My Story: My father, the man who dreamt dreams
Forest Minister got it wrong over the great timber heist

The kiaps were not kops

TPNG Police Warrant CardPHIL FITZPATRICK

IN APRIL 1971 Craig McConaghy and I arrested seven men for cannibalism, the first post-World War II arrest of anyone for this offence.

The adopted Queensland Criminal Code didn’t actually have an offence of cannibalism so we charged them with ‘unlawfully interfering with a corpse’.

We also arrested the man who had killed the man whose body was eaten. He was acting in self-defence and we charged him with manslaughter.

Both Craig and I were Commissioned Officers of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary. It was one of the many roles that came with the job of being a kiap.

Looking back on the incident it is apparent that we weren’t operating as policemen in the normal sense of the term.

A policeman’s job is to catch crooks, people who break the law, and bring them to justice. While it may have looked like that was what we were doing it was far from the truth. Justice had nothing to do with it.

What we were doing was trying to discourage the eating of human flesh and teach the local people that there were alternatives to the practise.

In doing that we were well-aware of the cultural significance of the custom we were trying to change. We were, in fact, trying to modify that custom.

We were not seeking to lock up seven young men for several years as punishment for what they had done. We were teaching them and their fellows that eating people was an unhealthy custom.

Neither Craig nor I, or our Assistant District Commissioner Robin Barclay, regarded the seven young men as criminals. They were simply young men who needed to be shown another way of doing things.

Before going to the Western District I was stationed in the Western Highlands where tribal fighting was endemic. We arrested people there too but they weren’t criminals either.

Our role as kiaps was to show the highlanders that there were other ways of settling disputes that wouldn’t result in killings and carnage.

In all of these cases we were agents of change. As agents of change we had a range of powers. Police powers was just one of them. We were not crude wallopers.

In recent years some kiaps have sought to have their role as nation builders in Papua New Guinea recognised. This has yet to be achieved.

So far a misinformed and uninterested government in Australia has only handed out a sop in the form of a Police Overseas Service Medal.

Some of the kiaps who accepted this medal are now agitating for a memorial to kiaps who died in the line of duty. They are using their police role as an argument.

However, when you look at the kiaps who died in Papua New Guinea, very few of them were involved in police duties at the time. Most were simply out on patrol and either died as the result of an accident or during peace-keeping activities.

Trying to forge a link between being a kiap and being a policeman is acting on a false premise.

Despite the medal already issued, the recognition of kiaps as nation builders has yet to be achieved. Medals and memorials won’t do it. An acknowledgement in both Australian and Papua New Guinean history is required.

A lot has been written about the kiaps but most of it has been written by kiaps themselves. Nothing significant appears in official histories.

Nothing is taught in either Australian or Papua New Guinean schools about our shared colonial past. This needs to change.

Only then will the kiaps assume their rightful place in history and the recognition they deserve.

Comments

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Vikki John

I shot the sheriff
But I didn't shoot no deputy, oh no! Oh!
I shot the sheriff
But I didn't shoot no deputy, ooh, ooh, oo-ooh.)
Yeah! All around in my home town,
They're tryin' to track me down;
They say they want to bring me in guilty
For the killing of a deputy,
For the life of a deputy.
But I say

Oh, now, now. Oh!
(I shot the sheriff) the sheriff.
(But I swear it was in self defense.)
Oh, no! (Oh, oh, oh) Yeah!
I say: I shot the sheriff oh, Lord!
(And they say it is a capital offense.)
Yeah! (oh, oh, oh) Yeah!

Sheriff John Brown always hated me,
For what, I don't know,
Every time I plant a seed,
He said kill it before it grow,
He said kill them before they grow.
And so

Read it in the news:
(I shot the sheriff.) Oh, Lord!
(But I swear it was in self-defense.)
Where was the deputy? (oh)
I say, I shot the sheriff,
But I swear it was in self defense. (oh) Yeah!

Freedom came my way one day
And I started out of town, yeah!
All of a sudden I saw sheriff John Brown
Aiming to shoot me down,
So I shot, I shot, I shot him down and I say:
If I am guilty I will pay.

(I shot the sheriff, )
But I say (But I didn't shoot no deputy),
I didn't shoot no deputy (oh, no-oh), oh no!
(I shot the sheriff.) I did!
But I didn't shoot no deputy. Oh! (oh)

Reflexes had got the better of me
And what is to be must be,
Every day the bucket a-go a well,
One day the bottom a-go drop out,
One day the bottom a-go drop out.
I say

I, I, I, I, shot the sheriff.
Lord, I didn't shot the deputy. No!
I, I (shot the sheriff)
But I didn't shoot no deputy, yeah! So, yeah!

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Des Martin

One point overlooked. Kiaps had to have police powers in order to give them command over the native constabulary. Remember we were responsible for their pay and discipline and all things pertaining to their service.

Paul Oates

Hi again Vikki. You're obviously very passionate about some strongly held views. Given that fact, perhaps you can understand the passion many of our former Kiaps have for PNG and her people. We who lived and worked with the PNG people at village level underwent a metamorphosis so that by the time most of us returned to Australia we were changed and most will never forget our experience or the PNG people.

We former Kiaps often have a hard time understanding why our country doesn't understand us and our concern about PNG and her people but forget our countrymen and women haven't had our experience. It's a sad fact of life that the very people who could offer the most vociferous support and advocacy for PNG are also ignored by the PNG government.

If you wonder why we keep discussing and commenting about PNG issues you will understand that it would just be far easier and less traumatic for us the simply walk away from the issue. That alas, was something Kiaps rarely did.

If you are in anyway interested in understanding what we see as an important issue I'm sure there will be many who would be only too happy to discuss this issue with you and listen to your point of view provided it is logical and doesn't try to denigrate those with a different point of view.

That is the way things are traditionally sorted out in the PNG village.

William Dunlop

Pray may I ask who or what does Vikki John think she is? I certainly never came across her in both my postings to Bougainville in 1969 and 1976-78.

Paul Hasluck's cloth was cut from the same bolt as Bill Slim, Alanbrook, John Monash, and of course Winnie the Pooh himself, Winston Churchill.

Perhaps Ms John should indulge herself in Joyce's Finnigan's Wake for more enlightenment.

Philip Fitzpatrick

Doesn't it rot your boots when a serious issue gets sidetracked by people with another agenda Paul?

Vikki John

Oh thanks KJ. Your judgement reveals your power. "Vikki, and not even your immature and closed-minded attempt at propaganda can change that - KJ"
Obviously, I am younger than you, and my mind is open not closed, so thanks for you judgemental response and your old boy history does not suit mine or the current mining practices you promote.

Vikki John

Hey wait a minute..
"Vikki, and not even your immature and closed-minded attempt at propaganda can change that - KJ".
Sorry, I did a vomit KJ. Sarcastism is the lowest form of whit.
You are very powerful and I am a mere female.
Calling me out as immature and closed-minded shows your propanda.
Agree?

Vikki John

Hi Paul, I don't get the point I missed.

"There were a few mistakes and a few weak brothers, but the achievement, with the resources available, revealed a quality of character and manhood that should make our nation mightily proud that these fellows were Australians."
I do not see anything about sisterhood, females, "the other".

Only the boys, the men, who continue to rule this planet who obviously forget that females have feelings too. The male dominance in my world makes me ill.

Your answers from the male sense always ignores the rights of our gorgeous indigenous peoples in PNG, Australia and the rest of the Pacific because you thought your way was better under a capitalist system.

Sorry, not any regard for the original inhabitants and their Indigenous ways. Were you the answer?
__________

That there were no female kiaps may have been an historical mistake, but it remains a fact. And it is a major and flawed leap of logic to suggest that kiaps were not concerned about the people of PNG. They were close to the people, closer than anyone, and they were concerned - and still are. Ideology has never triumphed over history, Vikki, and not even your immature and closed-minded attempt at propaganda can change that - KJ

Paul Oates

Hi Vikki, I think its important not to miss the point raised by Bill Brown.

This is not about Paul Hasluck. The fact that Hasluck is quoting someone who had a distinguished war record and was a previous Governor General is the important point Bill Brown makes. Bill Slim's views are what should be considered and possibly commented on.

Vikki John

Sorry true I do not have the same respect for Sir Paul Hasluck.
"Sir Paul Hasluck was the Governor General throughout most of the Whitlam Government.
Hasluck was elected to Parliament in 1949 and served as Minister for Territories, Minister for Defence and Minister for External Affairs in the Coalition Government. His enthusiastic support for the Vietnam War, and his opposition to Australia's diplomatic recognition of communist China put him starkly at odds with Gough Whitlam. In a particularly heated parliamentary debate in 1965, Hasluck called Whitlam "one of the filthiest objects ever to come into this chamber". Whitlam famously threw a glass of water at him in response.
Hasluck was appointed as Governor General in April 1969. When Whitlam became Prime Minister, many feared that relations between the two would be strained. To the contrary, their relationship was constructive, convivial and supportive, to the extent that Whitlam unsuccessfully tried to persuade Hasluck to continue as Governor General beyond the customary five years.
Hasluck's last act as Governor General was to open the 29th Parliament, which was convened following the double dissolution election he had approved at Whitlam's request."
And the SAD story of Bougainville begins...

William Dunlop

High praise indeed from the redoubtable Bill Slim.

Michael Dom

Nuff sed, Bill Brown.

And if the PNG government had any sense of history, decency or goodwill they'd give a Grand Companion of the Order of Logohu to every kiap still living. Not some fluff Honorary title.

Bugger the citizenship issue - those blokes contributed to us becoming a country in the first place.

I couldn't think of any more worthy recipients - em ol tumbuna man blong gavman long Papua Niugini.

Philip Fitzpatrick

George Oakes tells me that Tony Redwood arrested 40 May River people for cannibalism in 1956.

So I'll recant on that claim.

There was something significant about our case that the newspapers played up - maybe it was bringing it to the Supreme Court.

It has no bearing on the point I am trying to make however and I'll stick with that.

Philip Fitzpatrick

There are snippets like this everywhere Bill. William Slim's comment is one I particular like.

However I think the anti-kiap stuff in a lot of histories far outweighs the positive.

What I had in mind was something much more expansive that can assume a place in the Australian narrative - especially the one taught in schools.

Bill Brown

Phil - You are probable correct when you write that nothing has been written about kiaps in the official histories.

But certainly a historian has written something, and it was republished in PNG Attitude. Perhaps it is a poignant reminder of the past, or is it a reminder that Attitude can be read again and again.

The late Sir Paul Hasluck was a onetime lecturer in history at the University of Western Australia, and subsequently, as Reader in History, was commissioned to write two volumes of the official history of Australia’s involvement in World War 2: “Australia in the War of 1939 – 1945.”

Hasluck was not a kiap lover; but in his personal story* of his time as Australian Minister for Territories, responsible for Papua and New Guinea, he recorded the remarks of the outgoing Governor General of Australia, the much besashed, and the much bemedalled, Field Marshall Slim KG, GCB, GCMG, GOVO, GBE, DSO, MC, KStJ.

(Another recorder of history, Keith Jackson, introducing the piece to PNG Attitude, said that Slim fought at Gallipoli and, as a Field Marshall, led the British Army in Burma in World War 2; was wounded in action three times, had fought alongside Australians at Gallipoli and in the Middle East, and knew what of he spoke.)

Hasluck wrote:

I experienced a proud and moving moment in Perth in 1960 when I had a conversation with Sir William (later Viscount) Slim at the conclusion of his term as Governor-General of Australia. Slim had taken a great interest in all the Australian territories and had visited them and gone into some outback places on several tours. As the senior Federal Cabinet Minister from Western Australia I had to farewell him at Fremantle on his final departure from Australia...

We discussed one or two official matters and then a little gruffly, as was his habit he came to the edge of sentiment, he asked me to accept a copy of one of his books. He had written on the flyleaf, “To Paul Hasluck, with admiration for what he has done in the Territories, Bill Slim.” I thanked him. He looked out of the window and looked at his watch and his mouth creased into the grim line that served him as a smile. “In an hour or two, I’ll be out to sea and I won’t be Governor-General any longer’, he said, ‘so I’m going to say something that I suppose I should not say.

“I don’t admire everyone in your Government and I don’t admire everything your Government has done. In fact I think they’ve done some damn silly things and some of your colleagues have said even more silly things than they have done. But there is at least one thing that your Government has done well and perhaps it is their best job.

“I do admire you and I do admire what you have done in New Guinea. I know something about this. It is the sort of thing that I was trying to do during most of my life. Your young chaps in New Guinea have gone out where I would never have gone without a battalion and they have done on their own by sheer force of character what I could only do with troops. I don’t think there’s been anything like it in the modern world...”

What moved me was his particular reference to our patrol officers. When every other word of criticism has been spoken and other defects in our administration have been discussed, I stand in amazement close to reverence at what was done, to my personal knowledge, in the ten years between approximately 1952 and 1962 by young Australian patrol officers and district officers in areas of first contact.

There were a few mistakes and a few weak brothers, but the achievement, with the resources available, revealed a quality of character and manhood that should make our nation mightily proud that these fellows were Australians.

* Paul Hasluck, ‘A Time For Building’, Melbourne University Press, 1976, ISBN 0522840914

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