Category Archives: Culture

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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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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Bali is real a treat for the visitor: the landscape is beautiful and harmonious, the food and coffee are delicious, and the people are friendly and welcoming. And, in spite of the number of tourists that stream into this tiny Indonesian vacation paradise, somehow the people of Bali have managed to preserve and cultivate their […]

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