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Papua New Guinea is a remote and rugged country that was untouched by foreign influences for a very long time. Its jungle-clad mountains and wild river valleys are home to one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse populations in the world. For a long time, outsiders thought the Highlands region was unpopulated, and international […]

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The grassy fields outside the Mt Hagen Showgrounds were dotted with clumps of people gathered around jars of body paint and suitcases full of precious feathers. In the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea, the annual Mt Hagen Cultural Show was soon to start, and tribal performers from all over the neighbouring Highlands provinces – […]

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In communities without a written language, culture is passed down through the oral traditions of art, story-telling, music, and dance. Even architecture and weaponry can signify meaning. In Papua New Guinea, there are more than more than 850 discrete spoken languages, and until recently, none of them were written down. Even today, adult literacy sits […]

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I don’t know how many of Papua New Guinea’s more than 7000 different cultural groups live in the wide, fertile valleys and surrounding mountainous jungles of the Highlands in the country’s interior, but there are a lot! The Highlands were first populated about 50,000 years ago by nomadic foragers. By 10,000 years ago, people were […]

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