A Travel to Tobenam Village - Madang, Bogia District

Photo: A local head-dresser from the Tobenam village. The mask is mostly made up of woven sea-shells and a pig’s task hanging from the mouth of the person.

Sitting in front and asleep, I was awakened by a sudden collision of the vehicle’s front left tyre. Running over a huge pothole, our driver was trying to avoid and in fact trying to save a dog’s life blocking our way! The collision almost got my head bumped on the roof of the vehicle as we approached Malala’s St. Michael’s Secondary School, one of Madang’s oldest high schools run by the Catholic Church.

This was my first trip ever to Bogia District and was thrilling on a beautiful Friday afternoon of 1^st March 2013, enjoying different scenic views of Madang’s north coast on the main highway. It was now around 5:30pm and was over 3hours road journey from Madang town to Malala and my final destination was a few minutes away.

As an advocate in ecotourism, my journey was to visit and mentor a group of local people empowered by their local cooperative society. I was invited by the society’s Chairman, Jeffery Kuris and their Secretary, George Peka.

The Totopa Cooperative Society is a local society of the people of Tobenam village under Almami Local Level Government (LLG) in the Bogia District of Madang province, Papua New Guinea. The local cooperative society was formally registered under the Investment Promotion Authority (IPA) of PNG on the 3^rd July 2012; in the hope to deliver wider business involvements for the indigenous landowners in conjunction with a model of ecotourism development.

The word Totopa derives from three places, namely: Tobenam, Toto and Patakai. In detail, Tobenam is the overall village with a population of over 400 people, whereas Toto is a name of a creek situated on a peninsula near the shorelines. The word Patakai is the name of the peninsula itself that inhabits Toto creek. Hence, the first two letters of the words of the three places (Tobenam, Toto, Patakai) are combined together to form the word Totopa.

Patakai peninsula has a huge potential for ecotourism development with its pristine white sandy beaches on the east and west side of the shorelines with diverse untouched coral reefs that is ideal for snorkeling and diving. There is also a habitat of a tropical mini-forest which propagates in the midpoint of the exceptional peninsula that is also potentially ideal for short walks and more of a mixed bush-tracking with scenic sea-side views from the lovely shores. Located at Tobenam village, the area is easily accessible by road that is situated on the right in wards from the main highway travelling from Madang.

A view from the peninsula overlooking across to volcanic (dormant) Manam Island in the horizon. Men in the photo are Jeffrey Kuris and George Peka taking me around for a tour of the beautiful peninsula.

The Tobenam people speak the local Mala language which is also spoken widely by the other three villages, namely Busip, Dubumor and Aidibal.
The word Mala also means ‘what’ which also refers to ‘Hausman’ – a central hut or a resource center that houses young boys prior to the initiation process into their manhood. This initiation process is common in the Bogia District and other parts of Madang as well as the Sepik provinces and similar to the other parts of PNG. It is a culture or ritual practice where young boys are kept away from their families for months and trained to become good citizens within their society. The word Mala is also named after well-known Malala Secondary School which is run by the Catholic mission as mentioned earlier. 

There are total of six clans within the Tobenam village. They are: Avutav wah, Avutav lelev, Imalov, Balua, Baidabi and Torora. The clan Avutav wah is regarded as the bigger brother clan as ‘wah’ means big; while Avutav lelev is seen as a smaller brother clan as ‘lelev’ means small in the local Mala language.

Although Avutav wah is seen as a bigger clan, the Avutav lelev are the centered people who own most of the resources both from the land and the sea and are seen as chiefs over the other five clans in Tobenam. It is said that Avutav wah are the settlers who have fled from fighting during their ancestral times dating back to 1900s. With the fear of the other warriors trying to attack them from the inland Konguwan and Dagwi, they sailed and migrated to Tobenam. 

The majority of the people are Catholics with few Seventh Day Adventists, Christ Ambassadors, Bahai and other Christian religions.

As usual and common throughout PNG, there are only wet and dry seasons within a year. The dry season fall on April to September and is associated with calm sea waves and is also known to be the harvesting period in particular from April to July where the villagers gather fresh garden food of banana, taro, sago and other vegetables. This is the time where fresh produce become surplus. Replantation or making of new gardens also fall in the dry season toward August and September before rainy season begins in October. Most of the locals are subsistence farmers and fishermen where most of their proteins are sourced from the sea with fresh local lobsters, turtles, reef fish, crabs, octopus and other sea food.

Totopa village guesthouse

As local indigenous landowners, the Tobenam people through their own initiative have built a village guest house constructed in bush materials in a village setting with the work undertaken by the local cooperative’s Management Team. The constructed village guesthouse is then named as Totopa Tourism Guesthouse. The guesthouse is a simple typical village hut that is suitable for backpackers or adventurers tourists who would want to travel out and be part of a culture that is unique to the people of Tobenam village.

Interior of Totopa village guesthouse. Shot, taken from one of the bedrooms.

Totopa Village tourism guesthouse is built on the heart of the peninsula, secluded by the mini-forest and near the prestigious white sandy beaches. From the guesthouse, cool breezes could be felt coming from the awesome sea-views overlooking across the bay in the west towards Bogia Station and the dormant, volcanic Manam Island on the horizon. The village guest house or the home-stay was built to camp interested international visitors or tourists who would want to escape and travel away from Madang town and to explore and experience a real village lifestyle in a Papua New Guinean way!

Some more photo highlights below:

An awesome view of the white sandy beach and the sea from the peninsula’s guesthouse towards Manam Island in the horizon.

Small children posing with excitement for a shot near the beach-side, Tobenam village.

A lucky catch of a fish early in the morning! A local boy in his diving gear showing his fish speared with a fishing gun.

A rare species of fish caught by the local divers. The fish is solid rock and almost like a box-shape.

A local head-dresser from the Tobenam village. The mask is mostly made up of woven sea-shells and a pig’s task hanging from the mouth of the person. The pig’s task is seen as very valuable item. The bigger the task, more valuable the mask is or the person could be respected as a chief due to the bigger size of the task.

Local cultural dancers from the Tobenam village gearing up for a cultural sing-sing and performance.

A fine art painting by one of the local artist George Bogian at Tobenam village.