Ongka's Big Moka

Ongkas Big Moka film from 1976. More info: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ongka's_Big_Moka

(pig snorting)

- [Narrator] The most
prominent leader, or Big Man,

of the Kawelka tribe is Ongka.

(pigs snorting)

(speaking in foreign language)
(pigs snorting)

For five years the Kawelka tribe,

driven on by Ongka have been
struggling to assemble a huge

gift, mainly of pigs, to
present to a neighboring tribe.

(speaking foreign language)
(pigs snorting)

For Ongka assembling and giving this gift

is more important than
anything in his life.

(speaking foreign language)
(pigs snorting)

This film is about why
Ongka so wanted to do it

and about his efforts to bring it off.

(pigs snorting)
(speaking foreign language)

The Big Man of the tribe who are going to

receive the gift is Peroua
who is also the local member

of the national assembly.

One day this July, Peroua set off

on his way back home to the highlands.

Peroua knew pretty well what the Kawelka

were trying to prepare, 500
or 600 pigs, rare birds,

money, tubes of decorating oil, a truck,

and maybe a motorbike.

All his life, Peroua,
like all highland men,

has been involved in a
system of receiving gifts

and later repaying them.

These gifts are called moka

and moka is the most important thing

in the lives of the highland people.

When he got home this
summer, Peroua thought

that Ongka's moka was
going to be very soon

but that's not how it turned out

and Peroua just had to
wait til Ongka was ready.

(pigs snorting)
(speaking in foreign language)

Early this summer, after years
of scheming and manipulating,

planning and persuading,
Ongka began to feel

what he might finally be able
to bring off his big moka

and that it could be the
biggest moka ever given.

(pigs snorting)

The reason why Ongka so
wanted to give his big moka

was that only by giving
can he earn fame and status

for his tribe and for himself.

In the West, you can
get status lots of ways,

from money, from success, from
your job, your possessions.

The only way Ongka can get status

is to outdo his fellow men in moka,

to overwhelm them
publicly by the sheer size

of the gift that he gives.

It's an awful lot of work
to organize a big gift

and Ongka needed the
cooperation of a lot of people.

Big men have no authority
over the tribesmen.

Ongka cannot order people
around, he can only persuade.

(speaking in foreign language)

Ongka gave them a favorite speech

in which he told them to stop
fiddling about in the gardens,

to stop drinking beer and
wasting time with women,

and to get on with it.

(speaking in foreign language)

"What you are supposed
to be doing," he said,

"is getting pigs ready for the moka,

"not sitting around eating them."

(speaking in foreign language)

The Kawelka are a small tribe,
about a thousand people,

all around are other tribes,
some allies, some enemies.

(speaking in foreign language)

There are no villages,
just scattered settlements

around which Ongka plodded, bringing news,

checking on progress,
and trying to set a date

for the big moka.

(speaking in foreign language)

The date is always a problem.

Big Men compete for the
status of fixing the date

and a lot of conspiring goes on.

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

Ongka lives in his men's
house five minutes away

from the house of his
favorite wife, Rumboko.

(speaking in foreign language)

Ongka has four wives and nine children

but he talks rather wearily
about trying to manage

more than one wife and only Rumboko

now looks after pigs for him.

(speaking in foreign language)

Ongka talked endlessly about pigs.

He said that pigs are
the only worthwhile thing

but if money looks after white people,

pigs look after them.

You have to have pigs for
whatever you want to do.

Pigs can be used in lots of ways

but there's a rare bird
captured in the forest

that is used only as a moka gift,

much as the Chinese are out to give pandas

to visiting dignitaries.

It's called a cassowarie and
Ongka hoped to give five.

(speaking in foreign language)

(pig snorting)

(speaking in foreign language)

Rumboko lives with her
daughters in her women's house.

The pigs live there, too,
separated off by a fence.

(pigs snorting)

The basic food of both pigs
and people is sweet potatoes.

Pigs are a lot of work.

Hard at it, Rumboko can look
after eight full grown pigs,

maybe 10 for a while.

(speaking in foreign language)

(pigs squealing)

Sometimes, Ongka went
back to his men's house,

sometimes he ate with
Rumboko and the children.

You can survive alright without pigs.

Your food, the materials for your house,

the traditional clothes
all come from the gardens

and forest and you only eat
pig on special occasions.

But if you want to get
on in life or even marry,

then you've got to have pigs.

(speaking in foreign language)

(pigs squealing)

Because it's not possible

to look after more than a few
pigs, you cannot accumulate,

you can't hoard them.

What you can do is to
assemble a lot of pigs

and give them away in a big public show

and it's by giving that
you impress other people.

In his big moka, Ongka
himself wanted to give

about a hundred pigs.

To have that many on the day,

there is a system of investment.

Over the last four years,
Ongka had invested pigs

with other people, mostly
with Rumboko's father.

The next day, Rumboko's
father was going to show them

the pigs he owed and Ongka
sorted through his feathers

and skins to see what he was
going to wear for the occasion.

(pigs squealing)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

The next day, Ongka's
father in law, Ndamba,

had some pigs taken out for him to see,

returns on investment
Ongka had made with him.

(speaking in foreign language)

If Ongka were satisfied,

these pigs would given to
him later at a small moka

which would feed into Ongka's big one.

It was not as many as Ongka
had hoped but it was a start.

Pigs have always been important.

Ongka's father in law told
us about the olden days.

Although Ongka had now been promised pigs

by his father in law and by other men

that he'd invested with,
the small moka ceremonies

at which he would
actually receive the pigs

still had to happen and
Ongka started to dress up

for the first of these.

Before the Australians
pacified the area in the 1940s,

Ongka, too, fought
against his enemy tribes

and sometimes against his allies.

Big Men planned the fighting and the peace

and the pig-giving that followed.

Big Men have always been
especially vulnerable.

Ongka has many stories
about attacks on himself,

including one about how one night,

he was about to visit his lavatory hut.

As he walked towards it,

he sensed his enemies lying in wait.

Ongka hid in a nearby bush and watched

while his enemies crept
up and drove their spears

through the walls, thinking
they'd got him inside.

Ongka, dressed in his feathers,

set off for the first small moka

that would feed pigs into the system.

(speaking in foreign language)

While the pigs are tied up in the shade,

the donors put on their
bird of paradise feathers

and dance to celebrate their acheivement.

(drum beating)

(chanting in foreign language)

Who gets what is all worked out beforehand

but the pigs are inspected
and counted again,

usually by Ongka.

(speaking in foreign language)

(drum beating)

(singing in foreign language)

The donors walk down the line of stakes,

shouting out the name of the man

who will receive the pig
that will be tied to it.

The correct pig is then
brought on and tied

to its allotted stake.

Disputes about who gets what
should, at least in theory,

have been worked out before.

Language of their own.

(speaking in foreign language)

Speech-making is Ongka's great skill.

(speaking in foreign language)

At one stage in his speech, Ongka said,

the men's house had fallen down,

the young girl's breasts had fallen,

the young man's beard grew long

but now that you've given these pigs,

I shall marry the young girl,
find a wife, a young man,

and I shall build then men's house again.

(speaking in foreign language)

Ongka got one pig and his
fellow tribesmen got the rest,

all to be fed into the big moka.

Ongka has a surprising quantity of money,

1,800 Australian dollars,

sitting in the Mount Hagen Savings Bank

at 3 and 3/4% interest
but highly conscious

of the value of money, he refused to pay

to put his pig in a truck and walked it

the 12 miles home.

It wasn't only that Ongka
wanted to give his big moka,

he had to.

Moka gifts are given and some years later,

they should be repaid with interest.

Technically, moka is
the interest, the extra

that you manage to give back

over and above the gift you received.

10 years ago, Ongka's
tribe were given 400 pigs

by their neighbors and to answer that,

Ongka wanted to give at least 600.

(speaking in foreign language)

To organize 600 pigs,
Ongka had to do two things.

He had to gather in his own investments

and push his tribesmen
into gathering in theirs.

With no authority over
them, he can only push

and he pushes too hard, they
won't cooperate anymore.

There was one place where
he had constant problems.

(speaking in foreign language)

He told them to stop looking
for lice in their wives' aprons

and get a move on.

(speaking in foreign language)

(drum beating)
(flutes whistling)

(singing in foreign language)

Three weeks later, another
of the small mokas took place

and fed in 55 more pigs for the big moka.

Ongka supervised the dances

to make sure they were performed well

when the big moka came.

(speaking in foreign language)

(drum beating)
(flutes whistling)

(pig squealing)

(singing in foreign language)

At this small moka, it
was money as well as pigs.

Money, Australian dollars, comes
almost entirely from coffee

which they grow and sell

to the coffee companies in Mount Hagen.

(drum beating)
(singing in foreign language)

Until 10 years ago, pearl
shells were used in moka

but now shells have been
replaced by paper dollars

and a big pig is now
worth about 250 dollars,

about 140 pounds.

(pigs squealing)

(drum beating)
(singing in foreign language)

This time, it was a ritual war charge

in which extra pigs were
brought on as a surprise

to get extra prestige.

(speaking in foreign language)

Within every tribe, Big Men
compete with each other.

Ongka has one particular rival
trying to oust him, Rhymar.

Rhymar has few of Ongka's abilities

but he always told us that he, not Ongka,

would be the one to fix
the date of the big moka.

(speaking in foreign language)

In his speech, Ongka said
they all, "knew the story

"of the lady who made a lot of noise

"in her sweet potato garden
until a man came along

"and gave her what she wanted

"and then she was happy and quiet

"and now that I've got
what I want," he said,

"I, too, am very happy and like that lady,

"I will sit in my corner
and not say anymore."

(speaking in foreign language)

Thank you very much, I'm very happy.

As the pigs began to appear, Ongka said

that they were like a snake
half-hidden in the grass,

he could see its head but he couldn't tell

how long its body was.

Ongka went off to the Jimbe
Valley, two days walk away

to get new feathers for his headdress

and to chase up a 40 pig investment.

While he was away, something happened

to jeopardize all he had been working for.

(singing in foreign language)

In Ongka's enemy tribe,
a Big Man died suddenly.

(singing in foreign language)

If a man, especially a
Big Man, dies suddenly,

it's always thought he
was killed by sorcery

and the men charge in
anger against the enemy

who must have performed the sorcery.

(singing in foreign language)

In their song, the women sang,

"Oh my father, oh my father,
whom shall I turn to now?"

In their song, the men sang,

"Oh my brother, oh my brother,
who shall I live with now?"

(singing in foreign language)

(shouting in foreign language)

As the day wore on, visitors brought news

of Kawelka men of Ongka's group

who had been heard
singing, drunk in a truck.

People said, "It must
be our Kawelka enemies

"who killed our Big Man by sorcery,

"that they were singing
because they were pleased."

And they began to talk of going
down to burn Kawelka houses.

When Ongka got home with his feathers,

he heard that his group was
being accused of sorcery.

At once, he sent a pig down to the funeral

with a message to say it wasn't true

and a special branch used in oath taking

to emphasize the truth
of what he was saying.

(shouting in foreign language)

He wanted to go down
to the funeral himself

to tell them that it wasn't
true but he didn't dare go.

Some of his relatives, married
into the dead man's tribe,

came and took his branch and his pig down,

along with a pig of their own.

(speaking in foreign language)

Ongka's pig was accepted and
cooked, along with others,

at a distribution of pork

to mark the end of the
first period of mourning

but it only smoothed over the accusation,

it didn't get rid of the suspicion.

(chattering in foreign language)

This sort of payment can
become the basis of a moka

and the moka sequence in
which Ongka is involved

began in this sort of way, as
a payment of pigs for deaths

in tribal fighting.

Later, more pigs were returned

and the to-and-fro
exchanges of a moka began.

A funeral held everything up.

For three weeks, until
the mourning was over,

the Kawelka were uneasy.

There were no mokas, in
case they antagonized

the dead man's tribe.

(shouting in foreign language)

Eventually, the next small moka did happen

and Ongka was given the pigs
promised by his father in law

but they didn't decorate or dance

out of respect for the dead man.

(speaking in foreign language)

Ongka did rather better than he expected.

80 pigs were given and
Ongka got half of them.

(pig squealing)

Ongka was very happy but
more pigs meant more work

and the pressure was really on him

and even more on Rumboko
to hand the pigs on.

(speaking in foreign language)

Rumboko had no sweet potatoes left.

They had to find them wherever they could.

(speaking in foreign language)

At night, with no more
room for pigs inside,

someone had to sleep out with them.

Ongka even found an extra wife, a widow

whose greatest attraction
was her capacity for work.

(speaking in foreign language)
(pig snorting)

(speaking in foreign language)

Before the big moka could happen,

there were still three small mokas to go.

Each one meant more pigs

and mounting pressure to pass them on.

(singing in foreign language)
(drum beating)

(drum beating)
(singing in foreign language)

(flutes whistling)

(chattering in foreign language)

(pigs squealing)

As the big moka got closer,

the pressure on Rumboko got worse.

(speaking in foreign language)

The last few pigs were coming in.

Ongka began to talk about
going down to buy cows

as an extra surprise.

The big moka was very close.

(pig squealing)

(chattering in foreign language)

Moka isn't just about pigs,
it's about all kind of things.

The Kawelka say that it keeps the peace,

it's a way of making a name for yourself,

it holds the tribe together,
it's the big social event.

On a more general level, moka
is a system, a framework.

All over the world, people
operate within some kind

of framework and moka is one of them.

(chattering in foreign language)

There's one more thing to do

before the big moka could
happen the next day.

The money they had
collected to give to Peroua

and his tribe had to be
spread out and counted.

They got 10,000 Australian dollars,

about five and a half thousand pounds.

(chattering in foreign language)

Each bundle is 200 dollars

and is destined for a particular group.

- Four, five, six, seven,

eight, nine, 10, two thousand.

One, two, three.
- Three.

- [Narrator] Peroua, the
member of the assembly,

often says it's time they gave up moka

but he sat, watching the
piles of money mounting up.

(speaking in foreign language)

When we asked Ongka what he'd do

if Peroua didn't one day return the moka,

Ongka said he'd take him behind a bush

and slit his throat but even
if he did lose his investment,

he could never lose the
glory of having given it.

Then, it happened.

Suddenly, Ongka's rival, Rhymar,

did what he'd always say he'd do

and upset the timing of the moka.

Rhymar put a whisper through the crowd

that it was his group who had
killed the Big Man by sorcery.

(shouting in foreign language)

That's not the kind of
thing you admit to in public

but it had the effect he wanted.

(chattering in foreign language)

(shouting in foreign language)

It broke up in confusion
with people angry at Rhymar

for stirring up old troubles.

(speaking in foreign language)

That night, Ongka was
still saying the big moka

would happen the next day.

In fact, things turned out much worse

than Ongka had expected.

Early next morning, the group of Kawelka

married into the dead man's tribe,

came down in a war charge to get Rhymar.

(shouting in foreign language)

On their way, they came past Ongka's.

To try and stop them,
Ongka sat down in the road.

(shouting in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

Ongka told them that they must
stop this talk of fighting,

that when the Europeans first came,

they'd put ideas of fighting
down the Lavaca Hill

and that's where they should stay.

(speaking in foreign language)

He told them it was just a hitch,

that they would finish
the big moka together.

Ongka, with no power to stop them,

did his best to persuade them.

Some listened, some set off for Rhymar's.

(shouting in foreign language)

The next day, there was no big moka.

Rhymar went into hiding.

A few nights later, they
killed four of his pigs.

Peroua had been waiting three months

but now he had to go back to the assembly

to discuss the new Constitution
of the Independence

of Papua New Guinea.

Peroua was getting used to delays.

The big moka had originally
been planned for a year ago

and Ongka and his group

had gone as far as buying a
truck as part of their gift.

Peroua said there was no point
in the truck rotting away

until the big moka did happen

and that he might as well
use it in the meantime.

(pigs snorting)

Sometime after we, too, had left,

Ongka's big moka finally did happen.

There were 600 pigs, 10,000 dollars,

eight cows, and 12 cassowaries.

They washed the truck and
decorated it with flowers

and there was a motorbike.

(speaking in foreign language)

At the end of his moka speech, Ongka said,

"Now that I have given
you all these things,

"I have won, I have knocked you
down by giving you so much."

(pig squealing loudly)