‘Hidden Treasures’ … a gem waiting for your attention
21 August 2012
PETER KRANZ
ALFRED CORT HADDON is a little-recognised pioneer amongst those anthropologists and ethnologists who have made a name for themselves by their work in Papua New Guinea, some of them by exploiting the local people.
Not so Haddon. Born in 1855 and living until 1940, he was one of the first to recognise that indigenous cultures were being destroyed by white colonial influence, particularly of the religious kind, and that traditional beliefs, art, history and culture needed to be documented and examples preserved before they disappeared forever.
He also believed firmly in the principle that all cultures are of equal merit and are capable of sublime artistic, religious and symbolic creation.
Haddon pioneered the use of technology, combining some of the earliest use of movie film (at the time ‘silent’) with wax-cylinder recordings, which can be synchronised to produce sound films of performances which can still be viewed after 114 years old.
He worked for some years in both Papua and New Guinea, but is perhaps best known for his Torres Strait Expedition of 1898. He arrived to find an amazingly rich culture of rituals, beliefs, dances, art and music which was at that very time being threatened by the invasion of missionaries.
He was particularly scathing about the over-zealous work of the London Missionary Society, which he found had, on some islands, rounded up all the masks, carvings, costumes and art it could lay its hands on and burned them as 'works of the devil'.
Haddon sought to preserve as much as he could through film, sound recordings and collection of local art works - for which he insisted on paying a fair price agreeable to the owner.
Many of his several thousand items collected can now be seen in the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and the British Museum. Some of his film and sound recordings can be seen and heard at the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra.
Haddon was recently the subject of a program Hidden Treasures on the ABC. Presenter Griff Rhys Jones walked in Haddon's footsteps through the Torres Strait to rediscover the meaning of a magical and mysterious mask he saw in the Cambridge Museum.
It was a great program, neither patronising nor sensational, deriving much of its appeal from it's simple ploy of letting the local artists and people do the explaining, augmented by Griff's sensitive and amusing commentary.
Watch it on ABC iView while you can (http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/program/25516).
Some other links to information about Haddon:
http://aso.gov.au/titles/music/1898-torres-strait-recordings/notes/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R7Jo8om5vQ
http://www.janesoceania.com/australia_torresstrait/index1.htm
http://timetoeatthedogs.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/haddon.png
http://www.southbank.qm.qld.gov.au/Events+and+Exhibitions/Events/2011/07/Our+Story+Your+Story+-+Awakenings+Anita+Herle
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/aoa/m/mask.aspx
http://maa.cam.ac.uk/tikiwiki/tiki-browse_image.php?imageId=113
The program on the Torres Strait masks is now available on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SawnS0vpmvY
Posted by: Peter Kranz | 05 October 2012 at 10:28 AM
Further to my post late last night of people not knowing what is happening, the Post Courier today (23 August) reported:
'Finsch mineral explorers urged to meet with landowners' by Franco Nebas
COMPANIES intending to explore the Lalan mineral deposits in Hube Local Level Government of Finschhafen district have been urged to meet with landowner representatives to iron out understandings.
Spokesman for the Lalan village people Mr Philip Dow called on the Speaker of Parliament and the member for Finschhafen Mr Theodore Zurenuoc to investigate with the Department of Mining in Port Moresby how companies have obtained EL in the area.
Posted by: Arthur Williams | 23 August 2012 at 06:52 PM
With controversy raging over the rapacious forest activities in the jungle of PNG, I recall one Lavongai lass who worked for the government in Conservation.
She was vetting some Environmental Plans before the department from the biggest caterpillar of them all. She noted that the rivers were wrongly named; the inheritance system was described as patrilineal etc etc.
Turns out that the insects had merely copied a previous EIA from another of their areas and photocopied to be attached to formal application.
Imagine their bag carrier in capital would take a departmental staffer out to lunch and then hand over the bulky file; guessing that it would be too much for the public servant to completely read and after all he or she would have no knowledge of Lavongai. “Pay your fee and get your permit!”
The exploiters knew then they can get a good long file prepared and accepted without real vetting of its details. Have things really changed in the corridors of Waigani where smartly dressed bureaucrats and their entourage appear to go through the motions from 8 till 4.
Hospitals without drugs or broken-down basic life saving machines; teachers without homes; shipping safety rules ignored and still killing PNG citizens.
Witness the shambles of the Ten Yearly Census - postponed; Five Yearly Electoral Rolls badly prepared; 2nd half Education Subsidy payments taking over two months to distribute; 1,100 new teachers unpaid for 8 months this year; unpaid water bills stopping departmental taps or darkening offices sweltering because of unpaid power bills. Even filthy sweaty parliamentary offices.
And so it goes on and all the time the SABL clear felling deforestation goes on under the eyes of Forestry Officers and Ministers.
Sorry I don't have much faith in any paperwork being of much worth in the corridors of power! Once a real clerk and still poor to prove it.
Posted by: Arthur Williams | 23 August 2012 at 07:14 AM
The religious kind brought significant changes to Papua New Guinea - there is commendation for their efforts from all corners of Papua New Guinea.
Depending on what lens, one is wearing, controversy will always be there.
PNG would not have made much progress, had it not been for the missionaries.
Stories of their sacrifices and commitments would also fill libraries and museums around the world too.
The current National Planning Minister is one of those descendants from the London Missionary Society who landed in PNG.
Bulk of the politicians, bureaucrats and ordinary PNGeans are students from mission established schools - something that our tumbunas and government weren't able to provide.
Kudos to the missionaries who landed in PNG!
Posted by: Corney K. Alone | 21 August 2012 at 01:10 PM
I do social mapping in PNG. Social mapping is a multidisciplinary exercise that includes anthropology. It is mandatory under the Oil and Gas Act and will shortly be so under the Mining Act.
Done properly it is a much better system than that employed under Native Title in Australia because it considers all the impacts of exploration on a community.
Resource explorers can't get onto their tenements until they have done first stage social mapping.
Haddon's British New Guinea data is used extensively in social mapping in Papua, where most of the big oil discoveries occur.
His work, unlike that of others, still stands up well after all these years.
Posted by: Phil Fitzpatrick | 21 August 2012 at 09:53 AM
Re the ABC link kindly provided, I would have shared this link on Facebook but, sadly, on attempting to view, received the message: "Due to copyright reasons this video program is available for download by people located in Australia only. If you are not located in Australia, you are not authorised to view this video."
Posted by: Chris Luxton | 21 August 2012 at 07:12 AM