Defending friends : Robert Codrington, George Sarawia and Edward Wogale

Friendship between nineteenth century missionary anthropologists and their converted cultural mentors was central to the gathering of cultural and linguistic information. This chapter traces the friendship between Anglican missionary/anthropologist, Robert Codrington, and brothers George Sarawia - first Melanesian priest - and Edward Wogale - deacon. Codrington's theological perspective on Melanesians and his close friendships with the pupils of the Melanesian Mission School at Norfolk Island allowed him to resist the increasing racialism of Atlantic science in the late nineteenth century and to challenge the evolutionist anthropology of the 1870s and 1880s. The chapter is based, in part, on a cache of letters from Wogale and Sarawia to Codrington written in Mota, the lingua franca of the Anglican Mission.

Everything was legendary with Robert

A music video for Dave Graney

Interview with Robert Plak Pawilnga

Robert Plak Pawilnga is a Papua New Guinean who studied at the University of Queensland in 2003-2004. He studied on an Australian Development Scholarship (ADS) and completed a Masters in Agricultural Studies. The interview was conducted in English on 9 September 2014 by Dr. Jonathan Ritchie of Deakin University and Dr. Musawe Sinebare of the Pacific Adventist University. This set comprises: an interview recording, a timed summary, and a photograph.