Tribal Expressions: Preparing for the Mt Hagen Sing Sing, Papua New Guinea

Portrait: Black Mama Wurwur youngster in sing-sing paint and headdress, Mt Hagen Papua New Guinea

Black Mama Wur Wur Youngster
Papua New Guinea is home to an incredible diversity of tribal groups – each with their own customs, stories, dances, and costumes. Many of these are on display at the annual Mount Hagen Cultural Show.

The annual Mount Hagen Sing Sing brings out a mind-boggling array of unique tribal dance troupes.

Papua New Guinea has to be one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world! Although there are just over 7 million people (July 2020 est.) living on the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and the scattering of territorial islands across the Coral Sea and the South Pacific Ocean, these people represent over 7000 different cultural groups and speak 839 discrete indigenous languages. That’s about 12% of the world’s total!

It’s as if every small locality is its own cultural pocket with its own distinct form of dance, music, body paint, costume, weaponry, and storytelling. Around 100 of these distinctive tribal groups travel into Mount Hagen, high in the Wahgi Valley in central mainland Papua New Guinea, for the annual Sing Sing – a festival to share culture, dance and music.

When the Mount Hagen Cultural Show was first started in the early 1960s, it was very much a local affair, intended to preserve and share traditions and calm inter-tribal animosity. Today, the festival is pitched more at domestic and international tourist audiences, and there are prizes for the best performers. Entry ticket prices are high enough to shut out most locals, so they watch the performers as they dance through the streets to enter the grounds, or line up outside the fair grounds, with their noses pressed to the chain wire fencing.

I was in Mount Hagen with photographer Karl Grob l from Jim Cline Photo Tours. My fellow photo-tour participants and I were enjoying virtually unlimited access to groups as they prepared themselves and danced their way around and into the grounds (see: Western Highlands Women).

I would have like to have been able to communicate better and understand more about the actual stories behind the face paint and costumes. But, English is the third or fourth language for anyone who speaks it in the region, and my Tok Pisin, or “New Guinea Pidgin” is almost non-existent.

So, we’ll have to satisfy ourselves with a few portraits. Do join me!

Papuan couple under a rainbow umbrella, Mount Hagen, PNG

Couple with a Rainbow Umbrella
Outside the festival arena, vendors are seated on the ground with their wares on plastic. This man holds an areca nut in one hand, while asking me for a cigarette with the other. Tobacco is often mixed with areca for the betel chew that is ubiquitous across the country.

Western Highland Woman in Blue and White face paint, Mt Hagen, Papua New Guinea

Blue and White
All around the us, people are getting ready for their performances. The variations in the face-paint and costume styles are amazing. I’ve shared pictures of these women before (see: Women of the Western Highlands); I love their serious faces. The nets of moss and hair provide the base for the elaborate headdresses of feathers that will soon be painstakingly constructed.

Man and Child
Local people watch with interest as the performers get ready to file into the grounds. Corrugated iron is a regular feature in the buildings.

Penis Gourds
Penis sheaths, or koteka, were once commonly worn by men to cover their penises. Made from gourds, woven materials, or a combination of both, the versions for sale to tourists are often less roomy.

Old Uncle in a Hat
This old gentleman was selling traditional weapons …

The Pipe Seller
… while his neighbour was demonstrating his whistling pipes.

A Western Highland Dance Troupe
The sound of kundu drums and singing lets me know where the street leading to the show-grounds is.

Elimbari Culture Group
One by one, the groups make their way through the streets towards the entry gate …

Skirts Swirling
… with their grass and fibre skirts swirling …

Simbu Play Group “Tail Feathers”
… and their tail pieces swishing, as the kundu drums keep up a rhythm.

Men In Brown Feathers
Not all of the groups are sign-posted, and not all of the signposts are legible; …

Young Woman in Brown Feathers
… my guess based on the style of costume and face paint is that these are coastal or island people.

Young Woman in Feathers and Shells
I loved this young woman: her expression was as tender as the soft feathers in her hair.

Mother and Infant
A sing sing is a family affair: children are part of the action from their earliest days.

Koglat Mama
Every troupe has their own kundu (drum) rhythms as they dance their way towards the entry.

Women in Black and Green

Black Mama Wur Wur Woman

Child in an Islander Group
Many of the youngsters are solemn as they sing and dance with their elders.

Papuan Grass Skirts
Papua New Guinea includes numerous islands and miles of coastline; …

Hats and Skirts
… dance groups from these areas often incorporate large constructions as hats or props (see: Heal our Spirits).

Elaborate Islander Headdresses

Big Eyes

Islander Headdresses
These hats have their own stories to tell!

Face Painting
The preparation takes hours! A Western Highland man puts the finishing touches on a woman’s face paint before they enter the grounds (see: Women of the Western Highlands).

It wasn’t even noon yet; the temperature kept rising and the groups kept coming…