Footnotes for Logging or Conservation on Woodlark (Muyuw) Island

Aged about 30, Willie completed secondary schooling and has worked at a variety of jobs, most recently (though no longer) as John Kasaipwalova's Woodlark agent and factotum. It should be noted here that JK appears to have blotted his copybook as far as Woodlark Islanders are concerned. In addition to exhausting the local stocks of beche-de-mer, 'JK' is also mistrusted for bringing many of his Kiriwina clansmen to Woodlark - ostensibly to work for him, but also (according to one rumour) to build a power base by stacking votes in future elections. He left the island several months ago and irate creditors have expropriated his three speedboats, but he still maintains a well-equipped and splendidly built native-materials house just outside Kulumadau, on land belonging to his fellow-clansmen. The occupants (from Kiriwina) are the only people on the island who remain in JK's employ, though we heard complaints from some of the Kiriwinans in Kulumadau that there were many 'passengers' (now abandoned by JK) who wanted to return home. It is quite likely that if any tourist development takes place in Woodlark JK will be attracted as a bee to a honeypot. It is equally likely, however, that the islanders would strenuously oppose his involvement. Concerning the presence of Trobriand Islanders in Woodlark, Damon comments that 'in 1982 people were afraid of Trobrianders coming to the island. The word then was that Trobrianders were going to be moved for population pressure reasons. In any case, it sounds as if Muyuw fears were confirmed.'
Damon's most recent (1990) book was not available to the author at the time this report was written. It must be the best and most detailed corpus of information on the island that we have to date.
Damon disagrees: 'I am very sure this section is wrong and you should consider correcting it; or, we learned very different things. By Muyuw tradition and by most peoples' observed practices the soil is infertile and fallow periods tend to be very long. Lazy gardeners might grow sweet potatoes on the soil you mention. In any case not only did I observe long fallow periods, I talked them over with a Trobriand storekeeper who was on the island during both of my visits; I also discussed it with Muyuw people who had some experience in the Trobriands. Of course soil conditions combine in some way with practices, about which people were very conscious. It is recognized that people to the west were better gardeners... In 1982 some youths, one of whom was the director of WIDCO, were very offended at government studies which showed the soil to be weak. Although the studies were perhaps superficial, the youths' reactions were also those of kids educated through high school and basically lacking in the empirical experiences of their fathers and grandfathers.' The author stands corrected.
Damon agrees: 'Two rows [of houses] is the traditional form. Some people told me Kaulay and Dikwayas were the only two that had to be that way, but most people said everyone should model their villages thus. The Guasopa I saw in 1982 was in two east-west rows; so was the Kaulay of 1973-82.'
Damon's latest comment on this point is that: 'Technically residence is virilocal, and unconditionally so. Although a fair number of men cannot or do not take their wives to live with them (i.e. with their fathers or mothers' brothers), if indeed they do not do this then it is understood that their wives are "men" and they are "women", the issue crucial with respect to who controls children: "men" do.'
This assumes that the partners come from different villages, though of course they might well belong to the same village, since it is the subclan and ideally the clan which are exogamous - not the village.
Damon comments: 'As Don Neate (who used to reside at Kulumadau) observed, practically every acre carries its own name. But, he added, and I have some experience to back this up, Muyuw people become lost more easily in their jungle than some non-Muyuw people.'
Damon comments: 'I would have been astounded to have heard what you quote [here]. What made me write what you quote in the next paragraph was precisely people realizing and beginning to talk about the fact, in 1982, that the royalty business and government marking of land was creating a new situation, that the mortuary rituals and their associated pig debts would end as arbiters of effective use and control of resources such as land. A specific example: the subclan you identify as Udani or Okidos came out of the ground on top of Mt Lukidus; in my work I refer to it as Dilukidus, dal from Lukidus. A nearby hill is called Odunay, and a Sinawiy subclan supposedly came out there. Until 1975 the Lukidus people I knew (most of old Aisi's children and other Wabunun folk) only claimed ownership of that part of the island from that myth (some complained of having lost gold during the goldmining days). But by 1982 various Lukidus people were claiming to own all the land from the mountain east and south beyond Wabunun. Up to 1975 everyone knew that traditionally the land upon which Wabunun sits was Lukidus property (but not land to its immediate west or east) but that ownership had been transferred to Aisi's group because of pig prestations in the 20s and 30s. Although the point was not always enforced, this state of affairs made all of the Kubay men into 'women' and they knew this... Meanwhile Aisi's subclan came out from the little islands east of Kavatan; in 1982 his subclan representatives were meeting about their royalty stakes way over there; and wondering about the sense of what they were doing.'
Damon comments: 'There are really two Kubay groups along the southeastern coast of the island, the Lukidus people and a bunch of others...who supposedly came out of the ground on Tewatewa; a Laydog group says it came out of the ground in Rossel Island; another Dawet group conceives itself from Panamout. Several western subclans claim they came from Kitava or thereabouts. During my first trip [1973-5] these kinds of origin myths were transcended, if you will, by the dialectics of ritual and practical life; i.e. the myths were good old-fashioned inversions of reality. But with all the royalties and the land claims, by 1982 there had been created the logical conditions for something else entirely.'
Damon comments: 'As I recall, in the 1890s as copra planting and gold mining were getting under way, the Europeans realized they had no claims to the land. So they made their own claims and gave out leases to various white folks. I did discuss this with people and am aware of some verbal agreements in Wabunun that have potential to create conflicts there. But I never went into it in detail with Muyuw people or in any of my writings because the effective transfer of land was never made: the copra and mining activities kept fizzling. Had they worked out, for example, all of the territory between Dikwayas and Kaulay would be plantations under European control. This was an "event" that was never realized. In Alotau in 1982 I was told of a large slice of land that was given back to the people. I laughed, more or less scornfully, and told the government official that nobody lived on or used that land. He knew that, and laughed too.'
I am grateful to Lafcadio Cortesi for collecting this information.
I am grateful to Lafcadio Cortesi for providing me with this information.
Damon comments: 'Clearly sometimes a kind of segmentary logic governs the relationship between kum and dal so people could use one to talk about the other. After a while, however, I found it easy to get people to distinguish them such that clans had to do with the marriage model and subclans with differentiating principles, dovetailing into what we mean by ownership. In this regard your undifferentiated/differentiated contrast is apropos my interpretations because essentially I see the clan organization as establishing affinities or equivalences between units, whereas the subclan organization differentiates them. In the Trobriands this differentiation seems to become a matter of hierarchy.'
The Task Force was given contradictory information about the procedures and prices of ebony harvesting so I leave it to other members of the team to report on them.
The main PA area apparently belongs to Udani dal of Kubay clan; most members are said to be in favour of mining, though their leader Ledemu is against. I might add that to a casual eye the mining company is causing more visible environmental damage than the logging company.
I am assuming that the sites have already been registered by the Museum, which brings them under nominal protection. Damon comments: 'I am not sure about the taboo you talk about here. Wabunun men irregularly hunt pigs there, and I had no trouble being taken there in 1982 and shown around a bit; this contrasts with the area north of Wabunun towards the Sinkwalay river; I could not get Wabunun people to take me there. There is, however, a character that some call a Balom [ghost, ancestor spirit], others a Tomdulel, who is supposedly the source of the nefarious powers women witches distribute. Many people, but not all, associate this person with the Sulog area. When described he sounds like a goldminer, a devil-like character... I hope the other ruins and prehistoric sites in and around the island have been classified and registered. There are times when I think there is no limit to what might be found there.'
The composition of the Task Force team is spelt out in Section 1.2.1.
Damon comments: 'From your report I take it you will appreciate that Wabubun interacts in different ways with much of the island, and has for most of this century. You state that its prominence begins in the 1950s; although dating is problematic and far from absolute, it was a line of Aisi's uncles who started it sometime in the 1920s. Your report hints at a glowing picture of Wabunun... When I was there in 1982 I was actually not so optimistic as I had been. The village was bursting with children, which was exciting, but other problems seemed evident... I was really touched by the deaths of men who had so marked my experiences in 1973-75, and Aisi's wife, in 1982, was the focus of very ugly witchcraft accusations... Aisi was the village's leader and main Kula man. His son was gradually taking all this over in 1982.'
Although MTA is concerned to protect land, forest and marine resources, the committee is constituted of representatives from all 12 Woodlark council wards, and they hear land disputes.