at it, except on certain ritual occasions. Once raised, the tubuan is regarded as highly dangerous and harmful. In former times, the tubuan society functioned as a law enforcement agency, as it punished all wrongdoers and settled all disputes through its own court procedure.
Today, most disputes and offences are brought before a village or district court, but regulations set to protect the secrets and dignity of the tubuan are still enforced, with heavy fines in tabu as a major punishment.
Although outsiders often view the tubuan simply as a manifestation of male dominance over women, it is important to stress that tubuan activities are clan affairs. Each (matrilineal) clan or sub-clan, in theory, has its own tubuan with a distinctive design and an individual name, and raises it in remembrance of their clan ancestors.
The operation of a tubuan necessitates tabu; in fact, it is often referred to as bisnis, a Tok Pisin term meaning modern “business” activities that generate cash. Each tubuan has its own tabu fund, which can be collected with fees paid for initiation into the tubuan society, fines paid for the violation of tubuan rules, remunerations paid for participation in tubuan ceremonies, and contributions made by the clan members.
Managed by the clan headman on behalf of his clan members, the tabu fund is used in organising tubuan ceremonies for their own clan ancestors. However, a tubuan ceremony is a costly event for the host clan, who must reward, with tabu, each individual helping them organize it and each tubuan invited to participate. The implication is that tubuan ceremonies can only be staged by clans that are wealthy enough to do so, and those clans without much tabu fund may fail to pass their tubuans down through the generations.
The tubuan provides the living with not only a strong link to the dead but also a social space where the living make and remake relationships among themselves. All clan members and their close relatives, both men and women, are expected to gather in tubuan ceremonies. By actively participating in these events and fulfilling their obligations to one another, they maintain or strengthen a wide network of kin relations now covering many different local communities.
Senior male clan members gain or retain their influence in their clan by contributing a lot of tabu to their tubuan’s fund. The clan headman solidifies his leadership position by properly organising tubuan ceremonies to ensure that the dead are appropriately honoured. He may gain influence and status beyond his own clan by sponsoring large-scale tubuan ceremonies, which require a considerable amount of tabu and a high level of organisational skills.
This, in turn, would make his clan considered highly influential. In short, the successful staging of a tubuan ceremony by a clan is a show of solidarity, wealth, and power. Hence, through ceremonies, the tubuan shapes and reshapes multiple sets of relations among the Tolai: relations between the living and the dead, between men and women, between clan members, and between clans.
Today, the tubuan represents not only the Tolai clan but also Tolai people as a unified group. The tubuan came to stand for Tolai identity first in opposition to European colonisers and later in contrast to other Papua New Guineans.
Before independence, the tubuan was the government of the people for most Tolai. Based on this idea, it evolved into the ideological symbol of the Mataungan Association in their struggles against European colonisers.
Even after independence, this idea remained so strong that the tubuan was adopted as the symbol of authority by the East New Britain provincial government dominated by Tolai and most local level governments in the Tolai area.
Thus, the tubuan is now a prime symbol of Tolai identity that facilitates forming Tolai relations with other Papua New Guineans, as well as continuing to function as a symbol of clan identity working to shape relations among the Tolai.

• Michael Philip form East New Britain is a Printing and Graphic Design student at the Port Moresby Technical College.