Anthropology Museum lends garamut drum to Remembrance Day Service at QUT

Yoberber garamut, 2012 donated by Alphonse Aime

Remembrance Day Service 2013

Queensland University of Technology 
Creative Industries Faculty

Two garamut drums from Kayan village in Madang province (now housed in the UQ Anthropology Museum and the Queensland Brain Institute) were loaned to QUT Kelvin Grove for a moving biennial Remembrance Day observance, honouring media workers killed in conflict and former servicemen and women.  The ceremony was held at Parer Place, so named for the famous World War II cameraman, Damien Parer, killed by machine gun fire during the Pacific Islands campaign in 1944.  Parer Place is also part of the Creative Industries Precinct at QUT, standing on the grounds of the former Gona Barracks, named after the Battle of Buna-Gona which saw the death of many Allied and Japanese soldiers in Papua New Guinea.  

The Remembrance Day ceremony included a calling together and farewell drummed out on the garamuts by Alphonse Aime and Wangian Manihia; representatives from the PNG Defence Force; a catafalque party from Gallipoli Barracks; and a media helicopter flyover, paying tribute to fallen media workers. This year’s observance marks seventy years since organized resistance to Allied forces in Papua New Guinea was ended in 1943.

The garamut drum called Yoberber was carved in 2012 by Philip Apa, Paul Kuri, Teddy Tamone, Willie Kawang, Arnold Jongtai.

Read more about the garamut on the Anthropology Museum Online Catalogue.

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