Blasius To Una

http://lyrichord.com/linernotes/LAS7367US.pdf

Blasius To Una was a musician from Papua New Guinea. He composed hymns in his language Kuanua. He has been described as “probably the first Papua New Guinean music personality to receive attention from a wide public”.

Blasius To Una Turtavu was born on February 2
nd
, 1925 at Paparatawa village in
the Kokopo, sub-province of East New Britain. Only two months after he was born, his
mother died, and his father, a Catholic Priest, took him to Vunapope Convent. So Blasius
was brought up by the Sisters. In 1933, they sent him to Milmila Catholic Mission in the
Duke of York Islands, and he attended primary school there until 1938. Then he returned
to Vunapope and lived with his father until 1941. He was in Vunapope when the
Japanese Army invaded New Britain, and in 1942, he was unwillingly recruited by the
Japanese as an interpreter. During this time, he had to teach Japanese soldiers
Melanesian Pidgin and Kuanua (the Tolai language), and he learned some Japanese
which he still recalls today. Towards the end of the war, suspected of sympathy towards
the allied American and Australian Armies, he was jailed and condemned to death by the
Japanese, but was eventually freed by an American pilot. Blasius was very happy when
the war ended, and after a few months as a patient, because of an injured leg, he started
working at the Nonga military hospital and became a doctor’s driver in 1947. Since then
he has always retained the same occupation and is today working with the Department of
Transport in Rabaul.
On this recording he is backed by three of his sons, Hironimus, Antonius and
Ludovicus.
This recording attempts to show the different faces of Blasius To Una Turtavu’s
creativity through the 28 years of his musical life. Humorous and satirical songs in
Pidgin, like FOPELA LEK (Track Four) or KUNAI DUMDUM (Track 10) ballads in his
own Kuanua tongue like IAU ABUL RAMALMAL (Track 11) or AMARI NA RAVIAN2
(Track 9) and in English like LONELY EVENING (Track 14). Blasius To Una might
make you feel sad, but in the next song, he will cheer you up and really make you laugh.
At fifty three, Blasius is still full of energy, and very much in love with music. Maybe
that is what makes it very difficult not to fall in love with the man and his guitar.
– Frederic Duvelle
Port Moresby