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There are always dilemmas around preserving age-old cultural traditions. One of the difficulties in safeguarding the unique practices and languages of the many tribal groups in Papua News Guinea is that their ritual dress relies heavily on indigenous birds, plants, and animals. In times past, the people living in small, relatively isolated clusters in the Papua […]

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What better way to conquer your fears than by facing and embodying them? The Bugamo Tribe – one of the more than a thousand cultural groups that exist in Papua New Guinea – live in Chimbu (Simbu) Province, high in the mountainous central highlands. Completely unknown to outsiders until the mid-1900s, elders tell stories about their […]

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They are as colourful and distinctive as the birds of paradise that live high in the jungle tree-tops. Today, the iconic Huli Wig Men of Hela Province in the Southern Highlands are immediately recognisable from advertising campaigns promoting travel and sing sings (festivals of culture, music and dance) in Papua New Guinea. Less than 100 years ago, however, […]

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Papua New Guinea is a veritable pastiche of colours and customs, jungle noises and music, tribal warfare and elaborately costumed dance. Creation myths abound, wending their way through oral history and everyday life, so that ancient legends are transformed into marketing strategies, and no one can be sure any longer which is which. That is […]

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