Item details
Item ID
MW6-004
Title Interview with Kauboi, Port Moresby
Description Tape#1: Story of musicican Kauboi.
Side A & B

Kauboi (Mere Mohi) comes from the Ihu District of Gulf Province and moved with parents to Port Moresby living in the Kaugere settlements. His father was employed by an expatriate where he worked as a domestic labourer at his premises.
Mere had the fascination of music playing the ukelele and guitar mainly self taught by listening to the radio with songs played in programs.
Mere did not any much education and he joined "rascal" activities around the city so spent most of his early years involved in crime. He then took up music and playing in public places such as shopping areas with his ukelele and guitar with songs in Tok Pisin, Motu and "rock and roll" learnt from the radio. He was dressed mostly with "cowboy" like clothes and that was how he got his name "Kauboi" which is in Tok Pisin. He occasionally played with bands in performance not as part of the bands but in breaks or intervals due to his popularity and a soloist musician.
He was later picked up by a recording studio CHM in the mid 1980s' where he made his album of songs which as popular amongst grassroots followers and his "ex-rascal" audience for his style of music more a contemporary style of music of pop and rock and roll in the local languages and english which he had picked up along the way.
His music was popular in Port Moresby and his local Kerema town and his cassette sales was on demand by his people as a rare musician of Gulf Province.
Kauboi later contracted leprosy which affected his hands and feet, got married to a woman from Mailu in Central Province which affected him continuing with his music so he stopped performing his guitar and ukelele.
At the time of the recording of his interview, he was no longer performing but only describes his musical journey and background.

(Steven Gagau, July 2019)
Origination date 1990-06-06
Origination date free form
Archive link https://catalog.paradisec.org.au/repository/MW6/004
URL
Collector
Michael Webb
Countries To view related information on a country, click its name
Language as given
Subject language(s) To view related information on a language, click its name
Content language(s) To view related information on a language, click its name
Dialect
Region / village Kerema, Gulf Province, Port Moresby, National Capital District
Originating university
Operator Nick Fowler-Gilmore
Data Categories historical reconstruction
Data Types Sound
Discourse type interactive_discourse
Roles Steven Gagau : data_inputter
Kauboi Mere Mohi : speaker
DOI 10.26278/S97F-NZ96
Cite as Michael Webb (collector), Steven Gagau (data_inputter), Kauboi Mere Mohi (speaker), 1990. Interview with Kauboi, Port Moresby. MPEG/VND.WAV. MW6-004 at catalog.paradisec.org.au. https://dx.doi.org/10.26278/S97F-NZ96
Content Files (4)
Filename Type File size Duration File access
MW6-004-A.mp3 audio/mpeg 29 MB 00:31:44.849
MW6-004-A.wav audio/vnd.wav 1.02 GB 00:31:44.829
MW6-004-B.mp3 audio/mpeg 19.8 MB 00:21:39.700
MW6-004-B.wav audio/vnd.wav 714 MB 00:21:39.680
4 files -- 1.77 GB -- --

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Collection Information
Collection ID MW6
Collection title Music in Rabaul, Gazelle Peninsula, ENBP and New Guinea Islands Region (ca. 1950s - 1990s)
Description Recordings of a wide range of music in Rabaul 1950s-1990s covering areas of the Gazelle Peninsula of East New Britain Province and the New Guinea Islands Region. This collection was the PhD research work by Dr Michael Webb focused on music of Melanesia in the Pacific. This collection was located as a result of PARADISEC's 'Lost and Found' project and digitisation was funded by the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language.

Note: This video recording on Item MW6-012 labelled Queens Birthday Singsing, Rabaul in 1993 was unable to be digitised due to poor quality of tape so deleted from collection.
(Steven Gagau)
Countries To view related information on a country, click its name
Languages To view related information on a language, click its name
Access Information
Edit access Steven Gagau
Michael Webb
View/Download access
Data access conditions Open (subject to agreeing to PDSC access conditions)
Data access narrative
Metadata
RO-Crate Metadata
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