The Month of Mary in Bougainville

Leonard Fong Roka

The European Christianity landed on the Solomon island of Bougainville in the early 1900s. Since then it had enormous impact on the people in terms of bridging the island to economic, political, and social and many other aspects of development.

Walking with our imported faith

Through the islanders suffering, that they endured since the colonial era, for self determination away from the ethnically and geographically strange Papua New Guineans that still rule them, Bougainvilleans had sticked to their imported religious cultures and to some extent, local Bougainvillean religions are also held onto.

With faith we have moved

To the Roman Catholics, one such period of deep religious observation, is the month of October. This month in the Church calendar is observed as the Month of Mary who is the mother of Jesus.

Since my family is one devoted Catholics in our home, the Tumpusiong Valley, I often fall prey into the pilgrimage visits of praying the rosary from village to village processions.

In our destroyed home, we still live

The ritual attracts us all: the children and the adults. Thus, on every walk and prayer day, our hamlets are all empty as we visit and pray with our relatives.

In the Lord we stand

Our mining giant, Rio Tinto, destroyed home valley is governed under the Deumori Parish (sometimes referred to as only Panguna). It is made up of three (3) major villages that are Enamira, Onove and Darenai. But to this day, there is not a village but a scattered cluster of hamlets that employ the original village names as its tag.

Through hamlets we visit

On the month of October our valley church leaders has the duty of inviting the parish priest to come into Tumpusiong and celebrate mass of launching the Procession of the Statue of Mary. Then we start visits from hamlet to hamlet.

In the walk, from one hamlet to the next, we pray whole the rosary and other supplementary prayers from saints and so on. In between we sing songs and walk the journey be it short or not.

In hamlets we pray

On the day of launching, the Statue of Mary remains with the opening hamlet. On the next morning we move to the next.

Family chapels in the hamlets

So often we start from our main Darenai Primary School and move from hamlet to hamlet that are separated by the Rio Tinto made desert; over some mountains, through forested hills.

Singing hymns in the bush

This pilgrimage is well planned to take the whole month of October each year. By the very last day of October the statue that belongs to our Tumpusiong Valley arrives with us at Darenai Primary School where it started its journey.

Handing the statue to Darenai community in 2012

We close the month with the priest and food.

Darenai community leading prayers in 2012

So every October I love to go home early to walk with my people as a family. I love the joy of reunion with friends and family in an air of religious dedication.