ABSTRACT
The sparsely populated, roadless northern coast of Milne Bay Province in Papua New Guinea is among the most spectacular regions in a part of the world awash in grand scenery. Rugged green slopes fall sharply from the towering ridgeline of the Owen Stanley Range to a narrow coastal strip of mangroves broken by occasional groves of coconuts shading the bush material houses of small villages. The tiny number of tourists who make their way into what appears to be a nearly pristine Old Melanesia environment are invariably stunned by the unexpected appearance on a high plateau above the village of Wedau of a massive twin towered concrete cathedral (Figure 4.1). When it was consecrated in 1939, the Anglican Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul was the largest permanent building in the Australian colony of Papua (Anonymous 1980). 1 Its looming Norman-Romanesque whitewashed bulk appears as an incongruous European implant set against the wild mountain backdrop and coconut groves. Yet looks can be deceiving. When I first began working with the Maisin people who live in Collingwood Bay, around 80 kilometres to the west, it did not take long before I began hearing of the cathedral on the Dogura plateau. Deacon Didymus Gisore proudly recalled joining a work crew for three months in the mid-1930s, helping to mix coral cement and lifting blocks into place – one of the 170 men from 35 language groups up and down the coast who devoted their labour to the monument. Several older Maisin men had trained as teachers and evangelists there. Since the 1970s, a large number of Maisin women had attended a girls’ high school built in the shadow of the cathedral.
