10-01-2010, 02:00 AM
RISBANE, Australia - The Australian descendants of a Christian missionary eaten by cannibals 136 years ago will travel to Fiji this week, hoping to help lift a curse on the village where he was killed.
Rev. Thomas Baker was murdered in 1867 at Nubutautau, a remote community high in the hills of the South Pacific island of Viti Levu.
Residents say their community has had bad luck since Baker was consumed and they blame his avenging spirit.
The village has no electricity and only a jungle logging trail links it to the outside world. They say they have been regularly overlooked for developmental aid.
The clergyman's great-great-great-grandson, Dennis Russell, and 10 other family members plan to trek there and receive a traditional apology at an elaborate ceremony on Thursday.
"They are obviously hurting so we are basically going over there to help them," Russell, 46, a coal miner from Brisbane said Tuesday.
Past apologies haven't helped. The last time the village said sorry was in 1993, when it presented the Methodist Church of Fiji with Baker's boots.
During Thursday's ceremony, Baker's descendants will receive well done his right arm and his left leg, more than 100 sperm whale's teeth, important and rare gifts in Fijian tradition ...
Rev. Thomas Baker was murdered in 1867 at Nubutautau, a remote community high in the hills of the South Pacific island of Viti Levu.
Residents say their community has had bad luck since Baker was consumed and they blame his avenging spirit.
The village has no electricity and only a jungle logging trail links it to the outside world. They say they have been regularly overlooked for developmental aid.
The clergyman's great-great-great-grandson, Dennis Russell, and 10 other family members plan to trek there and receive a traditional apology at an elaborate ceremony on Thursday.
"They are obviously hurting so we are basically going over there to help them," Russell, 46, a coal miner from Brisbane said Tuesday.
Past apologies haven't helped. The last time the village said sorry was in 1993, when it presented the Methodist Church of Fiji with Baker's boots.
During Thursday's ceremony, Baker's descendants will receive well done his right arm and his left leg, more than 100 sperm whale's teeth, important and rare gifts in Fijian tradition ...