John Tyman's Cultures in Context Series Torembi and the Sepik A Study of Village Life in New Guinea |
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Topic No. 18: The Christian Church ~ Photos 348 - 362 |
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John Tyman's Cultures in Context Series Torembi and the Sepik A Study of Village Life in New Guinea |
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Topic No. 18: The Christian Church ~ Photos 348 - 362 |
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| 348. The greatest agent of change here, till recently, was the Christian Church – with its gospel of forgiveness and love. |
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| 349. Torembi lies in a part of New Guinea which was originally allocated to the Catholic Church – within the diocese of Wewak. Their first missionaries moved into the region north of Torembi in 1933, and a separate mission station was established here in 1950. |
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| 350. Like missions in many other parts of New Guinea, it was provided with an airstrip. The church and the clinic were built on one side, the school on the other. The airfield is important not only to the church, but to Torembi as a whole, and to surrounding villages. |
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| 351. With light planes landing here almost daily, there’s an awful lot of grass to cut: and mowing it takes up so much of the Priest’s time that he cannot get around the parish as much as his parishioners would like. |
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| 352. While the priest lives at the mission, his deacon, who is married, has a house of his own close by. The church itself and related buildings were built almost entirely of materials brought in from outside. There was no track open to vehicles then, so everything was shipped out from Wewak by boat |
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| 353. It was unloaded on the Sepik, south of Torembi, and carried overland by people from the village. It was a big job, involving the movement of heavy timbers as well as corrugated iron, plus glass for the windows. (Church interior) |
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| 354. Mass is celebrated here each Sunday, the deacon using the reserved sacrament when the priest is away. |
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| 355. When I first visited Torembi in 1980 the women kept to themselves generally, on one side of the church, while most men sat on the other. In between there was a large gap, for church attendance had dropped off significantly … much as it has in other countries. (Also see video extract number 32) |
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| 356.The congregation then sang without musical accompaniment, led by one of several young men who hope to become priests one day. In 1994, though, they were led by a small choir … equipped (as you can see) with two guitars and a battery-powered keyboard. |
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| 357. On special occasions they were also reinforced by children from the school. Note, though, the indications of white ants eating away the post on the right. Other posts, too, were under attack in 1994 and warned of an uncertain future. |
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| 358. While it is true that the Christian faith was brought here by the Europeans, it did not, of course, originate in Europe, but in Asia. And it is, in turn, gradually adapting to the New Guinea scene. The priest came from Australia, but his deacon was born in a village nearby. |
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| 359. The interior of the church is decorated with a bronze crucifix and a brass tabernacle: and the inscription on the cloth covering the altar is in English. |
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| 360. But the carvings on the lectern and the pulpit suggest that in other ways the Church is already deeply rooted in the village. Mary has the face of a New Guinea woman, and the baby Jesus could be any of a hundred children in the village. |
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| 361. In much the same way, instead of using bells to summon people to church, they have a garamut … suitably decorated for use by Christians, with a crucifix instead of a crocodile. And the deacon who looks after the drum has recently been initiated as a member of his tribe, and he has the scars to prove it. (Also see video extract number 31) |
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| 362. So ‘the Church’, which once set out to change everything, and to stamp out all of the practices associated with the Spirit House, is itself changing. Traditional beliefs continue in many cases alongside those of Christianity, and you’ll even find spaces like this dedicated to Christian worship in some Spirit Houses. |
Text, photos and recordings
by John Tyman
Intended for Educational Use
Only.
Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum,
Oxford University, 2010.
Contact Dr.
John Tyman for more information regarding licensing.
Photo processing, Web page layout,
formatting, and complementary research by
William Hillman ~ Brandon, Manitoba
~ Canada
www.hillmanweb.com