Caught by Other People

Prologue

This is not so much a life story as a story of life, not only mine but the lives of other people or 'characters' as we tracked together on our journey.

When I was a student, I remember the Shakespearean critic, AC Bradley, now hardly mentioned by anyone, saying that characters in theatre are best understood by what they say, by what they do and by what other people say about them. I believe this is especially true of a very theatrical place like Papua New Guinea but also true of life generally.

So, while this is a memoir in the sense that it records some of what I have done and of course some of what I have said, as a character and also a writer in the broader sense, it includes other voices as well, what other people have to say. It is impossible for me to track what I have done without including these voices, whether those of friends, family, colleagues or people I have met only casually, or not at all. To me, that is what life is about.

Voice is especially important in Papua New Guinea; it is a very multi-cultural place, not mono-cultural, another reason why I thought it appropriate to present multiple (and unedited) voices. In addition to being partly an autobiography, then, this story is also like an anthropologist's private field notes, only rarely ever published, so it is full of not only experiences but imaginings, feelings, fantasies, dreams and nightmares.

It is also like a history, not so much a history of myself - I have tried to steer clear of solipsism and searching self-examination - but a history of a love affair, not only with another human being but also with a country and its cultures. I have also attempted by incorporating fictional angles of vision, mostly through free-verse and story-verse, to make it read like a novel and feel like a classical Greek drama. To these ends, I have epigraphed the four sections (or 'episodes') with a Papua New Guinean story that has intrigued me for over forty years about Sigri, the cassowary and her human daughter, Ewelia. Further, I have placed photographs to act like choral interludes commenting backwards and forwards. The book has, as well, its own plot and principal characters which I hope develop throughout.

Tracking across cultures was 'not meant to be easy'. Balancing the dualities of here and there, this and that, I and Other, only rarely achieves harmony in the end. Bridging cultures can have a dishevelling effect on one's personal life, family life, intellectual life and artistic life, sometimes shattering but sometimes perfectly seamless. Bridging cultures is all about taking risks.

According to John Kasaipwalova, our most talented poet, the saddest tragedies in life occur when people are 'not willing to make the jump'.

Madang
Papua New Guinea