THE ROCK of LUMUSA Part II

 

The muddy road to Lumusa is long and precariously winding. The scenery is beautiful and breathtaking and diminishes the bone jarring drive up steep mountain paths.

Deep gorges where the Baiyer River winds its way to join the raging Lai River in neighbouring Enga separate high mountain ranges with rainforests teeming with exotic wildlife, a natural paradise in one of the remotest corners of Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea.

At a time when the Western Highlands Government of Paias Wingti is opening up its border outposts with an upgrading of its long and winding road, the construction crew has unearthed something ancient and mysterious.

At a narrow bend in the road, the crew found their part blocked by this monolith behemoth, a rectangular piece of rock that is too heavy to push aside.

They have left it there, peeking out of the soft muddy earth, a perfectly shaped pillar, imposing and too heavy to handle.

This is in itself an enigma for the locals, a riddle worth sharing, a puzzle for the students of the new Lumusa Baptist High School to solve.

Lumusa Baptist High is one of the 19 new schools completed under Governor Wingti's green revolution policy - Free Land, Free Timber and Free Labour - a partnership with locals to deliver high schools across WHP.

In our quest to resolve the origin of the rock, we reached out to local expert Dr Joe Ketan of the University of PNG.

Dr Ketan, a Kawelka elite from the World Heritage listed Kuk area, had this to stay: "The story behind other similar stone tablets are that they were used by ancestors to mark out territories.

"One tall stone tablet at Kuk was put there by an ancestor called Koi about 250 years ago.

"When my people, the Kawelka were routed in warfare by an alliance of Hagen tribes, the Mokei and Jika in the 1920s, my great-grandfather told my grandfather about the stone, so my grandfather, after becoming the first LLG Councillor for my tribe, came back to Kuk and located the stone and reclaimed all the Kawelka territories at Kuk where we now live."

Dr Ketan said similar stones were later found in 1980s and two were placed in front of the Lutheran Church at Kuk-Bagla.

These were photographed by Professor John Burton of ANU, while others were given to the Nengka people of Mul to put up in their ceremonial grounds.

So the challenge for the new grade nines of Lumusa high is to find out whose 'masta mak' stone lies on the side of their road!

Words & Picture by BIG PAT

 

The Mystical Place

 

It’s misty and cool. Perhaps a bit too cool if you are not from these parts.

But when you are up in Mt Hagen, expect it to get chilly so bring some warm clothes, after all it’s a high mountain which ends in a natural fashion.

You’ll notice the grass is green and surrounding forest is pockmarked by recovering foliage where kaukau gardens once stood and fed a family or perhaps a hamlet.

This is Makentomb Kana in the Baiyer gorge outside of Mount Hagen City. The rocks and deep winds shake the trucks and PMVs travelling to and from Baiyer like a paint mixer. Every window in the truck is rolled down so that people could have some leverage to hold on and not to lose grip which they needed so greatly.

The source of the Paiya River is that misty, crystal-clear cascading waterfalls, which flows from the Mul area and into Mauka River in Baiyer. Mauka River then joins with Walo River and connects with Lai River in Enga Province and finally links the mighty Sepik River.

This natural spring is the source of life for the surrounding valley, its people, livestock gardens and forests. In the evening, peaceful silver clouds cover the mountains. But the calm doesn’t last too long. Tired but woken by the lukewarm rays of the sun by dawn.

New gardens have sprung up beside the river where mothers toil on peanuts, corn, ru-kenga bananas, and the inevitable oka (kaukau) - the staple of the highlands.

From the top of the pass, the waterfall is spectacular and the surroundings serene.

The people here are peaceful. In fact this is what makes this place a touch of paradise where it offers excellent views for free-ride. It did not matter whether it was cold or chilly because the view is breath taking.

Where Birds of Paradise roam wild and free, this is God’s country.

Welcome to Mt Hagen, elevation 1, 677m, temperature cool during the day and chilly at night.

picture courtesy of RITA PEKI, PC, Mt Hagen