LAND BEFORE TIME
Finding riches not of the material kind deep in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea—a place largely untouched by the passing of the years
From a window-fenced car, I see barbed wire. Everywhere. I also watch kids on the streets carrying machetes bigger than themselves. I have just landed in the deep mountainous interior of Papua New Guinea’s Southern Highlands, a place that has long been set at the very edge of my imagination. Riding on Thomas’s car—our local guide—we head from Tari town to Tari’s countryside in the centre of Huli country in Hela Province. I’m pretty aware of PNG’S reputation for being especially dangerous, overrun with gangs of hoodlums, and plagued with violence. But I’m also mindful that Papua New Guinea is, without doubt, among the most culturally intriguing frontiers left on the planet. I am traveling in a place that both frightens and excites me utterly—because it feels like the real thing.
The island of New Guinea, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean north of Australia and the world’s secondlargest island, is an incredibly long journey from anywhere—in many ways. Nineteenth-century colonial history divided it. The western half, formerly known as Irian Jaya, is split between West Papua and Papua and comes under the jurisdiction of Indonesia. Since 1975, the island’s eastern part, Papua New Guinea, has been independent after 60 years under Australian rule. And this is where I am, in a southern highland valley, Tari, which was one of the last places discovered by Western civilisation sometime in the 1930s.
PNG’S Highlands are a chain of mountain ranges and intermountain river valleys that support thriving agricultural communities. It’s abundant in mining and oil and gas reserves. Highlanders live in clans and are
IT'S HERE WHERE MORE THAN 200 LANGUAGES ARE SPOKEN AND WHERE THE HIGHEST CONCENTRATION TRIBES IN THE COUNTRY RESIDE
comprised of several different tribes scattered across the Highland plateau surrounded by impenetrable mountains.
It’s here where more than 200 languages are spoken and where the highest concentration of tribes in the country resides—tribes that have long kept little contact with each other. It’s also in these mountains where aggression is more prevalent, owing to the isolation of topography. I hear stories of cannibalism still running deep in this part of the world and that tribes fight mainly over three things: land, pigs, and women—in that order.
After a short drive from Tari town, we arrive at Lawanda village, which is home to the local Tura tribe. In this pocket of the Highlands, there are no hotels, but “village stay”. So we spend the following nights at the only available accommodation in the province, Thomas’s guesthouse, where my husband and I are the only foreigners. Later in the evening, after we join Thomas’s family for dinner, I notice all the females leaving to spend the night elsewhere. “The women sleep in a separate hut,” explains Thomas. “We can’t share a bedroom with any woman, even if they are our wives,” he goes on. “They bring us bad luck.”
In the early morning of the next day, we hike the nearby mountains. We go through deep gorges crisscrossed by vine bridges, where waterfalls plunge through the triple-canopy forest and we hear rare species of birds in the distance. We visit the surrounding villages and come across fortunetellers who use the skulls of their ancestors to foretell the future. Then, we meet the Huli wigmen—the largest tribe of the Highlands—who have lived in the Tari region for more than a thousand years.
“Huli traditions are as old as these hills,” says Thomas as we approach one of the central locations of the Wigmen. The Hulis are famous for growing ornamental wigs from their own hair as a ritual marking initiation into adulthood. “Young Huli boys from 15 to 25 years old enter the bachelor school for up to three years,” says the Wigmaster. “They come here to learn the processes of becoming a man and the fundamentals of Huli traditional costumes: from growing their hair to collecting feathers and making armbands. During this period, the boys are forbidden from contact
with any women, even their mothers,” he says. “We only accept virgin boys in the wig school.”
In the process of growing their own wigs, the boys must wet their hair with holy water three times a day to keep it soft. Certain types of food should also be avoided. They must also adopt a special sleeping position on a neck rest with a wooden bar that can be raised as the volume of the wig increases. As the hair grows, it is gradually shaped using a circular band of bamboo into a shape resembling a mushroom. After 18 months, the hair is cut away and woven into a traditional Huli wig by the Wigmaster. Additional adornments, such as parrot feathers or red ochre, are usually added to the wig. Some are for everyday use, while others are for ceremonies known as singsings.
As I talk to the Wigmen, with Thomas translating the conversation, I learn that the human-hair wigs are not only a critical symbol of strength for the Huli tribe, they are also an essential component of their culture and an element of resilience. “I enjoy it when I see that the boys from the bachelor school have finally learned what discipline is,” says the Wigmaster proudly. “It means they have become men.”
With their bright-yellow-painted faces, grass skirts and homemade drums, the Highlanders’ talent for personal decoration is obvious. Meanwhile, I’m aware of larger singsing gatherings held in Mount Hagen and Goroka, in Western and Eastern Highlands, where we find most of the travellers in PNG.
But in the end, it’s the remoteness that makes Papua New Guinea like nowhere else on Earth. And there is something in Tari that makes it feel real, like a land lost in time. In its isolation, I see value—not as an exotic spectacle to be watched, but in the culture it represents.
THE BOYS ARE FORBIDDEN FROM CONTACT WITH ANY WOMEN, EVEN THEIR MOTHERS, AND WE ONLY ACCEPT VIRGIN BOYS IN THE WIG SCHOOL
With a swish and a swoop, the two maestros tangle with each other in a whirling symphony as the orchestra plays the iconic “Libertango”. As the eighth annual “Tango in Paradise” is approaching, now is the perfect moment to put on your dancing shoes and dust off that figure-hugging dress. Internationally known as a unique tango festival aiming to combine and enhance the culture and tradition of two beloved countries, namely Indonesia and Argentina, this festival reflects the rising enthusiasm for the tango in the archipelago.
Held from November 21–24 in Hotel Kumala Pantai, Tango in Paradise is the perfect place to welcome tango enthusiasts from every part of the globe. Here, dance devotees can expand their networks by sharing their deep passion for the tango, hone their dancing skills at curated workshops, or simply feast their eyes on masterful performances from some of tango’s living legends, like Alejandra Mantinan, Fernando Carrasco, Gabriel Ponce, Analia Morales, Gaspar Godoy, Carla Mazolini, and Marcela Duran. Even more interesting is the collaboration between Bali’s traditional dances and the tango, which will open this year’s festival.
Furthermore, Tango in Paradise will show the participants’ deep desire to light up local children’s lives and improve their education by raising funds for the Bali Children Foundation as part of its yearly charity effort. Visit www.balitangoinparadise.com/tip/ for more information about accomodation, schedules, and much more.