Tauade - History and Cultural Relations



The first recorded European visitor was Fr. V. M. Egidi of the Sacred Heart Mission in about 1906, and the first patrol by the Australian government was in 1911. Pacification of the area was a very slow process and was not fully accomplished until after World War II. The Sacred Heart Mission came to the area in the 1930s and established a school at Kerau in 1939. The government established a school at Tapini, the Subprovince headquarters, in 1962. Graded tracks, constructed under the supervision of the mission, extend throughout the Subprovince, but there is no vehicular road link with the coast. An airstrip was built at Tapini in 1938 and another at Kerau in 1967; they provide the main access to Port Moresby, approximately 50 kilometers away. There has been considerable labor migration and an influx of trade goods, notably steel axes and other tools, and alternative sources of food, such as rice. Government incentives to raise cattle as a form of income have generally been unsuccessful. Local councils were established in 1963, and in the following year elections were held for the national House of Assembly. Papua New Guinea received its independence in 1975.

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