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by Bernard Narokobi by Lise M Dobrin Yəhələgɨr, Wautogig’s founding father Why Yəhələgɨr had to seek a new home in new lands About Yəhələgɨr's wife's people, on whose lands he settled The places where Yəhələgɨr and his wife made their new home Yəhələgɨr befriends a man from Walanduom and creates lasting ties between their two villages Why Meliawi fled Kwangen How Meliawi and Yəhələgɨr met Meliawi and Yəhələgɨr learn to trust one another The former inhabitants of the lands where Wautogig was founded The clans that make up the village How Wautogig’s tribes are distributed over the land Description of the present-day village site Things that happened during the early colonial period How Anton Narokobi brought the Catholic church to the village The villagers’ earliest forays into schooling outside the village and work in trained occupations Key figures in the first generation of Wautogigem to advance through higher education Further discussion of Wautogig’s many educated, professional, and important men Important women from the earliest generations About women from Narokobi's mother's generation Women of modern times, with special focus on those who married in What the villagers experienced during the Second World War The return home and establishing of a new unified village site How the Wautogigem came to occupy their current village site Reflections on the village churches as both buildings and social institutions How land is owned and passed on Gardening, marketing, and the planting of cash crops Public presentations of wealth to other communities The words, actions, and histories of village song-dance complexes Traditional games and how they were played Expectations about the relations between men and women |
Chapter 14: The First ChristiansBy the time the first men from Wautogig went off to work on plantations or engage in other paid work away from home, the Germans had already established missions in the Aitape district. A mission station was established at Boikin. Karawop had been developed as a plantation. The Germans were interested in making plantations, not developing people. Among the young Wautogig men who went to work on the plantations were Gabuogi and my father, Anton Narokobi. Narokobi started off as a plantation hand. However, the priest in charge, Father Rumanski, discovered that he had a good memory and was quick with counting, so he moved him into study as a catechist along with some other young Boikin men. Anton Narokobi had arrived at Boikin from Walanduom village where he had spent his youth with his mother, Kohar. Narokobi’s father had died when he was a baby, so his mother took him to Walanduom where she married a man named Heiwaŋga after an unsuccessful marriage to Otomairə, the father of Yehaipim. Narokobi studied basic reading and writing, the seven sacraments, the ten commandments, and the rosary. During this time at Boikin mission he developed a real fear of the Lord. He read the Bible fluently in Tok Pisin. He studied in Boikin language and was familiar with the Latin Gregorian chants. Narokobi married Maria Mukoi, and the couple dedicated their lives to mission work. Maria, together with Bakico, also of Wautogig, had earlier entered the convent at Boikin as a novice.1 So it was that as a young couple Anton and Maria became the first Catholic catechists, teachers, and missionaries to Wautogig village and the region. Narokobi worked with other young men to clear the land at what was then known as Bakaran for the St. John’s mission station to be built on Kairiru Island.2 He worked for a while on Karesau Island. He was due to be sent to Vokeo Island but declined and was instead sent to Walanduom. Since Walanduom already had a church, however, he was sent on to Wautogig. So it was that on Dagububu, the hill where Wautogig’s founder Yəhələgɨr built his first hamlet, Anton Narokobi and his wife Maria, with support from the Wautogig people, built the first Catholic church. This happened before the Pacific War. From his base at Dagububu Narokobi taught Wautogig men and women to read and write the alphabet, learn about the Bible, recite prayers, and receive conversion through the sacraments of baptism, confession, communion, confirmation, and marriage. People came from the neighbouring villages in Kotai and Woginara to be baptised. With only a handful of exceptions, nearly all Wautogigem became Christians and were baptised into the Catholic church. Many of the first Wautogig men and women who learned to read and write did so under Narokobi’s instruction there. |
NOTES 1 Bakico is Jacob Sonin’s mother. 2 St. John's was the original name of the Catholic station on Kairiru. That's where they trained the catechists. Listen. |