great article by roy masters
http://www.smh.com.au/news/league/meet-the-panthers-new-hooker/2006/04/27/1145861492025.html
High and mighty ... Paul Aiton wears tribal dress on a visit to Papua New Guinea. Inset: Aiton in Sydney, top right, and Aiton being presented with traditional weapons, bottom right.
When Paul Aiton plays hooker for Penrith tonight, it will be the latest chapter in a remarkable journey from the highlands of PNG to the NRL. Roy Masters reports.
TALL still ain't all in rugby league, judging by the debut of diminutive Penrith hooker Paul Aiton for the match against the Sharks tonight.
Just when we thought a player had to resemble a skyscraper to earn a start in the NRL, the Panthers have chosen a tiny Papua New Guinean who races around the ruck like a trail bike dodging drugged giraffes. The Penrith web site has him at 1.75cm tall - he says he is 1.72cm - but when he played in Alice Springs in the pre-season, his height seemed all heart.
Aiton has certainly slipped under the radar this week for Penrith's first home game, with the focus on the shift of hooker Luke Priddis to halfback. And whatever the attention he receives in the dressing room tonight, it won't be as surprising as his welcome in Hagan last Christmas after a 15-year absence.
It was Aiton's return to his birthplace and the home town of his parents, who left PNG for Queensland when he was five. When he walked off the plane, he saw 100 people and assumed they were there to greet his fellow passengers.
"They formed into two groups and I slowly realised they were all there to meet me," he said. "It's still very tribal up there, with one group being from my [maternal] grandmother's side and the other group from my grandfather's side. My grandmother's tribe pulled me this way and my grandfather's tribe pulled me that way. One side lived in a village near Hagan and the other side in a village way out in the mountains.
"I got into a 4WD belonging to one side and the other side pulled me back out. Women were crying on my arm and guys were pushing me and crying."
Why all the fuss? Aiton is the eldest of five children. And he plays rugby league, which is accorded the status of religion in PNG.
"The first born is more prestigious and they had baby photos of me," he said. "Eventually, they all formed a semi-circle, squashed together and an educated relative got me to talk to every one separately, telling them my plans. It was decided I would spend a few days in the village close to Hagan and then go out of town by 4WD to the distant one."
Hagan is the most western settlement in PNG by the troubled border with Papua, where locals are fleeing the Indonesian army. I travelled into its mist-covered green valleys on a football trip in 1970 and Aiton insists little has changed from stone-age days. A high chair in Australia is something associated with feeding babies but in the remote highlands it's a seat for an honoured guest at a sing sing, or celebration.
"They sat me in a chair attached to two long planks of wood, with a roof of flowers, ferns and leaves to protect me from the sun," Aiton said. All this while men painted in white mud, wearing bird-of-paradise head dresses and topless women in grass skirts chanted and beat the ground with their feet.
"Six guys hoisted me above their shoulders in the chair and we walked through a column of women hitting drums and swaying in rhythm.
"Men carrying spears presented me with a bow and arrows and marched around in front of me for hours, doing full laps of the sing-sing spot. The next day, they dressed me in full tribal gear and I joined the men, linking arms with those carrying axes and spears. It was hot and my arms were aching from holding the heavy axe and bow.
"I could only do about 20 minutes of marching but they went on for another one-and-a-half hours. The last day, they held a mu mu, like a hungi, and cooked six big pigs and 80 chickens, with heaps of potatoes, bananas and green vegetables. I had to kill a pig with a branch shaped like a bat.
"I hit it a couple of times and helped gut it. After that, we had a massive feed and I made a speech, which a guy translated. They all put in one kina each and presented me with 500 kina. I had to take it because if you accept, it means you care. I felt so bad taking it because they work hard all day."
Life hasn't been that easy for the Aiton family. They moved to Australia so his father could be treated for tuberculosis. When they arrived, no-one in the family spoke English. Paul began playing for the Caboolture Snakes almost immediately and league became the language of assimilation.
He won a contract with Penrith a week before he broke his ankle playing in Queensland's 2003 under-19s team. Two years later, in the second last game of the year for the Cougars, Penrith's feeder team, he injured his other ankle. His aim in 2006 was to play first grade and it has come after seven rounds. Long term, he would like to play for Australia.
"I played for the Kumuls in 2004 but they are not counted as Tests, meaning I am eligible for Australia," he said.
But his heritage is PNG and the kinship ties are strong. He took a bag of old Cougar jumpers to Hagan but what did he do with the 500 kina? "I bought a big box of refrigerated lamb flaps for the village," he said.
"They sat me in a chair attached to two long planks of wood, with a roof of flowers, ferns and leaves to protect me from the sun," Aiton said. All this while men painted in white mud, wearing bird-of-paradise head dresses and topless women in grass skirts chanted and beat the ground with their feet.
"Six guys hoisted me above their shoulders in the chair and we walked through a column of women hitting drums and swaying in rhythm.
"Men carrying spears presented me with a bow and arrows and marched around in front of me for hours, doing full laps of the sing-sing spot. The next day, they dressed me in full tribal gear and I joined the men, linking arms with those carrying axes and spears. It was hot and my arms were aching from holding the heavy axe and bow.
"I could only do about 20 minutes of marching but they went on for another one-and-a-half hours. The last day, they held a mu mu, like a hungi, and cooked six big pigs and 80 chickens, with heaps of potatoes, bananas and green vegetables. I had to kill a pig with a branch shaped like a bat.
"I hit it a couple of times and helped gut it. After that, we had a massive feed and I made a speech, which a guy translated. They all put in one kina each and presented me with 500 kina. I had to take it because if you accept, it means you care. I felt so bad taking it because they work hard all day."
Life hasn't been that easy for the Aiton family. They moved to Australia so his father could be treated for tuberculosis. When they arrived, no-one in the family spoke English. Paul began playing for the Caboolture Snakes almost immediately and league became the language of assimilation.
He won a contract with Penrith a week before he broke his ankle playing in Queensland's 2003 under-19s team. Two years later, in the second last game of the year for the Cougars, Penrith's feeder team, he injured his other ankle. His aim in 2006 was to play first grade and it has come after seven rounds. Long term, he would like to play for Australia.
"I played for the Kumuls in 2004 but they are not counted as Tests, meaning I am eligible for Australia," he said.
But his heritage is PNG and the kinship ties are strong. He took a bag of old Cougar jumpers to Hagan but what did he do with the 500 kina? "I bought a big box of refrigerated lamb flaps for the village," he said.
Hopefully this may change. Just one club's vision and effort could make the difference and if the PNGRFL and ARL can help by coming up with a way of placing PNG players in the shop wondow in Australia that would help even more.
