Oimbari, Raphael ('Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel', d.1996)

Collection relating Raphael Oimbari, 'Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel', New Guinea and Australia, 1985-1997.

Raphael Oimbari was a young 'Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel' working on the Kokoda trail and was made famous (without himself knowing for many years to follow) for being captured in an image by war photographer George Silk (acc/no: 014028).

The collection is a series of documents relating to Oimbari. This includes letters and correspodence relating to him and those around him in his later life, including New Guinean historian Maclaren Hiari, and Australian veteran of the New Guinea campaign, Ron Pile.

The collection consists of letters largely discussing the recognition of the 'Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels' and their work during the Second World War, Oimbari's visit to Australia as part of a promotional tour to raise money by the RSL, and communications relating to the photgraph taken by George Silk.

These include: letters exchanged in 1993-4 between Ron Pile, George Silk, and Maclaren Hiari; letters and a statement written in 1992-3 by Raphael Oimbari; a photographic postcard and new clippings relating to George Silk; press statements related to Raphael Oimbari; a copy of a Kokoda Committee report dated 26 August 1997; a copy of the poem "The Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels of the Owen Stanley Track" and a signed copy of George Silk's photograph of Raphael Oimbari leading Australian soldier Private George Whittington along a jungle track.