DOZENS of agreements over land acquisition in the colonial era were merely reached thru a stick of tobacco, match, axe and even laplap.
Those were treaties entered into agreements under the colonial rule of administration.
But as the nation progressed from independence, citizens have become educated and started to vindicate how their land was acquired in the colonial period.
Many have gone back to retrace and re-track their land acquisition with many having to realize the cheap deal done in that period under the colonial rule.
Our forefathers were conned into false promises over their land, hence, the effects is felt thereon today.
One such case is an ethnic grouping of people from Koiari that own the Sirinumu dam in Central province.
Their vast area of land that used to be their forefathers’ hunting grounds, villages, gardens, cattle farms and many traditional inherited land were given away cheaply to build the dam.
Their forefathers were forced to move to higher grounds to pave way for the construction of the dam with the assurances of building new homes, new churches, connecting water taps to their doorsteps, lighting up their homes and many more countless assertions.
But sadly many of those promises were just mere deceptions as many of the forefathers and mothers have hit the grave while waiting in vain.
Many of the relocated villages are now situated beneath the Astrolable range to the east and further inland to the north. Access to fresh water is quite challenging for a few villages that walk distances.
Today many of the mothers and sisters still carry water buckets and pots from the creeks to their homes.
Is this justice from the colonial deal?
It is a question that needs careful consideration before it is answered in any way possible.
A drummer or an act was depicted during a church launching program on the Sirinumu lakes at Berebay village last month.
The act brought tears to the locals as they reminisced how their forefathers and mothers have succumbed through the ordeal.
The act was basically illustrated how the government officers had to force local people to higher grounds upon orders from the colonial government.
In this act, the white man ‘kiap’ or patrol officer, the construction worker and the interpreter had to reach a village on a Saturday and ordered the church congregation and the pastor when they were into church devotion to leave for higher grounds upon orders from the government.
The government officials promised the church congregation and the pastor and his wife that they would build a new church and a new pastor’s house then set the two bush material infrastructures in flame.
The locals with the pastor, his wife and their packed cargoes watched helplessly as the bush material infrastructures went up in flames.
Bobogi Nuana, who was the then councilor at that time felt disheartened to set fire to the church building and pastor’s house when he was instructed to do so.
He refused, turned back and gave the matches to the kiap and walked away with tears and joined his people only to see the two buildings go up in flame.
That act simply depicts the failed promises of 1963 at the old Gebodabu village now swamped under the mighty Sirinumu Lake.
Other villages covered by the lake are Araidabu and Iovadabu.
The act linked the official opening of the church pastor’s house built upon sacrifice and ownership taken up by the church members and the community of Berebay village.
Kairuku Hiri MP Peter Isoaimo who was present to witness the occasion with the former Governor for Central Kila Haoda was touched by the drummer and made his commitment to support churches in the Sirinumu dam area who are religiously Seventh Day Adventist (SDA).
Momoa Nuana, the legitimate son of the former councilor (late Nuana Bobogi), said the act was illustrated in the context of the colonial administration who did not deter in consideration of their forefathers’ and mothers’ repatriation.
All they were concerned about was for them to give way for the construction of the dam.
How they settled on a new location was up to their satisfaction, whilst they waited for the promised deal to materialize.
But not at one time again a kiap or a white men had come back and find them again.
They would only gaze from a distance only the sea of lake covering the entire land where once upon a time, a village, a garden and their traditional land inheritance remained beneath the water.
“Many of our forefathers and mothers have passed on. Even my dad passed on and it is sad to say that they were literally conned with the cheap sweet talk that had never materialized,’’ Nuana said with tears in his eyes gazing directly across the lake to the exact spot where his village, Gebodabu which is now sunk beneath.
The church pastor’s house was a church plan of Berebay Seventh Day Adventist Church that was supported and implemented by the local landowner company, Sirinumu Development Company (SIDCO). Isoaimo committed K20, 000 towards the church. The MP in his part as the political leader had supported few churches on the Sirinumu lake and further extended his continued support in any way possible for churches in the area.
The church also plans to build a proper state of the art church building in the future with the architectural design in place.
Joe Gurina is a freelance writer. He can be reached for comments regarding this article on cell phone 73043847 or on email: j7gurina@gmail.com
