The marvel of the mighty Di Gaima axe
20 April 2025
MATHIAS KIN
In this vintage photograph, Kora Kama of Kagul village
in the Sinasina Dom area holds a huge Gaima axe,
part of a bride prize (L G Vial, May 1939)
KUNDIAWA – For centuries, the Gorku tribe of Chimbu in the central highlands of Papua New Guinea produced the famous Di Gaima stone axe until the advent of steel axes in the 1940s ended the practice.
The production of the axe was of great importance in stabilising the lives of a once nomadic people who became the Gorku tribe of the vast Dom language group.
Di Gaima production is estimated to have begun 2,000 years ago around the time the Chimbu people started settling into their present locations and groupings.
This understanding is supported by axe pieces found in the Nombe cave of Chuave which date back 1,500 years. Pieces of Gaima axe have also been found at the Kuk excavation site in the Wahgi valley.
The area from which the stone for the axe is found is at Tonmai in the Kubor Range about 20 kilometers south of Kundiawa, today’s Chimbu capital.
The Tonmai quarry is owned by the Kirin Kaupa clan of the Gorku tribe and, together with its brother clans of Gunakane, Kalubiagau, Kobelkane and Kopan, the stone for the axes was mined and the axes manufactured.
The other major tribes of the valley and beyond the range were also allowed to produce stone axes, however they had to present free of charge, brides, pigs and other valuable items to the Kirin Kaupa clan before mining could begin.
The geology of the Gaima reveals an intrusive rock that millions of years ago forced its way through existing rock layers to form a green-grey sheet-like structure.
In May 1939, the stone axe production site at Tonmai was visited by assistant government geologist L C Noakes and Chimbu-Wahgi government officer L G Vial. Vial wrote of this visit in an article, Down the Wahgi – A New Guinea Patrol, published in Walkabout magazine in 1941.
In 1943, Captain John A Costello and J C McInerney of ANGAU, PNG’s wartime government, visited the quarry. Another ANGAU officer Lieutenant K W Jones also visited the area in February 1945.
In 1947, Costello, who had been posted back to Kundiawa as assistant district officer, again visited Di Gaima quarry.
Before any work started on mining stone, a Di Gaima magic man, the kila kare yal, would cast a series of mystic spells to avoid any calamity that may befall the workmen, to protect the mining implements, to prevent flooding and to seek a good harvest.
The 10 workmen lived fulltime in a hut next to the shaft. Wives and children from the main villages would bring food and water to the men.
The rest of the men of the clan would make gardens and do other chores. This division of labour ensured that the miners were consistently provided with all their needs.
Shafts were dug until the weathered diorite was found. As the shafts got deeper, a net of timber and pitpit and bamboo mats were manufactured to hold back the overburden and loose soil.
Waste materials were removed in baskets wielded by men standing on the crossbars of the shoring system and then tipped beyond the hole.
Vial described building the shaft: “(It was) cut in the side of the hill and was well timbered to prevent the loose weathered diorite from falling in. Near the top grass thatching had been used to hold loose soil.”
Costello observed “some eighty feet of over-burden had been removed by primitive methods to get to the particular type of stone used in the axe making. Blinds or mats woven from pitpit reeds and bamboo were used to keep the earth back.”
After more than 12 months of digging, the shaft - by now 20 meters deep - had a base area of about 15 square meters. Three hundred cubic meters of stone and earth had been excavated by the men.
The desired rock lies about 50 cm below the diorite. To crack this hard rock, a fire was built and after some time water poured on the fire cracked the diorite. Behold, the Gaima below the diorite!
Blocks of the sheet-like structures were then dug up and raised in baskets to the top of the shaft.
Then the delicate task of refining the coarse rock into the valuable axe began.
The final size of the Di Gaima is determined by the laminar slabs which are always 2 cm or more thick.
A sharp, hard piece of stone is used to saw the Di Gaima to its final size. Then the blade is sharpened by grinding it against a smooth stone surface until a very smooth, sharp edge is achieved.
The biggest of the final blades will be 20 cm wide and 50 cm long.
The Di Gaima blade is now fitted to a handle to become the a complete tool. A branch of a forest tree, ere yopa (Northofagus sp.), known for its strength, straightness and durability, is cut to about one meter and ground smooth.
This is attached to the blade and woven tightly into place with beautiful patterns of bamboo strips. The finished product is anything from one meter to one-and-a-half meters long.
Unlike the axes produced at Tuman in the Wahgi and in Jimi (both in Jiwaka Province), the Di Gaima axe had a low production output and that and its sheer size made it a very highly sought-after trade item.
It is reported to have been traded as far as the Eastern Highlands and through Bundi in Madang. There is evidence it was found as far away as the Gulf of Papua.
One wonders how these primitive people knew that the stone to make an item so desired by the people would be buried 20 meters beneath the earth. Perhaps the inspiration came from a higher realm.
Note: John Burton must be credited for his splendid work of 1984, Axe Makers of the Wahgi. I also interviewed Kulame Dingi and Koma Kuman, both of the Gorku tribe, in writing this article
_________
Mathias Kin is author of the splendidly researched and revelatory My Chimbu (2018), for which I was honoured to write the cover review. This grand work of 418 pages is available from Amazon Books - KJ
Thank you Mathias for reminding us of a precious piece of history and innovation. More of this needs to trickle down to the primary / secondary education curriculum at an in depth level.
Posted by: Bal Kama | 21 April 2025 at 09:42 PM
Another notable site where Di Gaima was harvested is towards the southern part of Kundiawa, 30km south. If heading to Gumine, you will come to a junction called Gaima, the base of the site, drive north-west for another 2km and come to the site called Bilne Di Kople and Yaugala where the mouth of the site is.
Thoses dwelling along the Kubor range - south to Mt Michael and Elimbari and north to Mt Giluwe and east to Mt Wilhelm came to trade goodies like pig, shells, young women for Di Gaima.
Posted by: JK Domyal | 21 April 2025 at 05:30 PM
Thank you Mathias Kin.
Our stories like these will eventually fade and die out when all the keepers of these body of traditional knowledge die out.
Stone axe heads were a mystery to most people but everyone. However, before the white man came along with their steel axes, our people has axes which assisted in the productivity and livelihoods. They were not hunters and gatherers, rather they were settled people who made houses and gardens. In order to make houses and gardens, our people needed sophisticated tools.
People assumed the axe heads were river stones but no, they were special hard rocks that could be harnessed to produce a sharp edges for cutting. These rocks were mined and traded.
Where and how these axe heads came to be were always a mystery and it is stories like these that helps to reveal the sources.
There are stories around these trading items that are now lost. When the steel axe were introduced, their utility and stories of these stone axes disappeared overnight.
Mr Kin mentioned that the mining was not done be a specialized group, rather the landowners allowed their neighbours (for a fee of sorts) to mine their own axe heads.
Those of our people from the next village who needed axe heads, they traded for these with their neighbours who had mined for them.
Daniel Kumbon has related the story of salt manufacture and farms in Enga. That story is made out. There were other similar places where salt were harnessed and traded. A similar MO to axe heads was done for salt extractions.
Another place for salt - and I have previously briefly mentioned the Ha'aginito salt creek at Korofeigu in Bena near Goroka in the Eastern Highlands. This small creek starts out as a small stream that has salt in it at its mouth. As it passes along the small gully, it loses its salinity, so the mouth of the creek is where the salt harnessing has to happen.
Those who wanted salt were invited, one group of villages at a time (this was during a time when every stranger was a potential enemy). The local people would invite people to come, with pigs to pay as a fee and then sort of given a freedom and licence to camp out at this creek and where there was a sort of truce given by the surrounding tribes people to these working visitors. The visitors would then collect, cut up and soak the flowering stalks of the soft pitpits from the marshes near to the mouth of the creek.
These soaked flower stems were then rolled into rings with banana leave coverings similar to copper wires. They then mumu-ed this contraptions to evaporate the water through steam created from the heated stones. After they took off the earth coverings to their mumu, bingo, they would have their crystalised salt inside the rings which they took along with them back to their village and traded with their neighbours.
So, these are stories and histories that are being lost forever. I needed to confirm this story with a person from Ha'aginito at Korofeigu as my stories are about the users from a people who like some 50 kilometres and over 50 or so known and perceived enemy villages, poisoning and where the death adder was a curse to fear. The local landowners will be able to shed more like to these histories and stories. It is my fervent hope a writer from there – Korofeigu - can take this story up and give us more context.
Again, thank you Mr. Kin - Again a call out to all Papua New Guineans, please document our stories now before we replace them with Cinderellic and Snow Whitish stories. I know Tiga and Winnie the Pooh have a foothold with Nemo swimming in there somewhere and now Mauvi trying to rewrite our narrative.
Posted by: Baka Bina | 21 April 2025 at 10:17 AM
Interesting article.
More research is needed to find out how they traded.
Posted by: Bernard Yegiora | 21 April 2025 at 08:47 AM