Just as my dad once trained to be a priest, my mum was once a nun. She left the nunnery though, and shortly after joined the Divine Word mission and went to Papua New Guinea herself (she was just a young lass then). The missions were based in the port town of Madang, and here’s a shot of the compound:
Madang is the town in which my brother and I would eventually be born. Here it is on the map:
In those days (pre 1975) PNG was not a country but an Australian territory. So yes, I am Australian by birth, technically!
Anyway, as I recall, even though the missions were based in Madang both mum and dad spent time in all sorts of remote villages in the jungles of PNG. Here’s a shot of mum in a village in the mountainous, inland region called Bundi:
Lovely shot isn’t it! That was taken in 1967, which means mum was 23 at the time. I bet Bundi was a bit of a frontier town then, since even today it’s a green hell:
I was watching a documentary on TV the other day that said that Papua New Guinea has the largest areas of uninterrupted jungle on the planet. It’s a smallish island, but much (most?) of it is still wild, unconquered jungle. Although it looks beautiful – and I was born there – I’m not sure I’d ever want to visit.
Anyway, back to the point of this post: Mum’s shots from PNG!
Here’s a startling one:
That guy has a nasty spear. I expect not too long after this photo that spear was thrown into a wild boar or giant pacu fish. Good eating surely followed: baked swine, taro root, pineapple and jungle fruits. I wonder if they had beer on the missions? I imagine they must have, else dad may have gone crazy.
My mum smoked in those days, but then I think everyone did.
That’s a bouquet of flowers that my mum made. It looks like franjipani to me. Anyway, the bouquet was for the wife of the Australian administrator of PNG (Dr Hay), and this young girl presented it to her. I bet it was appreciated.
Here’s an interesting shot of mum with some village kids. She was a teacher, and these were her students. Mum taught as a nun as well, so she had experience. Even so, it must have been a culture shock. Note how happy she is in all these shots. Mum jokes now she’s hard to take photos of… she just needs to channel her memories of PNG!
This next photo is special in so many ways:
Fabulous isn’t it! Look at the style of her! Her hair looks great, especially with the scarf. But beyond that, the scholarly pose; the microscope, the specimens on the table (plants and flowers?) and her students watching. Note also the thatched hut in the background. I could imagine this photo appearing in a magazine back in the day! This is a truly beautiful, strangely anachronistic shot made so much more special by the fact that it’s my mum!
Not a shot of mum, but wonderful nonetheless. In 1967, floppy discs were invented, the first human heart transplant occurred and physicists discovered the quark. None of the kids above had any idea about any of this – such technology would have been almost magical to them – living as they did. The world is still like this today in many ways. It’s a humbling thought.
Here’s a shot of mum at home in Madang in 1971. Mum and dad were married by now, and I bet my brother is in that house somewhere probably playing with one of the cats (we’ve always had cats). Or perhaps not, since he would have been less than a year old. One of the cats was called Franjipani, after the flower (in the bouquet, above). If you go to Hawaii you’ll see franjipani everywhere, and apparently the same is the case in PNG.
Here comes a fantastic shot:
Here they are – the happy young couple! That cuscus-like thing mum is holding is my brother. But that’s not what is truly incredible about this shot. Look close and note I’m (almost) in this photo as well! This is officially the earliest known photo of me, and I love it 🙂
And this one, taken not too long later, was when I got over my shyness and introduced myself to the world. Drag your eyes of my handsome baby-self and note the washing machine technology on display in the rear of the shot. Another great shot!
And so ends the documentary evidence posts, at least for now. But this post has given me an idea for another type of ‘documentary evidence’ post that I must follow up on sometime in the future…
