Gebusi Photo Gallery: Chapter 10

chapter11a_3

1. Sayu playing in the forest with a toy bow and arrow, 1981.  At close range, he would often shoot at grasshoppers or butterflies.

chapter11a_4

2. Sayu showing us a grasshopper he has shot with his bow and arrow, 1981

chapter11a_6

3. Sayu’s mother, Boyl, 1981

chapter11a_7

4. Sayu’s father, Salip, 1981

chapter11a_8

5. Sayu as a young man, 1998

chapter11a_9

6. Sayu as a young man, 1998. For fun, he is wearing a sticker on his cheek.

.chapter11a_10

7. Sayu arranges his feather headdress in preparation for his dance

chapter11a_11

8. Sayu dances in traditional costume at Kotie Masam, 1998

chapter11a_12

9. Sayu rests at dawn outside Kotie Masam after his dance is finished, 1998

chapter11a_13

10. The town of Kiunga from the air, 1998

chapter11a_14

11. Kiunga – a supply depot, mining town, and “muddy gateway to the modern world.”

chapter11a_15

12. A trade store and car in Kiunga, 1998

chapter11b_1

13. A man gazes at trade goods in a large store, Kiunga, 1998

chapter11b_2

14. Didiga and Sayu, ready for dinner (which they have just cooked) at our kitchen table

chapter11b_3

15. Didiga, 1998.

chapter11b_4

16. Traditional costuming at a remote village, 1998: senior man in a red bird-of-paradise headdress.

chapter11b_5

17. Traditional costuming at a remote village, 1998: Kuma, a young man in a red bird-of-paradise headdress, holding bow and arrows.

chapter11b_7

18. Traditional costuming at a remote village, 1998: young boy painted in red

chapter11b_8

19. Hybrid costuming at remote village, 1998: man with black face paint and a white patterned shirt

chapter11b_9

20. Hybrid costuming at a remote village, 1998: woman with “red bird-of-paradise” face paint and a black bra

chapter11b_12

21. Hybrid costuming at a remote village, 1998: two women blend modern and traditional styles of dress

chapter11c_1

22. Modern costuming at remote village, 1998: man with a sports jersey and plastic flowered headdress

chapter11c_2

23. Modern costuming at remote village, 1998: boy wearing a new type of flowered headdress

chapter11c_3

24. Hybrid costuming at remote village, 1998: two women from Gasumi Corners in dresses and wearing jewelry.

chapter11c_4

25. Male initiation at Yulabi, 1998: traditional dancing

chapter11c_6

26. String-band singing in Gasumi Corners:  (Left to right) Harfay, Huwa, Howe, Damya 

chapter11c_7

27. Opening of the Independence Day ceremonies: A man in a neo-traditional costume raises the Papua New Guinea flag, with school children lined up behind

chapter11c_8

28. Opening of the Independence Day ceremonies: A man and woman in neo-traditional dress hold a sign for their group, with a man in a white T-shirt between them. The words on the man’s T-shirt read:  “Compulsive, Antisocial, Manic Depressive, Paranoid, but Basically Happy”

chapter11c_9

29. Independence Day “dramas,” 1998: men dressed in traditional costumes begin a skit that makes fun of traditional customs

chapter11c_10_new

30. Man dressed in a traditional costume plays in a skit that makes fun of chopping with a stone axe. Independence Day “dramas,” 1998.

chapter11c_11_new

31. Men from Gasumi Corners enact a farce of a traditional sorcery inquest: Damywa, who plays the spirit medium, leans over the “dead man,” Mata, who has a large fake phallus and testicles strapped to his waist.

chapter11c_12

32. Men from Gasumi Corners enact a farce of a traditional sorcery inquest: Kawuk (left) is tied to a stake by his inquisitioners

chapter11d_1

33. Villagers enact a skit of colonial first contact: an “Australian” patrol officer aims a rifle to subdue traditional warriors

chapter11d_2

34. A Christian skit of the Second Coming at the Nomad “dramas” for Independence Day. Jesus, in a white crown, is flanked by the Angel Gabriel (just to his right, holding a trumpet).  To the right, maidens who have been singing and dancing bare-breasted tremble, die, and are damned to hell for their heathen practices.

chapter11d_3

35. Skit at Independence Day in which a poor traditional villager (right) asks in vain for medicine to cure his sick son from a well-dressed official (left). The skit enacts tensions of locally modern life.

chapter11d_4_new

36. Modern skit at Independence Day of a boy in rags (right) who seeks work in town from an overweight wealthy employer (left). The employer pays the boy a few small coins from his case full of money.  In the skit, the youth steals the satchel of money and the employer then shoots his own security guards dead for not preventing the theft.  The skit portrays the modern tensions of menial wage labor, envy, and violent response by employers.

chapter11d_5

37. Gebusi man and woman perform in traditional costume before hundreds of spectators at Nomad Station on Independence Day, 1998

chapter11d_7

38. Gebusi initiates process onto the performance area at Nomad Station on Independence Day, 1998

chapter11d_8

39. Gebusi initiates and women line up at Nomad on Independence Day, 1998

chapter11d_10

40. A Gebusi man is rated by an official judge holding an umbrella and wearing a Michael Jackson T-shirt at Nomad Station on Independence Day, 1998

chapter11d_11

41. Men enact traditional spirit séance singing at Nomad Station on Independence Day

chapter11d_12

42. Bedamini dancers perform for the multi-ethnic audience at Nomad on Independence Day, 1998

chapter11d_13

43. Mother and child enjoy the various dance performances at Nomad on Independence Day, 1998

chapter11d_14

44. Kabasi dancer standing and singing, Independence Day, Nomad Station, 1998

chapter11d_15

45. Kabasi dancer with feathers swaying, Independence Day, Nomad Station, 1998

chapter11e_1

46. Kabasi dancer sits and sings, Independence Day, Nomad Station, 1998

chapter11e_2

47. Kabasi performer on the following day of the Independence Day festivities. He wears a white shirt and stands with his son at the Nomad ballfield.

chapter11e_3

48. A boy who is too young to be a first-stage initiate is dressed in yellow initiation costuming at Nomad on Independence Day, 1998

chapter11e_4

49. Creative costuming at Nomad on Independence Day, 1998: Man with a cassowary headdress, holding his bow

chapter11e_5

50. Creative costuming at Nomad on Independence Day, 1998: Man in black face paint a necklace, and chest bands

chapter11e_6

51. Unusual costuming at Nomad on Independence Day, 1998: Man with a tall two-tailed headdress

chapter11e_7

52. Unusual costuming at Nomad on Independence Day, 1998: Man with a high cassowary headdress twisted around wires

chapter11e_8

53. Unusual costuming at Nomad on Independence Day, 1998: Man with a very large plastic “noseplug” strapped to his face

chapter11e_9

54.Unusual costuming at Nomad on Independence Day, 1998: Man with a distorted facial costume, wielding an ax

chapter11e_10

55. Modern costuming at Nomad on Independence Day, 1998: Man wearing a blue shirt and red bird-of-paradise feathers mounted on a red hat

chapter11e_11

56. Unusual costuming at Nomad on Independence Day, 1998: Two boys dressed in leaves and body paint

chapter11e_12

57. Unusual costuming at Nomad on Independence Day, 1998: Two men caked in red clay with strap-on phalluses and bug-eyes, impersonating corpses. The man on the right has a live snake strung through his nasal septum

chapter11e_13

58. Unusual costuming at Nomad on Independence Day, 1998:  Two men wear masked costumes of painted bark cloth and strap-on phalluses.  They are impersonating corpses. 

chapter11e_14

59. Neo-traditional and modern dancing at Nomad on Independence Day, 1998: Bare-breasted, middle-aged woman with a flower headdress and body paint dances to disco music from a boombox in the performance competition. The man from her village explained to the crowd, “We have nothing developed in our village, so we can only present you our women for your entertainment.”

chapter11e_15

60. Neo-traditional and modern music at Nomad on Independence Day, 1998: Two men in neo-traditional costume play electric guitars.

chapter11e_16

61. Neo-traditional and modern dancing at Nomad on Independence Day, 1998: Two men dance disco. One is in neo-traditional costume, the other wears modern clothes.

chapter12_1_new

62. Bruce stands in the main clearing of the old village site of Yibihilu, which has since been overgrown by the intruding forest. For Gebusi as well as for Bruce, seeing old habitation sites brings back nostalgic memories of past experiences and of people who have died. 

chapter12_2

63. The main village path and houses of Yibihilu as they appeared back in 1981. The view is almost identical to that of the previous photograph, which was taken seventeen years later, in 1998.

chapter12_3

64. Sayu and Bulobey prepare a sago oven for Bruce’s final feast, 1998

chapter12_4

65. Rolls of steamed sago and palm spathe plates of rice and fish are amassed for distribution at the final feast

chapter12_5

66. Bruce enjoys festivities with two villagers, in mixed costuming, at his final feast

chapter12_6

67. Traditional dancing in full costume at the final feast

chapter12_7_new

68. A woman and her son from Gasumi Corners watch traditional dancing at the final feast

chapter12_8

69. Villagers listen to string-band singing at the final feast

chapter12_9

70. Disco dancing in Gasumi Corners at the final feast

chapter12_10

71. Boys playing in costumes made of leaves on the evening of Bruce’s final feast.

chapter12_11

72. The ghost of the past fades into the present. This image is an accidental (fated?!) double exposure of a dancer who performed at the final feast superimposed on a landscape photo taken the following morning.

chapter12_12

73. Some of the young friends I will miss at Gasumi Corners

Comments are closed.