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Ward Williams Expedition 1935–1937

Barry Craig

“Accompanied by the two prospectors and eight native carriers, I took off for what proved to be a tough one…. The airline distance was forty-five miles. We travelled on foot and averaging ten hours daily, we consumed twenty-nine days to reach our destination, which was the joining of the west branch and the north-east branch of the Mai [May] River….It rained about 80 percent of the time…..On the twenty-fourth day, we were on top of a high mountain ridge. We put up some smoke signals, Campbell and Kinsley [Kienzle] in the Sikorsky, spotted the signals, and dropped us several bags of food. We could hear the hostile tribe’s war cry (it sounds like a frog garumping) from down the valley.” (Williams 1961: 10-11).

John Ward Williams (1882-1970), a widely experienced mining engineer in his mid-fifties, had organised a search for gold in the extreme north-west of Papua, financed by an English mining company. After establishing a camp and small airstrip on the Fly River at or near a location now named Kiunga, during 1935 he thoroughly explored the concession without finding anything.

Figure 1. J. Ward Williams, Unknown Photographer, The Explorers Club Research Collections.

Figure 2. The Fly River base camp in Awin territory at or near Kiunga with the Sikorsky amphibian on the river. WW.069.

Williams shifted his attention to the region north of the Fly River camp, towards the ‘limestone barrier’ and beyond into the Sepik headwaters, intending to follow the trail of Karius and Champion in 1926-27.

Financed in 1936 by American and English capital, he engaged the two prospectors Joseph Bourke and William Korn who had been with him in 1935, Flight Lieutenant Stuart Campbell (1903-1988) as the pilot of a Sikorsky amphibian, Wallace Kienzle as an assistant prospector, and a wireless operator W. Brown. Campbell had flown to the Antarctic for the Mawson expedition (1929-31), for which Frank Hurley was the photographer.

Figure 3. Stuart Campbell, c. 1930. Image: Frank Hurley CD-29147547 NLA.

Figure 4. Telefomin base camp – view NE. WW.098.

Bourke and Korn set out from the Kiunga base camp and rather than following the path of Karius and Champion via the Palmer River to arrive at Bolovip, they followed the Fly River directly northwards to arrive to a grand welcome at Bolovip. The ‘chief’, Tamal (Champion’s Tamsimal), reprised his 1927 role by leading Williams’ men over the limestone barrier to the territory of the Falamin on the Sepik headwaters. Bourke and Korn continued on to the plateau at Telefomin, had a rough 1000-foot airstrip built and established a base camp, from which the surrounding country was examined for evidence of gold.

Six well-armed Telefolmin men and one of the expedition members (Ward Williams?). View west at the northern end of the airstrip. WW. 061.

The suspension bridge over the Sepik River just downstream from the Brücken confluence; view to north bank, Sepik flowing right to left. WW.066.

As nothing significant was discovered, Williams decided to prospect the May River. “As there were many tributary streams that would require investigation, I decided to make a land trip” (ibid., 10). Warned by their Telefolmin hosts that a route directly north to the May River would certainly put them in conflict with the Mianmin, the prospectors were flown down the Sepik to establish a camp on the January (upper August) River, close to where the present Yapsie outpost and airstrip are located. Williams then decided that they needed a second aircraft, and a small land plane (a Wako) was flown in from Lae. Both planes were damaged while landing in bad weather at Telefomin so Kienzle was sent with twelve carriers down the Sepik to alert Bourke and Korn to the delay in supplies, discovering the same suspension bridge across the Sepik noted by Schultze-Jena in 1910, Thurnwald in 1914 and Karius and Champion in 1927.

Bourke and Korn examined the country around the junctions of the Brücken and Hoffnungs with the Sepik with no significant results. So, Williams, Bourke and Korn with sixteen carriers set out eastwards from their ‘January River’ camp across the southern end of the West Range to get to the May River. It is extremely challenging country. “Occasionally we stopped to hurriedly wash a pan of gravel and getting evidence of gold” (ibid., 11). They took moving pictures where possible but the difficulties of travel provided little time for photography. Only three times was the Sikorsky able to locate them and drop supplies.

After escaping the ‘hostile tribe’s’ threat, as recounted above, they came across the south-west branch of the Right May, constructed rafts and after a major mishap reached its junction with the Right May River where they set up camp. Campbell landed the Sikorsky on the river bringing supplies, “and active prospecting started”. Williams had their Empire Drill flown in but “after some three weeks of deep drilling along miles of the river flats, the results failed to come up to requirements” (ibid., 12). They abandoned the drill (“[it] will probably be there a hundred years from now”) and flew out to Telefomin and thence to the Fly River base camp. As Ivan Champion wryly remarked: “…the expedition returned to Papua without their gold and nearly $100,000 poorer” (1966:213).

Figure 7. Rafting down the south-west branch of the Right May River before the mishap that overturned the rafts occupied by Williams and Bourke; this scene must have been photographed by Korn in the rear. WW. 075.

Figure 8. Operating the Empire Drill, Right May River. WW.089.

Despite finding no payable gold, two significant collections of ethnographic material were made: over 450 items by Ward Williams, subsequently donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History (LACMNH), and over 220 by Stuart Campbell, donated to the Australian Museum (AM). It is possible to assign most of the items in these two collections to those obtained at the Fly River base camp and therefore made by the Awin or their neighbours who visited the camp, and those obtained at the Telefomin base camp and made by the Telefolmin or other Mountain Ok peoples met while prospecting in the region, but it is not possible to locate them to specific settlements. As Campbell wrote (1938:238, 244), “… at the [Fly River] base camp we had been visited almost daily by large numbers of Awins, Karwoks [Yonggom], and Ok Tedis [Ninggirum]” and “their habits and dress are sufficiently similar to allow them to be grouped as the plain-country people of the upper Fly”. Of the mountain peoples, he wrote (ibid. 245), “there is some evidence that they are all offshoots from and owe some allegiance to the Telifomin tribe, which is undoubtedly the most powerful in this section of the valley. Among these people our mountain camp was established, and the following notes refer in particular to them, but in general to all the mountain people”.

There are many arrows, some bows, stone clubs and adzes, phallocrypts, reed skirts, hand drums, jaw harps, tobacco smoking tubes, mafum and kabok male initiation hair appendages, body adornments, string net bags, with two war shields of the Telefolmin in the Williams collection and three in Campbell’s. Although the carved and painted Telefolmin house boards were noted and photographed, none were collected, being too large for either of the planes. What distinguishes Campbell’s collection from that of Williams is that Campbell recorded the vernacular terms for some fifty of the objects he collected. This interest in languages led to the publication in 1957 of The Fundamentals of the Thai Language, which Campbell co-authored (Wilson 2007).

Figure 9. Mountain Ok shields collected by Stuart Campbell, 1936. Left to right: AM E44031– 44033.

Figure 10. Mountain Ok shields and upper Fly cuirass collected by Ward Williams, 1936. Left: MNHLAC A.7288.58-2 (160 x 54 cm); centre: A.7288.58-4 (159 x 47 cm); right: A.7288.58-18 (43 cm h. x 29 cm diam.).

The peoples of the upper Fly lived in isolated short-term hamlets, often houses so elevated they were termed ‘tree houses.’ This was not conducive to obtaining much information about their lifestyle or culture. On the other hand, the relatively stable village settlements of the mountain people, consisting of “usually six to twelve houses in a small hollow square or rectangle, with a men’s house, or iol um, at one end . . .” (Campbell 1938: 249) yielded a good deal of information about the culture of the Telefolmin, especially the names and functions of the men’s cult houses. It isn’t entirely clear who was responsible for this but the information gathered in a Williams manuscript (n.d.) may have been obtained from all the participants in the expedition and was collated and published in 1938 by Kienzle and Campbell.

Figure 11. I recorded the house board in this Williams photo on a house at Milibaganavip village, Kubrenmin parish, Telefomin in 1964 (right, BM 6C:25). The village in the Williams photo (Left, WW. 096) would have been the Kubrenmin village, Oksivip, as Milibaganavip was a recent offshoot of Oksivip in the sixties. This board was very old and probably carved mid-19^th century.

Apart from the detailed verbal descriptions of the culture of the Telefol people provided by Campbell (1938) and Kienzle & Campbell (1938), supported with several photographs, the ethnographic collections define the distinction between the upper Fly River peoples and the Mountain Ok. Whereas the Mountain Ok used the wooden shield (atkom) and sometimes the braided rattan cuirass (nam) for defence, the upper Fly peoples had only the cuirass. The upper Fly cuirass (Fig.10, right) was a relatively plain stiff cylinder of Tiesler’s ‘Southern type’ (1984, map, Abb. 43-58), found also at Lake Murray and in the upper reaches of the Digul River. The Mountain Ok cuirass was much more variable in form (Tiesler 1984, Abb. 27-42) but none were collected by Williams or Campbell.

Figure 12. Mountain Ok palmwood clubs. t. to b. AM E44042 (125 x 7 cm), E44043 (126 x 6 cm), E44044 (102 x 8 cm), 44045 (74 x 5); bottom, Upper Fly club E63430 (113 x 6 cm).

Both upper Fly and Mountain Ok peoples used black palm clubs in close fighting; the sharp end of the handle of the upper Fly club could also inflict serious injury.

The hand drums of the upper Fly were clearly related to those of the Papuan Gulf, with open ‘jaws’ at the distal end (Fig.13). The Mountain Ok drums, from the Sibil Valley in West Papua to the Oksapmin on the west side of the Strickland River, are of the one kind (Fig.14) and incidentally similar in form to those of the upper Sepik.

Figure 13. Upper Fly hand drums, collected by Williams. MNHLAC A.7288.58-7 (99 cm); A.7288.58-8 (111 cm).

Mountain Ok hand drums. Top and centre: MNHLAC A.7288.58-9 (105 cm), A.7288.58-10 (101 cm); bottom : AM E44034 (100 cm).

Figure 15. Hand drum in the possession of a Fegolmin (Mountain Ok) man at Imigabip that had been traded from the Awin. Photo: Craig 1981- C2:29.

The Mountain Ok south of the Hindenburg Range had trading partners among the Awin and Ninggirum, and obtained their black palm bow staves from them in return for net bags and tobacco (Fig. 16). Black palm is a lowland plant and the highland tobacco apparently was prized above locally grown lowland tobacco.

Figure 16. Mountain Ok tobacco bundles obtained by trade. AM E44333-44336.1-3. Collected at the Upper Fly base camp.

Both peoples smoked their tobacco using bamboo tubes. The smoking tubes collected at the Fly River base camp were of three kinds. The large diameter tubes, one with an etched design (Fig. 17), appear to be related to one collected by Leo Austen from the Worom people of Ambiriwam, which was approx. 36 kms east of present-day Ningerum and therefore in Ninggirum-speaking territory (Haddon 1946, Fig. 30).

Bamboo smoking tubes, AM E41594 (28 x 3 cm); E44306 (24 x 3.5 cm). Collected at Fly River base camp.

The other two kinds also were present among the Ninggirum, according to Robert Welsch (pers. com. 14 July 2025) who did his research at Hukim village, c.22 km NW of Ningerum. The curved-shaped tubes (Fig. 18, left) are of the same kind as from the ‘Awin people, east of Tedi river’, illustrated in Haddon 1946, Fig. 31. Welsch reported that the third kind (Fig. 18, right) were the most common.

Figure 18. Smoking tubes, probably Awin, collected at the Fly River base camp. Left: MNHLAC A.7288.58. 294-296 t.-b. 294 is 45 x 2 cm diam. Right: A.7288.58.280, 281, 288 t.-b. 12/13 cm long x 2.5 cm; 7 x 1.7 cm.

Figure 19. Mountain Ok bamboo smoking tube (suget) MNHLAC A.7288.58.282 (24 x 1.2 cm).

Figure 20. Mountain Ok ‘ear’ tube (teruntet) MNHLAC A.7288.58.287 (23 x 1.6 cm).

The etched designs on the Mountain Ok suget feature spiral motifs whereas the teruntet (used to store powdered red ochre and worn through an ear lobe perforation) features geometric motifs.

Figure 21. Gourd lime containers and spatulas used for chewing ‘betel nuts’ (Areca palm nuts), MNHLAC A.7288.58.367-369. Collected at the Fly River base camp. Areca palms are a lowland plant: they do not grow in the highlands.

Figure 22. Bamboo jaw harps. Top: MNHLAC A.7288.58.279, Awin, 33 x 2.5 cm; bottom: A.7288.58.278, Telefomin, 33 x 2.5 cm.

Bamboo jaw harps, throughout most of New Guinea, were made from a section of a large diameter bamboo and operated by pulling on a string. Perhaps uniquely, the Mountain Ok chose a small diameter bamboo to make the instrument and operated it by striking the distal end against the wrist of the hand not holding the harp.

Figure 23. Abau (upper Sepik) man using jaw harp, made and used like those of the upper Fly River. Photo: B. Craig 1968-B:30.

The upper Fly and Mountain Ok men wore phallocrypts. Those of the Mountain Ok were made from long, tapering narrow-diameter gourds, some straight and others curved. The upper Fly phallocrypt was the small shell of a nut.

Figure 24. Left: Mountain Ok gourd phallocrypts, AM 44288, 44289 (26 x 3 cm). Right: Upper Fly nut shell phallocrypts, MNHLAC A.7288.58.357 -8 (4 cm diam).

Figure 25. Upper Fly men. WW.076.

Figure 26. Telefolmin men and boy at airstrip. WW.063.

The arrows of the upper Fly were different in several respects to those of the Mountain Ok. They attached barbed bone to the heads of their arrows whereas the Mountain Ok used barbed bamboo blades and added cassowary toenails to their wooden arrow points. The upper Fly arrows used a lime encrusted ‘glue’ to bind the parts of some of their arrows; the Mountain Ok used fine strip and plaited bindings. Although some of the upper Fly arrows incorporated plain fore shafts, the fore shafts of Mountain Ok bamboo-bladed arrows were almost invariably carved and painted with intricate designs. These designs were apparently most attractive for Williams and Campbell as they collected far more of them than of the upper Fly arrows. Whereas the upper Fly arrows were similar to those of the of the Boazi and other groups further south on the middle Fly, the Mountain Ok arrows were clearly related to the arrows of the upper Sepik.

Figure 27. Upper Fly River arrows; top to bottom: MNHLAC A.7288.58.104, 103, 102, 36, 35, 34, 33.

Figure 28. Mountain Ok arrows; t. to b. AM E44074; 44075-1, -2; 44076-1, -2; 44077-1, -2, -3; 44072-1, -2; 44073-1, -2.

The Mountain Ok men’s hair appendage (mafum, kubok, or sel) was worn by young men going through the Telefolmin fourth stage of initiation (mafumban). The smaller appendage, bound around a bamboo arrowhead and considered male, lies on top of the larger appendage likened to a taro corm and considered female. Red ochre, charged with ancestral spirit power, was smeared over the appendages and, mixed with pig grease, on the forehead and body of the initiand. The fifth stage of male initiation was the otban that granted the initiand the right to use the hand drum (ot) and jaw harp (talam).

Figure 29. Mafum male initiation hair appendages, Telefomin. Left: ‘male’ components MNHLAC A.7288.58.308 (53 x 5 cm), 307 (45 x 5 cm); right: ‘female’ components A.7288.58.309 (52 x 14 cm), 310 (52 x 13 cm).

Figure 30. Mountain Ok mafum initiand at Denbel, Ulapmin. Photo: B. Craig 1972-BK-1:6.

Figure 31. Telefolmin initiand binding an age-mate’s mafum appendages. WW.094.

Figure 32. Otban at Telefolip. Photo: B. Craig 1964-C24:5.

The prospectors gained some information about the various men’s cult houses but nothing about the activities inside them. “In most of the villages we were allowed free entrance to the men’s houses, but in the case of the largest Telifomin house … [the amdelol at Telefolip – see Campbell 1938:244, bottom image] . . . entrance was only achieved with great difficulty by bribery. Before being allowed inside, we were forced to strip to the waist and leave our revolvers, cameras etc. outside. Even the men who acted as our guides removed their string bags before entering” (Kienzle & Campbell 1938:474).

“The iol um . . . [is] the repository for trophies of war or of the chase . . .Arranged in neat rows round the walls are the lower jaws of wild pigs, . . . in that of the largest Telifomin village there cannot be less that four thousand” (Campbell 1938: 250). This refers to the supreme cult house (amdelol) at Telefolip. In 1963, I estimated there were 6000 domestic pig jawbones and 60 wild pig skulls and jawbones, two ancestral skulls and a shield (see Craig ed. 2010, Fig. 54a, b).

About 1870, the Iligimin of the Elip valley to the north of Telefomin, attacked Telefolip and burnt the amdelol to the ground, destroying all the relics inside. The Telefolmin planned their retribution. They entered the west end of the Elip valley and systematically attacked Iligimin settlements eastwards, consuming Iligimin garden produce as they advanced, sparing the oldest men for information about Iligimin sacred relics and sites and some women as brides. They then established Telefol villages and populated Eliptaman. Remnant Iligimin escaped north-east to Ninataman (upper Frieda).

A rough estimate can be made of the number of pigs sacrificed for initiation ceremonies at Telefolip: c.6000 during the period 1870 to 1963 (93 years) equals 64 pigs/year; c.4000 during the period 1870 to 1936 (66 years) equals 60 pigs/year; during the period 1936 to 1963 (27 years); c.2000 equals 74 pigs/year. These could be over-estimates, suggesting the routing of the Iligimin may have been a little earlier than 1870.

The Ward Williams prospectors added to what was known of the peoples of the upper Fly River from previous explorers and substantially to knowledge of the Mountain Ok who were not studied in greater detail until the early 1960s.

References

Campbell, S. 1938. ‘The Country between the Headwaters of the Fly and Sepik Rivers in New Guinea.’ The Geographical Journal 92, 3: 232-255.

Champion, Ivan. 1966 (1932). Across New Guinea from the Fly to the Sepik. Melbourne: Lansdowne Press.

Craig, B. (ed.) 2010. Living Spirits with Fixed Abodes. Adelaide: Crawford House Publishing Australia.

Haddon, A.C. 1946. Smoking and Tobacco Pipes in New Guinea. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological Sciences No. 586, Vol. 232:1-278.

Kienzle, W. and S. Campbell. 1938. ‘Notes on the Natives of the Fly and Sepik River Headwaters, New Guinea.’ Oceania 8, 4: 463-481.

Tiesler, F. 1984. Die Kürasse Neuguineas. Abhandlungen und Berichte des Staatlichen Museums für Völkerkunde Dresden 41:46-85.

Williams, J. W. 1961. New Guinea. From the Fly River in Papua to the Sepik and Mai Rivers in Mandated Territory. Explorers Journal XXXIX No.2: 8-12.

Williams, J. W. n.d. Selected material from the manuscript of J. Ward Williams. Copy held in the archives of the Explorers Club, Los Angeles.

Wilson, David. 2007. Stuart Alexander Caird Campbell (1903-1988). Australian Dictionary of Biography Volume 17.

NB. Photos nominated with WW numbers are from the Ward Williams archives.