The Astrolabe Bay Area, 1870–1914. Collectors, Collections, Masks. Gábor Vargyas In his paper on “Huon Gulf Collections and Collectors,” R. L. Welsch (2016:16) deplores that “The Huon Gulf is one of the areas on the mainland of Papua New Guinea that was contacted by Europeans earliest, and yet the region and its art are among the least-well-known of the major art-producing regions of New Guinea.” This statement applies just as well to another part of former German New Guinea, the Astrolabe Bay1. The Papuan villages and colonial settlements alike are mostly situated on Figure 1 the narrow littoral south from Madang (Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen), or on the offshore islands (Bilbil, Yabob), and a few other villages further inland. Named after the corvette “Astrolabe” of Dumont d’Urville who put the area on the map in 1827, Astrolabe Bay was one of the earliest administrative centers of the German protectorate “Kaiser Wilhelmsland” created in 1884. After the abandonment of Finschhafen as the seat of the colonial administration in 1891, Stephansort—a commercial station and the first headquarters of the German New Guinea Company near Bogadjim village, founded in 1888—became the center of the administration for one year (1891–1892), before it was transferred to Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen (today: Madang), and finally to Herberthshöhe (today: Kokopo) in New Britain (1899). Colonization went hand in hand with evangelization: the Astrolabe Bay was the territory of the Rhenish (Protestant) Mission Society2 that founded its first mission station in Bogadjim (1887), followed by a few others (1889 Siar, 1890 Karkar,3 1895 Bongu, 1901 Graget). By 1901 there were four coastal centers with four white missionaries and a school: Bogadjim, Siar, Bongu, and Graget; the first hinterland station (1906 Nobonob) and the true inland station at Amele (1916) were founded in the next decades. Notwithstanding the evangelizing efforts, the first baptism occurred only on December 28, 1903, in Bogadjim, and in 1907 “after twenty years of missionary activity the number of Christians totaled twenty-seven souls altogether” (Steffen 1995: 34, quoting Kriele 1927:130).4 The first conversion in mass occurred in 1914 in Bongu when 127 persons were baptized. 1 In geographical terms an approximately 50-55 km long coastline with its hinterland stretching from Cape Kusserow at Madang (formerly Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen) on the North-West to Cape Rigny on the South-East. Culturally speaking, however, the region extends further north another 45-50 kms up to Cape Croiselles on the mainland, including the “Archipelago of well-content people” (named by Miklouho-Maclay) off Madang, the Hansemann Mountains, Dampier/Karkar and Rich/Bagabag Islands; and south some 200 kms along the Maclay/Rai Coast through Saidor up to Cape König Wilhelm/King William near Sialum – a transitional zone to the Huon Gulf area (Bodrogi, 1959:97). 2 As opposed to the Huon Gulf area that became the hunting ground of the Neuendettelsauer (Lutheran) Mission Society one year earlier (Simbang, near Finschhafen 1886). 3 Karkar had to be interrupted in 1895 because of hostilities and a heavy volcanic eruption. Instead, Thiar/Siar’s subsidiary station and school (“Aussenstation mit Schule”) at Graget island was developed into an independent station. Karkar was re-opened in 1909. 4 Here and in the following all translations from German, Russian, French, and Hungarian are mine. 98
Michael Hamson Oceanic Art
