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. 25: 24 Hours in the Life of a New Guinea Woman ~ Photos 517 - 600 |
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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. 25: 24 Hours in the Life of a New Guinea Woman ~ Photos 517 - 600 |
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| 517. Antonia Mungun lives with her family in the village of Torembi, on the banks of a small stream in the north west corner of Papua New Guinea. The stream provides her family with water for drinking and cooking; and also offers them facilities for washing (themselves, their clothes and their cooking pots) and a way to dispose of their garbage. It’s simply thrown in the river. |
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| 518. Their house started out as a long, one-roomed structure made from local materials, of wood roofed with leaves: but it was lengthened two years ago, when a new kitchen section was added, at the end nearest the camera. The sleeping area beyond is five years old. |
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| 519. The house has a door at each end, and like the other houses in the village was built above ground, on stumps to avoid the damp. The area underneath is used by pigs and chickens. |
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| 520. Antonia was 36 years old when I saw her first in 1981, and had lived in the village all her life. She had given birth to seven children but two had died (and she was to suffer similar losses in the years to follow). |
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| 521. Her husband Damien, is 10 years older. He built the house. He sometimes hunts wild pigs and, in the dry season, helps his wife clear a patch in the forest for a garden. But most of the day-to-day work is Antonia’s responsibility. |
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| 522.This is Francis; he is 9 years old and has just finished Grade 3. Antonia has borne 12 children so far, but five died as infants – either from malaria or from stomach upsets. |
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| 523. Emma, shown here helping her mother with housework, is 12 and has completed Grade 4. The three young ones – Donna, Marion, and Colin – spend most of their time playing around the house. |
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| 524. The two older boys – Terrence, 17, and George, 16 – both completed primary school, but their parents could not afford to give them a secondary education. There is little for them to do now, and they spend much of their time with friends. |
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| 525. Inside Antonia’s house the main fireplace is situated in the new kitchen section, but there’s a second cooking area, at the other end of the building: and between the two, there’s a pantry of sorts. |
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| 526. The Munguns have few material possession, and no means of keeping food cool, so the shelves in their larder are not very well stocked. The cans without labels contain sugar and salt. |
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| 527. Mr. Mungun and the two older boys sleep on wooden platforms covered by cardboard, with a mosquito net over each one of them. |
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| 528. Antonia and the smaller children sleep on the floor, squashed together like sardines beneath the new mosquito net we brought from Australia. They cover the floor with pieces of plastic and sacking, to shut out draughts and insects; and their bedding is simply left rolled up during the day. |
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| 529. The day begins with Antonia asleep at the end of a line of 5 children. Like the other women, she will get up shortly before 6 – when the cockerels come down from their roosts. (Photo taken through mosquito netting) |
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| 530. While it’s still dark she first goes down to the river, for ‘wash wash’. |
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| 531. Changing quickly she rinses out her old skirt, hangs it up to dry. |
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| 532. She then scoops a bucket of water from the river, before heading back up the bank to the house. |
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| 533. Next, she splits the firewood, which she and Emma had gathered in the forest the day before. Her husband and her teenage sons are still fast asleep … as are the smaller children. |
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| 534. She then lays the fire. The hearth itself is made of clay several inches thick, to keep the floor from burning. To light fires now she uses matches; but in the past she kept a few embers smouldering all night long … into which she blew new life each day. |
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| 535. Lastly she gets out her frying pan, made of pottery. She’ll use this during the next hour and a quarter in making the 17 pancakes needed to feed her family at breakfast. |
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| 536. As it gets light the children wake up, and are sent down to the river to wash. From beneath the house the chickens emerge, clucking earnestly, while the pigs grunt and whine, pleading for food. |
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| 537. While the children are away, and the frying pan is heating, Antonia tidies up around the house. The mosquito net is hooked up out of the way. The bedding is tidied up also; and the house is swept…with a brush made of leaves. |
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.
www.hillmanweb.com
Photo processing, Web page layout,
formatting, and complementary research by
William Hillman ~ Brandon, Manitoba
~ Canada
