Dictionary

bus kanaka en · NOUN

Etymology

Borrowed from Tok Pisin bus kanaka.

Meanings

1. (Papua-New-Guinea) An uncivilized person; a person who follows a traditional rather than a modern lifestyle.
   • […] for some more sophisticated coastal people there was merely the shame at being led by a bush kanaka, […] 1965, The Papua-New Guinea Elections 1964:
   • Do you see development here? Are you living like white men? No! We’re still living like bus kanaka. 2005 November 5, Nancy Sullivan, “My Weblog: Stories about living in Papua New Guinea”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):
   • Fuyuge men recount with humor their initial encounters with life in Port Moresby during the 1950s. They speak of travelling to the coast in their bark-cloths and realising upon their arrival that they were inappropriately dressed: “We immediately felt bus kanaka [wild, uncivilized].” 1999, Eric Hirsh, “Colonial Units and Ritual Units: Historical Transformations of Persons and Horizons in Highland Papua”, in Comparative Studies in Society and History, volume 41, number 4:
   • Sam’s blues and boots disappeared into his small backpack, his beret was pushed back onto the head at a very jaunty angle and the .303 was slung carelessly over the shoulder. A torn pair of shorts completed the ensemble. In the twinkling of an eye, the immaculate policeman was transformed into a ragged bush kanaka […] 2002, Terry O'Farrell, Behind Enemy Lines: An Australian SAS Solider in Vietnam:
   • Manam islanders knew Mambu: but they could not admit to being led or influenced by a mere bush-Kanaka. 2004, K. O. L. Burridge, Mambu: A Melanesian Millennium:

Forms

Relateds

bushman