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MAN WITHOUT PIGS
Year: 1990
Classification: G
Runtime: 59 min
Produced In: Australia
Directed By: Chris Owen
Produced By: Chris Owen, Gavan Daws, Andrew Pike
Language: Binandere and English dialogue, English subtitles
MAN WITHOUT PIGS offers a rare insight into the dynamics of village life in Papua New Guinea. The film explores the antagonism aroused when conflict between traditional custom and Western values occurs in an isolated community.
Winner, Best Documentary, Hawaii International Film Festival.
Official Selection, Nyon International Documentary Film Festival, Switzerland, 1991
The 4,000 people of the Binandere clan in Papua New Guinea live in a series of isolated villages scattered along the swirling rivers of a vast flood plain on the north-eastern coast.
John Waiko, a member of the Binandere clan, graduated as Doctor of Philosophy from the Australian National University, Canberra, in a ceremony of speeches and processions of gowned academics.
John then left Canberra for a position at the University of Papua New Guinea, and to another ceremony at his home village of Tabara. MAN WITHOUT PIGS is the story of the preparations for this village ceremony and the sometimes violent tensions which lay behind it.
In a society where wealth is measured in pigs, John lacked traditional forms of wealth. In addition, his knowledge of ritual, etiquette, clan and personal histories did not match those of the labara men who had spent their lives in the village. John's disadvantages from a village viewpoint were great.
The film follows the complex politics of his attempts to overcome these disadvantages in staging his ceremony.
Three outsiders witnessed the ceremony on the river banks of Tabara: Hank Nelson had supervised John's thesis in Canberra; and film-makers Chris Owen and Andrew Pike had worked with John on other projects. They had extraordinary access to both the intimate and the spectacular events that took place in Tabara.
MAN WITHOUT PIGS captures the exotic spectacle, and at the same time the intense and subtle dynamics of village life where conflict occurs between traditional custom and Western values.
Produced and directed by Chris Owen
Associate Producers - John Waiko, Andrew Pike, Hank Nelson, Gavan Daws
Location Manager - John Waiko
Cinematography - Chris Owen
Sound Recordist - Andrew Pike
Editor - Chris Owen
Post-production Consultant - Les McLaren
Editing Assistant - Urgei Akon
"There are many complex areas of the cultures of Papua New Guinea for instance which are not yet familiar to anthropologists and others." says Dr Waiko.
"Anthropologists talk in the classroom about the subtle differences of class and alliances. But it is extraordinary to see this portrayal with such insight into the situation." - Dr Arth, Margaret Mead Film Festival, New York.
"TABARA village (John's birthplace) is a community where no-one works for money, no-one pays for things with money and there are no wheels. His family, who have always lived there, expect John to compete and advance within the village, according to village rules, but he is not as alert to the detail of ritual, and the forces that flow in the village, as some of his age-mate rivals. John's strength is that he can intervene in the outside world to secure benefits for the Tabara community. His family wish him to be a man of status within the village: his rivals want to have the right to make John carry their message to the outside world." - Hank Nelson.
MAN WITHOUT PIGS – BACKGROUND
By Dr Hank Nelson
John Waiko grew up in Tabara village in north-east Papua New Guinea. Unconnected by road to the outside world, the people of Tabara see their first wheel when aircraft land at little-used grass airstrips. John walked to a small mission school, and won a place in high school in nearby Orokaiva country.
He was well into his twenties before he went to University in Port Moresby. After graduation he completed a master's degree in London, then enrolled at the Australian National University.
Only the second person from Papua New Guinea to earn a doctorate, John has travelled widely as an academic and a representative of the Papua New Guinea government.
When writing his academic dissertation on the history of his own people, the Binandere, John was conscious that he was taking knowledge from the Binandere and expressing it within western traditions of learning. He was doing nothing that would directly benent the Binandere. He therefore wrote a Binandere version of his thesis, to return the knowledge back to his community, and presented it to senior Binandere men to assess.
He chose to be a scholar in two cultures.
Unlike many educated Papua New Guineans, John had a long schooling in village culture, and he retained close relations with his parents who stayed in Tabara. But his knowledge of ritual, etiquette and clan and personal histories did not match that of the Tabara men who stayed in the village. Most of all, he did not have customary wealth - pigs and a long list of favours given, and alliances forged, to call upon for wealth, workers and knowledge.
Numbering about 4000, the Binandere occupy a series of villages on the broad rivers of the Oro Province. With their strong warrior tradition, the Binandere fought colonial government officers and miners with more open violence than other Papua New Guineans. From about 1900 they made peace with the Australian field officers and Anglican missionaries. Binandere men transposed their warrior spirit to serve in the police and the army. The edge of the Pacific War reverberated through the area in 1942, but most Binandere villages have been lightly touched by the outside world.
The Binandere live in a world of competitive individuals, families and clans. Relationships between people are known to be difficult, and ambitious men must monitor and nurture their alliances. A gift given today is a debt to be collected tomorrow - with the finest calculation placed on its value and its timing. The Binandere expect life to be rich in ironies, pretentious men stumble and the devious are caught in their own traps, but nothing is a matter of chance. Even the floods
that sweep down the rivers are thought to be caused by men.
The Binandere have a fine tradition of drama. They stage impromptu farces in the village, or direct the complex choreography, dressing and staging of dance-dramas that enact clan myths. This rich artistic tradition of song, dance and decoration is rarely seen by outsiders. No tourists voyage the rivers of the Binandere.
When John and his family decided to stage a dance-drama to celebrate John's graduation, they were doing much more than putting on a feast to welcome the return of the successful son. To host a dance-drama is to assert accomplishment and ambition within the traditional culture. Rival clans and leaders, while they publicly give a careful measure of support, may secretly hope for signs of scrimping, errors in ritual, and poorly rehearsed dancing.
The difficulties and dangers for John were great. He did not have the pigs needed to pay those who worked for him, and for a public distribution of wealth at the end of the ceremonies. He did not have time for his family to expand their gardens and pig herds so that they could feed generously the guests from neighbouring villages. Expectations on him were high.
The Binandere want the benefits of the outside world, but not at the cost of the destruction of their own way of life. Their one asset coveted by the rest of the world is a vast rainforest. They look to John to guide them through the complexities of relations with avaricious, cunning foreigners.
In MAN WITHOUT PIGS, John negotiates with rivals and allies to win the cooperation of those who will prepare the carving of the spirit that is the focus of the dance, rehearse the dancers, build the stage, provide ritual knowledge and feed guests. All the time his family has to keep a careful account of debts accumulated and gifts made, and to measure these against the family's long history of accumulated obligations. Mother, father, sisters and brothers all have a keen sense of what is just. The soft-spoken family conferences are in contrast to the public oratory that is sharp with challenge, the flamboyance of village groups arriving in decorated canoes, and the creative turbulence of the dance-drama and John's village graduation.
MAN WITHOUT PIGS captures the exotic spectacle, and at the same time reveals the beliefs, ambitions and intense, subtle relationships of those engaged in a rainforest drama.
Dr John Waiko (born 8 August 1944), a leading Papua New Guinean historian and politician, passed away on 16 November 2024. He was a wise and enthusiastic collaborator on MAN WITHOUT PIGS, and before that on ANGELS OF WAR. (1982).
Dr Hank (Hyland) Nelson (born 21 October 1837) was a distinguished Australian historian, author and educator, based for four decades at the Australian National University in Canberra. The documentary, ANGELS OF WAR (1982) was inspired by his research into the experiences of Papua New Guineans during World War Two. He passed away on 17 February 2012.
The attached article about the expedition during which MAN WITHOUT PIGS was filmed, was written by Hank Nelson in 1987. The article was originally published in 1987 for the journal, Overland, and then was re-published by the Australian National University Press in 2014, in a collection of articles called The Boy from Boort, celebrating Hank Nelson's life and work. (Hank had passed away in 2012).