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Woman with Greens
The smiles are as warm and welcoming as the vegetables are fresh! Wandering around the Mount Hagen Market is a joy.
Any regular visitor to these pages will know I love local markets.
I love the colour, the chaos, and the insight they give into people’s daily lives (see: Weekly Wanders Markets). So, I was very pleased to have the opportunity to visit the fresh food market in Mount Hagen.
We weren’t still supposed to be in Mount Hagen. I was in Papua New Guinea with a small group of photography enthusiasts and photographer Karl Grobl from Jim Cline Photo Tours. The annual Sing Sing Festival had finished the day before, and we were meant to be on an airplane back to Port Moresby, en route to Milne Bay. We had checked out of our hotel rooms early, and were on a minibus for the airport with our baggage when the word came through: our flight had been cancelled. The pilots were on strike.
But, that is the beauty of travelling with a small group and a local ‘fixer’: re-arranging plans is someone else’s problem! We were presented with a list of options, and chose to visit the market while our accommodation for the extra night was sorted out for us on our behalf.
It was a double-win: there is a market on the edge of town that we had driven past daily that looks as if it is knee-deep in mud, vegetable refuse, and half-wild pigs. I thought we were heading to that one. So, it was a real bonus when we pulled up outside the large hangar housing the clean and orederly Mount Hagen Market.
We were sent in with minders because the area is popular with pick pockets and raskols. But, the locals were warmly welcoming, and seemed fascinated that we’d want to photograph them and their wonderfully fresh-looking food.
Do join me!
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Oranges Outside
Even outside the covered hangar, fruit and vegetables are neatly stacked.
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Oranges
Oranges in tropical climates often have a little (or a lot!) of green in their peels: the chlorophyll dies off in cooler temperatures as the fruit ripens, but in warmer climates they can stay green, or turn green again. These will be sweet – with bright orange flesh.
Saleswoman in the Market
Inside the market, it is dark, but not much cooler.
Galangal
Everywhere you look, fresh foods are neatly bundled …
Carrots
… or stacked. You can hear the crunch …
More Galangal
… and smell the freshness!
Woman with Galangal
I love how the sales people are happy to pause in their work and smile for my camera – even though they know I’m not shopping.
Papuan Man at the Market
Young Papuan Woman
A Beautiful Smile
Tattoos
Many women wear inky-blue facial tattoos in patterns of lines and dots. As far as I could establish, they are purely aesthetic and hold no particular meaning.
Women with Cauliflower and Beans
Agriculture dominates Papua New Guinea’s rural economy, with more than five million rural dwellers earning a living from subsistence agriculture. Here in The Highlands, the rich soils are particularly kind.
Smiling Woman in Tattoos
More Carrots
Market Tables
Australian Hat
It always amazes me how people can wear woollen hats in the tropics!
Strawberry Stacks
Strawberries on a Stick
Cucumber Piles
Woman in a Colourful Hat
Woman and Market Bags
Woman in Green
Woman in a Headscarf
That smile is contagious!
Subsistence agriculture is the backbone of Papua New Guinea’s food production sector, giving employment to 85% of the population, and accounting for about a quarter of the national GDP. Although the country produces cash crops like coffee, cocoa, coconut and oil palm, markets like this one are just as important – both in terms of economic input, and in terms of social cohesion.
Certainly, this market is a joy to visit, and I left warmed by the smiles of the people working and shopping there.
Luckily, the raskols never found me!
Keep Smiling!
