cartoonist, drew the comic strip 'Masta Ben and Buka’ published in Pacific Islands Monthly from July 1958 (p.145) until about June 1960 (p.89). The cartoon did not appear in July 1960 or, it seems, afterwards. Issues in which the strip appeared include August 1959, p.147; September 1959, p.141; October 1959, p.86; November 1959, p.86; April 1960, p.89. Interviewed in 1999, ANU Professor Spriggs found them interesting because they quite often show Buka, the houseboy, to be smarter – or at least more wily – than the fat Aussie, Masta (Master) Ben: 'An interesting comment on white-black relations and relating to perceived ethnic hierarchies within PNG as “Bukas” were seen as smarter than other “natives”.’ Buka himself is drawn very like classic ethnographic Bougainville wooden statues.
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- Writers:
- Kerr, Joan
- Date written:
- 1996
- Last updated:
- 2007
