Category: Uncategorized

Off the eastern tip of Papua New Guinea, scattered across the Solomon Sea, lie the islands of Milne Bay Province: the Trobriands, the Amphletts, Woodlark, and the volcanic cones of the D’Entrecasteaux group. For centuries the peoples of these islands have been bound together by one of the most studied and misunderstood institutions in the…

Walk through any market in Papua New Guinea, from the highland towns of Mount Hagen and Goroka to the coastal streets of Lae and Port Moresby, and you will see the bilum everywhere. It hangs from the shoulders of schoolchildren, holds garden produce on the backs of women returning from the fields, cradles sleeping infants…

Cutting across the Owen Stanley Range of Papua New Guinea, the Kokoda Track is a narrow footpath roughly ninety-six kilometers long that links the village of Kokoda on the northern side of the mountains with Owers’ Corner, not far from Port Moresby, on the southern side. It climbs and descends through some of the most…

In the cool, high valleys of Papua New Guinea’s central mountains, coffee grows on tens of thousands of small family plots. It is not usually grown on vast estates but in the gardens and hillsides of ordinary rural households, a few hundred trees here, a small block there, tended alongside the sweet potato and vegetables…

Few social structures shape daily life in Papua New Guinea as deeply as the wantok system. The word “wantok” comes from Tok Pisin, the country’s most widely spoken lingua franca, and literally means “one talk” or “one language.” In practice it describes a web of obligations and loyalties that binds people who share a common…

Each September, the cool mountain town of Goroka in Papua New Guinea’s Eastern Highlands Province transforms into one of the most visually overwhelming cultural gatherings on earth. The Goroka Show, a sing-sing that brings together more than a hundred tribal groups, is a celebration of identity, artistry, and endurance that has grown from a colonial-era…

In a country where more than 800 languages are spoken, the question of how anyone communicates across communities is far from trivial. The answer, increasingly, is Tok Pisin. This vibrant creole language has grown from humble and even painful colonial origins into one of the most important unifying forces in Papua New Guinea, spoken by…

The official currency of Papua New Guinea is the kina, and the smaller unit is the toea. To a casual observer these are simply the names on banknotes and coins, but the choice of those names tells a deeper story about how value, exchange, and wealth have been understood across the country for centuries. Long…

No creature is more closely associated with Papua New Guinea than the bird of paradise. Its image graces the national flag, the currency, the national airline, and countless cultural performances. Yet beyond its role as a symbol, the bird of paradise is a genuine marvel of the natural world, the product of millions of years…

Off the eastern coast of Papua New Guinea lie the Trobriand Islands, a small archipelago that has captured the imagination of anthropologists and travellers for more than a century. Famous for their matrilineal society, their intricate exchange systems, and their vivid festivals, the Trobriands offer a window into a way of life where yams are…