Bureaucrats idle as Chimbu culture trashed
19 May 2010
ONE OF THE great
things that the introduction of radio broadcasting did for PNG was to ensure the recording and preservation
of the old stories, myths, songs, dances and sounds.
We broadcasters in the sixties and seventies placed great emphasis on this responsibility – undertaking ‘recording patrols’ using portable audio equipment; travelling around rural villages spending long nights gathering material of cultural value.
While the sounds of PNG were on tape, and while they were looked after, they would never die.
The material recorded was carefully archived, and stored in an air conditioned room to protect it from heat, humidity, mould and a fatal condition of magnetic tape called ‘print through’.
“The aircon’s there for the equipment, father, not for you,” as 1970s PNG broadcasting controller, HH (Jim) Leigh, liked to put it.
And, of course, this material also made it to air in programs like Toktok Bilong Tumbuna and Singsing Bilong Ples and Sitori Bilong Yumi.
Such programs, innocuous thought they seem, were not without controversy. For example, in
But broadcasting the stories and the music exposed PNG's cultural variations to its own people and, in a small way, helped build a sense of unity and nation within its great diversity.
When
But now, apropos of no civil strife or natural disaster but simple bureaucratic humbug, the PNG National reports that a rare collection of traditional Chimbu songs, string band music, legends, myths and traditional bamboo flute harmonies has been wilfully ruined.
The National Broadcasting Corporation’s library and archives building in Kundiawa, constructed in 1973, has just been demolished to make way for the new highlands regional Treasury building.
Some 37 years of recordings have been wantonly destroyed.
And all this was done in the presence of Governor Fr John Garia, other Chimbu MPs, PNG Finance secretary Gabriel Yer, NBC managing director Memafu Kapera, and NBC chairman Paul Reptario.
They are named because they need to be shamed.
The National’s reporter saw remains of the destroyed material, much of it still burning, lying in the wreckage of the bulding and around the perimeter fence.
The management and staff of NBC Kundiawa have been blamed for failing to relocate the items when they moved from the building three months ago.
Whoever is responsible, it is a national and cultural disgrace.
As a student doing a Bachelor of Arts in Pacific Adventist University, I was very disappointed when I went their during my Christmas vacation to Kundiawa town.
As Melanesians our culture portrays who we are. We need to preserve such important art, music, and literature for future generations. Western cultures are now changing the way we behave and think, where we forget our own cultures and traditions.
Valuable items like that must be kept properly because it is our identity. The people who involved in destroying the materials should know very well that they don’t care about their cultures.
They should be ashamed of their actions.
Posted by: Wesley Mawe | 06 May 2016 at 10:11 AM
It's very encouraging to hear that the NBC is, at last, transferring key archival music and spoken word material to digital format.
The dilemma for the archivist is, of course, in deciding how to prioritise the recordings for preservation. While 'everything' is valuable, some is more valuable, due to either its historical context, its socio-cultural significance or its current physical state of preservation.
Thus, I hope the NBC ensures that the more fragile and historically important material is archived in digital format first.
It's a surprise to hear that BBC Top of the Pops, Casey Kasem Top 40 and General Douglas MacArthur recordings are on the NBC 'must do' list as these are all available in audio-visual archives elsewhere in the world. (There are also copyright issues which the NBC might consider.)
The key recordings to preserve must, surely, be the words and music which reflect Papua New Guinea itself.
Posted by: Assoc Prof Martin Hadlow | 19 July 2010 at 11:44 AM
At last - the NBC is planning to digitise its recordings.
_______________________
NBC archives go digital
Source: The National
By THOMAS HUKAHU
THE National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) is now digitalising its recordings for archiving.
The archiving started in 2005 as the media development initiative project under the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s international project sponsored by AusAid.
“We want to preserve Papua New Guinea’s history for the future generations,” archives section (programmes of national radio) supervisor Sonny Karubaba said.
“Two hundred years from today, a person might want to know what was said in a ceremony and we want that to be available for him or her,” Karubaba said in Port Moresby last week.
“We are saving all materials on reel-to-reel formats, vinyl records and cassette tapes onto compact discs (CDs),” he said.
The data to be transferred includes recordings made on cassettes under NBC’s Kalang label, recordings of daily radio programmes and plays.
The data includes vinyl records of pop music, countdown programmes from abroad of past years like Casey Kasem’s American top 40 and British Broadcasting Corporation’s Top of the Pops.
All these data in analogue format will be digitalised using Adobe Audition as well as Nero to burn the recordings onto CDs.
“There are very old recordings in the NBC archives that are still in the analogue format that needed to be digitalised,” senior archivist Margaret Tabua said.
“We have very old recordings like that of Gen Douglas MacArthur declaring the end of World War II.
“However, the recordings are not available for public use.
“Such recordings include speeches made by Australian administrators and the first GovernorGeneral of PNG Sir John Guise on Independence Day in 1975.
“These are PNG’s national heritage and, therefore, cannot be taken out of the archives.
“From time to time, these and other similar recordings of special occasions are aired on the National Radio,” she said.
Posted by: Peter | 19 July 2010 at 10:16 AM
The Percy Cochrane Collection at the University of Wollongong (http://www.library.uow.edu.au/archives/pdfs/d160.pdf) contains material that may be of interest to the NBC. Percy was in PNG from 1946 to 1966. He was the Administration's Broadcasts Officer. His wife Renata was later employed as a Publications Officer. The collection contains music recordings, films, oral histories, etc..
Posted by: LOCH BLATCHFORD | 25 May 2010 at 05:39 AM
What an utter shame. One could become depressed, but is there any point? Will anything change? Does anyone care enough to check properly to ensure the safety and preservation of things that should be kept safe?
Posted by: Robin Mead | 24 May 2010 at 08:04 AM
Is this an indication that audio visual materials in Papua New Guinea are not that important anymore. I find it very hard to comprehend the very people (NBC Kundiawa) who were mandated to preserve such cultural heritage...this is really a national disgrace...Does Papua New Guinea celebrate the “World Day for Audiovisual Heritage” which falls on the 27th of October annually? Over to you NBC Kundiawa
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=22265&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
Posted by: Robert Natera | 21 May 2010 at 12:54 PM
This really is a disgrace, and so unnecessary!
Posted by: Walt | 21 May 2010 at 07:19 AM
Such a shame, considering in general Simbu/Chimbu has lost so much of its culture in general. So sad.
Posted by: Justin Friend | 20 May 2010 at 02:19 PM
As a former manager of Radio Goroka, Radio Madang and (for a short period) Radio Rabaul, I am staggered by this sad news. How thoughtless, irresponsible and culturally damaging! Such valuable, irreplaceable material -- and the results of so much dedicated, painstaking work in its collection. It reminds me of AWA's irresponsibility in using transcriptions of early radio serials,variety shows. etc. as road fill. That happened, to my utter amazement when I was Operations Manager at 2CH Sydney some years ago. Phil Charley OAM
Posted by: Phil Charley | 19 May 2010 at 11:06 AM
As another former Station Manager of DIES radio stations in PNG (Morobe, Bougainville and Kerema), I join you, Keith, in being astonished and appalled by this news.
What a catastrophe, not only for the people of Chimbu Province, but also for the entire country and, indeed, the global community. The materials lost are irreplaceable.
More recently, I spent several years working in Afghanistan where the previous Taliban regime had wilfully destroyed cultural items (both audio-visual and tangible, such as ancient statues at Bamiyan and in museums).
After the Taliban departure, a sign appeared over the door of the National Museum in Kabul. It read: "A nation can stay alive when its culture and history stay alive."
Perhaps the NBC, which has a responsibility as a guardian and repository of much of PNG's audio-visual cultural heritage, might ponder on these words.
Posted by: Martin Hadlow | 19 May 2010 at 08:47 AM