Wisdom of the Solomons

Welcome home to TIGHAR's Solomon Islands team, back from archival and oral historical work in the Solomon Islands.  I understand that they've brought back a wealth of audio and video records as well as extensive notes on interviews with veterans of the Nikumaroro colony, including a good deal of information on how the colonists used the vicinity of the Seven Site.  Special thanks go to Gary Quigg for leading the group, and to Baoro Koraua, who made local arrangements, provided transport, and translated. 

Solomons Sojourners Set to Sail

In less than a week – on August 17, TIGHAR’s Solomon Islands team will head for Honiara. The team is headed by Gary Quigg, and includes Nancy Farrell, John Clauss, and Karl Kern. In Honiara they’ll rendezvous with Baoro Koraua, who lives in that city (capital of the Solomon Islands) but was born on Nikumaroro in the early 1950s. With Baoro in his boat, the MV Temauri, they’ll motor up the New Georgia Sound (known in World War II as “The Slot” and “ironbottom Sound”) to the villages of Nikumaroro and Rawaki, where the Nikumaroro colonists were resettled when the colony was abandoned in 1963. That’s the plan, anyway.

The purpose of the trip is oral historical recording – talking with veterans of the Nikumaroro colony and recording their recollections of the place. It follows up on a very short visit made to Nikumaroro Village by Dr. Dirk Ballendorf of the University of Guam back in 1995 (http://tighar.org/testhtml/Publications/TTracks/12_1/solomon.html). Dirk collected stories of human bones being found on the island, but these didn’t mean much to us until two years later when Peter MacQuarrie found the Western Pacific High Commission files on the 1940 bones discovery in the Tarawa archives, and Ric Gillespie and Kent Spading uncovered more in the WPHC archives in England (they’re now in Auckland, NZ).

It would be nice if the Solomons Sojourners could get more information on the bones discovery, but we’re not really expecting that. Anyone who was, say, ten years old at the time of that discovery would now be in his or her 80s. What we’re mostly hoping for is information about what the Seven Site was used for in the 1950s, and what (other than Earhart and Noonan) might be responsible for the strange assemblage of artifacts and building material (corrugated iron, etc.) we’ve found on the site. Recent research by Bill Carter and Ric Gillespie in the Tarawa archives has revealed that the site was known in the late 1940s as “Gallagher’s camp,” and that coconuts were being cultivated there without much success. Why the site was associated with Gallagher almost a decade after his death is another thing we’d like to find out. We feel pretty confident that some of what we’ve found was left by the castaway-who-was-probably-Earhart, but it’s essential that we find out what else went on at the site so we can sort out castaway-related evidence from the leavings of others. The interviews will also give us the opportunity to flesh out our general understanding of the Nikumaroro colony, which is fascinating in its own right.

The team is well equipped to do the work. Nancy has been collecting oral history for decades, and Gary has experience in the field as well. Baoro should be a knowledgeable colleague and translator, while John and Karl can do just about anything. They’re armed with audio and video recording devices and plenty of pens and paper for backup. If all goes well they’ll spend two or three days interviewing in each village (which lie on opposite sides of the sound, about 200 miles from Honiara), and a day or two checking archives in the capital before flying home on August 30.

Yes, I wish I were going too, but I’m not. However, Kris Tague is serving as the Sojourners’ Stateside point of contact, and she’ll be passing information to the rest of us.

Bon Voyage, Sojourners; here's hoping you make interesting and voluble new friends in the Solomons.

Tom

Spam:  See http://www.otpshow.com/ for Part One of my summary of the Niku Research

Bon Voyage (almost) to the TIGHAR Hospitalers!

Just a week now till the next TIGHAR "expedition" launches: this one to the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva, Fiji.  This is where the human bones found on on Nikumaroro in 1940 were last reported, just before World War II broke into the Pacific.  The hospital is a great old colonial structure, renovated and added to many times, and there's a good possibility that stuff like old unidentified bones could be tucked away in crawlspaces or attics.  In our first Bones Search in 1999 we were denied permission to search it (and wouldn't have had time anyway); the 2003 Fiji Bones Search focused on records research and interviews.  This project will focus on physical inspection.

The team is headed by Dr. Jon Overholt of Sacramento, CA, a medical doctor with lots of hospital experience.  Team members include architect Lonnie Schorer of northern Virginia, archaeologist Gary Quigg of Indiana, and Arizona's Karl Kern, who has proved able to do virtually anything, including squirming into small spaces possibly infested with small cuddly animals.  The Hospital administration is cooperating, and Richard Pruett of the U.S. Embassy is coordinating things and smoothing the way.  The team is equipped to search, document, recover anything discovered, and do ancillary historical and oral-historical research.  D-Day is May 7, with a return to the U.S. on May 22. 

Best of luck to all, and enjoy Fiji while you're about it!

Tom

Colonial War Memorial Hospital, Suva, Fiji

Solomon Islands Project Moves Ahead

The special website is now up and running to accept donations in support of the Solomon Islands Oral History Project.  To make a donation:

Go to http://www.tighar.org/
Click on "TIGHAR Store" in the menu on the right-hand side of the screen
Click on "Donate" in the menu on the left-hand side
Click on "Donate to the Solomon Islands Oral History Project"
And follow the prompts

The project is tentatively scheduled to begin about August 17, with the team returning home by August 31.  We're getting to work now on logistic arrangements and fieldwork strategy.  Stay tuned for updates, and thanks much to all who have contributed or will contribute to this project.

Opportunities to Support Specific Research Projects

There are now sites on the TIGHAR website where you can make tax-deductible contributions not only to TIGHAR generally but to specific projects and activities. These include:


• Ongoing DNA research;

• Research into Fred Noonan’s ancestry and search for his DNA;

• The oral history project with the Nikumaroro colonial veterans in the Solomon Islands (planned for this June or July);

• The search of the Fiji Colonial War Memorial Hospital for the bones found on Nikumaroro in 1940 (scheduled for this May);

• The unglamorous but absolutely necessary analysis of artifacts; and

• The even less glamorous but equally necessary analysis of faunal material from the Seven Site.

Here’s the link to the donations page: http://tighar.org/store/index.php?route=product/category&path=49

Believe me, every little bit helps.

Strange Reports

For those who've been asking:

1. Yes, we're aware of the reports that AE's plane, with skeletons in it yet, has been found in New Guinea.  Since (a) there are lots of airplane wrecks in New Guinea; (b) there are lots of skeletons in New Guinea; (c) New Guinea is a couple thousand miles from Howland Island, from the vicinity of which her last generally accepted radio messages emanated; and (d) the alleged finders have been trying to get up-front payments for photographs of the wreck, we're not taking the reports very seriously.

2. Yes, we're aware that there's a project underway to recover Earhart DNA from envelopes she may have licked.  Since we already have a reference sample of Earhart DNA, we're not altogether sure why this project is being undertaken.  The researchers have not contacted TIGHAR to exchange notes.

For the latest on TIGHAR's own DNA research, see http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/Bulletins/59_DNAResearch/lewisstatement.pdf.

Tom

Upcoming Ameliashpiel

On April 2nd (no, not April 1st) at 4 PM I’ll be giving a talk about our Earhart research at the Petaluma Historical Museum in Petaluma, California. The talk is part of the Museum’s series of special events this spring commemorating the first airmail flight, which took place on February 17, 1911 between Petaluma and nearby Santa Rosa. See http://www.petalumamuseum.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Flight-Speakers.pdf for details about the series.


The Museum building itself is an historic building, a handsome old Carnegie library, and has special significance to me, because I checked out my first books on archaeology there, over a half-century ago. The librarians fed my enthusiasm for the subject, and set me firmly on the path to perdition.