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Barnes in Commonthe magazine of Churches Together in Barnes
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"Little White Spirit" -
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To be transported as a baby from a U.S. orphanage to live rough with
Christian missionaries in an alien corner of the world still emerging
from the Stone Age and with a history of head-hunting, cannibalism,
witch killings and, at best, a wariness of foreigners, sounds like a
nightmare.
But for orphan John Newton Cutts it was the start of a remarkable journey of mutual trust and tolerance that has made him a living legend among fierce but proud Moni and Dani tribespeople, who also helped to educate him in the Indonesian-ruled remote western half of New Guinea island.
He arrived in 1954, aged 18 months. Only 17 years earlier the first known meeting between a European and members of the Moni tribe had occurred. About 170 years earlier, a landing party led by Captain Cook was seen off with arrows and, as late as 1968, two European would-be missionaries were killed. Not a safe haven for a babe!
However, he survived and thrived. He went back to study at a U.S. university but was restless and returned again to West Papua, the country of his youth. His continued devotion to the region shone through.
He felt it had been a privilege to be raised in the midst of such beautiful people but realised that with such a privilege came, as he put it to me, an awesome responsibility.
It was not easy. Tribal wars continued, especially in interior areas still hardly penetrated by foreigners. Witch killings, too, were common. However, with the passing years the wars became less frequent. The killing, too, became less common.
In the early 1990s, John quit missionary work after a spat with the U.S.-based Christian and Missionary Alliance over his use of an ultra-lite plane to travel across the largely unmapped central highlands. The area still challenges experienced helicopter pilots using U.S.flight maps with words such as "height unknown" and "relief data incomplete".
John became a community development officer instead for a major U.S.-controlled copper mining operation in the area. It was his way to try to protect tribes from the ravages of industrialisation.
The saga of the "Little White Spirit" began in 1954 when pioneer missionary couple Bill and Gracie Cutts adopted John and brought him back to their primitive home. Bill had opted to spread the Gospel in the virtually undiscovered eastern area of New Guinea after World War Two when it was then under Dutch control.
"What excitement there was when this miniature White man entered the tribe," Bill Cutts later wrote. "We were amazed at the way he opened doors that we had not been able to budge. Despite the persistent cries that we were evil spirits, strangers would often come into our yard. They reasoned that one couldn't get 'zapped' too badly by such a miniature evil spirit!"
Being a Moni son was no easy task. The "how to make" category was endless and included bows, arrows, various traps, bird blinds, huts, fences, bark string, woven bracelets and fire starting sticks. John also had to learn hunting techniques and understand the use of cowrie shells as currency.
Food could be interesting, too. There was also no place for a Moni with a weak stomach. The list would make the average person break into a cold sweat - spiders, several types of beetle, a wild cockroach and many types of worms and grubs.
Working as a community development officer, John's task was fraught with problems such as local resentment at the influx of other mainly Moslem Indonesians from the pressure-cooker societies on Java and Sumatra.
John grew to deeply love the tribal people with whom he grew up. They were unselfconsciously naked. But twenty years on they, like the rest of the world, have developed. They see huge changes around them and their old cultural ways have been disturbed. They want education for their children, for their future.
He once asked a Moni friend if missionaries and other outside factors had hurt his tribe. The answer was:
"If the missionaries had not come, today we would be killing one of our own warriors to even the score in battle and bring peace. Instead, we will give 63 pigs in exchange for his life. We are glad your parents came and taught us about God and loving others. It is good not to live in constant fear."
Missionaries have been active in New Guinea since 1858, when the naturalist
Alfred Russel Wallace - famous for his joint communication with
Charles Darwin on the origin of species by natural selection -
landed near the present-day town of Manokwari and met two Dutch Protestant
missionaries.
Protestant Christianity now is the religion of more than 200,000 highlanders.
Apart from many mainly American Protestant missionaries, an increasing
number of churches are run by Indonesian pastors. In the past 30 years
a flow of American fundamentalists has made inroads in highland areas.
The number of Moslems has risen in coastal areas since Indonesia - with more Moslems than any other country - started its "transmigration" policy of moving people to remote areas to relieve over-populated areas on Java and elsewhere.
The first Roman Catholic missionary arrived in 1938. Today, the Roman Catholic Church claims some 240,000 followers in West Papua, which has a total population of some two million people.
The "Little White Spirit", as everyone knows him, will probably never leave West Papua. Trusted and loved by the native peoples, he has acted as a bridge between ancient and modern civilisations.
At this time of year, shortly after we have celebrated the infancy of a very special child, John Cutts has shown me a tolerant view of the world.