Learn about the Goroka Sing Sing, which is one of the world’s most colorful festivals and an excellent opportunity to meet people from Papua New Guinea.
Tribal pictures of humans of Papua New Guinea – 15 years on my bucket list
I first heard about the Goroka Festival (Goroka Sing Sing) about 15 years ago. All I knew was that there was a city called Goroka in PNG, where once every year, various ethnic groups came together to sing and dance with each other. They all congregated in their own, extremely colorful, special and for us, exotic national Papua New Guinea costume: with yellow, black and white face paintings, colorful feathers, leaves, pig tusks and pearls, and in some cases, even penis cuffs! As I have always loved portrait photography, especially tribal pictures, I researched the festival on the internet and what I found was beyond imagination. I could not imagine a more colorful event, so the Goroka festival moved to first place on my bucket list.
I searched the internet year after year, seeking travel opportunities. I also learnt about similar festivals (or as they call them “Sing Sings”) held in the country. But the most colorful one is the three-day festival in Goroka, which always takes place around 16 September that is, PNG’s Independence Day. This is the ultimate event to meet and photograph many Papua New Guinea tribes.
During my internet search it became clear that getting to these festivals alone is a pretty hard thing to do, and only unknown small businesses organized trips there. As Papua New Guinea is a pretty expensive destination, I was afraid to risk a solo trip. Finally, at the end of 2011, the long awaited day arrived, when my favorite UK travel agency, Explore, advertised a trip to the country. It was not only me who considered this a breakthrough – the well-known Wanderlust magazine ranked the tour number 1 on their list of ‘The 50 best travels in 2012‘. Therefore our group was the first in Explore’s history to discover this unique destination.
At the end of the world
Papua New Guinea only has around a few thousand visitors per year, and the majority of them are guest workers or missionaries. The country is extremely rich in mineral resources – oil, natural gas, gold, platina and copper – and their mining has been done by various foreign companies. In order to serve these companies, a few large hotels have been built, however, their pricing reflects the fact that guest workers’ costs are paid by their employers. A simple, in our understanding, 2-3 star room can cost 200-300 US dollars per night, and there are no cheap guest houses or motels. Restaurants barely exist too – locals eat at home, hotel guests eat at their hotel.
During the two week trip, I could not work out if people do not come here due to the poor infrastructure, or whether the lack of infrastructure explained the few tourists. Either way, the country is full of spectacles: romantic rivers to sail, special rural traditions, rich flora and fauna (especially in terms of birds and butterflies), plus volcanoes and amazing diving centers. The only hard thing is to reach these places. Roads are rare; we mostly got around by planes and ships.
From Budapest it took a day and a half to get to Papua New Guinea, on an itinerary of Budapest – Paris – Singapore – Port Moresby. We met at the airport, where all 16 group members successfully arrived. The group was very diverse: we came from eight different countries from Bulgaria to Canada, and there were eight men and eight women. Our tour guide was an experienced English guide living in Laos, however, this was his first trip to Papua New Guinea too. We were all deadly tired after the one and a half to two days of travelling, but we were also extremely curious and looking forward to the adventures of the following two weeks. Luckily, everyone’s luggage arrived – it would have been a big problem if not, as we almost immediately flew out to another remote part of the country – Wewak, in the north-western part of the country.
Canoeing in the swamp
We spent the first one third of the trip at the moorland, along the 1126 kilometer long river Sepik. For a few days we travelled in canoes made from trunks, in which braided reed chairs were placed for us by our boatmen – it was a surreal but comfortable setup. The boats were open, so we experienced rain and burning sun as well. We visited villages, listened to birds in the rain forest, and at night we slept in wooden cottages built on piles. Our food was made by the boatmen – it was not a gourmet experience but we were not that hungry.
The Sepik is not only a river, but a living art museum as well. All forms of art – from carved masks to decorated boats and houses – serve ritual purposes. By far the most interesting of these is the initiation ceremony that we were extremely lucky to witness.
Initiation ceremony
There is a long tradition in this part of the country to apply tattoos on the bodies of young men. The patterns change from village to village, but the most popular are the crocodile skin scars created during painful initiation ceremonies. It is easy to understand why: people usually respect those animals that they are the most afraid of and in this river, crocodiles are the most dangerous animal species.
The scarification ritual has huge significance. It turns a boy into a man, who has the right to visit the “house of soul”, the spiritual centers of the villages. Although the initiation is not mandatory, one will never become a full member of the society if he chickens out. The ceremony itself is extremely painful. As young candidates support each other during the day, lifelong ties are born.
We were camping in our stilt houses and our boatmen prepared our dinner, when the sound of loud drums broke the silence across the river. It turned out, dancers were practicing for an initaiation ceremony next day. After some negotiations it was agreed, that despite traditional rules saying women are not allowed to enter the house of spirits, we could observe the ceremony for the payment of two pigs.
Cruel and touching moments
We all got up early the next morning to row across the river and stood rooted while watching the dancers. Women and children were not present, but male members of the family could support the give young candidates. They were munching on some plants, probably some sort of narcotic. The ceremony started with a ritual bath, then the musicians gave a sign to start. Each young boy was seated on an upside down canoe with their own tattoo-master. The pattern was drawn with a razor blade for 1.5-2 hours and must have been terribly painful.
The stunned boys were then escorted to the river to wash off the blood. In the cold water they regained consciousness and were loudly screaming – a sound I will never forget. Later coconut oil was applied on their skin and they were seated around a fire, to allow the smoke to heal the wounds. Over the next few days, the pattern would be rubbed with mud to allow a small infection, which helps to create the spectacular crocodile skin scars (or keloids).
As an outsider, it was hard to decide whether the ceremony is cruel or touching. It was surely grievous, but members of the village showed an incredible support to each other and we witnessed a rare example of close-knit ties within a community.
Ghetto in the capital
From the moorland we flew back to the capital city, where we had to wait a few hours for the next flight. Taking advantage of this, we quickly went to the city by bus. However, what we saw was extremely shocking after the calm, peaceful, friendly rural life. Banks, embassies, and foreign people’s houses were encircled with multiple barbed wires and protected by armed security, while locals lived in eroded ghettos. Port Moresby mostly resembles South-Africa at worst. Many teenage boys come to the capital city to find jobs but as there are only a few, they almost automatically end up as criminals. The fastest growing industry in PNG is security service, as all foreign interests badly require this. So we also travelled with an armed security man while visiting the National Museum and the Parliament.
Volcanoes and earthquakes
For the second third of the tour, our base was a pretty good seaside hotel with a swimming pool. We visited the nearby islands and seaside towns from there, but this time by motorboats.
The nearby town of Rabaul was buried by a volcano with 6 meter high ash in 1994. Luckily, no one died as warning came in time. It was still very strange to walk on this moonlike place, knowing that deep down, a whole town lay under our feet.
As the country lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire, earthquakes are common. We also visited an institute where earth tremors are constantly monitored using tools set up in different parts of the country.
We spent one day at the nearby island of Matupit, where locals had been preparing for our visit for weeks in advance. Though visitors had been on the island before us, they were mostly huge cruise ships’ passengers rushing there for one or two hours who only stopped to take photos. The purpose of our visit was a kind of cultural exchange, to understand the island’s history and its inhabitants as well as to tell them about our own culture. The whole village took part in the activities: before our arrival men made benches and blinds, students learned songs, women showed us some traditional activities like how to make reed mats and string of shells. We chatted for hours and it seemed that they enjoyed this day as much as we did, as we got a tremendous amount of hugs and kisses when we left.
The Mecca for portrait photographers
The highlight, the festival, was at the end of the trip. The Goroka Sing Sing has been organized since the mid-1950s. The three-day show attracts singing and dancing groups from all over the country, who proudly wear their traditional costume. PNG is one of the least urban countries of the world: only 18 percent of the population lives in cities. The country also boasts a unique world record: the most languages within a country, namely 840 spoken here (one-eighth of the world’s total languages). Adding that it is one of the least discovered country both in geographical and anthropological terms, it is easy to see why it is such a fascinating terrain to observe the various tribes.
The event is held on a huge grass field where participating groups march in organized lines (like at the opening and closing ceremony of the Olympic Games), and happily show their dances. The amazingly colorful costumes and pearl necklaces are worn from generation to generation, meaning that luckily they do not have to kill the country’s iconic birds from year to year.
We took tons of photographs – for our own joy and also because they stood in lines before our cameras: people of the country love if they are being photographed. As compared to thousands of natives there were only about twenty tourists, so our presence was not disturbing. They organize this festival for their own entertaining, primarily for traditional purposes, not for tourists. We only shared their joy.