Oh you did. This catalogue is still a work in progress. It is not complete in each of the details to each publication.

The authors to these books should assist and fill in the details and forward it to Baka Bina.

For new publications, the authors should get details on this list. It will be very useful for us readers.

We should hope for an updated version of this catalogue.
__________

The list of PNG-authored books and books about PNG is being compiled by Baka Bina. The PNG Booklist is a good start in letting readers throughout the world know what books are available. Authors should contact Baka here [email protected] - KJ

While the promise of digital publishing technologies has ultimately let down the writers of Papua New Guinea through the withdrawal of marketing opportunities by companies like Amazon, the greater disappointment has been the failure of the government to offer any form of alternative support.

It is difficult to ascertain why the government has taken this approach. It seems to have gone beyond a case of sheer incompetence and now looks a lot more deliberate. There are two possible reasons. The first is wilful ignorance.

This possibility was brought home quite vividly at the 2014 Crocodile Prize awards presentation.

During the proceedings the government minister who had come along to the event was reading a speech prepared for him by one of his staff.

About halfway through the speech the minister suddenly paused and peered into the audience. What he had come across was a reference to a famous Papua New Guinean writer who he realised was sitting a few metres away listening to him.

He actually pointed in amazement at Russell Soaba and said something like, “It’s you, isn’t it?”, at which Russell smiled and resisted shaking his head in disbelief.

The minister, by the way, was a school teacher by profession before being elected to parliament. Obviously Papua New Guinean literature was not on his school's curriculum.

This sort of stupidity would be funny if it were not for the great cost to the nation and its history. Without writers with avenues for publishing the story of Papua New Guinea will not be told.

Whether these politicians realise that they are depriving future generations of Papua New Guineans of their history is unknown.

You would expect, after all, that someone with an ego as large as it takes to become a politician would want their legacy recorded for posterity.

That is if that legacy is worth recording. That none of them seem to be interested suggests that maybe what they are up to in government is less than laudatory.

The recording of history through both fiction and non-fiction goes well beyond simple politics however. A significant element of history in Papua New Guinea that desperately needs recording involves tradition.

There are many examples of how this might be done but one good one is Ignatius Kilage’s fascinating little novel called ‘My Mother Calls Me Yaltep’.

I met Ignatius when he was a commissioner on the 1972 Commission of Enquiry into Land Matters.

Papua New Guinea’s current literary sensation, Baka Bina, reminds me a lot of the perennially happy Ignatius Kilage.

Like with Baka Bina’s books you can dig into Ignatius Kilage’s little book indefinitely and still discover new gems.

One memory from it that still amuses me is the description of conscripted highland labourers first encountering rice and tin fish. Ever suspicious of the white man they wondered whether they were being fed the eggs of ants and tins of lizards.

That sort of account is precious but it also involves an admission of naivety that some might interpret as shameful.

Perhaps that is part of wilful ignorance, especially if you are trying to sell Papua New Guinea as a sophisticated commercial prospect.

The second, and probably more serious reason is fear. Politicians are simply afraid of writers because of what they might reveal about them and their government and the way they are running, or have run, the country.

This is not a phenomenon peculiar to Papua New Guinea. Governments of all persuasions the world over have long sought to suppress writers and the media.

In Australia, for instance, this is manifest in the efforts of the current conservative government to reduce the budget of the national broadcaster to the point where the numbers of its writers and journalists are severely limited. Writers and journalists in the conservative press however face no such limitations.

You might be inclined to suggest that what writers caught in this sort of situation should do is write flattering accounts of their politicians and government in the hope of attracting support. This, however, discounts one of the cardinal beliefs of good writers that their integrity is not for sale.

There’s not a lot that can be done about ignorance and fear in the short term. About the only thing in Papua New Guinea that seems to override such sentiments is greed.

Perhaps the nation’s writers should set up a fund to bribe their politicians into action. But that would put their precious integrity at real risk and where would they get the money anyway, most of them barely scrape by as it is?

There is a particular line in a Boroko Motors advertisement gig that says 'when the going gets tough the tough get going..' This applies to the PNG situation.

Despite famine, landslides, poor governance, economic woes and COVID-19, the country has been able to withstand every test.

The people have proven to be resilient. They know it in their hearts that they must struggle on.

PNG writers too will struggle on and keep processing words to form a sentence in a poem, essay, short story or a book to ensure future generations know of our struggles.

Thank you PNG Attitude and of course ‘wantok’ Daniel Kumbon, with whom I am in regular email contact, for his kind words directed to me personally, and for recognition of the services by a wide range of expatriates.

Not only kiaps but in many fields of PNG’s rapid colonial and post independence historic development, now going for well over a century.

All who have worked in PNG, both in war and in peace, have been enormously rewarded by the service that has enriched their lives with unique experiences and enduring friendships.

Once a 'Boi-Masta' relationship that has evolved to independent nationhood, respect and friendships as equals in an imperfect modern world.

Daniel Kumbon is a fine example of the potential in so many of his fellow citizens, the product of a western education.

I am proud of my minuscule contribution.