Details

Latitude

-4.21301

Longitude

152.1795

Start Date

1993-04-08

End Date

1993-04-08

Tape#2: General Rabaul Town Community Experiences Side A&B: Andy Seigers from the Ambonese community continues conversations about the residents and ethnic groups of Rabaul town mainly mixed race, chinese, micronesians, polynesians and europeans who would socially meet and interact at the Kambiu Club at Malaytown. The Kambiu Club became a popular venue for bars, music entertainment and social dance nights. The Kambiu Stringband was the attraction to the residents due to their music as well as other performances in plays, drama and ethnic dancing exhibitions. Europeans and Government officers were regulars at the Club. In the 1960s', there was some disagreements in the Club management which resulted in the splitting up of members and the establishment of the New Guinea Ambonese Club with the founding President was Andy Seigers and the Secretary was Peter Sahluteru. Rabaul was a cosmopolitan town and there were quiet distinct living or accommodation areas of different communities such as Malaytown, Chinatown, Native compound for indigenous labourers, Europeans and Government Officials and services like schools and hospitals were also separated although started combining mainly the mixed race community amongst inter-marriages od european to chinese to malay and indigenous people. Other experiences and changes in the life of Rabaul town was evident towards the the 1970s to PNG's self government and independence and also saw migrations of some of the residents to Australia. (Steven Gagau, January 2020)

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