Category — Inspiration

On a visit to the Enga Cultural Centre, the Take Ande, I was introduced to a legendary Engan leader who through necessity, brilliance, perseverance and very strong internal values, overcame some major hurdles to achieve significant social status and strong tribal influence.

One of the wall mounts about Takime

The remarkable aspects of this legendary person was that first, she was a female and second, she had married into the tribe.

Her name was Takime. She was born in around 1911 and married Lapinyo, a man from the Waripa clan of Enga. They had two sons, Keko&Temo, and their marriage was a normal one as it was back in those days. He did all the men’s works and roles in the tribe and as per custom, she looked after the kids, tended the gardens, fed the pigs and attended to all the female roles.

But one day, her husband was killed in a tribal fight.  Her sons were still very young and the distraught widow had to make a decision on what to do.  She decided that the boys still needed a father.

So she made an extreme option.

Instead of marrying another man, she decided that should be both mother and father to the boys. [Read more →]

While much of Papua New Guinea may have celebrated the New Year with partying and alcohol, the people of Surinki, a place once notorious for violent tribal fights, brought in the first day of 2012 with peace and calm.

Stuffing the intestines, for old people with no teeth.

The community in Enga created their own history when over 3000 members of various churches held a multi-denomination mass on the 1st of January at the open air auditorium of Yaskom Hotel & Resort. [Read more →]

“The child who is a warrior now, where is his future tomorrow?”

One of the Classrooms built by Yaso Kome

It was philosophical question, a musing on the place of the traditional warrior in a modern, progressive Enga.

The soft spoken Engan gentleman sitting in the drivers seat of his Toyota Landcruiser asked it calmly, the glint in his grey eyes reflected his unwavering belief – that the way to peace in his often violent province can be found with the children.

His name is Yaso Kome.

We had parked the car at a former tribal battleground. There was nothing here at one time; everything that was here, houses, crops, cars, pigs, dogs, and people were destroyed in one of Enga’s notorious tribal fights between enemy clans. [Read more →]