The Minamai on Blanche Bay. Gazelle Peninsula, East New Britain.PNG Gideon Kakabin. NGI Historical Society.

When Dr George Briown arrived in New Britain in 1875, he was expecting to come across savages and Heathens who had no concept of God and the human Soul. To his surprise he found that the 'noble savage' had an idea of a divine spirit and the afterlife.

The after life was a place called 'Tingana tabaran' or abode of the spirits. In order to get to tinganatabaran you had to have been thrift and diligent in your physical life and by accumulating enough shell money, your soul or spirit (a tulungeam) was able to pay its passage for your journey to the afterlife. Failing this, your 'tulungeam' would wander around 'Iakupia' or hades forever. Your bottom would be removed so you would wander around unrecognizable.

In order to achieve a state of readiness for this journey, your children and their relatives would prepare you by blocking any holes in your person where your soul (a tulungeam) could exit.They would use shell money for this purpose. A little bit of shell money would be used to pay your Tubuan, if it was involved and to pay any other persons who prepared your body. Your body would then be displayed, with your shell money and after the display you would be buried together with your shell money. In the case of a wealthy person, they would be floated off with their riches in a ceremonial canoe

(This photograph is of a man who had been prepared for burial at Davaon Village. This ceremony was witnessed by a British scientist called Arthur Wiley, who lived amongst the people whilst studying the Nautilus sea shell between 1895,1896,and 1897.)

Fast forward, 140 years and today our traditional concepts of life and death have been altered by the Christian religion. Our 'turangan' or 'kaia' has now been replaced by God. 'Tingana tabaran' is now heaven. 'Iakupia' is now hades and we have a new concept called Hell where sinners spend their afterlife.

Our celebrations regarding the burial of a loved one has also changed and the dominant preparation of our dead is now a copy of the Jewish death preparations. Where we have retained some semblance of our former death ceremonies is in the 'Minamai' or 'Kikutu' ceremony.

'Minamai' is an adverb and is derived from the word 'meme' which is a noun for the color red and also the noun for the product of the act of mastication or chewing. When used in the context of a death ceremony, it literally means, to chew betelnut in celebration of...'a Minamai'.

The word 'kikutu' has a different meaning. It means to sit (ki) in separation (kutu). Used in the context of a death ceremony, it means that we will now Ki ( sit in a minamai) kutu (to cut off all the feelings of sadness for our deceased relative). We will certainly be happy, because we will eat free food and be given free shell money. Money which in the past, would have been buried with the dead. I used the phrase 'deceased relative' above because in a Minamai normally only the clan members are invited, however, in modern 'Minamai ceremonies' everyone attends. The promise of a piece of much valued shell money is often hard to resist.

In the Gazelle peninsula, each area or district has a variation to this ceremony, so this discussion will be centered on the custom as it is practiced on the Blanche Bay Area and in particular, in the Kokopo District.

In the past a persons death would trigger off the sounding of a 'garamut' a drum which is made out of a hollowed out log.

(A garamut)

Each clan has a specific call sign which when sounded is a signal for the clan to gather at the place in which the Garamut is being sounded. A study of this musical technology will reveal a complex set of patterns that make up the call. In essence the core of the message is called a 'kulakulatiding'. The sound mimics the sound of an animal or a bird which is the 'totem' of the clan. So many GUNANTUNA (ToLais), confuse this with the Marmar and pikalaba system of moieties. The clan whether marmar or pikalaba has a totem which is an animal or bird or insect. This animal his held sacred and is to be preserved at all costs. Destruction of this animal is akin to the destruction of the soul and or 'totem' of the clan or the self.

For example, in the case of the 'Raluana' clan called 'Ralalar', their totem is the 'willy wagtail' bird and their kulakulatiding or drum sound is 'pit mil mil turut turit torovit tutuitot'.This is what is played by the drummer when calling this clan to a Minamai or kikutu for one of their deceased clan members and it is the bird call of the willy wagtail.

Because of the Christian church, this calling process is the start of the second phase of celebrating a persons death.

Upon a persons death, the beginning 'garamut' sound is the church drum which is beaten in a burst and rest pattern and signifies the beginning of the Christian burial service sequence.

The 'Minamai' is held after the Christian burial.

At the end of a church funeral service, and the burial, and based on previously agreed timing, an announcement will be made as to the actual date of the 'Minamai'. This date can be immediately after the church funeral or it can be some time into the future. The factor that governs this timing is usually the amount of available shell money that can be distributed during the 'Minamai'. This is in direct contrast to the old tradition in which there was always shell money available because accumulation of shell money was akin to salvation.

Several days before the day of the ceremony, the garamut will sound the 'call', the 'kulakulatiding' of the clan.

These days most folks do not recognize the 'kulakulatiding' of their own clan and some drummers are not aware of what patterns they should be sounding so every one including alien clans arrive to the allocated place of the Minamai.

Once people are seated, and the Tubuans have arrived, the proceedings begin with prayers. Then there is the 'warlapang' where the clan whose members death is being celebrated share betel with everyone and there is a communal chew. This is the step that gave rise to the term 'Minamai'.

After the 'Minamai', the folks who were carefully selected to assist and prepare the deceased for burial are rewarded. This is called 'Rara na ubu'. Inside this 'rara na ubu', there are sub steps which must be followed and begins with 'a vuvuai Guvai' whereupon everyone contributes a small portion of shell money to be distributed to those that are to be paid. The family of the deceased then cut a roll of shell money that belongs to the deceased and distribute it amongst the number of placings which have been marked by a leaf on the ground. The number of leaves being equal to the number of people that are being paid.

Once this is done, there is a general call to the relatives of the deceased to come forward and contribute to the piles of shell money that are laid out on the ground. These piles of shell money are bundled up and an individual call is made, from a prepared list of names, to those that are to be paid to come forward and receive their shell money payments.

At the end of this process, and if Tubuans are involved, a call is made to the enclosure that the tubuans are located in to come forward and bring with them their shell money. After the tubuans have brought their shell money, a call is made to everyone else to bring their shell money, and prepare it including the tubuans, for general distribution to everyone present at the Minamai. After the appropriate taxes are paid, the shell money distribution starts.

At the end of the distribution, a call is made to the tubuans to come back to the arena so that a process called 'Tutupar' can be enacted. The Tutupar is when the owners of the Tubuan pay back the shell money used by taking rolls of it and hurling it at the Tubuan. Once a Tutupar is complete, the tubuans stay in the arena and a 'varlapang' takes place whereupon everyone present, including men and women who are not Tubuan members, give short pieces of shell money to the Tubuan as a reward for it being present at the Minamai.

(Cutting up shell money during a Minamai at Bitatita village)

The tubuans retire to their enclosure and then are immediately called back to walk around a small house which is located in the middle of the ceremonial grounds. This is the house that the deceased would have been placed in, prior to their being taken to the church service for the burial service. After the tubuans have completed this walk around, they are then retired back to their enclosure and relatives of the deceased brake this building apart. Components of the building are given out to people with shell money attached. This is also paying respect to the dead.

From this point onwards, the activities become subtle.

If the deceased is a married male, a 'varvatut warpa' is performed whereupon relatives of the female pay a reward to a representative in order that the woman and her children can return to her own place of origin which is her own land.This is only enacted if the woman is living with her husband in his own land.

In this society a woman owns her ground within her own clan boundaries. She is married by the bride price being paid as a hired fee for her to work and support her husband only up to the time that the husband dies, whereupon she is entitled to resume her own life on her own land. During a 'Minamai, this is the point at which this transaction is completed.

During this time also, if the deceased person has been occupying some one else's land - by agreement, by distributing shell money to everyone, the original landowner can repossess his or her land rights.

Relatives of the deceased are also given pieces of shell money in compensation for all the work that they would have put into the 'Minamai' ceremony.

The last acts are the usual long and boring speeches followed by a collective sigh of 'aaaaaaahhhh' and it is done.

(Tubuans and their shell money)