| Description |
Tape#2: Musical journey and experiences of Eliap ToBilitaria, Bitapabeke, Vunamami (continued)
Side A & B:
Eliap ToBilitarai shares his Musical experiences and choral competitions in he Gazelle Peninsula, ENB Province of the 1950s'-1960s' and the journey and how music has developed with the people. Included in the conversations was a relative in Karolus Walagat explaining the the stories.
The choral history and competitions started from late 1950s' to early 1970s' mainly in Rabaul town at Queen's Park and Malaguna Technical School grounds. In the late 1960s' there was disruption due to political movements against colonial Australian administration by the local Mataungan Association. The competitions continued into the Tolai Warwagira festivals with choral competitions and the various church led choral festivals such as Methodist George Brown competition at Vunairima, the Catholics and SDA competitions.
In 1970s', there was a rise in Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) choirs when people from Methodist/United Church background were moving into SDA churches. Since the songs were in English, there were many songs translations from English to Kuanua as hymnity made more meaning in the local language to people. Therefore the Kuanua translations of songs was part of major choral competitions by SDA choirs.
ToBilitaria's Vunamami Village Choir was popular in the 1960s' winning many competitions taking our first prizes. One interesting song was "pusi" or pussycat complied, conducted and performed with actions and sounds besides the singing.
Competitions lead to rivalry and jealousy of winning lead to fights between villages or individuals in choirs but composers and conductors were victims which included ToBilitaria himself.
ToBilitarai was also involved with traditional song and dance and was competitive amongst villages across various areas of Gazelle Peninsula and Duke of York islands in ceremonies and traditional festivities. There was also elements of jealousy with such performances leading to disharmony and fights between people related to performers.
There was the good and the bad sides of these choral and traditional performances however always ended up at both village level courts and local law and order courts in resolving these matters for harmony and good relations in the communities.
(Steven Gagau, October 2019) |
