Vailala Madness - Observers and The End of The Movement

Observers and The End of The Movement

The movement was observed first hand by G. M. Murray in 1919, the Acting Resident Magistrate for the Kerema Patrol Station. Francis Edgar Williams, the Government Anthropologist of the Australian Papuan administration, arrived in 1922, at which time the movement was still strong, though already showing signs of disintegration. By the late 1920s, it was no longer active. However, numerous other religious and social innovations continued to pass through the Papuan Gulf before World War II.

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