Collecting Colonialism by Chris Gosden Chantal Knowles

Author:Chris Gosden, Chantal Knowles [Chris Gosden, Chantal Knowles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, General
ISBN: 9781000180763
Google: 10MHEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2020-05-26T03:50:47+00:00

This is followed up by a further letter regarding his will nine months later in which it is noted: ‘The deceased is described as having been of roving disposition and not at all likely to have made any testamentary arrangements.’13 In the event some relatives in Sydney were found and a will had been lodged with them. The remaining legacy (after expenses) was handed over to them, and Harry Bond left the public record.

The circumstances of Bond’s death are mysterious. No one else died in the accident; all the native crew survived and made it to shore. This begs the question of why Bond was the only casualty. Was he drunk and unable to save himself? had his debts caused him to commit suicide? or did the local crew decide to kill him? The overall tone of the government letters suggest that all these options were considered as possibilities and the real truth could not be ascertained.

Through Bond, Speiser was directed westwards up the coast to visit Aliwa,14 an old man who was a big man and luluai15 on Pililo island, and whose influence spread right along the coast. He is one man whose legacy remains today. In 1985, more than fifty years later, his achievements were recounted to Gosden.

Speiser wanted to know the history of the area. It was crucial to the way he understood the landscape and its people and to the picture of migration and development of material culture that he was working on. Up until this time Speiser had been moving between a variety of willing informants, some were big men, some luluai and others tultul, but was continuously frustrated by their lack of knowledge and by the commonly spoken phrase ‘The old men knew, we do not know any more.’16 Aliwa was to become Speiser’s most important informant as he was able to tell stories of the past which few around him remembered; on several occasions other local men and boys listened in on the sessions as many of them had never heard the stories before.17

While Speiser was in Möwehafen he was already banking on the reputation of Aliwa, noting in his diary a full two weeks before he met him, ‘I now pin all my hopes on old Aliwa in Arawe, but I will probably experience disappointment with him. He is said to be very communicative and knows a lot.’18 When Speiser finally met him he was frustrated as Aliwa had had no prior warning of his arrival.

In the afternoon I went then to Umtingalu village where I met the famous Mr. Aliwa – an old, very worthy and self-confident man, whom I made my compliments to. He still knew nothing about me – officially – Harry Bond had naturally forgotten to speak to him about me … however he was stalling … he said all kinds of things to me, that I still hadn’t seen – and he wants to come again tomorrow.

In his field notes Speiser described Aliwa as a large man of about seventy years of age, with a large family, and with the status of ‘upper’-luluai.

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