Search Results for: papua

“Yuorait?” “Yu stap gut?”  The calls of “How are you?” in Papua New Guinea’s Tok-Pisin were all around us when we stopped at a simple roadside stall just outside Maprik in East Sepik Province. The local people who were gathered in the canopied shade – selling their produce, gossiping and chewing betel –  seemed happy to see […]

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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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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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Birds are captivating creatures. With their diverse and colourful plumage, their wide-ranging shapes and behaviours, and the improbability of their flight, they are magical to watch. I’ve commented before that I have neither the patience nor the equipment to be a proper birdwatcher. But, watch them I do. Whether it is when I’m just sitting […]

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