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APELIS MAZAKMAT
01920—1986
Apelis Mazakmat, the first Papua New Guinean to embrace the Bahá’í Faith, was born into the Moxomaaf or Red Parrot clan in the Nalik-speaking area of New Ireland some time in the 19203. This clan has a
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reputation in New Ireland both for being important custodians of traditional lore and for being open to new ideas; the first New Ireland convert to Christianity, for example, was a maternal relative of Apelis. Apelis lived up to this reputation, being a defender of New Ireland ways during a period of unprecedented change, while himself introducing a number of innovations from the outside world which helped make his people among the most advanced groups in the country.
Apelis was orphaned at an early age. He was adopted by his grandparents in Munawai Village, but spent much time with his father’s relatives in Madina Village. He became aware of religious differences while still quite young. Although Munawai and Madina were both Methodist Villages, his mother had been from Lugagon, a Catholic Village between them. He began school at Lugagon, but rebelled against the Catholic missionary’s strong stance against traditional ways, and returned to his grandparents at Munawai.
In 1930, he went to the first government school in New Ireland, which had just been established at Utu. Although the academic standard was still poor, it was better than the mission—run schools of the time, and he was able to progress to a teacher training institution in Rabaul on nearby New Britain. After this training, he was employed on the New Guinea mainland as one of the first indigenous government teachers. The second World War found him in the Sepik, where he was conscripted as a patrol officer by the Australian army.
After the war he was again hired by the Education Department to assist in rebuilding the government administration, and it was not until 1947 that he was able to return to
New Ireland. In 1949, he started the first
government school in the Nalik area in Madina. But the war had made Apelis question much that he saw was wrong in colonial society. One of the institutions which he felt was particularly oppressive was the mission.
THE Bahá’í WORLD
His negative feelings about the church were no doubt strengthened by the refusal of the local Catholic missionary to sanctify his marriage as a Methodist to a Catholic woman (whom he eventually did marry). He organised a meeting of community leaders from all parts of the Nalik area to convince them of the need to expel the missionaries from their region. He was able to persuade many that this should be done, but as church officials heard about this, they convinced the colonial authorities to arrest certain clan leaders who were following Apelis. It is undoubtedly no coincidence that these were later among the first to embrace the Cause.
The threat of further and more prolonged imprisonment induced the other leaders to oppose Apelis’ moves, and in embarrassment he left the Nalik area With a friend by bicycle heading toward the southern part of the island.
Apelis is remembered as having been a very brash young man before he heard of the Faith. He and a friend travelled through New Ireland with no money, relying on their ingenuity to survive. When they reached the southern tip of New Ireland they went by canoe to Duke of York and then to New Britain, which is very difficult. There they worked at an agricultural research station, where Apelis learned how to grow cocoa and a number of cash crops.
In 1951, he returned to New Ireland to put this knowledge to work. At that time expatriate planters on New Ireland would not allow New Irelanders to grow cocoa. Using seedlings which his friend sent him from the agricultural research station on New Britain, Apelis formed a cooperative in the Nalik area to introduce cocoa production to natives. This was the beginning of the now flourishing small holder cocoa plantation industry which is a major source of income for rural New Irelanders. Apelis also tried to stait a native owned cocoa fermenter, but the opposition of expatriate planters and jealous clan leaders, who saw him as a threat to their power, prevented this for many years;
IN MEMORIAM
By this time the government was having problems dealing with a movement on Manus started by the famous cargo cult leader Paliau. Because of Apelis’ lack of patience with religion and his understanding of how wealth was actually earned in a modern society, the government recruited him again for the teaching service, this time at the government school in Paliau’s home Village.
On Manus, he soon met Knight of Bahá’u’lláh Violet Hoehnke, who had arrived in 1954 from Australia to open the Admiralty Islands to the Faith. “Sister Vi” was a nursing sister at the hospital and had become good friends with Elliot and Dorothy Elij ah, who lived near the hospital. Although they never became Bahá’ís, they did arrange a discussion about the Faith at their home for Apelis. In an interview for a national newspaper near the end of his life, Apelis said that he had been struck with the progressive nature of the Bahá’í principles and the fact that they were so harmonious with traditional New Ireland beliefs and practices.
In the colonial society of that time the free mixing of the races, which is so taken for granted in today’s independent Papua New Guinea, was prohibited by custom and law. Sister Vi became notorious for inviting natives to her home and for socialising with native nurses at the beach, and so at the end of 1955 she was transferred from Manus to another island. She kept in contact with Apelis, however, and also introduced him to Rodney Hancock, a pioneer from New Zealand who had arrived in New Guinea soon after she had. When she was in Australia on leave in 1956, she received a telegram from Rodney informing him that Apeiis had declared, becoming the first Papua New Guinean believer.
Apelis wrote to his childhood friend from Madina, Michael Homerang, then a teacher in the Sepik, telling him about the Faith. Homerang had to return to Madina because of illness, and at Christmas 1956 Apelis and
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Apelis Mazakmat
Rodney Hancock went to Madina to teach Homerang the Faith. He soon declared. Miss Thelma Perks, then an Auxiliary Board member in Australia, went to Visit Papua New Guinea. Apelis and Homerang organised a large meeting at the beach in Madina at which Thelma spoke and Rodney interpreted into Pidgin. A small group of people declared, and Virtually the whole village began to discuss the merits of the Faith.
In the stratified society of the time, the fact that pioneers would stay in native homes and eat their food was a shock for both native Villagers and settlers that was, as one man who later became a Bahá’í said, “as great a shock for us as when Táhirih removed her veil in han”. In fact, Apelis was even jailed for providing hospitality to Miss Perks: he had broken a colonial law prohibiting the accommodation of sing1e white women in native Villages.
Apelis used this dramatic removal of the colour bar to teach the Faith with greater intensity in Madina, so that by 1957 the first Local Spiritual Assembly could be formed. Many people declared until at one time three
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quarters of Madina Village was Bahá’í. This alarmed church authorities and white teachers at the local school, Who told the new believers that they would go to hell if they remained Bahá’ís and followed a “false prophet” and a “foreign religion”. This caused many to return to the church, and feelings against the Bahá’ís became quite strong.
By 1957, Apelis had helped establish, and had been made chairman, of the first local government council in the area, and he used this position to ensure that opposition to the Cause did not get out of hand. Apelis and Homerang gave Bahá’í books to the colonial advisor to the council and to the head of the local education office, who were favourably impressed and protected the Bahá’ís. Matters came to a head when an angry Methodist churchman physically attacked a new Bahá’í who would not recant. The Bahá’í took the man to the government authorities, who jailed the attacker. When churchmen realised that the colonial government would protect Bahá’ís, opposition became muted. The Faith began to spread to other Villages, but it never took hold in Munawai, Apelis’ home Village.
Although Apelis introduced many new ideas into Nalik society, once these ideas took root and were accepted by others, he left the day-to-day running of new projects to others. This pattern was reinforced in Apelis’ relationship to the Faith by the fact that because no other person in his home village became Bahá’í, his opportunities for active involvement in Bahá’í administration were limited. Nevertheless, he was well known for being a firm Bahá’í, and he never hesitated to teach the Faith when the opportunity arose. He always spoke about the Faith with great joy and enthusiasm and was hapiiy to be
interviewed by the national media about his ‘
role in the early history of the Faith.
Much of his teaching was by way of example. Even today the non—Bahá’ís in his home Village attribute his fine character to the influence of the Faith, citing his earlier
THE Bahá’í WORLD
escapades as proof of the power of the Faith to change behaviour. He is especially remembered for the fact that he was never cross. If he were verbally or even physically attacked, he would inevitably reply with such kindness that his opponent would be publicly shamed. This quality was reflected in his family; in a society where physical abuse of women is common, he was noteworthy for the respect which he showed his Wife.
Apelis is also remembered for his way with words. Unlike many other modern Nalik leaders, he was very careful not to corrupt his public speeches in Nalik With English or Pidgin phrases. Although he was not a clan orator, he was perhaps the most accomplished Nalik poet and composer of his time, and many of the songs he composed are still sung at public gatherings. A common theme in these songs is the need for unity and cooperative work. He was a skilled storyteller; if people heard he was coming to a Village, they would gather to hear his renderings of traditional stories or discussions of future plans for development.
These plans took up much of his time in the 1970s and early 19803, long before “social and economic development” became a common phrase in the Bahá’í community at large. In the 19703, Apelis left the local government council and started a timber company for local landowners from the Nalik area. As chairman of its board, he formed a partnership with a J apanese company, making his area one of the first in the country to reap the economic benefits of Japanese investment. He also introduced the first tractor to his Village for use by an agricultural cooperative, and a World Health Organization primary health project, the first in the province. When he died on 25 November 1986, he had been trying to generate support for a hydroelectric scheme that would supply electricity and running water to the northern Nalik-speaking Villages.
Apelis’ wife had died shortly before he did. They had not had any children, and he
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IN MEMORIAM
was survived only by a nephew whom he and his wife had raised. Although this nephew did not become a Bahá’í, both he and Munawai Villagers in general are aware of and proud of the role Apelis played in the Bahá’í community.
Apelis’ life spanned a time of tremendous change in Papua New Guinean society. Born at the beginning of the Australian colonial period, with its many restrictions, he lived through a devastating world war and the rapid changes which culminated in national independence in 1975 and the challenges of adjustment in the postcolonial period. Apelis’ independent spirit, his desire to initiate change rather than react to it, his thirst for new knowledge, and his steadfast and often lonely loyalty to the Faith will remain an example for many generations to come.
CRAIG VOLKER
