PAPUA

DIMITRA STASINOPOULOU
PAPUA
New Guinea

PAPUA
New Guinea
PHOTOGRAPHY- TEXT
Dimitra Stasinopoulou

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CONTENTS
Dimitra Stasinopoulou was born in Athens, Greece in 1953. After
completing her studies, she worked in the banking sector for 20
years, and later on, in the family business in Romania. Her first
Book “Romania of my Heart” was awarded with the Romanian
UNESCO prize. Ever since then, her love of travelling to amazing
destinations around the globe and her desire to share the images
she brought back with her, led her to the publiction of the books
“Bhutan, Smiling Faces from the Roof of the World” in October
2008 and “India, Unity in Diversity” in March 2010. Her pictures
have been awarded in international photo-competitions and have
been displayed in Greece and abroad.
INTRODUCTION 8 - 15
THE HIGHLANDS
The Tari region and the Huli Tribe 16 - 95
THE RIVER SEPIK 96 - 139
THE HIGHLANDS
Mount Hagen Sing-Sing Annual Festival 140 - 237
PACIFIC OCEAN
Madang and the surrounding islands 238 - 276

7

It has been many years since I wanted to visit Papua New
Guinea, to experience the authenticity of its culture
and the unchanged way of life of its residents. Τhis was not,
however, a journey that one can easily decide upon. The
information available on the country is minimal, the tourism
infrastructure almost non-existent, whilst it is plagued by
malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases. Moreover, tribal
clashes are not rare; these are small-scale but particularly
violent, conflicts usually involving a local character that can
keep the visitor trapped in a dangerous region for many days.
It is not a coincidence that the country has only 40,000 foreign
visitors each year.
Yet, all this is only one side of the coin; on the other is the
discovery of a country that has been left untouched by the
passage of time, covering in just a few decades the dizzying
distance from the Neolithic period to the modern world, the
singular feeling of encountering a society that stubbornly
insists on sticking to its primeval traditions. So, in August
2009 –the best month to visit the country in order to experience
the wonderful Mt Hagen Sing-Sing, the country’s largest festival
– I was there.
It is truly very difficult for me to describe the surprise I felt
when i found myself, for the first time, in the sanctum of an
aboriginal village and an ancient civilisation, unchanged for
millennia. You have the feeling of having just travelled in time:
from the high-tech era of globalisation and communications, to
the age of tools, hunting and magic, at the dawn of human life.
However much one might try, it is impossible to “fit” such
a distinctive country into economic figures, political practices
and demographic equations. Tradition surfaces everywhere and
composes a perfectly harmonised universe of primitive farming,
ancient customs and an economic outlook that is foreign to us
and limited to necessities. Even the meaning of democracy, a
“The world only exits when it is shared”
Tasos Livaditis, Greek poet
foundation stone of modern states based on the rule of law, can
be understood only with difficulty by the different tribes of the
hinterland, which have been based for centuries now on the
power of the tribal shaman and the counsel of the elders who,
in a land where few reach an old age, are clearly considered
holders of invaluable experience and wisdom.
Until 1930, the hinterland had not been explored at all; the
Europeans considered these wild and mountainous regions as
inhospitable for living in. Only in the mid-20th century did a
couple of Australian gold diggers, who were searching for gold
deposits at higher altitudes, discovered, amazed, that around
a million people lived in these wild areas, isolated from the
fertile mountain valleys and preserving a civilisation almost
unchanged since Neolithic times. This was an astonishing
discovery for the Western world as at that time everyone
believed that the planet had been fully explored and mapped
in detail: given the sight of such a primitive society, scientists –
botanists, anthropologists and archaeologists – politicians and
journalists, proved unable to rise to the occasion and, without
prior research, debate and reflection, suddenly invaded this
foreign world, bearing the miracles of technology and their
Western culture to people completely unprepared for such a
change. Thankfully, however, even in our days, the exceptional
difficulty in accessing their hinterland and the refusal of
the inhabitants to lose their cultural identity has meant that
European influence has been relatively limited.
Today the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, as it is
officially known, is a state that is working hard to modernise
and to battle diseases, illiteracy and barbaric customs wherever
they still exist. It is transitioning from a barter economy to a
money economy, and hopes in the future to see its great natural
and mineral wealth being put to use. It is not easy however to
subdue a people that has learnt to live free, organised in small
independent social groupings comprised of a few villages; a
people that has learnt to apply a system of justice devised not
by legislators but by centuries and myths. It is thus difficult
to uproot the practice of centuries, of superstitions and selfgoverned
and autonomous local societies from the life of the
Papua overnight.
My journey to New Guinea gave me unique experiences but
above all it gave me the gift of a colourful society that is very
old and that follows the thread of its own distinctive history.
And yet I found myself unprepared – truth be told, no one can
prepare themselves for what they will see in front of them –
within these colours, dances, isolated tribes, strange languages;
I felt a foreigner – burdened with the baggage of a completely
different culture – and the great need to find an object that
was mine, something familiar and loved to have as my ally.
So I kept my camera; an achievement of digital technology
a worthy representative of my familiar world, searching with
its lens to find not only what separates us from these people
but also what unites us. No matter how many journeys one
might take, whichever part of the planet they may find
themselves, every time they will see the cheeky smile of a
child, the impetuous gaze of the adults and the stoic, welcome
expression of the elders demonstrating that, under the
successive layers of culture, we all have the same face, the same
voice, the same body.
After many days in this strange and wonderful land I
considered that I had by now formed a fairly complete picture
of it: I’d explored the Highlands, their wonderful mountains
and local tribes, I’d seen their greatest festival, the unique
Mount Hagen Sing-sing, I’d toured the banks of the Sepik, the
largest river, had faced the ocean at Madang beach and had
visited some of the islands. After all this wandering I once more
felt my values being shaken. No one doubts that it is imperative
that steps are taken – and immediately – for modernisation and
to fight the spread of diseases, illiteracy and the often barbaric
customs and inhumane rituals. What, however, is the correct
way to make such a violent intervention into the history of a
place more moderate, to smooth its transition to a new reality?
Do others, in this case us, the developed nations; decide on
the fate of people unable to respond in the face of the cultural
steamroller of technology? Are we to take the risk that, along
with all that is wrong in these primitive societies, their valuable
individuality will also be lost, their completely idiosyncratic
view of life, the hundreds of languages, their unique art?
How can we be sure that the society of the Papua will adjust
smoothly to a world that, to its eyes, seems to be coming from
the far future?
Yes, I was certainly delighted with the wonderful journey
that was coming to a close, for having had the good fortune to
touch for myself something so primitive and authentic. Even so,
I could not avoid a feeling of imperceptible sorrow, a nostalgia
for something that will be lost: a mud village, a beseeching
popular belief, a unique language; a pure piece of human
history, true and undefended.
THE INHABITANTS AND THEIR DAILY LIVES
Whichever part of the country I went to I encountered
people who were calm and true; people who moved about with
humility and an inherent dignity that was in complete harmony
with their natural environment and who were reconciled to
the innate difficulties it entailed. You believe that in their every
movement, in their colorful costumes and the strange steps
of their dances, you are witnessing an unending attempt to
appease the bad spirits, the wrath of nature and their vengeful
gods (despite the establishment of Christianity, the primeval
beliefs still maintain a prominent position in religious life).
A main feature, however, of their social and cultural life is the
globally unique heterogeneity of the population. The indigenous
population is divided into thousands of different communities,
most of which only number a few hundred members. With their
own customs and their own languages and traditions, many
of these groups have been in conflict with their neighboring
tribes for millennia. In some cases, because of the mountainous
landscape and the isolation it imposes, many were completely
unaware of neighboring tribes who lived only a few kilometers
away. This heterogeneity, the differences in the bosom of one
people, which can perhaps best be summed up in one of the
8 9

island’s folk sayings according to which “for each village, a
different culture”, is apparent in the number of languages and
local dialects, of which there are over 800. Of these, less than
half are related to each other whilst the others appear to be
completely independent, unrelated to any of the island’s other
languages or any larger language groups.
The inhabitants have more in common in terms of their diet,
as amongst the main foods we always find starchy vegetables,
bananas, mangoes, coconuts and other fruits. Their meat supply
comes mainly through rearing pigs and poultry as well as
hunting, whilst in the coastal areas fish and seafood are a main
element of the local diet.
Prior to the coming of the Europeans, there were no
towns anywhere in the country. During the colonial period
the scattered settlements were merged into larger villages
for the first time, making them easier to govern and provide
education and health services. The first towns grew around the
administrative centers and the missionaries and at first housed
only men, who worked mainly in construction. These towns
gradually grew into the country’s urban, political, administrative
and commercial centers.
As regards social stratification, there are no castes and social
classes only developed recently: in general, one could say that
the society is divided into the “upper class” and the “simple
citizens”. The first group includes the educated, high-income
town dwellers (the “coffee millionaires,” in the local lingo), and
the second group includes the inhabitants of the countryside
and the low-income town dwellers. In the past few years a
middle class has begun to emerge. Even so, the villagers are
not poor, or at least not in the sense that we mean poor. You
would be hard pushed to find in the microeconomic activities
of the tribes any kind of accumulation of goods and wealth, and
consumption as a way of life is completely incomprehensible.
The annual income per capita of these people may not be more
than a few dollars but in a barter economy such as there still
is to a great extent, no one lacks essential goods. Whatever
money is available is invested in the development of social and
political relations within the tribe or village, through which the
members of each local society maintain their position in the
tribal hierarchy.
Labor within the village is divided less on the basis of position
and more on the basis of gender; the men build the houses and
the dams, they hunt, they fish and they cultivate the banana,
coffee and cocoa. The women grow all the other vegetables, rear
the poultry and pigs, weave baskets and clothes and raise the
children. Any income from the sale of coffee and cocoa is taken
by the men, who are socially stigmatized in both the villages
and the towns, if they commit the “crime” of performing work
that is traditionally attributed to women. Things have changed
somewhat today and a hard-working woman is given her due
respect - she may even leave her husband for someone else
without suffering any social stigma if her husband is deemed
not to have cared for her as he should have.
Marriage takes place as an agreement between two families
and very rarely as the personal choice of the couple. A girl’s
parents will hope to marry her to a wealthy man, whilst what
is sought for in a woman, is first that she is willing to work
and secondly her external appearance. Polygamy is generally
accepted for men as traditionally a well-built man always
enjoyed a greater share of the women.
There is an unheard of tolerance in the rearing of children
throughout almost the whole island, at least for the first five or
six years of their lives. This is due to the common conviction
that the spirit of a small child may abandon its body if it is
hit or frightened. The selfishness, cruelty or malevolence of
some children are ascribed to bad spirits and not to the child
themselves or their bad upbringing. In these cases the parents
often invite a priest-magician to expel the evil and restore calm
to their home. As they grow towards adulthood children are
taught by following the examples of adults, participating in
various, often inhuman, initiation rituals. All this preparation is
considered essential in order for the young adult to be able to
respond fully to their social and marital responsibilities.
Almost patriarchal societies keep women at a distance and
in clearly distinct roles. As described above, the process of
separating small boys from their mothers begins at an early age:
they start to sleep far from women, in the houses of men, whilst
in many tribes there are initiation rituals into the world of
men, so as to remove all traces of female influence and achieve
full catharsis of the pollution from the “hot” discharges of the
female body.
As for religion, approximately 96% of the population is
Christian. Of course, as often happens in many cases where
Christianity coexists alongside preceding religions, what
eventually arises is a completely new fusion, with Christian
practices being combined with primeval beliefs – prayers to
Christ in order to expel the subterranean spirits, monsters and
the invisible creatures of the forest. The traditional religions
are often animistic and include elements of ancient worship.
A prevailing belief amongst the traditional tribes is that of the
masalai, the bad spirits who have the power to provoke death
and destruction. Another common conviction is the parallel
existence of the physical and metaphysical world; in order for
the living to prosper, the interaction between the two worlds
necessitates the observation of customs and the preservation of
social ties, such as satisfying the spirits of the dead ancestors,
who continue to observe, beyond the bounds of death, the
activities of the tribe. Very few accidents, illnesses or deaths are
attributed to chances or natural causes. Almost every fatal event
is attributed to curses, angry water or forest spirits or simply to
the vengeance of the insulted ghost of an ancestor. Great store is
put upon the use of a magical substance known as “mana”, and a
large number of natives have knowledge of magic.
Much has been said about the cannibalism of the Papua; it
has even been claimed that the first Australian explorers who got
as far as the isolated regions of the hinterland in around 1930,
provided a most nutritious meal for their hosts. Nonetheless,
the truth is that cannibalism had a prominent place in the
cult practice and burial customs of many of the island’s tribes,
who believed that by eating the dead they would acquire their
positive characteristics, gaining strength and bravery. Women
often ate a part of their dead husband so as to absorb something
of his masculinity into their female nature.
The kuru disease (or “laughing sickness”, as the symptoms
include pathological outbursts of laughter) has been
demonstrated to result from the ritual practice of cannibalism,
in particular of the Fore tribe in the Eastern Highlands. This
is an incurable and fatal neurological disorder, a transmissible
spongiform encephalopathy that appeared for the first time in
the mid-20th century and spread progressively in the form of
an epidemic to the neighbouring regions. It primarily affects
women and children, due to deposits of the protein particle
prion in the human brain, which showed a preference for the
“weaker” members of the tribe: during Fore burial customs
those present had to honour the dead by eating them. Men
chose first which pieces they would eat and the rest of the body
went to the women and the children, including the infected
brain. The kuru disease was studied by the American physicians
Daniel Carleton Gajdusek and Baruch S. Blumberg, who proved
the infectious nature of this type of encephalopathy for the
first time, for which they won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in
1976. The disease gradually disappeared when cannibalism was
abolished through the implementation of Australian colonial
laws and the efforts of the local missionaries.
The majority of the inhabitants, approximately 84%, belong
to groups of the Papua tribe. The oldest is the Negrito tribe
(Pygmies), whilst amongst the autonomous Papua tribes are,
the Orokolo, known also as the “People of the Sea”, the Daudai,
the Goigala and others. Also of great interest are the huge
demographic diversity and the over 820 languages spoken on
the island, comprising one-fifth of the world’s total languages.
The official language is English, which is used in education and
by the authorities, whilst the main languages of daily speech
are the Creole Tok Pisin and, in the south, Hiri Motu. Tok Pisin
(Tok = talk, Pisin = pidgin) developed as a necessary means of
communication between the Melanesian colonists who worked
on the plantations of Queensland in northwest Australia. These
workers, who spoke countless different languages, gradually
started to develop a language structure, drawing the vocabulary
10 11

mainly from English as well as German, Portuguese, Melanesian
and their own local languages. Tok Pisin, which later spread to
New Guinea, provided an important channel of communication
between the various tribes of the island, who up until then had
been entrenched within the narrow linguistic boundaries of
their tribal group. This often created problems and conflicts as
it made it difficult for differences to be resolved. The country’s
schools play a role that is much more than educational, that of
enabling communication, as the common use of English brings
neighbouring and also distant tribes into contact with each
other.
The economy is agrarian and the majority of the inhabitants
farm with, literally, primitive means. The Highlanders were
amongst the first farmers in history and the social structure
of their settlements is based on a particular form of equality,
most likely even older than most Western democracies. Much
has remained unchanged in their lives: cultivation of the sweet
potato has been the basis of their economy for the past 300
years. Prior to this they had grown primarily taro but the sweet
potato, which had been imported from Indonesia, could grow
on almost all grounds and provide two to four harvests a year.
Its cultivation thus led to greater productivity and, consequently,
to greater wealth: with the production surplus the Highlanders
bought pigs, which they then used to marry a hard-working
wife who would help them grow even more sweet potatoes.
The entire economic activity thus acquired another dynamic as
commercial exchange now became a part of daily life: pigs and
sweet potatoes were often exchanged for salt, blades, animal
skins, etc. Furthermore, jewellery, weapons and ritual objects
were often exchanged, thus bringing closer together tribes that
were enemies but yet still shared common ritual practices, and
maintaining – on rare occasions – a fragile peace to the region.
THE COUNTRY
The island state of Papua New Guinea is located to the north
of Australia and includes the east section of the island of New
Guinea, with the west section, the region of Irian Jaya, belonging
to Indonesia. Papua New Guinea includes numerous islands
and coral islands in the Pacific Ocean, as well as the island
groups of New Ireland, New Britain, the Admiralty Islands, the
Solomon Islands and the Bismarck Archipelago. Many of these
are volcanic.
The country covers an area of 462,840 square kilometres and,
along with the east section, is the world’s second largest island
after Greenland and perhaps also the highest, with mountain
ranges over 5,000 metres in altitude. The island was created
by the crashing together of the tectonic plates of Eurasia and
Australia. Approximately 80% of the hinterland is covered by
tropical forests, with equatorial vegetation. In the country’s
almost virgin natural environment countless species of flora
and fauna find a refuge, both Asian and Australian in origin as
well as endemic species, the catalogue of which is constantly
growing as there are many regions that are still being explored
or remain completely unexplored. The island also has the
world’s richest bird fauna, with over 700 species and almost all
the known species of birds of paradise (of the 42 species in the
world, the island has 38), as well as the largest variety of orchids
in the world.
Both the climate and the particular geology of New Guinea as
well as the minimal human intervention into the environment –
the industrial revolution never arrived here – have contributed
to the development of one of the world’s most important
ecosystems, with a huge biodiversity: almost 19% of the world’s
species of flora and fauna find refuge on the island. As might
be expected, the country remains unexplored to a great extent,
both from a natural and a cultural perspective. It is considered
a paradise for botanists, zoologists and anthropologists. Every
so often a new species of plant or animal is discovered in the
depths of the New Guinea jungle, or a new social structure
thousands of years old is located in some unexplored mountain
settlement, transporting researchers into the past, literally into
the object of their study.
We could say that the New Guinea hinterland is divided by
steep mountain ranges which cannot be reached by road, aside
from a few ad hoc footpaths created during the Second World
War. Only by flying, sailing or hiking can one approach these
parts. Despite the isolation, the broader area of the Highlands,
as they are known, and the central mountain valleys in
particular are the most fertile and densely-populated parts of
the country, aside, of course, from the few urban centres.
The country is crossed by a dense network of rivers, which
flow from the central mountain regions and discharge into
the Pacific coasts. The largest rivers are the Sepik in the north,
which crosses the country flowing in the direction of the
Bismarck Sea, the Fly in the south, which discharges in the Gulf
of Papua, and the Ramu. These rivers are for their greater parts
navigable, offering an important alternative route for accessing
the most central regions of the hinterland.
The climate is tropical, humid and warm, with an average
temperature of 28 degrees Celsius. At the higher altitudes the
climate is almost equatorial mountain, whilst rainfall is heavy
and frequent everywhere.
The country has a population of approximately 6,000,000,
with only 17% of the total residing in the urban centres. Port
Moresby, the capital, is the most densely populated town in
Papua New Guinea, with over 270,000 inhabitants, and the
country’s largest port and its international airport. Other large
urban centres are Lae, with approximately 115,000 inhabitants,
and Madang, with 33,000 inhabitants on the northeast coasts.
Demographically, it has a rapidly rising population, relatively
short life expectancy and high birth rate.
There are low levels of production, serving primarily the
subsistence needs of the inhabitants and leaving little margin
for even limited exports. The main crops are coffee, cocoa,
papaya, coconuts, rubber, etc. Even so, despite the country’s
very low GDP and its minimal per capita income (only 1,294
US dollars), Papua New Guinea has an incredibly rich subsoil
with significant deposits of resources, such as gold, natural
gas, cobalt, oil, silver, copper, etc. Of these, gold and silver are
exported to neighbouring countries. The country is a member
of the British Commonwealth and the head of state is Queen
Elizabeth II, her role being purely symbolic. Executive power is
in the hands of the prime minister, whilst legislative power lies
with the National Parliament, which has 109 elected members.
THE HISTORY
The island state of Papua New Guinea is located to the north
of Australia and includes the east section of the island of New
Guinea, with the west section, the region of Irian Jaya, belonging
to Indonesia. Papua New Guinea includes numerous islands
and coral islands in the Pacific Ocean, as well as the island
groups of New Ireland, New Britain, the Admiralty Islands, the
Solomon Islands and the Bismarck Archipelago. Many of these
are volcanic.
The country covers an area of 462,840 square kilometres and,
along with the east section, is the world’s second largest island
after Greenland and perhaps also the highest, with mountain
ranges over 5,000 metres in altitude. The island was created
by the crashing together of the tectonic plates of Eurasia and
Australia. Approximately 80% of the hinterland is covered by
tropical forests, with equatorial vegetation. In the country’s
almost virgin natural environment countless species of flora
and fauna find a refuge, both Asian and Australian in origin as
well as endemic species, the catalogue of which is constantly
growing as there are many regions that are still being explored
or remain completely unexplored. The island also has the
world’s richest bird fauna, with over 700 species and almost all
the known species of birds of paradise (of the 42 species in the
world, the island has 38), as well as the largest variety of orchids
in the world.
The climate and the particular geology of New Guinea as
well as the minimal human intervention into the environment
have contributed to the development of one of the world’s most
important ecosystems, with a huge biodiversity: almost 19%
of the world’s species of flora and fauna find refuge on the
island. As might be expected, the country remains unexplored
to a great extent, both from a natural and a cultural perspective.
It is considered a paradise for botanists, zoologists and
12 13

anthropologists. Every so, often a new species of plant or animal
is discovered in the depths of the New Guinea jungle, or a
new social structure thousands of years old is located in some
unexplored mountain settlement, transporting researchers into
the past, literally into the object of their study.
We could say that the New Guinea hinterland is divided by
steep mountain ranges which cannot be reached by road, aside
from a few ad hoc footpaths created during the Second World
War. Only by flying, sailing or hiking can one approach these
parts. Despite the isolation, the broader area of the Highlands,
as they are known, and the central mountain valleys in
particular are the most fertile and densely-populated parts of
the country, aside, of course, from the few urban centres.
The country is crossed by a dense network of rivers, which
flow from the central mountain regions and discharge into
the Pacific coasts. The largest rivers are the Sepik in the north,
which crosses the country flowing in the direction of the
Bismarck Sea, the Fly in the south, which discharges in the Gulf
of Papua, and the Ramu. These rivers are for their greater parts
navigable, offering an important alternative route for accessing
the most central regions of the hinterland.
The climate is tropical, humid and warm, with an average
temperature of 28 degrees Celsius. At the higher altitudes the
climate is almost Equatorial Mountain, whilst rainfalls are heavy
and frequent everywhere.
The country has a population of approximately 6,000,000,
with only 17% of the total residing in the urban centres. Port
Moresby, the capital, is the most densely populated town, with
over 270,000 inhabitants, and the country’s largest port and its
international airport. Other large urban centres are Lae, with
approximately 115,000 inhabitants, and Madang, with 33,000
inhabitants on the northeast coasts. Demographically, it has a
rapidly rising population, relatively short life expectancy and
high birth rate.
There are low levels of production, serving primarily the
subsistence needs of the inhabitants and leaving little margin
for even limited exports. The main crops are coffee, cocoa,
papaya, coconuts, rubber, etc. Even so, despite the country’s
very low GDP and its minimal per capita income (only 1,294
US dollars), Papua New Guinea has an incredibly rich subsoil
with significant deposits of resources, such as gold, natural
gas, cobalt, oil, silver, copper, etc. Of these, gold and silver are
exported to neighbouring countries.
The country is a member of the British Commonwealth and
the head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, her role being purely
symbolic. Executive power is in the hands of the prime minister,
whilst legislative power lies with the National Parliament, which
has 109 elected members.
Dimitra Stasinopoulou
Athens, September 2011
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Asia Transpacific Journeys, information leaflet, 2009
Beck, Howard. Papua New Guinea, Tales from a Wild Island, London: Robert
Hale, 2009
Busse, Mark, Susan Turner and Nick Araho, The People of Lake Kutubu and
Kikori, Changing Meanings of Daily Life, New Guinea: National Museum of
Papua New Guinea, 1993
Corazza, Iago and Greta Ropa, The Last Men, Journey among the tribes of New
Guinea, Vercelli: Whitestar Publishers, 2008
Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs and Steel, New York: Norton Press, 1997
Gascoigne, Ingrid. Papua New Guinea, Cultures of the World, New York:
Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, 2010
Gewertz, Deborah. Sepik River Societies, New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1983
Levi-Strauss, Claude. Myth and Meaning, U.K., Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978
McKinnon, Rowan, Jean-Bernard Carillet and Dean Starnes, Papua New Guinea
& Solomon Islands, Lonely Planet, 2008
Noakes, Suzanne (ed.), Island in the Clouds, collection of articles
on New Guinea
Sullivan, Nancy. A Brief Introduction to the History, Culture and Ecology of
Papua New Guinea, information leaflet by Trans Niugini Tours
14 15

THE HIGHLANDS
The Tari region and the Huli tribe
The best-known of the Highland tribes is the Huli, in the region of Tari, which is surrounded
by verdant valleys squeezed into limestone peaks with scattered rushing waterfalls and dense
forests, where one can meet most of the species of the birds of paradise. The Huli tribe
numbers approximately 80,000 members. They are usually short and muscular with a strong
and proud personality, and they often act altruistically for the common good, despite their
individualism. They have a clear awareness of both their history and culture, as can be seen
in their knowledge of their genealogical trees and of their traditions. They believe that they
descend from an ancient ancestor known as Huli, The Son of the Forest Spirits and the first,
according to tradition, farmer in the region.
The status of leader is not handed down; one becomes socially powerful through their
military qualities, the wealth they have collected and their skills as a mediator in solving
tribal differences. The Huli are certainly not a peaceful tribe. They live constantly at war, with
many small local disputes that are often unrelated, as the causes are almost always personal
disagreements and not some traditional enmity with another tribe. They fight primarily for
three reasons: land, pigs and women, and in that order. Other main characteristics of the Huli
are the unusual relationship between the two sexes and the extensive practice of magic in
religious life. As for the women, because of their great power to create life, they are considered
by the men of the tribe to be a permanent threat to their masculinity. The use of magic is
particularly widespread as the Huli religion is clearly animistic, being founded on the belief
in the existence of spirits that animate every manifestation of the natural world. For the Huli,
everything has a soul: the forest, the mountain, the river, the sun and the animals, and all are
potential spiritual entities that require supplication, worship and appeasement.
Youths are separated from their mothers and gradually from every woman for a period of
isolation that lasts from one-and-a half to three years. During this period they live isolated
from female company, purging themselves of every female “essence” and growing their hair.
At the end of this purging period they cut their long and well-cared hair and make their
famous wigs, for which the Huli have become known as the “Wigmen”. During this period
it is forbidden to sleep with their heads touching the ground and they are obliged to drizzle
magic water over their heads every day, expelling the bad spirits. These wigs are adorned
with the plumes of birds of paradise and signify self-denial and catharsis as characteristics of
masculinity. After this purging the young man is ready to handle the “threat” of coupling and
the responsibilities of marriage.
Nonetheless, the Huli, despite their superstitious beliefs, do not hesitate in resorting to
western medicine when suffering from a serious illness. In the Tari region I had the opportunity
to visit a Doctors without Borders clinic: dozens of helpless and seriously ill people were
patiently waiting their turn to receive medical care in one of the ad hoc clinics that had been
set up, without losing the smile from their faces. Malaria, Aids and tuberculosis can count
many victims here, and the doctors work truly selflessly against these illnesses, in absolutely
primitive conditions.
Drizzling ‘magic’ water Wig maker Tari School Inside a school class The tribe doctor
Working in the fields
Basket weaving, Tari Naive paintings Hunter in Mt Hagen Medecins Sans Frontieres

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THE RIVER SEPIK
No one knows with any certainty what the meaning of the word Sepik is, although it is claimed that it
means “Large River”, something that is certainly believable when you first set eyes on this imposing river
with its length of 1,125 kilometres. The country’s most stunning natural landscape unfolds around this
huge mass of water, which flows from the Victor Emmanuel mountain range in the central Highlands.
Tropical forests, cultivable mountain ranges, verdant mountains and marshy wetlands alternate along
the length of the Sepik, home to the island’s greatest variety of flora and fauna as well as some of its most
interesting tribes. The most isolated settlements remain almost untouched by Western influence.
The Sepik is the island’s largest river and one of the largest river systems in the world. Like the Amazon,
it is serpentine in shape, and discharges into the Bismarck Sea without forming a delta. The river is
navigable for the greatest part and serves the travel and transport needs of its people. It is, however, a
hydrological system that is ceaselessly adapting, changing its flow and creating new basins; the tribes that
live along its banks are often forced to relocate so as to follow its new direction.
Over 250 different linguistic groups live in this region. Each settlement also comprises an autonomous
“ethnic” group, even though many of the villages are linked either by tribal or trade relations. It is perhaps
to these extensive transactions between the Sepik tribes – aided by navigation along the river – that we
can ascribe the increased need of the people here to preserve their cultural independence, their particular
history, language, folk art and mythology. All these tribes consider their oral traditions, which have been
handed down from generation to generation for thousands of years, to be of the utmost importance. The
first contact that these tribes had with Europeans was in 1885, during German exploration of this region
when it was a part of German New Guinea.
Although many settlements are self-sufficient, trade is a basic part of economic life. Each tribe has a
unique product that it exchanges for the unique products of the other tribes (I should mention here that
women are also among the “goods” that are exchanged between the villages). The diet is based on saksak,
a type of flour that is produced by the pith of the sago palm tree that flourishes in the region. Although
flour is an exclusively starchy food, for the inhabitants of the area, it provides a dependable nutritional
solution and without requiring any farming. Their diet is occasionally supplemented with fish, game and
some garden vegetables which they grow during the dry season as the heavy rainfall throughout the rest
of the year prohibits almost all other types of crops. This stability in the supply of living necessities is
considered by many to be a main factor in the noteworthy development of arts in the Sepik region. The
famous sculptures are indissolubly linked with life along the Sepik. With tradition a powerful factor in
their understanding of the world and, by extension, their aesthetics, the tribes of the Sepik incorporate
new elements into tradition, adapting their daily life to new needs that may arise.
Each village has a ritual space – the Haus Tambaran or Spirit House (House of the Ancestors Spirits) –
which is adorned with a plethora of masks, reliefs, sculptures of female figures with exaggerated fertility
symbols and paintings of local myths, oral traditions and religious customs. Many rituals are held in the
Spirit House and the preparations prior to their performance are sacred for the inhabitants. The building
itself is imposing: it is usually made from bamboo with a straw roof and often reaches a height of 25
metres, dominating the whole region around the hamlet and the surrounding forest. Traditionally only
Sepik warriors were permitted to step over the threshold of such a sacred space, and the punishment for
violating this rule was death. This is where the coming-of-age rites for young men are held, during which
the form of a crocodile is cut into their skin as a symbol of their masculine strength. The wounds are then
covered in mud to avoid any infections.
The celebrated art of the Sepik is believed by specialist scholars to be of particular importance, not
simply because of its intricate style and great beauty but also for its cultural meaning. Primarily religious
in its significance, this art still today has a leading position in the religious life of the river tribes. In their
belief system, the spirits of the dead ancestors continue to participate in the social life of the community.
And as living entities, they get angry, are satisfied, give help and seek revenge. The priest-magicians are
often required to perform sacrifices in order to appease them or to attain their assistance for a successful
harvest, fishing trip or battle.
Christian church, Sepik Protective sheats for men’s House interior, Sepik Spirit House Preparing saksak flour
Women of a Sepik tribe
Rainforest, Sepik Initiation procedure Sepik river Wooden masks, Sepik
genital organs

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THE HIGHLANDS
Mount Hagen Sing-sing Annual Cultural Festival
Arriving at the capital of Port Moresby I then travelled by air to Mount Hagen, the commercial
and administrative capital of the Western Highlands. Here, at an altitude of approximately 1,500
metres in the beautiful Waghi valley, is the first settlement that came into contact with the Western
world and which was incorporated into the international community in 1930. I should note here
that all my journeys within New Guinea were done by sea or in small aircrafts, as there is as yet no
decent road network. The country’s capital is not connected by road to any other town or village;
all roads end at its outskirts thus creating a profound feeling of exclusion as well as anticipation for
what exists out there.
The small single-engine plane had only eight places and the seats of an old bus. It flew over
the dense vegetation of New Guinea at a low altitude, offering an impressive view of the jungle
and the never-ending mountain ranges. But, some strange sounds that could be heard from all
around, the age of the pilot, who was no older than twenty five and the news that a similar aircraft
had fallen a few hours earlier with the loss of twelve lives, made me fell unsafe, especially when
the young pilot attempted to assure me that I had nothing to be frightened of as our plane was
“very strong” and had not had any serious breakdowns since 1970! I thought to myself that since
this festival is considered one of the 1000 places to see before you die then it was worth the risk. In
the end everything went fine, on this flight and on the many subsequent flights. I really did enjoy
the unique experience of the small airports, the conversations with the pilots without any barrier
between us as well as the landings on the small muddy airstrips where the natives welcomed us
enthusiastically. Because technology is unfamiliar to them they are still impressed by aeroplanes
and helicopters, and treat them with a sense of awe and wonder, representing them as birds or fish
with a marvellous colourful polyphony. One cannot but be moved by the way in which they paint
them in their folk art, by the unbelievable innocence and childish surprise that impregnate their
every colourful image.
It is very difficult for one to describe the intensity of the great annual festival: Thousands of
representatives from over 150 tribes from every corner of the island gather for a stunning event
in which intense colour, flamboyant costumes, esoteric dances and their percussion music play
the lead roles. The tickets for entering the festival site are exorbitant, unattainable for most of the
population, which is obliged to remain on the other side of the event walls. Only tourists and a
few important members of the local society are permitted to watch the Sing-sing, this multiethnic
carnival, this impressive display, from up close. The warriors pay particular attention to how they
paint their faces in the special colours and motifs of each tribe. Delicate, precise lines are drawn on
the skin with thin sticks of wood which they use like a painter’s brush. Every action here takes on a
ritual character and is performed slowly and very carefully. The colours are made from plant pollen
mixed with water or saliva and each warrior paints his own face except for the final brushstrokes,
which are done by a fellow warrior.
Finally, the insertion of colourful plumes into their caps is for the residents of the Highlands
a true art form. Each tribe associates qualities such as bravery, dedication, perceptiveness, etc.
with specific birds, the plumes of which are used as decoration, thus extolling and, to a degree,
appropriating these qualities. All these colourful masses, adorned with the plumes of birds of
paradise and shells from the Pacific Ocean, the faces painted in yellow or red, the pagan masks, the
weapons that clank threateningly and the war cries, fill the festival space so suffocating, right to the
edges, that you imagine there will be an explosion of civilisation and history.
In reality, the event was begun by the first Australian colonialists in their attempt to limit the
permanent conflicts between the tribes, giving them the opportunity to meet within a peaceful
context of rivalry and gentle competition. Soon thousands of participants began to compete
annually for cash prizes. Until recently, and despite the wishful thinking of the organisers, the
Member of the Huli tribe
Sing-sing festival Women of Asamuga tribe Head decoration with one leaf
Face painting
Mud men dancing
Local airport
Αναπαράσταση κηδείας

THE HIGHLANDS
Mount Hagen Sing-sing Annual Cultural Festival
event functioned less as a peaceful intervention and more as an opportunity for further conflict as
the representatives of the Huli, with their ornamental costumes, colourful faces and dramatic war
dance almost always won the competition’s cash prize, outraging the other tribes. This problem
was resolved a few years ago when the organisers decided that the prize would be equally shared
amongst all the participants. Nonetheless, the winners continue to enjoy the respect of all and an
increase in the esteem of their tribe.
During the festival I saw almost all the tribes of the Papua in their official costumes, their disguises
or their war dress. It would be impossible for me to describe them all here. Among them, I surely
admired the Asaro, or Mudmen with their frightening “mud” masks who had once, according to
the myth, by chance covered their bodies with mud from the River Asaro during a battle and in
this way frightened their enemies so much that, thinking them to be forest spirits, they fled. They
later made these frightening masks so that they would not need to cover their faces with river mud,
which they believed to be poisonous. Solely a warrior tribe, all their dances represent battles.
Moreover, the women of the Asamuga tribe are among the most impressive figures at the sing-sing.
The large shells, the so-called kina, are believed to protect them from danger, whilst the wonderful
feathers in their hair declare their social status and their husband’s power. All these tribes and many
more, groups of people dressed uniformly in their tribal costumes, were singing, dancing and also
performing ritual reconstructions: I shall never forget the gruesome reconstruction of a funeral during
which the women covered their bodies with clay as a sign of mourning whilst the coffin contained the
dead body of a small boy, wrapped in moss.
The spectacle is difficult to describe – wherever I turned my head there was something new to
see. And it was truly a unique feeling to know that what was happening in front of my eyes was not a
museum piece, nor was it the revival of some forgotten tradition, a picturesque recreation to entertain
tourists; the Papua often dress in this way even today and many tribes continue to perform the same
mystery rituals prior to battle. They even wear their shells to indicate their wealth and social class, and
bequeath some of their jewellery as leadership emblems or markers of supernatural powers.
I was also impressed by the Skeleton Men of the Bugamo tribe, who paint the human skeleton
onto their bodies. This is still a daily practice, before a hunt or the battle that is today waged with
arrows and javelins. I enjoyed the impressive colourful Huli warriors, the tribe with the strange
wigs, the plumes of birds of paradise and the peculiar appearance, as well as the tribes of the River
Sepik and the various magical healers. Unique were the representatives of the Rakapos tribe, with
their large black hats which, in combination with their black painted faces, aiming at terrifying
into the enemy during the hour of battle. These hats are supported by a frame that the Rakapos
construct with grass, moss and tufts of their hair.
Mud men
Skeleton Μen Rakapos tribe Tribe head, Mt Hagen

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PACIFIC OCEAN
Madang and the surrounding islands
Madang is a province on the country’s north coast, with a length that reaches
approximately 300 kilometres and a width of 160 kilometres, one side facing onto
the Bismarck Sea, whilst in the hinterland are some of the island’s tallest peaks,
with tropical forests and verdant valleys. Many of the Bismarck Archipelago’s
smaller islands belong to this province, some of which are volcanic. The last
volcanic eruption was only in 2010.
Over its great territory the province is home to a significant number of Papua
tribes and for this reason a large linguistic diversity can also be found – over
200 languages are spoken here. The province’s capital is also called Madang, and
it is built around a picturesque port surrounded by imposing and inaccessible
mountains – “the most beautiful town of the Pacific Ocean,” according to many of
its visitors. Madang’s coastline, its tropical vegetation and its many parks certainly
distinguish it from the country’s other towns.
obliging the inhabitants even today to adorn their formal traditional costumes
with parrot plumes.
The first contact that the people of Madang had with the Western world came
in 1871. Certain areas, however, remained isolated and relatively untouched by
European influence. It is precisely for this reason, the distinctive terrain, that
there are great cultural differences between the various tribes. Even so, great
similarities can be seen with a tribe in another of the country’s provinces, namely
the riverside culture of the Ramu, which has developed along the river of the same
name, and the culture of the Sepik, as they have very similar art techniques and
relief sculpture styles.
For 6,000 years now sailors, primarily from the Taiwan region, have crossed the
Bismarck Sea and come ashore on the coasts of Madang, leaving their traces on the
Austronesian languages that are encountered in some of the coastal villages, dotted
in amongst the villages that speak the dialects of Papua New Guinea. This contact
with other people helped the coastal tribes of this region at least to develop trade
from ancient times: the goods they exchanged were pots, salt, stone axe blades,
shells, plumes from birds of paradise and carved wooden vessels. The plumes in
particular were thought to be of great value as they are quite rare in Madang, thus
Cocoa pod
Madang port Cassowary bird Small Pacific island Playing in the ocean
Coast in the Pacific
Tropical forest Madang village Port Moresby museum Islands in the Pacific

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