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Watched by Ancestors: An Australian Family in Papua New Guinea
"Watched by Ancestors" is an enchanting memoir by artist Kathy Golski of two years spent with her young family in the remote highlands of Papua New Guinea. Arriving with her three children from a previous marriage and a small baby from the new one, the author is confronted by a hastily-built hut with no amenities and no escape from the fascinated, perpetual scrutiny of the local people. The nearest town with rudimentary services is several hours' perilous drive away. The villagers are not a background to this story, but an integral part of it. Their generous friendship is double-edged. While they take the Golski family to their hearts, their different concepts and values are a constant source of misunderstanding; often hilarious, but occasionally life-threatening. Golski observes what goes on around her with amusement, interest, despair and occasionally horror; but also with respect, honesty and a marvellously earthy humour. Struggling to adapt to a new marriage, trying to maintain her identity as a painter and her responsibilities as a mother, the author's warm personality carries the reader into wonderful and unexpected places.
270 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 10, 2019
I bought this book because a friend of mine knew the author Kathy Golski who lived here in Canberra for a period of her life. In conversation with my friend, it came up that I had travelled and holidayed in PNG, to visit my parents-in-law who had lived there in the early 1990s. She recommended that I read Kathy's book, so I did. Kathy's memoir is mainly set in a remote part of PNG during the mid 1980s, with a brief follow up period in the early 1990s.
It is a memoir she crafted from her old diaries and letters and was published in 1998. I am reading it 20 years after publication and forty years after most of the events took place. I wonder how much this area of PNG has changed though? Certainly when we were there in 1994, we travelled in the Mt Hagen area and some of what she writes seemed familiar to me. Though mainly, very little of her memoir was 'familiar' as I never lived in an inaccessible, rugged and remote village in PNG, with my second husband, three children from my first marriage and an infant from my second marriage. I'm being a bit silly. There are no parallels between Kathy Golksi's life and mine, except that we both visited PNG at some stage in our lives.
Kathy Golski has made a life as an artist and has some of her work in National Collections. While somewhat newly married, she followed her second husband to PNG and lived there with him for 2 years with her 4 children. Her husband, a polish immigrant to Australia, was writing a PhD for ANU on the effect of missionaries on the cultural life of remote PNG tribes. It is interesting that the title of her memoir is 'Watched by Ancestors'. These ancestors or tipokai feature prominently in her memoir, as they are an integral part of the narrative of every good and bad thing that befalls the members of the Gamegai tribe. For Kathy, one of these ancestors is her dead first husband, Olek (who also lived and worked in PNG in the 1960s). She references his hand in keeping her children safe, as adventures often turn life threatening in the rugged environment of PNG. Her memoir has a tone that is peculiar perhaps to diaries, in that generally diaries aren't intended for readership, so Kathy's memoir has little that acknowledges us as the reader.
This memoir was fascinating for the life they lived, the adventures they had, the cultural difficulties expressed honestly but without overarching judgement, and the deep love that the family members felt for their experiences as outsiders who are welcomed and become insiders of the Gamegai tribe of PNG. I remember a friend, who volunteered in Mauritius, saying, you do it not so it changes them, but so that it changes you.
It is a memoir she crafted from her old diaries and letters and was published in 1998. I am reading it 20 years after publication and forty years after most of the events took place. I wonder how much this area of PNG has changed though? Certainly when we were there in 1994, we travelled in the Mt Hagen area and some of what she writes seemed familiar to me. Though mainly, very little of her memoir was 'familiar' as I never lived in an inaccessible, rugged and remote village in PNG, with my second husband, three children from my first marriage and an infant from my second marriage. I'm being a bit silly. There are no parallels between Kathy Golksi's life and mine, except that we both visited PNG at some stage in our lives.
Kathy Golski has made a life as an artist and has some of her work in National Collections. While somewhat newly married, she followed her second husband to PNG and lived there with him for 2 years with her 4 children. Her husband, a polish immigrant to Australia, was writing a PhD for ANU on the effect of missionaries on the cultural life of remote PNG tribes. It is interesting that the title of her memoir is 'Watched by Ancestors'. These ancestors or tipokai feature prominently in her memoir, as they are an integral part of the narrative of every good and bad thing that befalls the members of the Gamegai tribe. For Kathy, one of these ancestors is her dead first husband, Olek (who also lived and worked in PNG in the 1960s). She references his hand in keeping her children safe, as adventures often turn life threatening in the rugged environment of PNG. Her memoir has a tone that is peculiar perhaps to diaries, in that generally diaries aren't intended for readership, so Kathy's memoir has little that acknowledges us as the reader.
This memoir was fascinating for the life they lived, the adventures they had, the cultural difficulties expressed honestly but without overarching judgement, and the deep love that the family members felt for their experiences as outsiders who are welcomed and become insiders of the Gamegai tribe of PNG. I remember a friend, who volunteered in Mauritius, saying, you do it not so it changes them, but so that it changes you.
October 17, 2014
I am really into this book. From the outset Kathy Golski brings you in to the fear, and enjoyment of moving to live with her young family among a small tribe in the wilds Papua New Guinea. From learning to wash baby nappies in the river, to coming to the realization that everything is "communal property, and dealing with skin infections and large bugs she takes you on an adventure to a place and life that many of us will never get the chance to experience..
March 15, 2016
This is an interesting memoir. I was in PNG at the time the author's daughter, Nadia, returned to PNG (I believe she was a singer), and do remember hearing about how the people of Mt Hagen described her as 'one of us'. Reading the mother's memoir makes me understand why Nadia received such a welcome.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews