PAPUA

THE HIGHLANDS
Mount Hagen Sing-sing Annual Cultural Festival
event functioned less as a peaceful intervention and more as an opportunity for further conflict as
the representatives of the Huli, with their ornamental costumes, colourful faces and dramatic war
dance almost always won the competition’s cash prize, outraging the other tribes. This problem
was resolved a few years ago when the organisers decided that the prize would be equally shared
amongst all the participants. Nonetheless, the winners continue to enjoy the respect of all and an
increase in the esteem of their tribe.
During the festival I saw almost all the tribes of the Papua in their official costumes, their disguises
or their war dress. It would be impossible for me to describe them all here. Among them, I surely
admired the Asaro, or Mudmen with their frightening “mud” masks who had once, according to
the myth, by chance covered their bodies with mud from the River Asaro during a battle and in
this way frightened their enemies so much that, thinking them to be forest spirits, they fled. They
later made these frightening masks so that they would not need to cover their faces with river mud,
which they believed to be poisonous. Solely a warrior tribe, all their dances represent battles.
Moreover, the women of the Asamuga tribe are among the most impressive figures at the sing-sing.
The large shells, the so-called kina, are believed to protect them from danger, whilst the wonderful
feathers in their hair declare their social status and their husband’s power. All these tribes and many
more, groups of people dressed uniformly in their tribal costumes, were singing, dancing and also
performing ritual reconstructions: I shall never forget the gruesome reconstruction of a funeral during
which the women covered their bodies with clay as a sign of mourning whilst the coffin contained the
dead body of a small boy, wrapped in moss.
The spectacle is difficult to describe – wherever I turned my head there was something new to
see. And it was truly a unique feeling to know that what was happening in front of my eyes was not a
museum piece, nor was it the revival of some forgotten tradition, a picturesque recreation to entertain
tourists; the Papua often dress in this way even today and many tribes continue to perform the same
mystery rituals prior to battle. They even wear their shells to indicate their wealth and social class, and
bequeath some of their jewellery as leadership emblems or markers of supernatural powers.
I was also impressed by the Skeleton Men of the Bugamo tribe, who paint the human skeleton
onto their bodies. This is still a daily practice, before a hunt or the battle that is today waged with
arrows and javelins. I enjoyed the impressive colourful Huli warriors, the tribe with the strange
wigs, the plumes of birds of paradise and the peculiar appearance, as well as the tribes of the River
Sepik and the various magical healers. Unique were the representatives of the Rakapos tribe, with
their large black hats which, in combination with their black painted faces, aiming at terrifying
into the enemy during the hour of battle. These hats are supported by a frame that the Rakapos
construct with grass, moss and tufts of their hair.
Mud men
Skeleton Μen Rakapos tribe Tribe head, Mt Hagen