Details

Latitude

-4.84961

Longitude

152.0005

Start Date

1966-01-01

End Date

1966-01-01

Refer to Items MS2-Contents1 and MS2-Contents2 for guidance on contents. --- The following provided by Steven Gagau (Kuanua speaker), June 2017, with reference to the Kuanua section in the middle of side A recording: General: The Kuanua language account is mostly narrative of Tolai people historical myths and folktales. There were beliefs that the land were and people were under the care of ancestral spirits and people would witness or experience incidents and situations in their daily living and was the doing of the spirits who looked after them and cared for their livelihood or well being. Speakers: IaMaria – speaking about ancestral spirits of the lands look after the people. Part of narrations was by collector Meinrad Scheller who jointly shared the speaking in the Kuanua language. Locations: Paparatava, Gazelle Peninsula of East New Britain Province. Different locations covered North-western and central/inland areas Detailed Content: #1 - It’s a historical story of two (2) ancestral spirits caring for the land and livelihood of the people and the society who lived mostly in the central to north and western areas of the Gazelle Peninsula of East New Britain Province. The spirits were brothers in ToKabinana and ToPurugo who took over the responsibility to look after and over the people after their spirit father died. ToKabinana was responsible for the north-western area and ToPurugo for the central/inland area towards the Baining mountain ranges. ToKabinana and ToPurugo met regularly for updates on how the people conducted their lives with subsistence gardening, feeding their families with food and prepared and cooked well, how they engaged in cultural and traditional activities. The different areas and villages cover peoples of Tolai, Taulil and Baining. They had different ways, levels of their livelihood or standard of their living in speaking dialects and languages, way they prepared food, the way families and their villages do things as well as ways of the traditional and cultural activities conducted. #2 – Story of a man named Palai (human being) conversing with an invisible man named Toiau (the dead or a spirit being). They actually were brothers and it was common thing that the dead visit the living when they want to re-connect. The dead or invisible person is commonly known as a “tabaran”. In this particular incident the “tabaran” appear to Palai and said he was hungry and was weak because of no food in the spirit world. So Palai climbed coconut tree for dry nuts to bring home to his mother and him to prepare food for the “tabaran”. They baked taro and roasted a chicken in the stone oven. They then prepared a type of delicacy called a “ku”. The “ku” is a creamy coconut milked green substance cooked in hot stones in banana leaves. The leaves of a certain type of tree is crushed and mixed with scrapped coconut where the milk juices are extracted then boiled n the banana leaves till the creamy substance is produced. It is now eaten with the taro and chicken as a dressing and adds the sweetness to the meal. These type of meals are only for important or special occasions so the meal for the “tabaran” was a special one being family – eaten by the unseen brother. Palai then offered the food to the “tabaran” on open banana leaves who ate it and finished it. Palai then wrapped some extra food so the “tabaran” can bring with him to wherever he resides. Then the “tabaran” invilted Palai to accompany him to wherever he was going but Palai replied that he has already fed him and he can leave now as they are different and live in two different worlds as he was iving and the “tabaran” is dead and now a spirit no seen. #3 – Continuation of Item#1 with the two ancestral spirits ToKabinana and ToPurugo but narrated jointly in parts by the collector Meinrad Scheller and Maria. Its talks about meeting each other and updating what was going on in the various villages and areas they covered. Its shows that the spirits were concerned and caring making things possible for the better livelihood of the people they were responsible for. Of the two, ToKabinana was a smart one and ToPurugo was always going things wrong and the wisdom of ToKabinana was correcting him so he can follow how he does things for the people he was responsible for. Advice ranged from how people lived their lives, their ways of doing things, how they planted food gardens and harvesting, how they hunted and fished, how they did feasts and ceremonies etc. #4 – Account of IaMaria who is the narrator/speaker of the stories. She was born in the village Tinganabui as there were no hospitals then. She came from a family of eight (8) however three (3) first siblings died at their passed away prematurely

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