Doug Young is an old acquaintance, Garry.

He has a very proud record in the Western Highlands.

Rev Dr Clement Papa is all that this article says of him and more.

A great PNG man. I look forward to seeing what he contributes to now he is back in his beloved PNG.

Some people who read this item on Clement Papa may be wondering how it happens that these brothers - Anthony Kunump, Thomas Webster, Paulus Ripa, Joseph Palimi, Jeffrey Pup, Clement Papa - all have different ‘surnames’.

They are all sons of the same father, Pius Pi Kumbamung.
Traditionally in the Hagen area a person was identified by their given name and also by the name of their clan.

After 1934 and the coming of various missions, individuals who got baptised were given a ‘Christian name’ in addition to their existing ‘local’ name. The use of the name of the father as a ‘surname’ became more common only gradually.

Ninji, the son of Kama, might in Australian records be known as Ninji Kama, but his own people would never have called him Mr Kama. He was not Kama, he was Ninji.

In the same family some children may use different ‘surnames’. For example, a young male child who was the son of a man named Pamnda and a woman named Moni was born near Hagen town around 1941 and was given the ‘local’ Hagen name ‘Doa’ at birth (Doa is the Melpa word for ‘eagle’.)

When Doa was later baptised in 1955 he was given the Christian name of Raphael. In school he was known as Raphael Doa. And using that name he worked for Radio Western Highlands and later was elected as a member of parliament for Western Highlands.

A younger brother of Raphael Doa named John was commonly known as John Pamnda. Another brother of Raphael Doa also used the name Pamnda.

An early classmate of Pius Pi was named Michael Mel. One of his sons Peter Wama was a well known public servant in WHP.

Another son called Michael Mission used his father’s name Mel and became a well known businessman and politician named Michael Mel.

Another classmate of Pius Pi was Jacobus Kup, whose children did tend to use Kup as a family name, and one of his sons was John Kup who as a local kiap was probably known to Phil Fitzpatrick.

In brief some well-known Hagen identities were genuine blood brothers, but their names did not reveal this. Some used their father’s name as a surname, some others did not. Some outsiders would not know that some identities were in fact genuine brothers.

Why would some people decide not to use their father’s name as a surname?

If the names in their early school and college certificates simply included their own Christian name and a local name, but not their father’s name, then it was probably more convenient for those individuals to continue using those names rather than use their father’s name as a surname.

Returning to the local names of Clement Papa’s brothers, they are all traditional Melpa names with the exception of Webster. So how did Thomas get the name Webster?

The story I heard is that, as a student ,Thomas Kuli Pi was so good in the English language and knew so many words, that other students simply referred to him as ‘Webster’, with the allusion to the then well known ‘Webster’s Dictionary’! And the name stuck. This may or may not be true - ask Webster!

Anyway, sincere congratulations to Clement Papa Pi on his doctorate.