A Crisis of Identity



 

Many years ago as an undergraduate studying Philosophy, I undertook a module entitled ‘Self and Society’.  The course examined the place of the self within society and how identity could impact and affect engagement with the same.  We considered how we evaluate ourselves and how we attribute worth; but also issues around the correlation of humans as individuals within a relational context. 

We asked whether engagement with ‘groups’ affected our behaviour and the value structures upon which we base our decisions.  Finally we explored societal constructs and looked at the impact that social perceptions and behaviours had on individuals and their understanding of self and identity.

I was particularly intrigued by Sartre’s assertion that humans are 'condemned to be free’; the idea that if there is no such thing as human nature our ‘essence’ must be based purely on our experiences.  We are condemned to be free because we are entirely responsible for our actions and behaviour, and are therefore ‘left alone, without excuse’.  Authenticity and individuality are earned and not learned.



                        



                      Enga Province                             Autonomous Region of Bougainville

As I walked around the 38th Papua New Guinea Independence Day celebrations held last weekend in Brisbane, I marvelled at the spectacular diversity of ethnic groups in PNG, and mused over the what it means to be Papua New Guinean in a country only a few of years older than I am.     There is no doubt that cultural traditions are an incredibly important of PNG life and that tribal identity forms a very large part of individual identity.  However, the divisions created by those tribal lines can equally create a barrier which prevents people from seeing themselves with a national identity. 

 

Tolai & Western Highlands Province

At this event it was a pleasure to see people celebrating their tribal differences but embracing and having pride in the fact of being Papua New Guinean.  There was a sense of unity and togetherness which transcended tribal lines, but importantly this celebration was taking place outside PNG.  Within PNG itself that sense of national identity doesn’t seem to have been embraced. People talk about themselves in terms of their tribe, their clan, their village, their region, their province, and maybe eventually as Papua New Guinean.

 

Bougainville Island

Tufi, Oro Province

I remember sitting in Piccadilly Circus, London, having a beer with some friends from PNG. I was chatting to two guys, both from Goroka where I will be living.  I asked them whether they knew each other back at home.  They looked nervously at each other and pulled an embarrassed sort of face.  I had no idea what I had said that could have prompted that response so I just smiled (equally nervously).  Slowly, one of the guys turned to me and said: ‘No.  We wouldn’t be friends in PNG.  Our tribes don’t get on and it would cause problems.  Now I know him if I saw him in town I might nod to him because I know he’s a good guy, but we couldn’t be friends. We couldn’t sit and have a beer together like this.’  I was flabbergasted. I really didn’t know how to respond. Two highly educated, intelligent men didn’t feel that they could be friends because those tribal lines were so firmly drawn.  Their individual identities were so firmly entrenched in their tribal identities that they were prevented from enriching their life experiences through relating to each other.  They felt that only outside of PNG could they just be Papua New Guinean.

Gorari, Oro Province

It made me really sad but it also explained many things. With over 850 linguistically distinct indigenous languages in a population of around 7 million, and with literally thousands of clans and tribes PNG is an anthropologist’s gold mine.  So it is basically impossible to talk about PNG culture as an entity in itself.  It’s not.  Instead it is thousands of little world’s coexisting in a shared space.  The media likes to portray tribalism with rose tinted romanticism; a simple, beautiful, colourful existence holding onto history and refusing to yield to the blandness of homogeny.  And it is that.  However, it is also responsible for so much heartache, and bloodshed, and anger, and pain, and a cycle of brutality and violence which has no place in any society.

Ethnic Clash At PNGUniversity Spills Out Into Street

Ethnic Clashes in PNGDisplaces Up to 700 people

Papua New GuineaTribal Clashes Kill 15

Addressing EthnicViolence in PNG

You will often hear people in PNG talk about their wantoks – the people whom they consider to be a part of their community whether related or not.  Interestingly in Tok Pisin it means ‘one language’, but this refers to a person’s tribal language rather than a language which unifies all Papua New Guineans.   To understand life in PNG it is vital to grasp the concept of the wantok system.  It is the social glue which binds the nation together, it is a safety net for people who have limited access to social welfare services such as health and educational facilities, but it also holds PNG back from developing an effective civil society and perpetuates corruption and theft. This unwritten social contract requires individuals to assist their wantoks in times of need.  It doesn’t just ask that you prefer the interests of your wantoks, it confers on you an obligation to do so.  However, in recent years the wantok system has been abused and (as one PNG friend put it) perverted from its positive traditional roots and generous intentions.

Manus Island

It has been bastardised in such a way that PNG now holds the tenuous accolade of most corrupt country in the Pacific and one of the top 25 most corrupt countries in the world according to Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index.  Government resources and development money is often divided regionally.  However, without good governance structures in place and without transparent reporting mechanisms, it is all too easy for those in power to divert funds in order to benefit themselves and their wantoks.  Knowing that a period in office has a finite timeframe individuals gather in all that they can and squirrel it away for their own purposes, rather than using those resources to benefit all the people in that region.  Frequently individuals will be found jobs by a wantok regardless of whether they are competent to carry out that role or skilled in that area. 

So, you end up with serious capability issues and a malevolent greed which pervades local, provincial, and national government.  Recently, Australia’s 7 network ran a story on its Today Tonight programme alleging that half of PNG’s national budget is lost to corruption each year.  This allegation angered Prime Minister O’Neill who demanded a public apology leading 7 to defend its reporting and issue a further statement.  Interestingly though Mr O’Neill did not deny that this level of corruption exists, he instead (incorrectly) questioned the level of the figures and the source of the funding.

Central Province

But it is not just in the world of politics that regionalism and the wantok system negatively impacts, detrimentally affecting life for Papua New Guineans. Constructs such as payback are responsible for wanton brutality and a vengeance which is destroying the very heart of PNG.  Last week the Australian media went into frenzy after several Aussie tourists were injured and two PNG porters were hacked to death with bush knives on the Black Cat trail.  The drug fuelled attack is thought to have had its roots in a tribal disagreement over who should have the right to act as porters for tourists trekking the route, and payback killings have reportedly now begun.  However, these sorts of stories are everyday occurrences in PNG.  I felt quite irritated that international media sources don’t show the same interest and regard each and every time a PNG life is lost in this brutal way.  Absolutely it should be reported and should be condemned, but a sharp spike in reporting seems always to coincide with white foreigners being involved.  Why isn’t the same regard given to PNG lives?

The wantok system relies upon recognising the value of the individuals who form part of a community.  Bride price and compensation are therefore inherent parts of many cultures in PNG and were intended to have positive connotations.  However, the positive intention of those concepts has been eroded to the point where life is commoditised and where many women become enslaved in a system which makes it almost impossible for them to live with dignity and respect.  It is not unusual when a woman is raped for financial compensation to be paid to her husband; essentially a payment for damaging his goods.  When bride price is paid, it has traditionally been viewed as recognition that the woman is of such importance and worth that a payment should be made for this precious individual.  However, the imbalance in gender equity means that the status of women is frequently reduced to that of an asset; to be dealt with at the whim of her owner/husband.  People often ‘joke’ that the three most important things for a PNG man are his land, his pigs, and his wife – in that order! 

If a woman leaves her husband because he is beating her, she may be required to repay the bride price.  This is a tall order where the cost could be as high as K200,000 (about AU$85,000 or £50,000) but where GDP per capita is only about K4500 (or AU$2000/£1,200) per year.  In cultures where the husband also has responsibility for providing for his wife’s family, another layer of complication, economic injustice and disempowerment is added.

I spoke recently to a young mixed race (PNG and Australian) lady who described to me her confusion growing up as the only ‘white’ pikinini (child) in her village. She explained how difficult it was to understand why she was treated differently. Her cousins were black but they were still her wantoks so why was having a white father important?  Where individual identity is so closely aligned to tribal identity a whole generation of young people born to parents in mixed marriages (whether cross cultural or multi-national) are having a crisis of identity.  Who are their people?  What is their culture? Where do they belong?  Without having a sense of being Papua New Guinean for its own sake these young people can find it very difficult to find any space which is theirs.

Dogura, Milne Bay Province

Tribalism is sacred to Papua New Guineans, and is a vital part of maintaining a rich diversity which respects and honours cultural roots and the heritage of thousands of years. But I firmly believe that it is possible to retain that essence whilst departing from a destructive regionalism which operates on a divide and conquer basis and is governed by greed and corruption. Through strong leadership and the establishment of transparent governance structures I hope that one day the wantok system will return to its roots as a positive support structure to assist those in need, rather than a system to be exploited and abused.

Papua New Guinea Tourism

Louise Ewington

O Arise voices of PNG...Happy Independence Day!

As we near the end of these 38th Independence Day celebrations my hope for the future is that PNG women will continue to rise up against sexual and domestic violence. Refusing to be hushed, and demanding change.

 

There is a real sense of challenge emanating from these voices which have been silenced for so long.  With courage, conviction, and a sense of outrage PNG women are emerging from a world of pain, violence, subjugation and loneliness.

 

They are refusing to accept a world in which 60% of women have been raped and 75% subjected to sexual and/or domestic abuse. I am so proud to be working with some incredible men and women who are forging new paths through the tangle of cultural perceptions, and stripping the arguments back to fight for a normative societal framework which condemns violence against women and holds fast in its commitment to universal human rights. 

 

See the bottom of the page for links to some of this incredible work in PNG.  And as I wish you good night, what better inspiration than Maya Angelou:

 

 Still I Rise

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

The Remembering Kepari Leniata Campaign and the Leniata Legacy

 

Meri Toksave

 

Oxfam working with Crisis Centres in East Sepik

 

Oxfam working with Lifeline

 

Louise Ewington

The Fatal Reality of Perceived Dangers

Recently I attended a workshop in Melbourne designed to take a creative approach to thinking about our career expectations and ambitions. We were asked to draw a picture which represents how we see ourselves in our current roles. My picture depicted a scuba diver surrounded by an array of fish and other sea creatures swimming along but with a huge shark, jaws bared, looming towards the unsuspecting diver. Despite my lack of artistic talent, I was pleased with it as a representation.

For me the ocean has always been a special place.  It's said that if you grow up by the sea you never quite feel at home in a place where you don't have access to it. Well this bounty-advert tropical beach and coral reef ocean (below) was my introduction to the sea and all its splendour. Southend-on-Sea (despite its promising sounding name) was a bit of a disappointment by comparison when we moved back to the UK, but that's an aside.

http://www.protectourcoralsea.org.au/reefs-of-the-coral-sea/bougainville-reef

The point is that for me the ocean represents a richly populated, diverse, beautiful, colourful, exciting, but vast universe. Much like PNG. I will be just a tiny speck in this extraordinary world which brings out the very best and the very worst of humanity. Where the people's love and reverence for the land is often cast aside to enable the unashamed plundering of its natural resources.  A place which is a dichotomous mix of sacred traditions and capitalist expectations.

PNG is known as the 'land of the unexpected' and for good reason. It is an environment which can be as confusing and complex, as it can be infuriatingly literal and superbly logical. It is biologically unique and anthropologically diverse. It bows to no one but endures through its own wonderful loveliness. Much like the ocean.

However, it also represents a whole heap of unknown. As brilliantly exciting as that is, I would be a fool not to recognise the inherent dangers which may lurk in hidden corners, unspoken resentments, and a retributive vengeance which is an entirely accepted form of 'justice' against perceived wrongs.

I was recently engaged in an online discussion sparked by this image.  The man in this photograph was beaten to death by a local crowd after being accused of rape. He hasn't been tried or convicted; the accusation itself was enough for the crowd to assume guilt, and the response was fatal.

I expressed the view that 'mob rule is not justice' and whilst many endorsed that sentiment many more followed the line that he 'got what he deserved'. One particular man replied directly to my comment.  Justice, he proclaimed, was for the 'white man' and this was the black man's way. If I didn't like it I could 'shut the fuck up and fuck off'.  

I don't know anything about this guy other than that he has a university education and is from New Caledonia.  I can't begin to analyse his comment because I don't know his experiences; I have no idea how (and by what) his world view has been shaped.  However the violence and bitterness of that reaction brought to mind the shark lurking outside my line of vision in the picture I had drawn.

Those kind of interactions may represent a latent danger; a sort of hyperbolic mouthing off typified by the 'bigman' culture. Or it may represent a very real threat, one which may appear out of nowhere but is fatal in its consequences.

For Kepari Leniata (a 20 year old mother) mob 'justice' resulted in her being burned alive on a rubbish tip in Mount Hagen.  For Helen Rumbali (a 40 year old former primary school teacher) mob 'justice' resulted in her beheading on Bougainville Island.  Her sister and two nieces were held hostage and subjected to days of torture. For this young woman pictured (Angela) it meant being bound and gagged, humiliated, burned, and gashed with bush knives whilst the leering mob stood by and watched 'justice' being meted out.

Photograph by Vlad Sohkin

In all of these cases the women concerned had been accused of sorcery. The fear and perception of danger which sorcery and witchcraft hold in PNG cannot be underestimated,. Accusations of sorcery also frequently elicit this sort of brutal and vindictive response. There was no justice for these women, but the mob felt that they had obtained a just outcome.

What justice means for me and what justice means for that man in New Caledonia are clearly worlds apart. What is clear though is that a just outcome and justice are not always the same thing.  The recent case of George Zimmerman is a perfect example in my view. A young black man (Trayvon Martin) lost his life when a white vigilante decided to take matters into his own hands because of a perceived (but entirely absent) danger. Despite that young man having committed no crime and posing no threat to Zimmerman, and despite the case being dealt with through the legal 'justice' system in the US, there was not a just outcome in my view.

I stand by my comment that mob rule is not justice, and I don't apologise for it. I don't believe that mob rule serves justice; nor do I recognise the perceived right of the mob to take matters into their own hands. Even if the man beaten to death was guilty of rape, it does not justify the actions of that mob in my opinion. The mob who accused Kepari, Helen, and Angela of sorcery believed just as fervently that an injustice had been committed as the mob who took the life of the accused rapist. 

To some (including the gentleman from New Caledonia) my comment might be interpreted as some sort of neo-colonial imposition of western values.  It could be perceived as an imperialist judgment on the way that disputes and criminal matters are often dealt with in PNG.  But it is not about a western agenda and nor is about the colour of my skin.  The value structure which frames my reference point is grounded in a firm commitment to human rights, and any delivery of 'justice' should (for me) be rooted in those principles. 

I don't believe that 'justice' is for any particular group of people any more than I believe that an entitlement to human rights is conditional upon the behaviour of individuals.  Respecting human beings as equal unequivocally and universally is a premise upon which I believe that all societies should be structured whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status.  Affording people dignity based on those inalienable rights should be our vision, and it should guide our treatment of individuals, no matter what they are accused of.  Having a 'justice' system which respects, upholds and advances those principles is therefore something that should be strived for.

When we allow a mob to be empowered based on perceptions of what constitutes a just outcome, we endorse an anarchic form of so-called 'justice'. One which is violent, dictated by emotion, and perpetuates a base humanity governed by self. Where greed, corruption and incompetence pervade a legal 'justice' system I recognise the frustration which can lead to such reactions, even though I cannot abide the abhorrent manifestation of that protest.

However, I also recognise keenly the dangers lurking just out of my vision as I start my journey through this oceanic universe.  Brilliant, inviting, and richly rewarding but full of hidden dangers - latent, real, or perceived but also potentially fatal.

For more on gender perceptions in PNG and the 'bigman' culture read this excellent article Gender Issues:  The Heart of the Matter is in the Mind of a Man by award winning PNG blogger Martyn Namorong.

Louise Ewington