by Jishi Santos

Created on: April 24, 2009

"ME WANT BIG FELLA PLANE COME AGAIN."

High up in the green, canopied forest of the New Guinea Highlands a group of tribesman were busy clearing a patch of valuable land for taro planting. As they were working they noticed a silver flash in the sky, accompanied by a noise and they looked up. Closer and lower did this strange object come until it disappeared towards the Jimi River valley where the Huli tribe lived .

This strange occurrence was reported to the village headman who sent an expedition into Huli territory to find out if they saw this silver object too. They had not only seen it, but it had landed nearby at Goroka airstrip. They were used to traveling here for the annual Goroka show, a world renowned spectacle of dance and ceremony. Three of the fleetest of foot Huli tribesmen were dispatched to find out more and what they saw made their minds boggle. For not only was the giant silver bird on the ground but it was letting men take all sorts of colored exciting packages out of its belly. They saw these being taken by car to a local trade store and put on shelves to buy with white man's money. Those of their local tribe, who worked in the town to get those silver pieces called money, with which they could get their hands on these goods, told them how good these things were. One thing about the Huli is that they are amongst the most colorful, and dare I say vain, peoples of the Highlands and this was like a treasure chest to them to see all this . But when you plant taro all day and raise pigs how do you achieve these trinkets?

This question would not leave their minds as they trekked back to their village and so a meeting was called. After much smoking and lengthy discussion, it was agreed that they would build a similar airstrip to Goroka and perhaps the silver plane would like the look of it and land in their territory. They could then get their hands on this new and exciting STUFF. This, however, was going to be a gigantic task, compared with clearing for their taro gardens, so they called on some neighboring groups to help them. Eventually a few kilometers was cleared and they waited and waited and waited. They began to sing "Me want big fella plane come again, Why he know come, is it too much rain. Come, oh silver god from big fella sky and drop colored stuff for us. We givum big fella potato to you to eat". Eventually one man said, "What um new fella tell us to say in his church? "Papa bilong me, u stop long heaven, you got big fella name........."

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