Paul Wolffram is a man leading a double life.
Happy at home in Wellington with his wife Victoria Manning and young family, Wolffram’s also been adopted into a family of a people living in the rain forests of southern Papua New Guinea. He’s more than just acquainted with the culture and beliefs of the tribal Lak people. Indeed he’s taken part in their rituals, having been initiated into the secret men’s society, the governing body of the New Ireland tribe. He’s travelled between Wellington and New Ireland since 2001, spending a total of two years living with the Laks, a tribe only discovered and “Christianised” by westerners in the 1930s.
During his travels Wolffram’s been bitten three times by snakes and suffered six bouts of malaria. His adventures have been caught on film and are now showing at The New Zealand International Film Festival opening in Wellington this week. But Stori Tubuna: Ancestor’s Tales is not so much a documentary about the Lak people told through the eyes of a Kiwi filmmaker. Rather it’s been made in collaboration with the tribe. As well as taking part in the film they helped edit and make changes to the final movie.
“They wanted to have a voice and make sure the film told their story through their eyes,” Wolffram says. “The Lak people are very conscious of the rest of the world.”
Wollfram first travelled to Papua New Guinea to research tribal music for his doctorate in ethnomusicology. He’s spent half of his grant on a video camera and began filming the Lak’s music and dance.
“But my film got hijacked by events happening in the community. A man from the village had gone missing in the bush and the explanation was that he had been killed and eaten by the Song, a giant creature who lived in a cave several days walk away.”
To pacify the Song on every full moon a female pig was taken into the bush and tied up alive for the creature.
“The sacrifice of a female pig was a high tax on the community, and this went on for several months. I wanted to understand how they could think a giant mythological creature living in the bush was a plausible explanation for what had happened,” Wolffram says.
He asked to be taken to the cave of the Song and after two days tramping in the bush they came to the cave, or rather a sink hole, the only way in via the roots of a fig tree. Wolffram set up his camera at the top, put it on motion sensor, and left it overnight.
“When we later watched the film there was nothing to see but the wind activating the camera. And then 35 minutes into the tape it filmed something, a large figure coming out of the cave. For me I couldn’t believe such a creature could exist. For the Lak people it was clear evidence of the Song’s existence.”
Wollfram went on to make three documentaries about Papua New Guinea. The first was designed as a teaching resource for universities. Stori Tubana is the second, with a third about the sorcerers and magical practices of the Lak people, in post production.
Over time he earned the trust of the locals who at first had treated him with suspicion and children, unaccustomed to Europeans, had ran screaming into the bush on his arrival in a village or plucked hairs of the back of his legs to see if he was real. He’s now become fully accepted into Lak society, adopted by a local family and made a member of the male council. He says while Lak society is matriarchal with land and clan names passed down through the female line, the women tend spend their time nurturing children and working in the gardens.
“This is no feminist utopia. The men run the show both politically and through their religious rituals.”
He says while the Lak people have converted to Christianity with enthusiasm, they see nothing at odds with their new religion and their beliefs of the past, and the predominant Catholic and Methodist churches have incorporated many of their ancient rituals into their practises and services. It’s one example of how the Lak people are assimilating as they are increasingly touched by the modern world. And while they have no roads or infrastructure, electricity or land lines, in the past four years cellphones have become prolific in the northern villages of New Ireland. Wolffram believes before he returns cellphones will be owned by the Lak people. But like the people to the north, they will not text each other. Theirs is an oral tradition.
Wolffram says he plans to return to his other home in Papua New Guinea every five years for the rest of his life.
“I feel like I have two lives. I have another name, another culture. I am very lucky through this experience to have gained a whole new existence.”
Most people only get a taste of other cultures when they travel. Paul Wolffram’s eaten the whole banquet.
- Niels Reinsborg
The New Zealand International Film Festival, July 29 to August 14.
See Dan Slevin’s preview of the festival on page 12.