Papua New Guinea: Land, Women and Pigs

Just back to Australia after our week-long adventure in Papua New Guinea, and happy to hear that Joey Chestnut continued his dominance in the annual July 4th Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest!

We are no worse for the wear, despite my one night of violent illness and consequent passing out. Luckily no serious injuries when I hit the floor like a sack of sweet potatoes (PNGers staple food). Only needed one day of recovery before I was able to rally!

Way too much info, and way too many photos, to share here, but I’ll try to relay at least some highlights of our experience….

First, to orient those of you who are not PNG experts (likely everybody), PNG comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, and at its closest point is less than 100 miles from the northeast corner of Australia. It is the 3rd largest island country in the world (behind Indonesia and Madagascar) and has the 3rd largest rainforest (behind Brazil and the Congo). Up until about 10,000 years ago (the end of the last Ice Age) it was connected to Australia by a land bridge so they share some common wildlife (like those damn elusive tree kangaroos!).

More recently, PNG was the site of some bitter battles in WWII between the Japanese and the Australians, as the Aussies sought to prevent a Japanese advance on the Australian mainland. The most famous of these occurred along the Kokoda Track (if you’re interested, read the book Kokoda by Peter Fitzsimmons, which describes the challenges the Aussies faced in some incredibly difficult terrain). Melanie and I initially considered hiking the Track during our visit (it’s 60 miles and usually takes about 8 days to complete due to the extremely difficult terrain), but were dissuaded from doing so due to the security situation along the Track. Maybe next trip.... PNG gained its independence from Australia in 1975.

That’s enough of a history lesson……

Today, PNG is an incredibly diverse and fascinating country - more than 800 languages are spoken there, and it is reported to be the most rural country in the world, with fewer than 15% of the population living in urban centers. The common language is Tok Pisin, a form of Pidgin English. Here are some examples:

•  What is your name? Wanem nem bilong yu?
•  Who are you? Yu whosait?
• Thank you very much! Tenk yu tru!

Unfortunately, PNG has suffered more than its share of troubles recently from inter-tribal violence, natural disasters and a 2 year Covid shutdown (during a week in the Highlands we only saw 5 other tourists). The U.S. State Department travel advisory suggests “Reconsider Travel to PNG due to crime, civil unrest and piracy”, and “Do Not Travel“ to Hela Province (where we spent most of the week) due to tribal violence (I confess that I didn’t see that warning until we were already in Hela - oops!). That being said, as the welcome brochure at the airport pointed out, these tribal conflicts are not aimed at foreigners, and we had no issues at all. I would not hesitate to recommend a trip to PNG to experienced and adventurous travelers (so long as the sight of groups of young men walking down the street with machetes doesn’t make you nervous)! NB: PLEASE DON’T SHARE THE PRECEDING PARAGRAPH WITH MY MOTHER!!!!!

We found all of the PNGers we encountered to be extremely friendly, usually calling out to us: “White Man”, and those with whom we were able to communicate actually seem to like Americans (pretty unusual these days).

PNG culture is just a bit different from Western culture, not least because polygamy is legal and widely practiced. In fact, wealth is measured by Land, Women and Pigs (in that order, as PNG men will tell you). When asked how a man justifies to his first wife his taking on additional wives, he says he tells his first wife: “You have too much work to do taking care of the gardens and the pigs. You need help.” Isn’t his magnanimity inspiring? 😜

A habit shared by many PNGers is chewing betel nuts, which contain a mild stimulant (it also turns your mouth and teeth red). They are usually chewed with a mustard stick and powdered lime, and are sold almost everywhere at roadside stands.   The locals thought it was a hoot when I decided to give it a try!

While most PNGers today wear Western-style clothing (way too many NY Yankees caps for our taste!), most still preserve their tribal traditions and dress for various rituals, ceremonies and festivals. We were fortunate to observe a number of these.  Just a couple of examples (I promise you we have dozens - if not hundreds - more pictures that we would be glad to bore you with when we return home in October):

The Huli Wigmen:  Unmarried Huli men prepare themselves for adulthood by entering a school for bachelors for 18 months - 3 years where they receive instruction on the biological and ritual process of masculinization.  During this time they are forbidden from physical contact with any female.  The Huli Wigmen believe that special magic and a restricted diet help build a boy into a man and make his hair grow strong and fast.  Under the guidance of the cult expert, the boy's hair is picked out and periodically splashed with ritual water until it is long enough.  Throughout this period the boy sleeps on a headrest that prevents his hair from being squashed.  After, the entire coif is clipped off close to the scalp and reformed to create the basis of a ceremonial wig.

The Melpa Mud Men:  Members of this tribe re-enact a traditional ritual of dressing in frightening masks made of mud to chase away the women of an enemy tribe that has taken possession of its lands

What we saw on the cultural part of our trip was not like anything we have seen on any of our other travels.  And we only scratched the surface....

Moving on, as I mentioned at the end of my last post, we were initially inspired to come to PNG not for the fabulous diversity of cultures, but for the birds - the Birds of Paradise to be specific.  

A small sampling of Melanie’s photos of some of these spectacular birds is below, but before I go there, let me say BIG PROPS to any birdwatchers (or “twitchers” as the Aussies call them) out there. And even BIGGER PROPS to anyone who even attempts to photograph them - which is at least an order of magnitude more difficult than just spotting them!  To be successful, you basically need the echolocation skills of a bat to figure out where the bird calls are coming from, the neck of an ostrich to stare up in the treetops above you for hours, the eyes of an owl to see the birds amongst the foliage, and the patience of a saint!

9 out of 10 times for us a spotting would be like some variation of the following:

E: Ooh, Ooh, I think I see a bird

Mel: Where?

E: In that tree

Mel: which tree?

E: the one over there

Mel: there are 5 trees over there

E: the one with all the branches

Mel: they all have branches

E:  Never mind, it flew away

Despite the challenges, Melanie was able to get photos of a number of different Birds of Paradise, including:

The Superb Bird of Paradise, with its remarkable bright blue breast feathers:

The Blue Bird of Paradise:

The King of Saxony, with its distinctive head plumage:

The Ribbon-Tailed Astrapia:

As well as what I think were some other remarkable pics of birds that are not Birds of Paradise.  This was one of my favorites - The Sooty Owl:

Overall, I would say our week in PNG was among the biggest adventures we've had to date.  Melanie and I agree that given the opportunity we would definitely go back to explore more parts of the country.  But for now, we're headed to a conservation volunteering program for the next couple of weeks here in Australia.  Stay tuned for learning more about the Hairy-Nosed Wombat than you ever thought you wanted to know!