Dancing around Development: Crisis in Christian Country in Western Province, Papua New Guinea

Abstract

This article explores the conjuncture of Christianity and development in light of the establishment of a new Gogodala church in Western Province, Papua New Guinea. In the paper, I examine the ways in which members of this new church, the Congregation of Evangelical Fellowship (CEF), are utilising the concept of dance to comment on the failure of both expatriate missionaries and the dominant Evangelical Church of Papua New Guinea (ECPNG) to prepare the Gogodala community for development. I trace how mission-instigated abstention from dance became emblematic of a Christian lifestyle, and remains central to the constitution and articulation of 'Christian country' in this part of PNG. The incorporation of dance into CEF services and conferences, then, posits a challenge to the expatriate mission and ECPNG. In the process, dance has become a metaphor for a communal search for development as well as a reinterpretation of the Christian and pre-contact past.

Negotiating the Horizon—Living Christianity in Melanesia

“…Dundon 2002, 2007a, in press, Eves 2003, Goddard & Van Heekeren 2003, Jebens 2005, McDougall 2008, Robbins 2003, 2004, Scott 2005, Tomlinson 2009). As Jolly (2005, pp.…”

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“…Particular emphasis was placed on work in the gardens and sago swamps, the procurement of other forms of food, the construction of sturdy houses and village Churches, and the cleanliness of homes, clothes and bodies. Such practices were believed to produce strong, clean and healthy persons and villages, the embodiment of ‘Christian morality’ (Dundon 2002a: 146). A focus on subsistence, as opposed to ceremony and dance, cleanliness, and the care of children, village and Church, became important markers of early Christians.…”

“…Carving had continued from the 1970s in a limited form as the market for such artefacts had waned considerably, but the carvings that were produced were no longer perceived to present a challenge to the authority of the Church. Many argued at that time that ‘other communities had not embraced Christianity with the same fervour, and continued to utilise magic, sorcery and other aspects of their past that the Gogodala had rejected’ (Dundon 2002a: 218).…”

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