Elders maintain their distance and examine trekkers with furrowed brows and quiet curiosity as they arrive, collapse, rest, hand out a few balloons, ask a few shallow questions, shake hands, and wave goodbye.  Most elders speak Motu, some speak Tok Pisin, but their English is often poor or non-existent.  This limits their communication to friendly smiles and a wave of the hand.  But mostly they just look.

Village children are not inhibited.  Their natural curiosity brings them into close contact with trekkers.  Their English is good enough for basic conversations and there is much giggling and game playing. 

Teenagers are half-way between.  They are shy but will come together to greet trekkers and can be easily convinced to sing.  Angelic voices in perfect harmony are much appreciated by trekkers who are usually too embarrassed to respond with anything more than a few bars of Waltzing Matilda!

The most moving demonstration of the depth of clan relationships is the mourning of the loss of a loved one.  Family and friends trek in from nearby villages and gather at the home of the deceased family.  The coffin is draped with a sheet, decorated with flowers and candles are placed on and around it.  The mother sits silently beside it.  The father sits with the men.  Kinfolk from the clan gather together and roll out a mat.  Then they sing.  The melancholy mood of the clan is uplifted in perfect harmony as the sound of beautiful hymns permeates through the darkness of the village. 

In the early hours of the morning the wailing begins.  Voices seem to be pleading with God to let him or her stay.  Women cry.  Men raise their voices in ever increasing crescendos.  Children weep openly and call out his or her name.  It is unsettling for the visitor who now feels like an intruder among the grieving.

Then all of a sudden it’s silent.  Deadly silent.  Nobody moves.  Bright stars one can almost touch are the only feature one can see in the silence of the darkness.

I am trekking with a group of young surfies from Cronulla, some young Muslims from Bankstown and a couple of young ‘angels’ from Port Moresby Grammar School.  They ask if it would be OK to say a prayer before we move off.  We pay our respects to the family and in turn a Christian blessing, an Arabic song and a Pidgin prayer gives comfort to the gathered clans.  If there is such a thing as the magic of human harmony we have just experienced it.  We are as one with each other and with the grieving clans in Efogi.

Our Koiari and Orokaiva guides come from villages along the track.  They have filtered among the gathering to share their grief.  They pick up our packs and silently move off behind us.

It is a poignant reminder of the comforting strength of family/clan life.  We now feel much closer to our guides and try to work out how best we can help them after we return to our homes in the land of plenty.

The villagers have been largely unaffected by the emerging interest in Kokoda and the increase in trekker numbers from a handful in the 1990s to around 6,000 in 2008.  They know there is a lot of money around somewhere.  They know the trekkers pay a fee of $100 each to trek Kokoda.  They wonder where it all goes to because virtually nothing gets through to them.  They would like to know who is coming to their village and when they will be arriving.  They would like to be able to ‘value add’ but they don’t know how – and nobody has turned up to teach them.  They would like help in improving their schools and their aid posts in a sustainable way.  But they have been left to their own resources and the first signs of discontent are becoming apparent.

As we become more familiar with them they become more approachable.  During our campfire chats they share their feelings through our guides.  They want the children in the village to go to school.  They want some medicine.  They would like a radio. 

Their demands are simple and achievable.  We have started a ‘Yumi Helpim Pikinnini’ program.  Our trekkers are provided with a list of school supplies, sporting gear, books that can be carried or flown into villages.  Each trek group is allocated a pre-designated village and when they arrive, all the gear is laid out and presented to the children.   This is the only way we can guarantee delivery in PNG!

Our trekkers love it because it makes them feel good.  The village children love it because they have a regular flow of school ‘presents’.  The elder like it because they see the beginning of shared benefits beginning to flow through.

PNG can be a difficult place to help.  They face insurmountable social challenges in the land of a thousand tribes.  They can be frustrating to deal with because they don’t see the value or urgency of things as we do (lucky them!).  Corruption (as we understand it) seems to be part of their DNA!

But earn their respect and you will not meet a more loyal, gentle, helpful and pleasant group of people on this planet.  They are the best trekking companions you will ever have in the jungle.  They are the most hospitable of hosts in their villages.  And they love and respect Australian trekkers today just as much as their fathers and grandfathers did yesterday.
It’s easy to keep going back – but we have to work harder and smarter in ensuring they receive shared benefits from the emerging trekking industry.

In this article, he talks about the sufferings and sacrifices made by these ‘forgotten’ “Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels” during the Kokoda Trail Battle which have been unheard of, and which are not recognized and recorded by Australians, and about the background history on the establishment of the Kokoda Living Memorial by the Australian Government in 1995. He also talks about the need for any overseas aid planned for 18,000 Kokoda people to be channelled to all of them, not just those Biage, and Koiari along the Kokoda Trail, and the few around Kokoda Town.

It is in response to New South Wales politician and Kokoda Trail campaigner, Charlie Lynn, who had established the Kokoda Memorial Foundation for education scholarships for Kokoda children, and the retired Anglican Archbishop, Sir David Hand’s comments about ensuring the planned technical assistance be channelled to benefit all Kokoda people.

In a Weekend article published in the Post Courier newspaper on February 20, 2004, Charlie Lynn revealed that he came to Papua New Guinea to collect names of schoolchildren from all villages along the Kokoda Trail whose “Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel” grandfathers provided vital support to Australian soldiers during World War II for purposes of an educational scholarship to be provided by the Kokoda Memorial Foundation.

As Chairman of the Kokoda Memorial Foundation, Mr Lynn visited and inspected the rundown facilities of the Sogeri National High School, Iarowari High School and the Sogeri Primary School. He made a commitment to look for assistance in Australia, as well as push for the establishment of sister school relationships with schools in Australia.

Mr Lynn announced that the Kokoda Memorial Foundation would be providing educational scholarships for the best two students, male and female, from villages along the Kokoda Trail to study either at Iarowari High School or Sogeri National High School, and then hopefully, for those who want to go onto university. He said the Foundation aimed to introduce scholarships to 25 students per year within five years, and up to 250 students at the national high school, as well as those who wish to go onto university, and then come back as teachers.

“I would hope we would be able to develop some leadership programmes for them so that I would hope that the national leaders of Papua New Guinea come through this Foundation. I think that’s achievable. Maybe, we can look at Rhodes scholars coming out of this programme.

Mr Lynn said the Kokoda Memorial Foundation would co-ordinate all fundraising and dealing with both Australian and Papua New Guinea Governments for the future development of the Kokoda Trail and its people.

“In the past, the emphasis has been on the development of buildings which I don’t think has been right. I think the way of the future is the development of the people and supporting them to become leaders. That’s the way I see it going and I think we would work almost full-time to make it happen because it will happen because we have got the support of some very good people and the Australian High Commission”.

Mr Lynn said the other important development in the Foundation would be the establishment of sister school relationships between village schools, Sogeri National High School, Iarowari High School and Sogeri Primary School, with schools in Australia. This would enable them to be assisted with desperately needed teaching aids such as library books, computers and stationery. The schools need support to refurbish classrooms and the boarding facilities so the organizations in Australia like the Lions and the Rotary will be approached to co-ordinate the support and assistance.

The Kokoda Memorial Foundation has high profile Board of Directors including the former Sydney Swans Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Templeton, writer Patrick Lindsay, actor Yahoo Serious, former KPMG Peat Marwick partner Peter Thomas, lawyers Graham Cowley and Julian Marks, filmmakers Paul Croll, and the University of Western Sydney student, Genevieve Nelson.

The Kokoda Memorial Foundation was established in 2003 to help develop a self-sustaining eco adventure trekking industry for the Mountain Koiari and the Orokaivan people who live along the Kokoda Trail, as an Australian legacy to the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels for their sacrifice over 60 years ago.

The Kokoda Memorial Foundation will co-ordinate fundraising through the annual Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Honner Leadership Oration in memory of the late Ralph Honner, Commander of the gallant 39th Militia Battalion in the Battle of Isurava in August 1942.

In an article published in the Post Courier on March 8 2004, Sir David Hand has called for proper recognition to be given to the “forgotten people” of the Kokoda Trail. He said Gona and Buna – where the Japanese first landed in 1942 – as well as the Wawonga villages in the Owen Stanley Ranges were often forgotten when mention was made of World War II and the Kokoda Trail.

“I wish to draw attention to the fact that the 1942 military action of World War II, so widely known as “The Kokoda Trail Campaign,” was only part of the whole experience by which the Japanese Army tried to cut across the Owen Stanley Range and hopefully make Port Moresby, the take-off point for an invasion of Australia.

“My credentials for entering the discussion are my own missionary ministry for many years in the Orokaiva and the adjacent areas”.

“My award of a chieftain’s Otohu by the Chief of Saga Village below Kokoda Government Station, for there is no separate village called Kokoda.

“And the offer of the villages local to Kokoda, to organise and provide free of charge assistance for my own ecumenical “Bishop’s Walk” in 1972, set up to recommend responsible self-support in the Papua New Guinea Church.

“At present, very belated official notice taken by Australia of what “Kokoda Trail” signified and still signifies, now attention is given to, for example, Isurava, or a school or medical station at Kokoda, or existing schools or services, needs careful sorting out and balancing.”

Sir David referred to the people of Gona-Buna area and the Wawonga Region who, he felt, must not be left out of consideration by those concerned to help.

The kick-off point of the “Kokoda Trail Campaign,” was not Kokoda, but Gona beach – where the Japanese landed on January 21 1942, at what is now Holy Cross Mission, Gona and additionally, Buna.

“The villages and food gardens from these villages were ransacked and many people were killed. When remaining people moved in again after the war, the area was a mess of bomb craters, shell holes and live ammunition dumps.

The present 2004 Dean of the Anglican Cathedral in Port Moresby, Father Walter Ataembo, will bare his back for you to show you the big wound he suffered as a post-war schoolboy, with friends, when they gathered sticks, made a fire and unknowingly ignited live explosives.

The first time Papua New Guineans were fired on by the enemy was the action 30 kilometres up the road to Kokoda at Arehe Creek and later near Awala in the central Orokaiva.

The so-called “War Damage Compensation” paid by the colonial government was, to my personal knowledge, scarcely more than a somewhat randomly organised effort.

Archbishop Hand also spoke strongly about the forgotten Wawonga people who were more Koiari of Central Province than Orokaiva of Northern Province.

The road over the Owen Stanley Mountain to Port Moresby, via Kokoda, Isurava, Kagi, Efogi etc crosses the Orokaiva/Koiari boundary. On the way from Templeton?s Crossing to Kagi, you cross the junctions to the Myola Lakes and to the Wawonga. The Wawonga people of the eastward fall to Emo River occupy 14 villages and are related, tribally and linguistically, not to the Orokaiva but to Koiari.

What goes for Koiari villages on the so-called ‘Kokoda Trail’ goes, or should go also, for all the Wawonga people. The fact that their nearest ‘way out’ is Orokaiva country, and therefore, Popondetta, is just chance. If they want a school or a church, or a medical aid post or an airstrip or a road or what-have-you, they should be ‘counted in’ with the Oro (Northern) Province and not with the central Province ? and so have come to feel ‘down and out’.

Archbishop Hand said: My thought and wish is not to downgrade the helpful thoughts and research of others; but to round out the thinking and planning, and make it well-researched, more all-inclusive, and fair to all. Let us not allow an over-glamorisation of specifically ‘Kokoda Trail’ and its people at the expense of others, whose claims are at least as great.

Mr Hiari said he has carefully studied the contents of both Charlie Lynn and Archbishop David Hand?s articles and offer the following remarks.

Firstly, I wish to tell the people of Australia and Papua New Guinea that the name “Kokoda” originates from the Orokaivan territory of the Northern Province, and not from the Koiari territory in the Central Province. Kokoda simply means ‘place of (human) skulls’. Original ancestral name of the small beautiful plateau is Pavau.

Secondly, the colonial British New Guinea Administration established a government station at Pavau in September 1903.

I have researched and completed writing both the history of the name ‘Kokoda’ and the history of the name ‘Kokoda Trail or Track’. The Secretary for the Department of Provincial Affairs and Local Level Government, Gei Ilagi, has asked me to recommend the appropriate name to the Minister for Intergovernment Relations, Sir Peter Barter, for approval. I will be submitting a report very soon.

Thirdly, I applaud Charlie Lynn’s efforts to establish the Kokoda Memorial Foundation and having a very high profile person to serve as members of the Board of Directors of the Foundation. The Foundation intends to offer educational scholarships to children from villages along the Kokoda Trail, and to seek help from Australia to refurbish classrooms and boarding facilities, and school supplies, and to develop the Kokoda Trail as a ‘memorial park’.

But I view Charlie Lynn’s efforts as a propaganda for helping only the Koiari schoolchildren and the Koiari people, and not the Orokaivan children and people. Charlie Lynn is making a big name for himself and generating millions and millions of kina from money raised in Australia while promoting Kokoda Trail. Charlie Lynn has a personal interest to pay a ‘lip service’ to the Koiari people, and NOT the Kokoda people. Kokoda and the Kokoda Trail are NOT the Koiari so Charlie Lynn, do not promote Kokoda Trail using Koiari for your self-interests.

Kokoda is a district in the Northern Province which is governed by Kokoda Local Level Government with 24 wards representing a total population of 18,000 people. Kokoda District has 16 community and primary schools, and one vocational centre. Schoolchildren from these schools will miss out from the educational scholarships offered by the Foundation because Charlie Lynn is using this Foundation for his commercial and political interests, and because he is only helping the Koiari people.

Fourthly, the Foundation is wholly controlled by Europeans in Australia with ‘very little or no say’ from people of Papua New Guinea, particularly those from Kokoda and Koiari.

I suggest that four persons (two each from Kokoda and Koiari) who are well vested with thorough knowledge and experience of the Orokaivan and the Koiari culture and the Kokoda Trail Battle be appointed to help identify projects for the funding by the Foundation.

Such appointments will indicate that Papua New Guineans are given the opportunities to participate and contribute meaningful to the best interests o their people, and not dictated by Europeans at their own interests.

Fifthly, I have conducted research on the Papua New Guineans aspects of World War II and have written 25 different research papers on the Kokoda Trail Battle.

From this research, I have found that more than 1,200 Orokaivan natives worked as carriers out of the total 5,000 carriers during the Kokoda Trail Battle along the track between Kokoda and Ilolo near Sogeri.

I have also discovered that 530 native carriers died of wounds, sickness, cold, hunger, and from the Japanese brutalities between Oivi Ridge and Ilolo between July and November 1942.

After the visit, I have prepared a Kokoda War Memorial Project Proposal based on three petitions on war compensation which were presented to the Australian Government the Prime Minister of Paua New Guinea, Sir Rabbie Namaliu, at Kokoda. Petitions were presented by the famous Fuzzy Wuzzy Angle, Raphael Oimbari; President of Kokoda Council, Rodney Suma; and the Oro Deputy Premier, Parmenas Cuthbert.

Late John Painap, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and National Executive Council and his boss, Brown Bai, Secretary for the Department of Prime Minister, together with the Prime Minister, Paias Wingti, are fully aware of me providing detailed information for the preparation of cabinet submission in February 1994. Cabinet Decision No 46/94 of March 1994 stands as the official reference.

Once the Kokoda Living Memorial Project was officially opened in September 1995, many individuals from Kokoda and in Australia began to promote the project as their own efforts.

After the establishment of this project, many people both in Papua New Guinea and Australia including Charlie Lynn launched publicity to promote the Kokoda Trial and the Kokoda Trail Campaign which has already attracted wide media publicity both in Papua New Guinea and Australia.

What were these individuals between 1942 and 1992? Why did they fail to recognise and honour our Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels before they passed away? After the majority of Fuzzy Wuzzies had faded away, these individuals are trying to promote their children for their self-interests and build credibility. It’s a great shame.

With regards to Archbishop David Hand’s comments, I have this to say. I am pleased to have a Statesmen like David Hand calling for proper recognition of the forgotten people of the Kokoda Trail, and ensuring that any aid programme must benefit all Kokoda people.

I support his call because I would like all the forgotten Orokaivan people between Gona, Buna, Soroputa, and Embara Creek, and the Kokoda people in the Kokoda District, including those Mountain Koiari people in the Wawonga Region of the Upper Kumusi Valley be recognized and any planned aid programmes to also benefit them. Such programmes should not only benefit the Mountain Koiari people of eight villages, but also on the northern side of the Owen Stanley Range and those in the Central Province. Such Programmes MSUT benefit both the 18,000 Kokoda people and some Orokaivan people between Gona, Buna, Soroputa and Embara Creek.

According to official war records, about 350 native carriers from the Wawonga Region helped the American soldiers from Jaure to Kumusi River Bridge at Ajeka, and from Jaure to Naunga, Gora and Dobuduru after they crossed the Owen Stanley Range from Port Moresby in September-October 1942. War records showed that 48 Orokaivan carriers from Sirorata, Asisi, Papaki, Ambene, Waju and Sengi Villages also helped the Australian soldiers from Sengi Village to Jaure before they crossed the Owen Stanley Range to Port Moresby and in return, helped the American soldiers from Jaure to Ajeka Village. These people must not be forgotten because they are from the undeveloped part of Kokoda District.

I further call on the Australian Government and the Australian people for proper recognition of the forgotten people in the Gulf, Central, Milne Bay, Morobe, Madang, Sepik, Manus, New Ireland, New Britain and Bougainville Provinces because these are some of the places where some fighting’s of World War II took place and where many properties of the people were damaged and destroyed.

The military action of the Kokoda Trail Campaign began when 3,000 Japanese soldiers supported by 1300 New Guinea native carriers, 200 Korean labourers and 50 horses landed at Gona and Buna on Thursday afternoon on July 21 1942. At Gona, Anglican missionaries, schoolchildren and the local people witnessed the Japanese shellings of the coastal bushes and villages before escaping. At Buna, 32 members o the Papuan Infantry Battalion, two Angau spotters, Angau Officer, Alan Champion, and village people witnessed the landings before escaping to Soputa and into the bushes. I have already written two papers on eyewitness accounts of the Japanese landings both at Gona and Buna respectively.

The Japanese ransacked and destroyed many of the native people?s properties and food gardens, as well as shooting dead many natives who opposed their intrusion.

About 3,000 Orokaivan natives supported the Japanese and betrayed some Australian and American Soldiers, civil Europeans and Anglican missionaries who were later killed by the Japanese. As a result of supporting a public enemy, the Australian Army hanged more than 40 Orokaivan men at Higaturu Government Station during 1943-1944. Manuscript titled ‘TAUBADAS PONDO’ is being compiled for publication.

I would like to clarify Archbishop David Hand’s assertion of the first military between Papua New Guineans and the Japanese soldiers taking place at Arehe Creek. According to two surviving PIB officers, Lieutenant William Wort and Lieutenant Alan Chalk, there were no encounter between the local soldiers and the Japanese at Arehe Creek on July 22 1942.

In fact, there were three warning shots fired by Police constable Christian Arek and his two friends, to warn Major Tom Grahamslaw and Lieutenant Jack McKenna, who were in the bush nearby when they saw the Japanese coming down the Buna Road to Arehe Creek.

According to my research, 35 Papua soldiers and three Australian PIB officers made the first stand on the Kokoda Trail Campaign of World War II against the advancing guard of the South Seas Detachment of the Imperial Japanese Army on Soroputa Hill on the late afternoon of Saturday of July 23 1942.

This was the first baptism of fire, and Papua New Guinea soldiers caused the first Japanese casualties in World War II in Papua New Guinea when they killed about 45 Japanese. There were no Papua New Guinea casualties. Mystery of this first encounter is being documented in a manuscript titled ‘THE FIRST BAPTISM OF FIRE.’

After the successful conclusion of the Kokoda Trail Battle, the General Officer Commanding the Australian 7th Infantry Division, Major General George Vasey, arrived at Kokoda on November 3 1942 with men from the 2/33rd Battalion and other units of the 16thBrigade after the members of the 2.31st Battalion recaptured Kokoda unopposed from the Japanese on November 2 1942. General Vasey raised the Australian flag at Kokoda during a small ceremony to mark the recapture of Kokoda.

On November 6 1942, a small ceremony was held at Kokoda to thank the Papuan carriers for their valuable services rendered to the Australian soldiers during the Kokoda Trail Campaign. During the ceremony, General Vasey presented Long Service Medals to four outstanding Papuan natives for long service rendered and an issue of knives and clothes to each native. Names of these carriers are available with me. It was the first time in World War II that such recognition were given to the natives of Papua New Guinea.

In order to recognise the sacrifices made by Papuan carriers, particularly those in the Wawonga Region, I am now completing a manuscript titled HANNIBAL HAD ELEPHANTS which is based on the experiences of an American officer, Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Smith, Commander of 126th Infantry Regiment, and the experiences of American soldiers trekking over the Owen Stanley Range from Kapakapa near Port Moresby to Jaure, Kumusi River, Natunga, Bofu, Dobuduru and Oro Bay.

I am also completing another manuscript titled PAPUAN NATIVES – OUR BEST FRIENDS which is based on the experiences of another American officer, Captain Alfred Medendorp, Commander of the Anti-Tank and Cannon Companies of the 2nd Battalion of the 126th Infantry Regiment.

As a result of my research, I have completed writing the following research papers:
•Australian Army’s hanging of Kokoda men.
•Kokoda Living Memorial
•The Battle of Isurava
•The Battle of Brigade Hill
•Massacre of Australian soldiers at Sengi Village
•Just Who Named the Kokoda Trail
•Who Inspired Green Shadows
•Kokoda Track ? A Bloody Track
•Fate of former Japanese-conscripted New Guinea Native Carriers
•Why Too Much Attention on the Kokoda or Kokoda Trail Campaign
•Architect of Kokoda Trail – Herbert Kienzle
•Original Migration of Mountain Koiari (Biage and Chirima) People
•Original Migration of the Kokoda Orokaiva People

After the war the greater part of payments under the War Damage Compensation Scheme in New Guinea were made because government stations in New Guinea which had been destroyed during the war, had to be rebuilt before full attention could be given to village affairs. Papua received smaller part of the war damage compensation because most government stations were intact after the war.

First payment of $174,000 under the War Damage Compensation Scheme were made after the civil administration resumed control of the administration of Papua New Guinea in 1946. A total of $27,233,500 was paid under the War Damage Compensation Scheme.

Payments made between 1947 & 1957 are listed below:
•1947 – $379,000
•1949 – $455,000
•1949 – $546,000
•1950 – $1,945,000
•1951 – $2,178,000
•1952 – $2,740,000
•1953 – $3,283,500
•1954 – $3,734,000
•1955 – $3,916,000
•1956 – $4,024,000
•1957 – $4,033,000

No Papua New Guinea, be a Koiarian or Orokaivan, has thoroughly researched and documented the experiences of the native aspects of the Kokoda Trail Campaign. But I have, and I have already written 25 papers on various episodes of the Kokoda Trail Campaign.

No Papua New Guinea has recognised the sacrifices and contributions made by the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels and made representations to both the Papua New Guinea and the Australian Governments but I have and I have already recommended Raphael Oimbari, Sergeant Benjamin Moide and the Koiarian carrier Batia Lega Oagi of Efogi Village to the Papua New Guinea Government for Queen’s Honours and Awards. Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II has already awarded OBE to Raphael Oimbari, OBE to Sergeant Benjamin Moide and BEM to Batia Lega Oagi in 1994 and 1999 respectively Her Majesty has also honoured me with MBE in June 1999.

Papua New Guinea has recognized the sacrifices and contributions made by the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels and made representations to both the Papua New Guinea and the Australian Governments.

Besides the efforts made by Australian individuals and organizations to promote and develop the Kokoda Trail, the National Government has established the Kokoda Track Local Level Government Special Purposes Authority under the Local Level Government Administration Act 1997 in June 2003 with the general purpose of assisting the implementation of the functions of the Koiari Rural Local Level Government and the Kokoda Rural Local Level Government.

I am both sad and disappointed that the Koiari members Kokoda Track Authority Management Committee are already using the Authority for the interests of the Koiari people and not the Kokoda and the Koiari people. The Authority office is only entertaining the Koiari people requests and enquiries. Biage Koiari have no land in Kokoda Town and around Kokoda, and they must not use the Authority to promote their self-interests on Kokoda soil.

The Australian High Commission must be warned not to continue spoon feeding the Koiari people because they are not the legitimate landowners in Kokoda. The Australian High Commission must talk to the true Kokoda landowners and work with them to promote the Kokoda Trail. I am prepared to recommend the names of the legitimate people for their own information and purposes. Benjamin Ijumi is not a true landowner of Kokoda land. He is a man with no culture because he purchased the ‘Hunjara people’s headdress.

The Kokoda Memorial Foundation, and the Authority must NOT use the Kokoda Trail and the history of the Kokoda Trial Campaign not only to promote World War II legacy for the present and future generations, and promote tourism related activities, but also they must carry out research and document the histories of the Kokoda Track, the Kokoda Trail Campaign, the Kekedo family, the Kienzle family, the Komere family, the name Kokoda, and Private Bruce Kingsbury for the benefits of the future generations.

Finally, I would like to present the significance of the name Kokoda or Kokoda Trail. There would be no Kokoda or Kokoda Trail today if there were no six K’s. The people need to know why these six K’s stand for, and understand why Kokoda or Kokoda Trail is getting too much attention both in Papua New Guinea and Australia.
•First K represents the name of one of the first two tribal warriors and chiefs of the Kokoda Orokaiva, KOMBERE, the first generation chief of the Tuna Clan of Saga Village who originally migrated from the Upper Kumusi Valley.
•Second K represents the name KOKODA which originated in February 1900. Kokoda is made up o two words, KOKO and DA. Kokoda means ‘skulls’ while Da means ‘place or village’. Therefore, Kokoda means ‘place of the skulls’.
•Third K represents the Kienzle family who first settled in the Yodda Valley in 1933 and who made an enormous contribution to the economic development of the Kokoda District, particularly in gold mining, cattle, farming and rubber plantation.
•Fourth K stands for KOKODA TRAIL – a native bush track connecting many other tracks with the remote villages on the Owen Stanley Range which was used by the natives for thousands of years before the white men first discovered it in 1879. During the war, it was described as “a trail of blood and iron”.
•Fifth K represents Kingsbury – Private Bruce Kingsbury of 2/14th Battalion who was posthumously awarded the Victoria when he lost his life in the Battle of Isurava on August 27, 1942.
•Sixth K represents the Kededo family who settled in Kokoda in 1947 and who made much contribution to welfare and educational services in the Kokoda District and the district administration.

Historical accounts on the six K’s have already been written and are available with me.

Maclaren Jude Hiari MBE
Kokoda-Buna Historical Foundation

The issue has never been resolved in Australia because of the risk of admitting some form of liability for further compensation.

This is a cop-out because the issue of compensation has been resolved between the two governments and any further claims will be managed and resolved by the PNG Government.

According to our official history of the war in the Pacific by Dudley McCarthy (Australia in the War 1939-1945, p116) the Australian New Guinea Army Unit (ANGAU) was authorised by the Australian government to provide for:

‘the conscription of whatever native labour might be required by the Services ….’

Rates of pay were to be determined and the Senior Military Officer or District Officer was empowered:

‘to have the natives so employed to enter into a contract with the Australian Government.’

It has been estimated that some 10,000 PNG nationals served as Carriers in support of the Australians during the Kokoda campaign and it is a matter of historical fact that we would not have been defeated without their assistance.

A further 42,000 are estimated to have been indentured to support Australian troops in the Milne Bay and the Buna/Gona campaigns. They were paid 10 shillings per month.

According to wartime journalist, Osmar White[1]:

‘ANGAU contrived a maximum mobilization and use of native labour. At the critical period, its method of conscription was even more arbitrary than German recruiting in the early days. In some villages every able-bodied male over the approximate age of sixteen years was rounded up, transported to the clearing centres, and thence drafted to whatever type of work had priority in the immediate emergency. Brutal disciplinary measures had often to be taken in the field; but when the first and worst crises of invasion were surmounted, ANGAU did what ti could to conserve the life and health of its native levies and to maintain the viability of native communities depleted of 40 or 50 per cent of their able-bodied men. Under military rule, the labourers’ health was more carefully considered and their diet in general better than under private employers before the war. ANGAU was fully aware of the value of native labour and co-operation to the Allied effort.

‘As the danger of a complete Japanese victory receded, the more far-sighted officers of the administration realized that their work might be fraught with strong political implications.

‘During and after the Owen Stanley campaign, war correspondents give great publicity to the part played by carriers and stretcher-bearers on the Kokoda Trail. They emphasised the endurance, gallantry and loyalty of the natives, and the consideration with which they treated wounded Australian soldiers making the long and cruelly arduous journey back to Port Moresby by foot or on litters.

‘While it is true that some natives did show the qualities for which they were praised, it is equally true that the majority did their work only because the white men in command bullied them into doing it. Few if any were serving voluntarily and most would have deserted if possible. At this stage they knew of no reason and felt no desire to fight on the side of the Australians against the Japanese; but the habit of obeying white men, inculcated by about sixty years of colonization, was hard to break. In some cases, of course, loyalty was a factor, but it was usually a matter of personal attachment between master and servant, not a spontaneous expression of gratitude by the brown race for benevolent leadership and protection by the whites.

‘At the time, of course, such unromantic realities could not have been either reported or discussed. The Australian public was in a highly emotional state, alarmed and humiliated by the ease with which the Japanese had swept through the Pacific and threatened the continent with invasion. It was in desperate need of some reassurance that it was fighting on the side of the angels – an alignment which is presumed to ensure eventual victory. Failing the apparition of celestial angels in the New Guinea stormclouds, to match the reported phenomenon at Mons when the Germans were carrying all before them in the First World War, terrestrial angels would have to suffice. A sentimental soldier with a bent for versification wrote some lines of doggerel which described native stretcher-bearers on the Kokoda Trail as ‘Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels’. The phrase caught on. Almost overnight even the most sullen, reluctant New Guinean employed on the military supply routes became in the minds of a large section of Australians a heroically faithful underdog offering proof by gallantry and devotion that he was not only a Christian gentleman at heart but he was also profoundly grateful for the benevolence of Australian policy and performance in the past. The speed with which the public image of a New Guinean was transmogrified from that of bloodthirsty cannibal with a bone through his nose to that of a dusky-skinned, mop-headed, sexless Florence Nightingale must forever remain an inspiration to political propagandists.

‘The new image did not quickly fade. It endured through the war long into the peace, and it provided a favourable political climate for expensive experiments in education and ‘hothouse’ social development undertaken by the Commonwealth Government from 1949 onwards, However, it must be conceded to the credit of ANGAU that long before the invaders were cleared out of the islands, it laid the foundations for the much-publicised New Deal for Papua-New Guinea which began soon after the Japanese capitulation and the creation of the United Nations Organisation Trusteeship. While the war was still in progress, the Australian Government for the first time moved with relative vigour into the fields of education and public health. A large secondary education establishment was founded at Sogeri near Port Moresby, and medical patrolling was stepped up.’

It is a fact that these Carriers worked much closer to the front lines than other labourers who worked for the Australian New Guinea Army Unit (ANGAU).

During the period 1944 to 1957 approximately 2 million pounds was paid by the Australian Government in compensation for property damage to PNG nationals by the Australian Government. In 1975 PNG gained independence and the PNG Government assumed all legal obligations for compensation of its veteran community.

Unfortunately the PNG Carriers were excluded from benefits under legislation for compensation of PNG nationals who served in the Defence Force. In 1980 they were also deemed to be ineligible for the PNG War Gratuity Scheme for ex-Servicemen.

In 1981 the Australian Government paid $3.25 million to the PNG Government under the Defence (PNG) Retirement Act as a final payment for compensation for Carriers. In 1986 the PNG Government introduced payments of PNGK1,000 for each surviving Carrier. The payments ceased in 1989 and many Carriers claim to have not received any money.

During the 50th anniversary of the Kokoda campaign the issue of payment and compensation for many of the Carriers who claim they were never paid was raised with the Keating Government.

On 21 April 1992 The Australian newspaper reported that returned servicemen in PNG had called on the Australian Government to pay hundreds of local war veterans who helped Australian troops during the Kokoda campaign. According to the report:

“The President of the PNG Returned Services League, Mr Wally Lussick, said Australia had sent about $3.5 million to PNG to help compensate local war veterans in the early 1980s, but much of the money had gone to the wrong people and a large group of carriers missed out.

“Mr Lussick said much of the money went to those press-ganged into being carriers for the Japanese and many people who took no part in the war received payments.

“The visit to PNG later this week by the Prime Minister, Mr Keating, for Anzac Day services to mark the 50th anniversary of the Kokoda battles would provide a good opportunity for Australia to make a commitment to the surviving carriers, he said.”

In the PNG Post-Courier of 24 April 1992, the Prime Minister of PNG, Sir Rabbie Namaliu called on Australia ‘to help compensate WW2 carriers and stretcher bearers”. He raised the issue with Prime Minister Paul Keating at the time. According to the Post-Courier:

“Most of the carriers and ex-servicemen received compensation payments from Australia in the mid-1980s, but many legitimate veterans from the Southern Kokoda Trail near Port Moresby, missed out.

“PNG authorities estimate up to 200 surviving carriers are still waiting for some kind of payment from Australia for their wartime labour and service.

“Mr Namaliu said the Government was considering making an approach to Australia to identify and pay those carriers who have gone unrewarded for half a century.”

On 5 May 1992 the Bulletin with Newsweek reported:

“Keating says compensation cases will be dealt with on their merits and all worthy claims examined; but no concrete sum for individuals has been discussed. The difficulty of maintaining a list of the original carriers is underlined by how few speak English. Family members of dead carriers are calling for posthumous compensation – after all, they took part in a battle that Keating described this week “as more important to Australians than any other battlefield in Europe or Africa.”

I believe Prime Minister Keating was genuine in his desire to resolve the issue but the Department of Veterans Affairs most likely put it in the ‘too hard basket’ at the time.

The argument that ‘it would be inappropriate for the Australian Government to consider taking any further action on this matter in the absence of a detailed proposal from the Papua New Guinea Government’ was an effective cop-out at the time, notwithstanding the approach from the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea. It was unrealistic to suggest that a National Government who often cannot provide oxygen in the operating theatre of their national hospital in Port Moresby would divert resources to research an issue for such a small number of surviving ‘wantoks’.

In a report on the medical aspects of the fighting withdrawal in the face of overwhelming Japanese forces after the Battle for Isurava was lost, Colonel Kingsley Norris, Assistant Director Medical Services with the 7th Division praised the work of the Australian medics. No living casualty, claimed Norris, was abandoned to the enemy and overall 750 wounded and sick were shepherded down the track to safety. Norris was also full of praise for the ‘walking wounded’. They had, in Norris’ words, to be treated with ‘absolute ruthlessness’ and not provided with stretchers:

‘Those alone who were quite unable to struggle or stagger along were carried. There was practically never a complaint nor any resentment … One casualty with a two inch gap in a fractured patella, splintered by a banana leaf, walked for six days …’

Captain ‘Blue Steward, Regimental Officer, 2/16th Battalion:

“… they never forgot their patients, carrying them as gently as they could, avoiding the jolts and jars of the many ups and downs. The last stretcher was carried out by the Regimental Aid Post boys, two volunteers, Padre Fred and myself. Till then we never knew the effort needed, nor fully appreciated the work the carriers were doing. Their bare, splayed feet gave them a better grip than our cleated boots could claim on the slippery rocks and mud.
“Some of the bearers disliked the tight, flat canvas surfaces of the regulation army stretchers, off which a man might slide or be tipped. They felt safer with the deeper beds of their own bush made stretchers – two blankets doubled round two long poles cut from the jungle. Each time we watched them hoist the stretchers from the ground to their shoulders for another stint, we saw their strong leg, arm and back muscles rippling under their glossy black skins. Manly and dignified, they felt proud of their responsibility to the wounded, and rarely faltered. When they laid their charges down for the night they sought level ground on which to build a rough shelter of light poses and leaves. With four men each side of a stretcher, they took it in turns to sleep and to watch, giving each wounded man whatever food, drink or comfort there might be.

Laurie Howson, 39th Battalion:

“The days go on. You are trying to survive, shirt torn, arse out of your pants, whiskers a mile long, hungry and a continuous line of stretchers with wounded carried by ‘Fuzzy-Wuzzies’ doing a marvellous job. Some days you carry your boots because there’s no skin on your feet. But when I look around at some of the others – hell! They look crook! Then I have seen the time when you dig a number of holes in the ground and bury your dead. Nothing would be said, but you think ‘maybe it will be my turn next.”

It is a travesty that the issue of a medal for these Carriers has never been resolved.

Papua New Guinea was Australian mandated territory during the war and carriers were contracted/indentured/conscripted to support our Australian forces. Whether they were all paid for their services or not will never be resolved.

I am not aware that the carriage of wounded Australian soldiers back along the Track was ever part of their duty statement at the time. Furthermore I cannot imagine – even after 41 personal crossings of the Track since 1991 – how they ever managed to carry a stretcher over some of the mountains between Eora Creek and Owers Corner. The fact is they somehow did it and many Australian soldiers lived because of their selfless sacrifice.

Compensation Concerns

The issue of compensation for Carriers has been resolved. Any further issue that may arise would be the responsibility of the PNG Government. Discussions with senior Ministers has revealed that they would be willing to handle any issues that were raised in this regard.

Identification of Carriers

It would be unrealistic to ask surviving Carriers, or the descendents of former Carriers to provide proof of their service. Whilst they were all issued with a certificate of identification the majority of these would have been lost over time due to the nature of their living conditions in huts in remote areas.

PNG traditions and stories are handed down to the next generation by word-of-mouth. If a young PNG national believes that there father or grandfather was a Carrier then it is likely that he was. The fact that many will not be able to be positively identified by any other method is more Australia’s fault than theirs because we have failed to resolve the issue earlier.

This should not be used as an excuse to do nothing about it.

Proposal

The most appropriate way of identifying those who served as a carrier during the war would be to run a campaign via the PNG Post Courier and National newspapers and ask the families of the carriers to provide their details.

If a family believes their father or grandfather was a carrier then a medal should be issued to them with his name on it.

A parade could then be organised in Port Moresby to issue the medal to the few surviving carriers and to the families of those who have since died. There will undoubtedly be a small number who will get it wrong but we should not deny the greater majority of such an important symbolic presentation because a few might possibly slip through the net.

This action would bring closure to a long standing grievance and would be welcomed as a positive and long overdue initiative by the wider Australian community.

Charlie Lynn

February 2004

This proposal was submitted to the Federal Government in 1995 and again in 2004.  It was rejected on both occassions.

Posted by Charlie Lynn

[1] Parliament of a Thousand Tribes, The Cataclysm. P.129-130