The Present Day Situation in Boera and Amongst the

Western Motu

Today the people of Boera have become more dependent on paid employment, with most of the young people working in Port Moresby

or other cities. Education and other factors that have been described in Chapter IV have changed their life-style and the young generation do not follow their parents' traditions. Not only pottery making, but the skill of fishing and canoe manufacturing, for which Boera and other Western Motu villages were once well known, have also declined.

May and Tuckson (1982: 64) mention that in the 1970s the quality of Motu pots deteriorated. They suggest that they were made by non-potters who tried to make money by selling to tourists.

However, there were also good quality water and cooking pots ready for sale. I have not heard that other people besides traditional

potters were trying to make pots in Boera. Probably what May and Tuckson observed was the normal range of pottery quality made by both unskilled and skilled potters, (e.g. Finsch, 1903: 333). The reduced frequency of potting in recent times may also have diminished pot quality.

Most of the potters at Boera expect pottery production to continue. Some of them, like the potters who worked with us, were

happy that they do not have to do it regularly anymore, complaining that it is heavy and dirty work. This statement could be regarded as an expression of pottery as a historically undesirable occupation, in my opinion this attitude is a result of rapid modernization which has relegated potting to an irrelevant occupation amongst modern villagers in Papua New Guinea.

The continuation of the whole pottery tradition is no longer possible since the institution that supported it, the hiri, has already collapsed. However, it might be continued if a new system and motivation were available, such as providing pottery as an extra-curriculum activity at school or even in a special school or course, together with the establishment of a market that can guarantee distribution.

During the last few days of my field work the potters who worked with us had decided to continue potting more regularly and formed themselves into a group called Dadarai (ignorance) with Seneka Moi as the coordinator. By doing this they hoped that the younger women, especially their daughters, would be interested and start to learn. Since Seneka Moi himself is a craftman who makes small lagatoi models for tourists, he already has a market for his craft and contacts with organizations which could be expected to distribute the pottery. Before we left Boera, they had already started to make more pots on order from Port Moresby.

In Boera there seems a possibility for the continuation of pottery making, although perhaps in limited quantity. However, recruitment of younger potters is desperately needed, since the older ones soon will not be able to continue because of their age.

The Dadarai group reflect a different organization of pottery making from the traditional one. Traditionally the potters said they were never told by the men what they should do. Although the men

used to be the middlemen for the potters' trade to the Gulf, they never interfered with the decisions about the types and numbers of pots to be made. Today Seneka Moi is the one who negotiates with purchasers about the type, the number of pots, and the timing, before he asks the potters to work. However, the price of the pots is determined by the potters themselves.

potting activity. Seneka Moi's father also organized pottery

manufacture for the European markets in the 1960s and 1970s. Men are more exposed to foreigners than women and it is therefore

understandable that a man should become the intermediary for the potters in dealing with purchasers. However, one more enterprising woman, Asi Hisiu, is making pottery by herself without any male interference and she is able to sell her pots successfully.

Despite the decline of the pottery industry and the new life-style of the potters it can be said that pottery making in Boera is not considered a marginal occupation that confines the potters to a low stratum of society. The potters themselves are proud of their work and they are also open to new influences and willing and able to experiment.

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