Now that the road is going in up there to Koi Nili, the Goiniri could move back to their roots within the next few years. At the same time the Goiniri, Wolwale, and Romei-Barera Bible translators are starting to think about taking the Bible translation movement into the mountains. There are many other Onnele language groups that still live in remote areas and have no access to the Word of God in their own languages.

These translators became a part of the Aitape West Translation Project in 2001 after a tsunami forced the Arop people to relocate further inland and the Arop translation team found themselves centrally located between 10 other language groups in the region. They were asking for Bible translation, and they couldn’t be denied. If the Goiniri people move back to Old Goiniri, or Koi Nili – “the place where they sing” — this could be another central area where the Bible translation movement could clearly mark out a new road for many other groups in the Onnele family of languages.

And once again they’ll hear others singing at Koi Nili. But these will be new songs about a new road from the Word of God, and in their own languages.

Over the years, the Goiniri Onnele people have increased in numbers and spread out, constantly needing to clear new land for their gardens. This has created much conflict with the traditional landowners from Nengian.

This year, a lumber company is constructing a new bush road that will connect Amsuku just beyond Wolwale and Romei to Old Goiniri and beyond. The road has just about reached their Koi Nili homeland. The Goiniri people are talking about moving back to their traditional land. That would resolve the conflict with their Nengian neighbors, and plus, there’s just something about moving back to your roots, to the ground that God gave to your ancestors.

Around 1960 an Australian doctor was making his regular patrol from Aitape and the lowland areas of Nengian and Wolwale villages before following the Pien River up into the Torricelli Mountains. He went up there to run a bush clinic for the Goiniri Onnele people. On that walkabout, he fell and injured his hand on the sharp spiny thorns of a sago palm. When he returned to the base of the mountains, he met with the Wolwale and Nengian people and suggested that they find a place for the Goiniri people to live down there. That would make it much easier for him to care for their needs as he passed through all the villages that run along the base of the mountain range.

There was a man from Nengian who had a large area of ground that was not being used, and it was decided that the Goiniri people could come settle there. So in 1961 the first three families moved from Koi Nili to the Goiniri village where they have now lived for the last 50 years. They call it “Niu Niri.”

In 1962 the leaders of the Goiniri people had discussions with the police and it was decided that the families remaining in Old Goiniri needed to resettle and build homes at the new Goiniri village. So the rest of the Goiniri people were forced to move to the place where they now live.

The Goiniri Onnele people lived at Nongkripilru for only a few years before they moved again to the head waters of the Pien River at the confluence a creek called Kupen Rele. They relocated in order that a number of their clans could live together in a tighter community.

This place is called Koi Nili, which means “place where they sing.” This shift brought them close enough to hear the singing and drums from several other people groups in the chain of Onnele languages to the north and west. This was the original “Goiniri” village, and the alternate spelling probably derives from the pronunciation differences of these other Onnele languages. It is now known to outsiders as “Old Goiniri.”

The aid post was also moved to Koi Nili, and it served as a central location where the sick and injured from the surrounding areas could receive medical attention. People would visit the aid post from the related language groups of Wuguble, Kabore, Molmo, Inebu, Kaiye, Karantu, Romei, Barera, Wolwale and Nengian.

Part 4 in the continuing short history of the Goiniri Onnele people of Papua New Guinea as reported to me last week by Goiniri Bible translator Dominic Pusai…

A number of years after World War II, the Catholic Church had a mission station at Sissano along the coast, and the priests there were looking to establish another mission station inland among the Goiniri Onnele. So the Goiniri people moved again to an area where an airstrip could be built in order to service the potential new mission. This place is called Nongkripilru, which appropriately means “flat edge of a hunter’s bow.” During the Australian administration of Papua New Guinea, a patrol officer’s outpost was established here, a “haus kiap.”

It was decided, however, that an alternative mission station would be established in the lowland Onnele village of Romei. From this central location, the new mission could reach further into the Torricelli Mountains where the Goiniri people lived, among other Onnele peoples. In the early 1950s then, the Goiniri people first attended schools run by the Catholic Mission. This was the first time they started learning the pidgin trade language, and it was then that they were first taught about the Word of God. But it was in a new and foreign language. And to receive this new learning, students had to come down out of the mountains from their new home at Nongkripilru. The airstrip was never built.

Part 3 in the continuing short history of the Goiniri Onnele people of Papua New Guinea as reported to me by Goiniri Bible translator Dominic Pusai last week…

The Goiniri Onnele people grew in numbers and needed more space for their clans’ houses and gardens. So they moved down from the mountain to an area with more space that they call Munomu. That is the name of a limbum palm, the kind they use to make basins for preparing boiled sago. This migration occured during the German administration of the northern half of the island in the early 1900s. It was here at this second location that an aid post was established as a central location among the mountain Onnele dialects. People would travel to this aid post at Munomu to receive basic health care. They stayed at Munomu for quite a long time.

During these years, the Goiniri Onnele people were fierce fighters with their spears, and they would make raids as far as Pes in the direction of Aitape. It was also common for them to use traditional magic to fight their enemies. They attest that there were two things that enabled them to continue occupying this land: the strength of their big men as well as the seduction of a woman. This particular area is referred to as “Arop woman held a man,” which recalls the time when their enemies turned back before battle because one of the warriors was seduced (and thus weakened) by a woman on the night before a raid.

The Goiniri Onnele people speak a dialect of Northern One, a Papuan language, and live several miles inland from the northern coast of Papua New Guinea along the western range of the Torricelli Mountains. The ancestors of the Goiniri people originated on the site of a tall mountain. From that mountain they could look out over the whole region to the east and west of Aitape between the Austronesian-speaking coastal villages of Matabau, Arop, Sissano and Serra. The local name of this mountain is Feliple, which means “place of the mango.” This is the area that God gave to their ancestors.

Dominic reports on Wolwale Scripture dedication

For the last several years that I have been living in Papua New Guinea, Dominic has told me that he faces constant threats from the family of a man that was killed ten years ago in a self-defense struggle. He says, “If God hadn’t called me to translate the Bible for my people, then I would run away and hide from those who threaten to kill me.” Five weeks ago, they attacked Dominic in town and put a five-inch gash in his upper arm with a large bush knife. When he reported it to the police, they held him in jail, partly for his own protection, partly to determine if his case would become a murder trial in national court.

I spoke with the police lieutenant four weeks ago, and he was very interested in hearing of Dominic’s role as a new leader in the translation project. He said, “Ben, I know that the Word of the Lord changes people, and that makes my job much easier.” He assured me that he was interested in Dominic’s safety and the continued translation of God’s Word into the many languages of his district.

Dominic was released from jail just over two weeks ago. With no eyewitnesses, the police released him after negotiating an out-of-court settlement between the two parties. Dominic owes compensation of 15,000 kina (close to $7,000), but the two groups shook hands, signed an offical statutory declaration with the police, and the opposing family confirmed that Dominic’s life is no longer in danger of retaliation. They said he should feel free to walk around and do his work, and they will not seek revenge or threaten him.

Dominic spent the last few weeks at our translation workshop, making an audio recording of the Goiniri Onnele translation of Luke and entering final corrections into the draft of Acts. For the next seven days, I will post here a brief history of Dominic’s Goiniri Onnele people as reported to me by him last week.

On Tuesday we left Ukarumpa, knowing that we would be looking for a car to take us to the village since no one cut our airstrip over the Christmas holidays. When Ben called our friend Gabriel Lazarus who runs a PMV (a car that people pay to ride on), we found out he was already making a run that day and would be willing to pick us up the day after.

We gratefully took the opportunity to sleep whenever we could, and had a chance to take the kids to a hotel pool for a swim and lunch with several other families here.

Meanwhile, we had a phone call from one of our translators, Dominic. We found out that some young guys cut him with a bush knife outside a store in Aitape. When he went to the police to report it, they locked him up in jail! Thankfully they didn’t take his phone away so Ben was able to talk to him several times before his battery went out. We assured Dominic that when we got to Aitape we would visit him and do what we could to help him get out. Ben also called Dominic’s new wife Clarice and prayed with her.

The next day, 8:00 am came and went, and no car, but it is not unusual for people to show up late here. Even 2-6 hours is within the normal range for us, and we don’t even worry at that. Thinking the car would arrive at any moment, I gave away the fridge food and stripped the beds so that the lady who works here could wash them. We made sandwiches and filled up water bottles and packed up the diaper bag. However, night came and I had to go ask for more sheets from the manager. Over the next 24 hours, Ben made multiple phone calls, and we discussed leaving in the middle of the night, even, if the car showed up. Still no car.

At this point, I did start feeling anxious, because I had packed and unpacked everything several times and didn’t know if I needed to get food for our family or not. Plus I didn’t want to be a burden to our friends here, who had graciously provided three meals already!

We sent out an e-mail update asking for prayer for Dominic and for our car situation. A few short hours after we sent that out, Gabriel called us! He said his car had broken down and he was unable to come before the end of the weekend. Since the bush road goes through the jungle and over 32 rivers, and it is a rather difficult journey, we decided we would rather wait for Gabriel and go on Tuesday with the two men who are coming out with us to record the book of Luke.

And so we wait. But we are grateful:

• We have heard second hand that Dominic may be released today or tomorrow.
• The guest house here has space for us to stay these extra days.
• We have been able to catch up with old friends
• Jessie and I went to town and bought food for the next 4 days. A friend here was surprised to hear that we were able to get what we needed without having to fight crowds or deal with theives on a Friday afternoon.
• We have had time to REST and RELAX.
• Ben and our teammate Jessie are still able to get translation work done.
• We have had good phone reception to contact several of the translators and others in Aitape who are dealing with Dominic’s situation.

A friend of mine asked me yesterday, “are you stressed?” I do have to say that from when we were supposed to leave and until we heard from Gabriel that he wasn’t coming, I was starting to feel anxiety percolating. During the night and through the next day, every time we heard a truck we wondered if that was the one for us. However, that passed quickly when we learned that we would go on Tuesday. Our concern for Dominic is high, but he is not giving up, and his council member is involved in obtaining his release.

So we pray.

We don’t know why there has been a delay but underneath it all, I know that God has put this unplanned vacation in action for a reason. Maybe there will be some significant challenges in the village and we need all the fortification we are getting in these few days of rest to deal with them. Or maybe the road has been bad or there have been rascols (bandits) the past few days. I guess time will tell! For now, I sit here, under a ceiling fan, drinking cold water from the fridge, and feeling very grateful.

L to R (Jenny Beth, Ellie, Jacob, Josiah and Noah)

In my last post, I mentioned losing the Christmas pictures Ben took. He found them on a wayward SD card just now, yay!