SIP Vanimo -
Kilimeri SIP Vanimo -
Kilimeri
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The SIP Vanimo - Kilimeri is jointly run by UKC and NRI and includes Vanimo township and the Kilimeri Census Division. We maintain an office in Vanimo and four field stations in different villages within the Kilimeri Census Division (Isi, Krisa, Osol and Oup).
Research activities on the SIP Vanimo - Kilimeri are aimed at two goals:
1) within the scope and research protocol of APFT to deliver data on
the livelihoods of the local people (with special consideration of, demography,
urban-rural links, subsistence, diachronic perspective)
2) within NRI's research focus The Conservation of Renewable Resources to
contribute to the
understanding of the social context and impact of a timber project.
Local co-ordinator at the Vanimo Office: Felix Topni
| Mail: | UKC-APFT Programme PO Box 172 |
| Phone: | ++675-857-1446 |
| Fax: | ++675-857-1572 Christian Books Melanesia, attention : Felix Topni |
Vanimo is a relatively recent township, it was established as a patrolpost and then abandoned and reoccupied several times during the Australian administration. Only after the Sepik district was divided into east and west in 1967, Vanimo became the headquarters of what was then the West Sepik District and today is the Sandaun Province. The hospital was established after the Second World War. No road links connect Vanimo to the other centres of Papua New Guinea but the road to Jayapura in Irian Jaya is finished and will be opened as soon as customs formalities are established at the border.
Since the beginning of the logging operations in 1989 Vanimo has grown fast and has currently about five to six times the number of inhabitants than 20 years before. About 3/4 of the land in Vanimo town is squatted, and this squatted land is partly occupied by permanent buildings, which cannot be removed anymore and render any planning process quite erratic. This development has been encouraged and accelerated by the free availability of ìskin diwai from the sawmill to the rural villages within the logging operation area. The northernmost villages of the adjacent Kilimeri Census Division, e.g. Sosi and Krisa, maintain large settlements south of the airstrip but still within Vanimo township. Besides hospital and airstrip, Vanimo has the usual facilities, as administration offices, correctional institution, market, stores, banks, post office, church, highschool, and it is also the seat of the bishop of the RC Diocese of Vanimo, which also runs stores, workshops, a health centre and an own highschool. The provincial radio station, however, is closed due to lack of funds.
The Kilimeri Census Division in Sandaun Province lies south of Vanimo, the province capital. It comprises 15 census units, that is villages or settlement units, with a total of 2í411 inhabitants (1990 census). Of these settlement units, 14 share a common language, which belongs to the Bewani Language Family (Border Stock, Trans- New Guinea Phylum), one language which is only spoken at Krisa, belongs to the Sko Phylum-Level Stock. (Wurm & Hattori 1981). Despite this linguistic differences, the people of the Kilimeri Census Division share a common culture with only minor local variations.
The area is accessed by the Vanimo-Bewani Road, which traverses it from north to south as well as by a strip for light aircraft near Osima RC Mission at the eastern edge of the area, and there is also an airstrip at Bewani south of the Kilimeri.
Some of the villages and hamlets are situated on the breezy tops of the coastal range (Oenanke Range) at altitudes around 300 m ASL, others cluster on low limestone ridges in the Pual basin (formerly Nemayer or Neumayer River) at lower altitudes (below 100 m ASL).
Characteristically sagostands are found in the swampy river- and creek basins, while fruit tree-groves are situated further up on the hillsides and on the hilltops within or close to the settlements. Pig husbandry is not as prominent as in other parts of New Guinea, the hunt on wild pigs, birds and marsupials as well as fishing being a much more important source of animal protein. (The outlined subsistence activities are subsumed under agricultural system 1507 by Bourke et al 1993.) The traditional daily meal usually consists of sagopudding wrapped into leaves (of banana and ginger plants) for individual portions and is accompanied by vegetables, and if available some meat, cooked in coconut cream.
The traditional political authority is in the hands of the leaders of the patriclans, which are also the landholding units. Important qualities for leadership include, the possession of traditional knowledge of origin stories and land rights, being a gifted orator, and to a minor degree being an outstanding warrior as well as a sorcerer. The term patriclan is here used as the members of such a social group claim common descent from a mythical ancestor and patrilinear descent is the rule. The modern administration has installed village councilors, who are often identical with the traditional leaders. Normally a village comprises several patriclans, which are restricted to this village, but there are exceptions. The patriclans being exogamous, the major binding links between them are marriage transactions. Each such transaction binds three clans together: not only the wife-giving and wife-taking clans but also the clan of the brides mother, as the brideprice is handed over to the brides mothers brother, who in turn will use it to pay brideprice for his sons wives.
The Kilimeri area lies within the Vanimo TRP (Timber Rights Purchase) area, which was defined as early as the mid sixties. The land of several of the villages has been logged, another part is now being logged and others are due for logging in the next years. The royalties from selling the timber rights are considered a major source of income by the villagers, although those having already been paid have spent the money within less than a year (mainly on cloth, food and beer). Only a few men have succeeded in reinvesting their share into smallscale business (e.g. tradestores). Dissatisfaction with the logging company is high, as the royalties paid are considered much to low. Other source of cash income are cash-cropping of cocoa, some men grow bananas, pineapple and root crops or rear pig and chicken for sale to DPI (Department of Primary Industries), and the women travel either to Vanimo or Bewani to sell surplus foods on the markets.
The earliest record of human settlement is provided by the Lachitu shelter west of Vanimo, which is interpreted as a refuge and dated to about 14000 bp (Gorecki 1991: 121).
The Vanimo coast and its hinterland had contact to Seram and the Moluccas by at least 250 AD (Swadling 1996 :206-09), and Vanimo harbour was used as an anchorage for trading voyages of the sultans of old Indonesia from bases at Jayapura and further west (Allen 1976: 323): They and their agents were after bird-of-paradise plumes and they sent expeditions deep into the mountains behind Vanimo and into the western Sepik valley.
In 1827 Dumont d'Urville first noticed the mouth of the Pual river. He attempted to land in Vanimo harbour on the 11th August but was attacked by twenty canoes. D'Urville therefore named the place Anse d'attaque. (Tiesler 1970: 111-122).
Otto Finsch, who directed the first systematic German exploration of the New Guinea North Coast sighted on the 15th May 1885 the Pual which he named Neumayer river, and then anchored in Vanimo harbour. He made contact and traded fresh produce from Vanimo people. He described the material posessions he saw and noticed that iron was known. (Finsch 1888: 334-341)
Two other German exploratory expeditions touched the Kilimeri area. In 1909 Friederici traveled along the North Coast from Aitape to Jayapura (Hollandia) (Friederici 1919: 182-185, Sapper 1910: 225), and in 1910 the German-Dutch Border Expedition (Deutsch-Holländische Grenzexpedition) traveled inland across the Pual basin and the Bewani mountains to the Sepik river. However, both expeditions only had fleeting contacts with the people of the Kilimeri area (Schultze Jena 1914).
There were German recruiting trips to Vanimo in 1893 and 1894, and in 1900 the Germans established a trading station at Vanimo harbour. (Tiesler 1970). Krisa people report that only two men from the Kilimeri area, one from Auwol and one from Elao, took up work in the plantations. At Isi it is remembered that a man from Osol was the first to dare to walk to the coast and board a ship. He came from the hamlet Imeri, and consequently when asked about the name of his home area, he gave this name, which was later mutilated to Kilimeri and is now the official designation for the census division.
Around 1919/20 (cf. Swadling 1996) Malay hunters visited the Oenanke Range (Krisa) and also parts of the Pual basin (Osol). They brought guns with them and hired local men to hunt birds of paradise. The local hunters were paid in glassbeads, knives and axes. Only then, steel tools were introduced to Krisa and the traditional stone adzes abandoned (some of these introduced artifacts are still hold as family heirlooms). Also in Osol the Malay hunters are well remembered, four of them stayed in the settlement and formed individual bonds of friendship with Osol men. The steel axes given by them were so valued that they were given individual names, which are still remembered.
Between 1927 and 1936 the Australian administration maintained a police postat Vanimo and Masta Ouka and Masta Wiski (J.W. Hodgekiss) patrolled the Kilimeri area.
In 1936 the Catholic mission at Lote near Vanimo was established (Allen 1976: 327) by Masta Missen, described by people from Isi as having a body glowing red like the sun.
During the war, from 1942-45 the administration and the mission withdraw, and Japanese troops moved into the area, and Vanimo was a staging place for Japanese coastal barge traffic. (Patrol report 6/1944-45, August 1944, Capt. Searson). Although it is reported that the war only slightly affected the Vanimo area (Allen 1976: 327), the impact on the Kilimeri area must have been considerable.
...these villages lay on the roads used by roving, hungry and bewildered groups of Japs, who, in most cases, ate out the gardens, destroyed the coconut groves and moved on leaving the village in a shambles and the deadly bacilli of dysentery in their wake. As it is possible that further groups of the enemy moving to the west from the Wewak-Aitape area will pass along their road, I deemed it not advisable to direct the natives to return to rebuild their villages. They are split into, for the most part, small family groups, and are getting plenty of food and game. (Patrol report 6/1944-45, August 1944, Capt. J.J. Searson).
The memories of an old Krisa man match this description: he recalls that the Japanese killed all the hunting dogs and cut down the coconut palms in order to destroy peoples basis of subsistence. His family fled into the bush and they lived there for about a year.
In 1946 or -47, the Catholic Mission came to Osol and Osima, later the airstrip at Osima was built and Father Kletus patrolled the area. Bible schools were established in various locations, for instance at Krisa in 1955. Village schools supervised by the Franciscan priest at Vanimo exist at Sosi, Omula and Krisa. (Patrol report 5/1957-58, March 1958, J.A. Erskine)
After 1949 the linguist Capell visited Vanimo. An older man from Krisa recalls while working on the station, being sent by the 'kiap' (District Officer) to the linguist, who had a big 'bible', where he recorded his name and words of the Krisa language. This event was later connected to the signing of the timber rights agreement in February 1967.
The shock of culture contact must have been considerable, although the early effects (ca 1900 - 1942) of foreign rule must have felt benign. There seems not to have been much direct contact to the German colonialists, and the pacification of the coastal area (Lido, Vanimo and perhaps also Imbinis) brought relief from war pressure. Also later, under the Australian administration, the Kilimeri was a quiet backwater, there was no permanent foreign settlement along this stretch of the coast and also the main patrol routes did not extend inland (the main patrol route ran along the coast from Aitape to the then Dutch border). And, in contrast to other areas situated so close to the coast, the Kilimeri was a long way from the mission headquarters at Aitape, and therefore not subject to much missionary influence.
After the war, change occurred at an ever increasing pace: New foods, Christianisation, the building of Vanimo township, the voluntary abandoning of traditional customs and crafts, schools, independence and the modern nation of Papua New Guinea, and finally logging with a dense network of roads busy with huge trucks, and of course money.
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