The seventh of the tablets mentioned taking the Baha'i Faith to Papua New Guinea and was written on April 11, 1916, but was delayed in being presented in the United States until 1919 — after the end of World War I and the Spanish flu.
These tablets were translated and presented by Mirza Ahmad Sohrab on April 4, 1919, and published in Star of the West magazine on December 12, 1919.
The religion soon had great appeal to Nalik people who felt it more in tune with their traditional understandings compared to the teachings of Christian evangelical missionaries.
[10] Apelis Mazakmat, the first Malik to join the religion, met Hoehnke and was attracted by the Baháʼí teaching of racial equality, and converted early in 1956 after learning more about it from Rodney Hancock.
Hancock was detained for mixing with black skinned indigenous peoples on several occasions and was subsequently deported because he stayed overnight in local villages without the permission of the colonial authorities.
[10] Most significantly, according to scholarly review,[10] was that whereas Christian missionaries openly opposed traditional funerary art and performances, the Baháʼís encouraged their production as a form of worship.
… Only the Almight can make this happen…"[12] Then they met with clan leaders and elders of the community and early in 1958[11] there were a further 10 conversions who elected the first Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly of Papua New Guinea, followed by 30-40 more converts over the next four years in two villages.
[3] Representatives from Papua and New Guinea each (the country was then administered separately) attended the 1958 conference in Australia on the promulgation of the religion.
The classed included the first Baháʼís from another village of New Ireland and Morobe Province of New Guinea while Hoebneke, newly appointed as an Auxiliary Board member, emphasized the history of the religion as well as a view on comparative religion- all carried out in Pidgin English - along with a mock assembly meeting, reviews of Baháʼí laws, prayers, and a chance to discuss the concerns of the people of the region.
Yale University professor Charles Forman analyzed religious trends across the Pacific Islands and attributes what he termed the surprising growth of the Baháʼí Faith across Micronesia was partly due to a certain amount of response from some youths of wider experience and education as well as from some village folk among whom Baháʼís settled.
Probably the greatest single increase, in his view, came in 1966 with this effort as Kabu was a leader of an important modernising movement in the Purari River area of Papua.
That year's election of the national assembly saw Teman Kosap, John Mills, Noel Bluett, Lopena Vera, Margaret Bluett, Dan Humes, John Francis, Sue Podger, and David Podger elected, with Hand of the Cause Collis Featherstone again attending.
[26] Hand of the Cause Featherstone attended the 1974 convention[27] while the first known conversions to the religion took place in the Mount Brown[28] region of Central Province.
[34] In 1978 Papua New Guineans hosted their first national conference on the promulgation of the religion[35][36] and a music group toured and held numerous meetings both public and private for about 4 weeks.
[45] In 1972 a Baháʼí school was first established in Madina[46] and that year Hand of the Cause John Robarts also visited Port Moresby and Goroka.
[53] and in 1980 the Baháʼís of Lae rose in support of the International Year of the Child with a program at the local children's hospital[54] and established a goal of setting up training schools for literacy.
[39] That year a gift of materials on the religion was donated to a library in Rabaul[56] and a five-week tour of Hand of the Cause Featherstone took place.
[60] In 1983 several regional institutes were held inside the country - in Kwikila and Tabunomu[61] and one in Keravat which included the topic of the life and martyrdom of Badí.
[64] In 1984 Papua New Guineans traveled through Australia promulgating the religion among the Aboriginal Australians[65] and about 50 people attended a UN Day observance in Port Modesby.
[66] In 1985 news of developments in the Milne Bay Province included an increasing pace in the rate of conversions,[67][68] that the Baháʼís entered a float into the national independence parade[69] and Baháʼís were now running several permanent schools - in Lae, New Ireland, New Britain and Milne Bay Provinces.
[70] They ranged from serving students who finished Grade Six by helping them with a government correspondence course to rural preschools and schools with classes on hygiene, nutrition, health and agriculture, composting.
In 1986 The Promise of World Peace, written by the Universal House of Justice, was given to the Governor-General of Papua New Guinea, Kingsford Dibela, at a UN Day observance.
[78] By 1988 several projects are noted[79][80] - a women's committee coordinated medical training for mothers and teachers in Rabaul, a youth conference was held in Lae, and a fund raiser for the Arc developments at the Baháʼí World Center in Port Moresby.
[81] Additional local, regional, national and international activities were held in 1989[82] - some in Western Province, another series of events were along the Ramu River, another health training institute was recorded and played on a radio station in Rabual, and a music festival was promoted by several women's groups.
[87] However, by 2000 near 0.3% of the national populations are observed as Baháʼí based on 2000 census (roughly 20000)[5] though the Association of Religion Data Archives (relying on World Christian Encyclopedia) favored about triple this estimate.
[6] Regional international conferences were called for by the Universal House of Justice 20 October 2008 to celebrate recent achievements in grassroots community-building and to plan next steps in organizing efforts in local areas.
[91] Major performances were organized by groups from East New Britain, Milne Bay, and the Siane region of the highlands of Oro Provinces.
Then the institute began to focus on delivering a sequence of courses that would train a percentage of Baháʼís in the tasks promulgating the religion.
[100] Papua New Guinean Baháʼís representing 15 Provinces of the country traveled to attend the opening of the Terraces of the Shrine of the Bab in 2001 - and news of it was carried locally.
[106] Papua New Guineans attended the 1983 Pacific international conference in Australia as part of a series dedicated to the memory of Bahíyyih Khánum, the leading woman of the religion,[107] and an all-girl singing group formed and toured.