A
conversation with Norma Payson Barne is like flipping through the
pages of National Geographic: One minute you are in Scandinavia
readying to cross the Baltic and dock in a Soviet port; the next
minute you are heading for an open-air market in a town in South
America. Before you have put down this month’s subscription, you
also will have journeyed to England, Australia, and New Guinea.
Barne
began seriously nurturing her desire for travel while completing
her degree in history at General Studies. Perhaps, too, it was her
work as a GS student council member that helped embolden her to
write to the head of Maritime Union — a query written, she admits,
on Columbia University stationery! Barne was thrilled when Moore
McCormick Lines offered her a job to work with the children of the
ship’s passengers. But when the offer fell through, and the only
other positions available were for wait staff, Barne didn’t balk.
To the surprise of the company, she accepted the job. Five days
after graduation, Barne became a crew member of the S.S. Argentina.
For this fresh alumna, the doors to Scandinavia, the Soviet Union,
and South America had been thrown wide open, and she was determined
to sail across each threshold.
In
the mid-60s, Barne returned to the United States. With the assistance
of Columbia’s Career Services office, she accepted a staff position
with the brokerage firm A.G. Becker. Barne quickly vaulted from
secretary to stockbroker, becoming one of few women in the industry
at the time. However, wanderlust is difficult to suppress. After
three years with the firm, Barne signed on with American Express
and their Travel Promotion division. In 1967, AmEx sent her to Australia.
“When
I got to Australia, I was told I had to meet this Miles Barne, an
English coffee planter. We married — and then I was living in New
Guinea.” The Barnes lived in the highlands of Papua New Guinea for
13 years where they grew coffee. “We lived in a bush house. There
was no telephone and poor transportation. Some evenings, we would
walk over a narrow, rope-and-wood bridge for dinner. This was difficult
for some members of the small European population on the island.
You couldn’t [cross the bridge] in the wrong shoes.”
Modern
amenities notwithstanding, Barne’s memories of life in New Guinea
are warmly recalled. She has made lifelong friends with native Papuans
who shared with her recipes for the local cuisine, as well as other
skills and customs. Further, in a country that usually conjures
fear in the minds of Westerners — malaria, bats with five foot wingspans,
snakes like the “Death Adder” (so named because a bite brings death
in seconds — unless the bitten limb is promptly chopped off), —
Barne seems to have adapted effortlessly. “Other than the usual
colds and scrapes, none of us suffered any serious health problems.”
Even malaria seems to have eluded her.
Another
notion to be adopted in New Guinea was that of the family. Miles
had a cousin, Peter, who had been living in New Guinea since the
1950s. Peter had married two New Guinea women, and had had a child
by each. But shortly after the birth of the second child, Peter
drowned in the Waghi River. Barne fell naturally into the Papua
New Guinea [PNG] parenting tradition, and the baby, Barbara, became
a part of Norma and Mile’s family. She explains, “In PNG when you
can have many babies and I can’t, it is quite common for you to
give me one of your babies to raise. The child grows up knowing
the ‘Number 1 Mama’ and the ‘Number 2 Mama’ with no problems — unlike
our Western system of ownership.” Peter’s older son, Mungo, is also
part of the Barne clan, having stayed with them off and on during
his teen years. Today, Barbara works for a gold mining operation
in PNG, and Mungo is an exporter in Far North Queensland.
Barne’s
family does not end there. She and Miles reared two sons between
their lives in New Guinea and Australia. Today, Thomas, 21, is a
visiting student at the University of California, Davis, while George,
25, works with computers in London for Saatchi & Saatchi. In
the ’80s, the Barne family returned to Australia, where they lived
on a cattle station in the Northern Territory, the Gulf country
of Queensland, and a cotton farm in northern New South Wales. Now
divorced, Barne lives in Sidney where she makes the most out of
the famed Opera House as well as the moderate climate. She returns
to New York annually for Thanksgiving “to catch up with family and
friends.”
“I
was never worried. Never felt afraid about going [to New Guinea].
There was just so much to experience.” Barne adds, “I remember my
first visit to the Mt. Hagan Sing Sing Show — in the farthest north
city. Thousands of natives assembled in their tribal dress and danced.
We were one of 12 white people at the event. Dancing, music, celebration.
It was fantastic. Now it’s an annual event covered with tourists,
but when I first went in ’67, it was only its second year.”
“I
love travel and living here has been a wonderful experience. I just
saw the movie The Dish. It was especially fun because I remember
listening to the wireless in New Guinea as Armstrong stepped on
the moon. You know, Australia was the closest point on the earth
to the moon during the moon walk. We were in the jungle trying to
explain to our friends what was going on and where. No one could
believe it.” One thing we can believe is that, had the moon been
a travel option for Norma Payson Barne, she would have traveled
there, too.
