On December 28, 1952 patrol officer J. R. McArthur embarked on a patrol that lasted 46 days. He was joined by 28 natives who worked for the government, they were made up of 8 police officers, 1 interpreter and 16 carriers. The patrol was in the Eastern Highlands District, beginning in Kumiava, then to Goroka followed by Mt Karimui and then returning to Kumiava. The report includes McArthur’s diary of the patrol, with in-depth recounts of each day he was there, a general summary of the native situation, an analysis of the patrol posts, health and hygiene, agriculture and livestock, roads and bridges, anthropology, tribal boundaries, land availability, airstrips and mapping.[1] The report also includes a population register and a map of the district. The first purpose of this patrol was the administration of the native situation in the area between the patrol post and Gono, which was considered to be successful. The second purpose was the consolidation of administration in the area under influence between Gono and Mengino which was labelled “very satisfactory.”[2] The final purpose for this patrol was the establishment of relations with natives between Mengino to Mt Karimui, which McArthur deemed to be a good start for a first patrol and felt positive about future contact. In this report, attitudes towards colonial administration at this time in this district is evident through McArthur’s position regarding the importance of patrolling the Natives acceptance of the patrol, and the fearful reception that the Mikaura people gave the patrol group in the beginning. McArthur’s opinions about the native situation are evident in the language and tone he uses in his report, some of the assumptions made by him do not take into account native customs, which demonstrates the misinformation that was gathered through colonial ignorance. Finally, this report provides an understanding of the role of women and overall attitudes towards them.
The activities executed in this patrol are useful when determining the state of the tribe’s criminal aspects, the relationship between tribes and groups, the overall health of the natives and the food supply. The first part of the administration, in the unrestricted areas, McArthur considered successful, with no serious crimes, satisfactory intertribal relations and acceptable health and food supplies. The second part of the administration, in the area under influence, based on the absence of crime, acceptance of patrols, friendly inter-tribal relations and the native’s good health and sufficient food supplies was also deemed successful. The final mission, to curate friendly relations, was regarded as a good start for a first patrol, McArthur felt positive about future contact. One activity that the patrol was responsible for was investigating and settling disputes, this included “investigating a theft at New Tribes Mission”[3], “court native affairs convened for a severe case of assault”[4] and other disputes throughout the patrol. According to McArthur, cooperation between Natives and patrollers improved after multiple visits, and particularly in the Yagaria group, the villagers were noticeably more cooperative compared to previous patrols. Furthermore, the communication with the unfamiliar tribes was successful. Although the patrol was initially met with heavily armed and guarded Mikaura people, upon noticing the Mengino people accompanying the patrol, they began to lower their weapons and accepted tobacco from the patrol. After gaining the trust of the Natives, on the 26th of January, the initial census was held. The overall health of the area patrolled was satisfactory, except for dysentery in Lufa. Food supplies were also satisfactory with large quantities of bananas, and fowl, small amounts of European food, unfortunately, there was a shortage of pigs due to a sickness that had spread 6 months prior.
Based on this patrol the Australian Colonial administration in the territory of Papua & New Guinea in the 1950s and its relations with the Native population in the Eastern Highlands were amicable. Attitudes towards colonial administration can be assessed by analysing McArthur’s recount of the success of the patrols and through the Natives acceptance and assistance with the census. Furthermore, the fearful reception that the Mikaura people gave the patrol group, in the beginning, highlights some of the native attitudes that weren’t accustomed to colonial influence. According to August Kituai, the villager’s acceptance of patrol officers was for one of two reasons, the first being that they feared the officer’s strength and didn’t want to risk inciting violence, he describes this as “negative acquiescence.” Therefore, “positive acquiescence” was the villager’s acceptance of the patrol officers as they recognise the power of the government and request their help with intertribal affairs.[5] According to McArthur, the Natives were finally “availing themselves of the benefits to be derived from patrols.”[6] He believed that they regard the patrol “as a benign type of guardian.”[7] According to Ronald Berndt, reaction to contact is dependant on social conditions, he states that they “must be favourable to their acceptance and development and the people concerned must have undergone a sequence of conditioning.”[8] This understanding of creating comfortable circumstances for positive Native interaction is demonstrated through McArthur’s report, when approaching the Mikaura people, he recognised that being accompanied by other Natives eased their minds and made it easier for them to trust them, and through his continued interaction with their tribes he didn’t force anything until they were ready. Furthermore, he acknowledged that trying to impose too much on the villagers would end in conflict and advised that “a premature penetration of the are by evangelists will be attended by disaster.”[9] It is clear that by the 1950’s the colonial administration had become more aware of their impact on tribes, both positive and negative, and this allowed for improved communication between the patrol and the Eastern Highlands.
Some colonial assumptions made by J. R. McArthur led to misinformation in this report. The understanding that the people of Papua & New Guinea were uncivilised, means that patrollers can often misinterpret practices for being unhygienic or morally wrong. An example of this is about pigs. James B Watson wrote that there are some aspects of native culture that Europeans strongly criticise, one of these being their relationship with pigs, which he states, “deeply imbedded as the pig is in the economic, social, and ceremonial life of Melanesian people.”[10] This is evident in the sanitation and hygiene section of the report which proclaims, “Hygiene will never be good until pigs are banned from the residential areas.”[11] This statement demonstrates the colonial ignorance and misunderstanding of ritual practises. “Pigs were thought to be sensitive to the smell of human semen and to sicken and die in response to it.”[12] According to Marie Reay, the pigs were kept in the women’s living quarters to protect them from being raped by other men. The understanding was that men would put the wealth of the clan before their own needs and wouldn’t risk harming the pigs. With this in mind, there is little chance that the Natives would amend their customs and remove their pigs which they believed to be protecting the women, and so from a colonial perspective, they would never be hygienic. Ultimately it is clear that patrol officers made assumptions based on their cultural practices which do not translate to Native customs.
Conclusions can be drawn, regarding the treatment and attitudes towards women in the Eastern Highlands in the 1950s based on the information in this report. Reay argues that once they are married, “Girls freedom is transformed into constraint.”[13] Women are not allowed to attract other men, and if they are assumed to be stepping out of line, their husbands will lock them away and perform sexual and physical violent acts against them exercising male dominance and privilege. [14] While this report doesn’t mention any acts of violence against women, the understanding of male superiority and the mistreatment of women is evident in the anthropological part of the report. According to McArthur, the women’s houses were in noticeably worse condition than man, which he believed to be “in conformity with the ideal of male superiority.”[15] He also states that women live a life of labour and they don’t receive the luxuries of wandering about that men have. Furthermore, the attitudes that men had towards women was as though they were objects or pets. For instance, the older men advise younger men not to visit their wives too often or they will “render them useless for tending to the sugar and for the huts.”[16] K. E. Read stated that “it is recognized that without a man a woman is nothing; she cannot bear children and become a mother.”[17] Ultimately, women in Papua & New Guinea are treated as the inferior gender and as a result experience abuse and unfair dispersion of labour.
The purpose of patrols in restricted areas of Papua New Guinea was predominantly for exploration.[18] Patrolling these areas would use the survey modality coined by Bernard Cohn. According to Cohn “the concept of the “survey” came to cover any systematic and investigation of the natural and social features of the Indian empire.”[19] He states that during colonial India, the survey modality was used to obtain information about the zoology, genealogy, history, ethnography, economic products and sociology of specific regions, and the patrollers would explore more and more territories to achieve a comprehensive understanding of Indian customs and traditions.[20] Similarly in this patrol report, McArthur and his patrol team were able to acquire information on the anthropology, such as marital practices, economic products such as the agriculture and livestock, which was currency in Papua New Guinea and history and genealogy which can be studied through the clans and inter-tribal relations.
In Conclusion, this patrol report demonstrates the influence that the Australian Colonial Administration had on the Territory of Papua & New Guinea as well as the aspects of Native culture that Patrolling could not influence. Furthermore, the attitudes of the patrollers had an impact on the relaying of information and some aspects of the Eastern Highlands traditions can be perceived incorrectly. And finally, the patriarchal attitudes and mistreatment of women in Goroka is evident through all aspects of their society.
Summary
On the 28th of December 1952, J. R. McArthur embarked on a patrol of the Eastern Highlands with 8 police officers, 1 interpreter and 16 carriers. The patrol lasted 46 days and ended on the 11th of February 1953. The three purposes of the patrol were administration in the unrestricted areas between the patrol post and Gono, the second purpose was the consolidation and administration in areas under influence, which was between Gono and Mengino, the third purpose was the contact and establishment of friendly relations in the area of Mt Karimui. The Patrol began at the patrol post and travelled through Kumiava, Goroka, Mt Karimui and Kumiava. Activities that the patrol undertook were, investigating and settling native disputes, fieldwork and tribal boundary fixing and communication with unfamiliar tribes. The report includes a descriptive diary written by J. R. McArthur, a map detailing where the patrol was, a summary of the native situation in each area. There is also a description of the practices and customs of the area such as roads and bridges, livestock and agriculture, hygiene practices, marital customs, housing situations and a villager’s population register. J. R. McArthur stated that he found the native situation to be satisfactory and found that the Native population had come to be accepting of the patrol.
Bibliography
Berndt, R. M., ‘Reaction to contact in the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea’, Oceania publications, 24/3 (1954), 190-228.
Cohn, B. S., Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge: the British In India, (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1996).
Kituai, A. I. K., My Gun, My Brother, (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1998).
McArthur, J. R. Goroka Patrol no. 5 of 1952/53, 28 Dec. 1952-11 Feb. 1953, National Archives and Public Records, Eastern Highlands, Goroka station, 1952-53, vol. 5 p. 1 https://library.ucsd.edu/dc/object/bb94216748 (accessed 5 October 2021)
Read, K. E., ‘Cultures of the Central Highlands, New Guinea’, The University of Chicago Press, 10/1 (1954), 1-43.
Reay, M. O., Wives and Wanderers in a New Guinea Highlands Society: Women’s lives in the Waghi Valley (Canberra: ANU Press, 2014).
Sinclair, J. P., ‘Patrolling in the restricted areas of Papua New Guinea’, Australian Outlook, 8/3 (1954) 129-145 doi. 10.1080/10357715408443912 Watson, J. B., ‘Introduction: Anthropology on the New Guinea Highlands’, American Anthropologist, 66/4 (1964), 1-19.
[1] J. R. McArthur, Goroka Patrol no. 5 of 1952/53, 28 Dec. 1952-11 Feb. 1953, National Archives and Public Records, Eastern Highlands, Goroka station, 1952-53, vol. 5, 1 https://library.ucsd.edu/dc/object/bb94216748 (accessed 5 October 2021)
[2] J. R. McArthur, Goroka Patrol no. 5 of 1952/53, 28 Dec. 1952-11 Feb. 1953, 14.
[3] J. R. McArthur, Goroka Patrol no. 5 of 1952/53, 28 Dec. 1952-11 Feb. 1953, 2.
[4] J. R. McArthur, Goroka Patrol no. 5 of 1952/53, 28 Dec. 1952-11 Feb. 1953, 3.
[5] A. I. K. Kituai, My Gun, My Brother, (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1998), 34.
[6] J. R. McArthur, Goroka Patrol no. 5 of 1952/53, 28 Dec. 1952-11 Feb. 1953, 17.
[7] J. R. McArthur, Goroka Patrol no. 5 of 1952/53, 28 Dec. 1952-11 Feb. 1953, 15.
[8] R. M. Berndt, ‘Reaction to contact in the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea’, Oceania publications, 24/3 (1954), 190.
[9] J. R. McArthur, Goroka Patrol no. 5 of 1952/53, 28 Dec. 1952-11 Feb. 1953, 16.
[10] J. B. Watson, ‘Introduction: Anthropology on the New Guinea Highlands’, American Anthropologist, 66/4 (1964), 9.
[11] J. R. McArthur, Goroka Patrol no. 5 of 1952/53, 28 Dec. 1952-11 Feb. 1953, 22.
[12] M. O. Reay, Wives and Wanderers in a New Guinea Highlands Society: Women’s lives in the Waghi Valley (Canberra: ANU Press, 2014) 1.
[13] M. O. Reay, Wives and Wanderers in a New Guinea Highlands Society: Women’s lives in the Waghi Valley xxv.
[14] M. O. Reay, Wives and Wanderers in a New Guinea Highlands Society: Women’s lives in the Waghi Valley 1.
[15] J. R. McArthur, Goroka Patrol no. 5 of 1952/53, 28 Dec. 1952-11 Feb. 1953, 20.
[16] J. R. McArthur, Goroka Patrol no. 5 of 1952/53, 28 Dec. 1952-11 Feb. 1953, 23.
[17] K. E. Read, ‘Cultures of the Central Highlands, New Guinea’, The University of Chicago Press, 10/1 (1954), 24.
[18] J. P. Sinclair, ‘Patrolling in the restricted areas of Papua New Guinea’, Australian Outlook, 8/3 (1954) 130 doi. 10.1080/10357715408443912
[19] B. S. Cohn., Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge: the British In India, (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1996) 7.
[20] B. S. Cohn., Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge: the British In India, 7.