The Coconut

Ismael K. Isikel 7/9/2017

The tree of life (dawai na nilaun) in New Britain and the Pacific is the coconut (lama). Lama is the Kuanua word for the coconut tree as well as the dry nut. Cocos nucifera  is the scientific name for coconut tree. It is a species of palm. Although the fruit is commonly called nut, botanically it is a drupe. It is not a nut.

The coconut provides material for food, water, oil, building material,and household items such as broom, basket, mat , and handheld fan. Most parts of the coconut palm are used. Prior to the mining boom copra and cocoa were the mainstay of economic activity in Rabaul. That is why it is a dawai na nilaun.

Names and uses of parts of the coconut tree 

Kuanua names of parts of the coconut and some of their uses are described here. Some related terms and meanings are also provided.

Lama 

Lama is the general name of the tree as well as the dry nut. Inalama specifically means coconut tree. The kernel  of the dry nut is used for food. It is freshly eaten by many. The kernel is simply cut out and eaten or finely grated and eaten. Coconut eaten with banana (wudu), taro (pa), sweet potato (kaukau), yam (mamia ba up) or other food items is called wiara. Wiare ra lama ma wudu. A popular delicacy made from coconut milk is called ku. The process of making ku is described as pipitai na ku. Punupur or mumu in Tok Pisin is another form of food preparation that requires the use of milk from grated coconut. Even many everyday cooking involves the use of coconut milk extracted from grated kernel. Inainalama or lamalama is the plural form of coconut trees. Makura lama is the word for coconut grove or plantation.

Piogo   The early stage of formation of the nut just after flowering (titi).

Kulau dadauk    The stage between tirip and kulau.

Kulau   The stage at which the green coconut's kernel and water is right for consumption. Kulau is a common item in markets and at roadside stalls. People relish drinking the water (tawa na kulau) and eating the soft kernel. The soft kernel is also called kulau.  With the aid of an ankle loop (kinobir) a person climbs the coconut palm to get the kulau down. The green nuts are either plucked one by one and dropped or the whole bunch is simply shaken and all fall off. Some are able to climb the coconut palm without the aid of a kinobir (ankle loop). The act of climbing a coconut palm without the aid of a kinobir  is described as papaku. The verb form of papaku is paku. Any able person who for some reason cannot climb a tree or palm is called a pagu.

Katung    The transitional stage between kulau and lama where the kernel is no longer soft but crunchy. A traditional recipe using grated katung is called kamuk. The grated katung is eaten with ripe banana. The preferred types of ripe bananas for kamuk are iawa and kalapua.

Tirip    The stage at which the kernel is just forming but still too watery and the shell is still brittle and breaks easily.  The tirip is used for traditional medicine as well as food preparation.   

Titi   The coconut flower before it forms into piogo. Fruit bats love the titi for its nectar.

Warai     After some weeks the dry fallen nut starts to sprout, ready to grow. This stage is called warai. Sometimes the dry coconuts do not fall early and remain hanging until they start sprouting. A dry coconut that does not fall early and starts sprouting while still attached to the arere is called warailiu.  Warai from the top (liu) would be the suitable translation to English. The plural of warailiu is umana waraliu or warawara.

Pagal   The stem that holds the fronds of the coconut palm. Dry pagal is used for firewood. I remember it was also used as a skateboard for galgalir by children. I did use it too as a child.The activity involves collecting a suitable pagal and cut it short. This is carried up the top of a hill, placed on the ground, and the rider sits on the pagal and simply enjoy the ride (slide) down hill. At the end of each ride the children carry their pagal uphill and repeat the process downhill. Umana pagal or pagapagal is the plural of pagal.

Ul    (pronounced ool) Coconut frond. It is also commonly called mapinaul. The mapinaul has various uses. A good fire starter is the dry leaf. The green leaf is used for weaving basket (rat, robong/lovor, kakia, gep),  mat (ding/kubin, tabakau, kupa), hat (kere), and fan (teptep). It is used as well for walling. Brooms are also made from the fronds. The word for broom is tawiai or noko It is used for sweeping (niarupa).

Upa

  The soft inner part of the coconut husk is called upa. Upa na palalama is the phrasal noun. Upa is very good material for making rope for various household uses as well as fishing. Upa is good for scrubbing purposes, especially on utensils and general cleaning.

Gogor   The young coconut frond. Gogor is a favorite item for body and other ceremonial decorations as well as for making the best baskets.

Arere    Nut holder. The dry fallen arere serves as firewood. It is also used as rake.

Agoro/wo/pagoro   The pod that covers the arere with titi that eventually develop into coconuts. Agoro serves as good firewood.

Nirut   A net-like fabric forming at the base of the frond covering the upper part of the coconut palm. The 'green' nirut was used for squeezing out milk from grated coconut. Nirut was used as pupupur for punupur.

Malup  A thick greasy thin substance that forms at the top of the kernel holding the warai fruit.

Palalama

Palalama is the word for coconut husk. It is used for firewood, and serves as good mosquito coil. The Kuanua verb for removal of the husk is upal. Usually the husk is removed with the aid of a sharpened stake called bair. The bair is usually about 1 metre long.

Palakakai is the word for empty coconut shell, after the kernel has been removed . It is also called kakai. The unbroken coconut shell was used as water bottle. This is called palatawa. Coconut shells are commonly used as firewood.

Pulapula    Coconut palm log. Used for house building material including posts.

Me  Used grated coconut is called me.

Tenses in Kuanua

Tenses

 Ismael Isikel  Edited 3/10/2017

The Kuanua past tense depends on how long ago an event took place. The recent past (tar, itar) and the past past (ga, iga) are the two groups of tenses used.  For the recent past tar and itar are used. The past past in Kuanua is three days ago and beyond where ga and iga begin to be employed to describe past past events. tar , itar, ga, and iga  are not added to a word like the ed in English to change the form to past tense. Of course some English words do not require the ed to change the form to past tense. The spelling is changed, for example, eat to ate. In Kuanua they are placed before the verb as separate words as shown in the table below with English Translations.

The first two or three letters of a verb is repeated to change its form to present continuous as you see in the table of tenses.

Table: Tenses

Present Tense           Past Tense                 Present continuous             

wana   go                    Itar wana, iga wana,             wanawana, going

warwut     run            Itar warwut, Iga warwut        warwarwut, running

rabai    weed               Itar rabai, Iga rabai                rabarabai, weeding

tutun    cook               Itar tutun, Iga tutun                tututun, cooking

raut   cut                     Itar raut, Iga raut                   raraut, cutting

(cut as in cutting grass)

tata   talk                     Itar tata, Iga tata                    tatata, talking

Kaugu robong diga piria mara mapina ul.(My basket was woven from coconut frond.)

Note the word 'diga' in the caption of the of the picture.In this case it means 'it was'. 

Denial (Warpuai)

Denial (Warpuai)

Ismael Isikel. Edited 30/6/2017

The noun “Denial” means the action of denying something. For example, ToLimut shook his head in denial. ToLimut iwalute rauluna mara warpuai. There are other words with similar meaning to denial and these include contradiction, refutation, rebuttal, repudiation, retraction, and abjuration.

Warpuai
In my dialect (Kabakada) warpuai is the word for denial. Warpuai is a statement that something is not true. A similar word and meaning to warpuai is pue which is used frequently in rebuttal remarks. In fact warpuai is the adjective of the verb pue. Words with similar meaning to warpuai include kamale, lagodo, logode, ole, niol, and pata.   Kamale means refuse to give or withhold something. It is similar in meaning to the word lagodo. Lagodo is a noun that refers to a person who withholds something. It is commonly used for a greedy person. Logode is the act of refusing. Similarly, ole is to refuse to comply with an instruction or request. Niol is a noun that is used to refer to a disobedient person, especially children. The word pata is similar in meaning to warpuai. It simply means no.

Example Usage

Ia Iringa ikamale ra boroi. Ms Iriniga refused to give the pig.
To Luana a lagodo. Mr Luana is greedy.
Ia Katarina iole ra winawana. Ms Catherine refused to go.
To Kuila a niol. Mr Kuila is disobedient.



Note: Esekia Warvi includes other synonyms in his comment below and those include the word pue that i have included in editing this post.

Vuna and Ra

This post is on the terms Vuna and Ra.

Edited 6/072017 Ismael Isikel

Vuna and Ra commonly appear at the beginning of place names to form the names of villages found in the Tolai areas of East New Britain. Vuna has two meanings: 1. reason; 2. cluster, group. Ra is the definite article the in Kuanua.

Examples of Usage

Ava ra vuna? What is the reason?
A vuna barnavudu. A cluster of bananas.
A vuna tarai. A clan. A group of people (a clan) from one of the two tribes (Pikalama and Marmar) in Tolai culture.

Examples of place names beginning with Vuna and Ra.

Rakunai (the grass) is the name of several villages in East New Britain. The most popular of them is Rakunai village where a Catholic Church and school are located. It shares borders with Raluan (the bulge) and Rakunai United Church.

Other place names beginning with Ra and their meanings include:

Rakandakanda - the cluster of canes
Rakotop - the crossing
Ramale - the valley
Ratongor - the mangrove

Place names beginning with Vuna and their meanings include:

Vunamami - Group of coconuts. Mami is the word that describes a species of coconut. The green husk is sweet and is chewed, similar to sugarcane. Vunamami is a village in Kokopo District.

Vunairoto - Group of iroto trees. Iroto is a species of wood. Vunairoto village is predominantly United Church and shares borders with Kabakada, Nabata, and Vunalir villages along the North Coast.

Vunagamata - Group of laulau trees. Laulau tree bears edible fruits when in season. Vunagamata village is located between Ratongor and Vunavulila villages along the North Coast road.

This post is based on one dialect of Kuanua and that is Kabakada. There are other terms depending on dialect as recently pointed out by Esekia Warvi. After reading my shared post on Facebook (13/6/2017) Mr Warvi commented, "Of similar meaning in Kokopo dialect it's "Bita" as in Bitatita, Bitavavar, Bitamarita, Bitapetep, etc...". My response, "Raluana/Kokopo dialect is bita. It means base or base of. That is one meaning I know. There may be another meaning. My vocab on Raluana/Kokopo dialect is less than comprehensive." There is a term in my Kuanua dialect that means "origin. It is also used to mean "base of" as in "bita"in Raluana/Kokopo dialect. The term is vunapaina. A synonym of vunapaina is turpaina and pronounced in other dialects as turupaina.

Sacred Practices

Sacred Practices (Umana Papait na Pidik)

Ismael K.  Isikel 9/6/2017

Sacred practices in the Tolai culture are found in the Tubuan and Iniat societies. Initiation is the socially prescribed prerequisite for membership in these  males -only sacred societies. Males who want to be initiated pay a fee in tabu to the owner of the tubuan.  

Sacred practices

Tubuan and Taraiu

A Taraiu is a special place set apart for the practice of Tubuan performances and other activities. Only initiated males are allowed to enter the Taraiu and take part in Tubuan activities. Females and uninitiated males are forbidden from entering the Taraiu or participate in Tubuan activities. The Taraiu is a sacred place and worthy of respect in Tolai culture. Females and uninitiated males do take part in feasts involving tubuan performances outside of the taraiu but keep to a respectable distance from the tubuan and men of the tubuan (tarai na tubuan).

Iniat and Marovot

A marovot is a sacred place for Iniat practices carried out by certain male members of the village. Wood and stone carvings of human figures, birds, and animals were carved at the marovot and used in Iniat rituals and other sacred practices.  As oral history goes, my grandmother (my father’s mother) told me on several occasions that one of the practices at the marovot was for the person to enter the marovot and perform certain rituals before taking a “deep sleep” so that his spirit depart the body and travel in the form of a bird or other animal form. The purpose of the “spirit travel” varied but one of them was payback killings.

Related terms and practices

Palnapidik. A  Palnapidik today is essentially ceremonial and is used in various traditional ceremonies in Tolai communities as part of decorating the ceremonial location. It is usually a small ornately decorated house. The current practice and purpose may not be the same as that of the past, especially before and during the arrival of Christianity and other foreign influences. Information now surfacing from archives, including old church records, (NGI Historical Society 4/5/2017) points to a traditional ceremony on its own involving the construction of a huge tall structure as the Palnapidik.

Tabalar.  Tabalar is the Kuanua word for carving. Other words that may be used to mean carving are Pokopoko and Tanua

Tulungen. Tulungen is the word for spirit.

Watabalar.  the practice of sleeping at the marovot in order for the spirit (tulungen) in the human body to depart and travel  in another form such as a bird, pig, shark (balilai) or other chosen animals. This animal form is chosen before the Iniat (the man) sleeps in order to accomplish the watabalar in order to carry out a task in non-human form.

Note: This post is written mostly from oral historical sources except for the reference to the Palnapidik ((NGI Historical Society 4/5/2017).

Harvesting Coral

A Pinipit na Raga

This post is an adaptation of "Harvesting Corals: The Past and Today" from watnata.blogspot.com by Ismael Isikel , 2/05/2017.

The sea, like the land, has been a source of sustenance for humans since the stone ages (ra eae kai raumana tubuidat). In the Old Stone Age humans wandered from place to place, foraging for food, eating, resting and moving on. Eventually humans learnt to settle and do things by using the land and sea. One of the things learnt was making and use of lime powder (kabang) from corals. Initially wood ash (tobon na iap) was used but gradually humans found out that coral stone from the sea was of the best quality. That was a long time ago and today there is far more interest in harvesting from the sea, including the continuation of search and collection of precious stones.

Coral stone (raga) from the coral reefs are harvested and processed into lime powder. It is practiced by the Tolai of Rabaul as well as other coastal villages in PNG, including the Kiriwina coastals in Trobriands. The practice had been around since our ancestors discovered coral as a mineral for processing into lime powder. This powder is used for chewing betel nut (minamai na buai) and ceremonial decorations.

  

The traditional method of mining coral is simple. People wait for the right tide level and go out in canoes (umana oaga) and harvest the coral.  The harvesting of coral is not done on the deep sea bed but on the coral reefs. Now goggles and gloves are used. Before the arrival of goggles and gloves bare hands and sticks were used to break off the corals.

This practice has been in place for over hundreds of years. Besides the economic benefits, there is no doubt that the continuous practice, especially irresponsible practice, is very bad for the healthy continuity of marine environment and its inhabitants. The introduction of the modern currencies (Deutsche, British, Australian, and eventually PNG) hastened the disruption, and in some areas destruction, of large areas of coral as the lime became part of the goods exchanged in the modern economy. The lime was, and still is, made and sold in the markets today.

One of the many bed effects of harvesting coral is the smell. The smell of dying coral (ang na minat na raga) is very bed and can remain in the air for months (gaigai). That is the reason harvested corals are stored well away from the village. Usually the harvested corals are left to dry by the shoreline (valian). Now, how great would the smell come from large scale harvesting of rocks from the seabed, remains to be seen.

Modern Interests on Marine Stones

Today (gori) seabed mining interest and activities has found its way into territories rich in minerals for harvesting of the precious stones (umana ngatngat na wat). The Bismarck Archipelago is one rich area. The modern practice of harvesting differs greatly from harvesting coral in many ways. Some of the obvious differences are magnitude, depth and the type of stones. The type of stones that are of current interest are located well below the corals that is harvested for lime.

Special machinery and equipment are going to be used.  Most of these equipment have not been used anywhere in the world. This seabed mining in the Bismarck Archipelago will be the first of its kind anywhere in the world where copper, gold and other minerals are going to be dug and extracted. The seabed mine will generate wealth for people around the world, not only PNG. After the minerals have been extracted, what will happen to the environment in the future? Do we know for sure what will happen?

Preparation including scientific studies and conferences on seabed mining started well before people in Papua New Guinea were fully informed that it is possible to mine the minerals under the seabed of the Bismarck Archipelago. 

It is important to be informed on seabed mining since it has found its way into our part of the sea. This is not just for awareness but taking responsible action whether one supports seabed mining or disapproves.

Gender Terms

Males - Tarai

Edited 17/03/2017 Ismael Isikel

The word tarai means men and the singular is tutana. It is also used to mean people in general, including females and children. And that is not gender sensitive according to modern gender concerns. Certainly, females (warden) do not want to be called tarai.  The term gunantuna means human and it is an ideal term to use instead of tarai to avoid gender bias.

Sample Usage

Tarai ma warden. Men and women
A wardenika. Only women. Using kake it can also be said, A warden kake.
A taraika. Only men.  A tarai kake.

Note ika is added at the end to mean only. If kake is used then ika is dropped because it means the same. It is one of those Kuanua rules.

Children - Umana bul

Bul   Child
Umana bul  Children.
Aumana bul ikilik.  Little children.

Bultutana is a young lad of pre-teen age.  Plural of the term is umana bultutana.
Barmana is a male youth of teen age and up. Plural of it is umana barmana or barbarmana.

Sample usage

Aura bultutana. Two boys.
Aura barmana. Two young men.

Females -Warden

Warden means women and the singular is wavina. Bulwavina is a young female of preteen age and the plural of that is umana bulwavina. Gara is a teenage female. The plural of that is umana gara or garagara.


Sample Usage

Warden ma umana bul. Women and children.
Akave ra umana bul? Where are the children?

Wawaguai ma umana beo - Animals and birds

Tomotoi is a male animal such as a dog or a pig and a male bird is a loko. A female animal or bird is known as nana.

Note to readers: I will add more to this.