The purchase of books and journals dealing with early New Guinea has provided the possible source of a New Zealand family’s reference to breast milk as susu. My New Zealander wife and female relatives over the years referred to susu milk- breast milk- without knowing the origin of the term.
Our children were brought up on “susu milk ”. However, one of the buys- PIDGINS AND TOK PISIN -Occasional Paper No. 1 of the Papua New Guinea Department of Language, l975, edited by John Lynch, 42pp, includes appendices listing common Pidgin English terms , one being susu for milk – dairy cattle being “ kau susu”, and the expression for milking , “ kisim susu”. [Condensed milk became known as strongpela susu. ]
My wife’s Aunty Lu, short for Louise , was married in l905 to adventurous Englishman , Richard Alexander Meek , in New Britain , New Guinea. We have a photograph of their wedding . The story goes that Richard fell in love with Lu Wernham when he saw her sewing on the verandah at her widowed mother’s house in Auckland. It is now surmised that she may have picked up the expression susu when she was in New Guinea, and used it when talking to family members after she returned to Auckland, the term used within the group until its origin was lost with the effluxion of time.
Her husband came to Australia with his parents , his mother Spanish, and moved to Sydney . He had a varied career as a travelling photographer, gold prospector, shepherd on a sheep station, boundary rider during the 1890 drought. He volunteered for the Boer War in South Africa . Then he went to New Guinea , apparently spending time in German New Guinea as a trader, at times going as long as nine months without seeing another European , according to his obituary. His parents and other members of the large family had moved to Kiwiland.
The Meeks returned to Auckland in l909 and Richard volunteered for service in New Guinea during WW1. Obviously an enterprising businessman, he was a clothing manufacturer for 11 years , made a trip to England in l920 , bought property in the Auckland central business area and was a member of the Takapuna Boating Club for many years . He died in July 1929, aged 61.
