Bilums by Our Sides

The story was told of a young medical student who walked into the Curriculum Office of the Medical Education Unit at the Medical Faculty. Hanging under his arms was a bilum, whose handle extended across his chest, around his neck, over the opposite shoulder, across his spine at his back and attaching again to the bilum. The Director of the MEU noticed him, and his bilum, but ignored it and continued working, leaving him to be attended to by the secretary. Five years passed and the student was about to graduate with a Bachelor in Medicine and Surgery. The same director had one confession to make. Tapping him on the shoulder, he said: “You were the one student who walked into medical school with a bilum by your side, spend the years in the school with bilums by your side, and now you will be leaving the faculty with the same old practice.”

   The student smiled with pride. I was born and bred in that practice, he thought to himself.

Another tale was about two lovers who were chatting over a meal of fried chicken and chips in the Big Rooster outlet at Malaoro in Port Moresby. The girl was from Alotau, and the boy from rainy Lae. As they ate, a hugely built highlander walked in, and went over to the counter. He placed his order, and took a seat at the far right corner. “I bet that guy is from Hagen, judging from his goliathic built,” said the girl.

   “No, he’s from Goroka,” judged her lover with such confident that his lover was prompted to ask, “How can you be so sure?”

   “Because of the wool cap on his head and the bilum by his side, I am a hundred and one percent sure that he is from Goroka.”

   The girl was still not convinced. “I’ll make you a bet. He is from Hagen.”

   “And what is your bet?” asked the boy.

   “You’ll have me tonight, if you are right!”

   That night was one to be remembered because it turned out that he was right!

And then, there is this story about the security guard at Papindo in Lae, who was searching the bags of suspecting customers as they leave the shop. One particular male came out, and stretched his arms wide to allow the guard to check him. Failing to find anything in the pockets, the guard peeped into his bilum and saw that it was completely empty.

   “Why in the whole wide world would you be carrying an empty bilum around!?” asked the guard.

   “Because it’s part of my dressing!” answered the young man bluntly, as he walked out of the store, and rushed for a PMV bus that was heading for Yonki. The guard just shook his head in wonder, and went on searching the other customers.

There was a concert at the Ullie Bier building, and the music students of UPNG were performing a song that tempoed like rock music. All eyes were on the lead singer, as their bodies moved to the rhythm. They shake-it-to-the-beat, as the drums rolled on. But only one person was watching, and wondering why the drummer had a bilum on his side, with its handle around his neck.

   When the concert ended, he confronted the drummer, with just one simple question: “Why were you carrying your bilum on stage while you were rolling the drums?”

   The answer he received was simple, yet, shocked him. “I wasn’t carrying it. I was wearing it!”

Everywhere you go, you won’t mistake them. Bilums will be by their sides when they go to the field to proudly support Lahanis. From the dorm to the mess, the distance may be short, but they must always carry, or correctly said, wear their bilums. They attend meetings with bilums worn on their sides, and while they remove their hats to give a speech, they allow the bilums to remain by their sides!  

   Apo, Apa, Ambo, Akoe, Nenfu, Deve, or whatever name you may call us by. The typical Gorokas, or the typical GKAs, you may say. But we have one thing in common: Bilums by our sides.

   That’s our identity, and we are proud of it!