PNG’s Passionate People
Festivals, ceremonies, village visits and spectacular traditional dress ensure that PNG’s people are the focus and highlight of any visit, says Briar Jensen.
It’s pitch black except for the bonfire that blazes in front of us, its flames leaping skyward as logs are added. The sounds of drumming explode in the air, then settle into a hypnotic, hollow rhythm, accompanied by lyrical chanting.
Suddenly, a silhouette leaps from the darkness. Backlit by the flames, a lithe, spritely figure wearing nothing but a loincloth and a tall, conical hat runs and jumps around the fire. Enormous spirit figures appear, their huge, ghostly-white faces illuminated by the flames. Bustle-shaped leaf cloaks rustle as they stomp, trance-like, to the quickening drumbeats. Abruptly, one turns and lunges into the fire. Logs snap in a shower of sparks as flames engulf him.
This is the sacred ritual of fire dancing, performed by the mountain-dwelling Baining people of East New Britain Province to placate evil spirits. It’s a ritual usually only witnessed by those who’ve braved an arduous trek into the mountains. I’m watching it, and other intriguing customs, in comparative comfort, at the Warwagira Festival in Rabaul.
Fire-dancing is just one of a myriad of ceremonial rituals that form part of PNG’s extraordinarily diverse and well-preserved Melanesian culture. At current count, there are 867 different languages used here, each language group or wantok incorporating its own complex mix of tribal laws, beliefs and traditions. It’s this astonishing diversity that makes PNG an intriguing, if bewildering, visit.
Papua New Guineans are warm, friendly and enormously generous people, traits often overshadowed by their portrayal as a dislocated, unemployed minority who cause trouble in the cities. Admittedly, for first-time travellers, the place can feel a tad disconcerting. Surly, knife-carrying locals loiter nonchalantly in groups or sit idly in the shade, spitting blood-red betel-nut juice. But smile or say hello and they break into broad, red-toothed grins and issue friendly greetings. Once you’ve been offered a slice of fresh mango from the blade of a bush knife, you realise that the locals carry these fearsome-looking weapons the way we carry Swiss army knives. In the wantok system, clan members look after each other, and this generosity extends to visitors.
The majority of villagers are subsistence farmers living in simple, earthen-floored huts. Fishing, hunting and gardening provide most of their food, with any surplus sold from roadside stalls or at the town market – generally a colourful affair, as much a place for socialising as trading. Some cash crops, such as copra and palm oil, bring in a few meagre dollars – enough to buy rice and tinned food and to pay school fees. Here, education is seen as important, and children often travel long distances to school, on foot or by canoe. As well as learning in their clan language and the local version of pidgin, Tok Pisin, they learn English from upper primary level onwards – so for visitors, communication is relatively easy.
In the highlands, the locals prize the bird of paradise, whose exotic feathers are used to embellish elaborate headdresses such as the human-hair hats of the Huli Wigmen.
Along the Sepik River, they honour the crocodile: here, the initiation of young men includes making multiple incisions on the upper body, then packing them with mud to create prominent, crocodile-like scars. Meanwhile, on the west coast of New Ireland Province, the ritual of shark-calling expresses the spiritual link between man and scary fish.
Rituals and ceremonies continue to punctuate the hardship of everyday life, for weddings, funerals, spirit worship or celebration. Many take weeks of preparation and involve significant personal sacrifice. Consequently, most PNG ceremonies are authentic, heartfelt affairs: a genuine part of village life rather than shallow facades staged for tourists. The time-honoured skills associated with ceremonies, such as mask-making, carving, weaponry and body art, have been well-maintained.
Carving is revered in many tribes and adorns everything from practical items – canoes, weapons and bowls – to spiritual and purely decorative pieces. Master carvers still produce magnificent pieces such as the elaborate mortuary masks of the New Ireland Malagan. Masks are important in the Sepik region, too, but here, they’re used more for decoration than for personal adornment. Some areas of the Sepik are also renowned for carved story boards and cult hooks; while in the Trobriand Islands, it’s all about canoe prows and patterned bowls in ebony and rosewood.
Weaving appears in wall panels and baskets, but the most ubiquitous woven piece is the bilum, a colourful string bag that is used to carry everything from betel nuts to babies. Worn hooked over the forehead and hanging down the back, the bilum, traditionally, was made of string but nowadays, it is often woven out of wool or synthetic fibres. Designs vary by location from subtle to gaudy, and locals can tell where you’re from by the pattern of your bilum.
Local markets are great places for artefacts, and if you regret not buying something on your PNG travels, the Boroko craft market in Port Moresby has plenty to choose from. You’ll also find local art and artefact stalls at the country’s various cultural festivals. Festivals conveniently bring performers from around the country together in one location and, as many of the rituals take weeks of preparation, you’ll probably see more in one festival than you could in months of travelling. The festivals at Mount Hagen in the Western Highlands and Goroka in the Eastern Highlands attract worldwide visitors.
With 500 to 600 highland tribes represented, both festivals are a riot of colour, sound and movement. Drums throb, feet stomp, bodies sway and voices soar; perspiration and pig fat assault the nostrils. Participants are adorned in traditional bilas (costumes): enormous feathered headdresses, mud-smeared bodies and brightly painted faces, embellished with copious jewellery and astonishing piercings. Arrive early to watch the tribespeople prepare; painting themselves and each other, fitting headpieces and skirts, and practising routines in impromptu pre-show performances.
Although the Goroka show is slightly smaller, its drawcard is the ghost-like Asaro Mudmen. Long ago, looking for a place to hide during an invasion, the Asaro people dived into a muddy pool. Covered in pale grey mud, the invaders thought they were spirits and fled. Or so the story goes.
The Warwagira Festival in Rabaul is one of the few events at which you can witness PNG’s fire dancers. Stay on for the National Mask Festival and see PNG’s largest assembly of masks.
As I watch the fire dancers throw a live snake into their midst, I can scarcely believe such an ancient, primal ritual is still practised. But it is festivals such as this that help ensure PNG’s rich cultural heritage isn’t lost in its surge into the 21st century. And that, for visitors and locals alike, is a plus.
Photography by Briar Jensen and PNG Tourism
Travel Facts
Getting there
- Air Niugini flies daily from Brisbane and Cairns to Port Moresby, and twice weekly from Sydney. Phone 1300 361 380 or visit www.airniugini.com.pg
- Airlines PNG flies daily from Cairns to Port Moresby and three times a week from Brisbane. Phone 1300 764 696 or visit www.apng.com
- From November 2008, Pacific Blue will operate codeshare flights with Airlines PNG four times a week from Brisbane to Port Moresby. Phone 13 16 45 or visit www.flypacificblue.com.au
Getting around
- Take an exploratory cruise around the islands of New Ireland and East New Britain with an adventure charter such as Imajica II, a 25-metre timber schooner that calls in to remote villages. Optional shore excursions include visiting the shark callers of Tembin and trekking inland to see the Baining fire dancers. Visit www.sailingpng.com
Tips
- While the major national festivals, endorsed by the Cultural Commission, run to schedule, other festivals are more flexible: dates may move and events are sometimes cancelled.
- If you plan on visiting remote villages, consider taking gifts of pens, pencils, exercise books or a football or two. Be sure to give them to the headman or school principal to distribute.
Further information
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