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About Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea is a country of intense diversity. Besides being home to 5% of the world’s biodiversity, its 6.5 million people speak over 800 separate languages, about 12% of the world’s total.
This incredible diversity is not reflected in the schools. Papua New Guinea was an Australian colony until 1975 and its school system is still heavily influenced by Australian models. Schools teach in English and while an effort is made to teach topics common to all Papua New Guineans, the many distinct tribal and local cultures remain invisible at school.
When you went to school, you probably read books about your own people, your own country, and your own culture. They were probably in the same language your parents, grandparents, and neighbours spoke. But when young Nalik children go to school, they see books in English, usually from another country, and talking about ways of life that are very different from their own. There are no books talking about the culture of their ancestors.
A Maani: Birds and Nalik Culture is an attempt to address the imbalance and show that the local culture has an important place in the education of young Papua New Guineans. In 2016 linguist Dr Craig Alan Volker and social educator Cláudio da Silva traveled to Madina Village on New Ireland in the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea to work with children, clan chiefs, and community leaders to collect stories and traditional knowledge about birds on New Ireland and how they represent the matrilineal clans of the Nalik-speaking people. The result was A Maani: Birds and Nalik Culture.
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Collecting stories and writing a book
A Maani: Birds and Nalik Culture was written by grade 6 and 7 children at Madina Primary School in the Nalik region of New Ireland, an island in the Bismarck Archipelago in northeastern Papua New Guinea. Using stories from their parents, grandparents, clan matriarchs, and clan chiefs, they wrote about the birds in their local environment and what they mean to people there. Some stories were told by clan chiefs and female elders. Children listened to the stories, translated them into English, and drew pictures that eventually became part of the book. Children also asked their parents and grandparents for stories, legends, and information about birds. They worked in groups to retell these stories in English. We have gathered the stories and illustrations into a book: A Maani, Birds and Nalik Culture. This book will provide Nalik children a chance to read about their maani (birds) and share their culture with people everywhere.
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Nalik culture is matrilineal, with society based on eight clans, with strict laws describing interactions between the clans. Nalik children need to learn these laws and customs to participate as adults in society, but with increasing westernisation, many no longer learn this ancient wisdom at home. A Maani: Birds and Nalik Culture is a book, but it was also a process of showing young adolescents how to learn about their ancestral culture and how to integrate that knowledge into what they learn at school. Now that the book is finished, it needs to be printed and distributed. You can help.
The book will be self-published, with 3000 copies distributed free of charge to schools in the Nalik and neighbouring northern New Ireland area, where the languages and cultures are closely related to the Nalik culture and language.
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Cláudio da Silva is a biologist and educator. Originally from Brazil, he worked in environmental education there before moving to teach Japan for nine years. He recently completed a masters degree at the University of Coimbra in Portugal, where he now lives. For his thesis on the process of incorporating New Ireland culture into the government school system, he worked with community leaders to develop a project for school children to write about their own culture. The result was A Maani: Birds and Nalik Culture.
Neil Gaalis is a maimai (chief) of the Moxokala (Red-Bellied Pita) Clan of the Nalik people of New Ireland. He is a farmer and has a strong interest in xulmu, the philosophical underpinnings of Nalik culture. His active participation ensures that Nalik cultural values and language are maintained and that A Maani: Birds and Nalik Culture expresses these values in a positive way.
Craig Alan Volker is a retired professor of linguistics at Gifu Shōtoku Gakuen University in Japan and Professor of Linguistic Research at Divine Word University in Papua New Guinea. Currently he is an adjunct professor at The Cairns Institute, James Cook University in Australia. Originally from the United States, he now spends part of every year in Madina Village, New Ireland, where he is a wangpaang (assistant talking chief) of the Moxomaraba (Sea Eagle) Clan. He produced the writing system for the previously unwritten Nalik language and edited the Oxford University Press Oxford Papua New Guinea Dictionary of Tok Pisin. For this project, he translated some of the texts told by elders for A Maani: Birds and Nalik Culture and helped students express themselves more authentically in English.
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The team has already met in Papua New Guinea twice for this project, using their own funds for travel, recording equipment, and materials. We met with school and community leaders, and gathered stories about birds that clan matriarchs and chiefs thought were important. Then we held a two-month workshop with Madina Primary School grade 6 and 7 students, working with students to produce the book. Several copies of the book were printed at the team’s own cost so that the school, the students, and community leaders could approve its publication.
Now we are ready to print the book. To print and distribute 3000 copies of the book at no cost to schools in northern New Ireland, we need to raise US$ 38,300.
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- Printing and shipping US$ 30,000
This is where most of the funds will go. At a cost of US$10 per book, US-based Education Projects International will partner with Birdwing Books, a leading publisher of school textbooks and children’s books in Papua New Guinea, to arrange for 3000 books to be printed in China and shipped to Port Moresby the capital of Papua New Guinea, before being airlifted on to New Ireland in the Bismarck Archipelago.
Cláudio will fly from Portugal (US$4380 round trip) and Craig from Arizona, USA (US$3120 round trip) to oversee the distribution of the books together with Neil Gaalis, a Nalik maimai (clan chief) who oversaw cultural aspects of the project.
Using local vehicles, and minibuses, 3000 books will be distributed free of charge to elementary, primary, and secondary schools in northern New Ireland. In addition, each child in the two classes of Madina Primary School who helped write the book will receive an individual copy.
In Papua New Guinea, all important projects are “launched” with traditional ceremonies involving dances and public presentations. At the launching of this book, the school children who wrote the book will present traditional dances and give copies of the book to the provincial governor and other local leaders. Neil Gaalis will organise the launching ceremony in a way that suits traditional Nalik culture.
The Impact
The response to the book has already been very positive. For people who have never seen themselves reflected in books, the impact holding a book about their own stories and lives cannot be overestimated. Through the workshop that produced A Maani: Birds and Nalik Culture, students have seen how the skills they have learned at school actually do have real-life application. Teachers already report that they apply themselves more to classwork and to being more precise in their assignments.
The team hopes that this book and project will be a model for other communities to produce their own books in their own languages.
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Is this book culturally acceptable to Nalik people?
A maimai (clan chief), Neil Gaalis, was part of the team throughout the time we spent together in New Ireland. Because of this and, more importantly, because the book was produced with the aid of community leaders, and approved by them once it was finished, we know it is in line with Nalik cultural values and morality. This is a Nalik book with words and stories by Nalik people, produced by them with some help from two of their friends.
The production of the book was covered in The National Weekender, one of the most widely read newspapers in Papua New Guinea. You can click here to read about the article: http://www.thenational.com.pg/its-a-bird/
After thousands of people read the article, the project received national attention. This was a time when critical Nalik people could have complained about the project. None did. In fact, the reaction was so positive that Cláudio was interviewed for the provincial radio station to talk about the project and the importance of introducing indigenous knowledge into the school system.
What if we don’t reach our financial goal?
The team is committed to distributing these books to the fullest extent open to us. If we receive enough money to print only 10 books, at least 10 books will be printed and placed in schools. Ideally though, every school in the northern New Ireland area should get a class set.
How do we know that the book will actually be distributed?
The distribution will be reported in The National newspaper of PNG (www.thenational.com.og), which has been following our story since we first began. A list of the schools receiving books will be placed online, with videos of the opening ceremony and book distributions at schools placed online And you are very welcome to come to New Ireland with us come and join us in distributing the books to see for yourself what kind of impact your support has given.
Other Ways You Can Help
Can't give to our campaign? No problem! You can still help these children to receive a printed copy of “A Maani” Birds and Nalik Culture” book.
Using Indiegogo’s share buttons on the top of this page, share it on your Facebook, Tweet it and Email it to friends. The more people who know, the better our chances of reaching our goal!
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