Before the island of New Guinea was discovered by colonial powers, the indigenous people have been using traditional money to trade. Kina Shell, Tabu and Bagi are some of the names for traditional PNG money used for trade.
The people lived an organized way of life with cultured agricultural skills to make gardens and used fallow land cultivation techniques.
When the Western colonial powers arrived on the island, they described the usage of traditional money system as barter system. When the Australian dollar was introduced for circulation on the island under their administration, it was so easily adapted for trade of goods and services. But along with the dollar, traditional money was still used.
PNG’s modern official currency Kina and Toea were introduced in 1975, with the Australian dollar being taken out from the circulation. This had not taken away or replaced the traditional money; it was still used for trade.
Today, a tribe in East New Britain, PNG still uses kina shell money – traditional money. The fascinating thing is they even used the kina shell money to buy everyday basic goods like rice, tinned fish, soap and cooking oil.
While the modern world is talking about the adaption of blockchain technology and is shifting to cryptocurrencies and financial technology, the remote province of East New Britain in Papua New Guinea continues to engage in financial transactions with Tabu shell money – a PNG traditional money apart from its fiat currency officially known as Kina and Toea.
It's been exactly 43 years since Papua New Guinea got its independence from Australia. But even today, shell money or tabu is deeply anchored in the indigenous Tolai society which numbers roughly 120,000 people.
The age-old practice has successfully overcome the long-lasting occupations of Germany and Australia, the strong influence of the Catholic education system, and broad economic development and globalization.
For the Tolai, these marine treasures are used in an everyday basis to barter essential goods in the villages. It also plays a significant role during all cultural activities.
Shell money is at the center of initiations, weddings, funeral ceremonies; pig feasts, and dictates the rigid hierarchy within the Tolai society. Because they are laborious to make, tabu shows great respect to a payee.
To create tabu, Nassariidae shells or Nassa mud snails, are first harvested by community members who handpick them from the shore or dive under the sea to collect them. They are then dried under the sun until the snails dry out.
Photo: The Tolai people pick Nassariidae snails from the slit of a muddy shoreline. Image: Claudio Sieber
Next, they are transported to Rabul's port where they are treated for pest control, and later, detergent to rid of the smell.
Then the top of each shell is individually removed with the use of pliers. Finally, it is strung together in circles, which is what they look like when they are stored and used for trade.
Tabu can be used in Tolai society either directly or indirectly. Directly, it is used for daily barter in villages for essentials and treats like rice, ice cream, cooking oil, sausage, beetle nuts, cigarettes, peanuts and more. It is used in bridal ceremonies, with men paying a woman’s parents to take their daughter as a bride.
Next, they are transported to Rabul's port where they are treated for pest control, and later, detergent to rid of the smell.
Then the top of each shell is individually removed with the use of pliers. Finally, it is strung together in circles, which is what they look like when they are stored and used for trade.
Tabu can be used in Tolai society either directly or indirectly. Directly, it is used for daily barter in villages for essentials and treats like rice, ice cream, cooking oil, sausage, beetle nuts, cigarettes, peanuts and more. It is used in bridal ceremonies, with men paying a woman’s parents to take their daughter as a bride.
It is used in initiation ceremonies for young boys, as well as funeral and mourning ceremonies where there is shell breaking or inheritance gifting among clans. It is also used as birthday gifts, in pig feasts where the community contributes tabu for a share of the pig, and as compensation, or for community members to settle a dispute.
Tabu can also be exchanged to Kina, the official Papua New Guinea currency, so the Tolai can use tabu to indirectly pay for school fees, taxes, hospital fees, loans, or to purchase equipment, cars or household goods.
On East New Britain’s Gazelle Peninsula alone, the estimated circulation of shell money is between six to eight million Kina or about $2.3 million, crowning the region as the world’s hotspot for old-fashioned bartering. But this comes with problems.
Because of the increasing demand for Nassariidae shells, mostly caused by the growth of the Tolai population, East New Britain’s shores which were once considered a limitless source of oceanic currency, have been emptied in an unsustainable manner.
These circumstances leave the Tolai society no option but to import new shell money from nearby PNG provinces or even neighboring Solomon Islands.
Decades after the introduction of Papua New Guinea's new cash system, as well as ATMs and loan firms, the Tolai society continues to be driven by shell money and have a long way to go to adjust from a self-sufficient lifestyle to a money-driven economy. For now, they work hard to juggle both - the Kina notes and Toea coins, as well as their beloved tabu.-Via Garamut News.
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