Mijts Blog

After the dawn arrival of the boats to open the mask festival, the activities moved to the local football oval. On the Wednesday afternoon I took the wife of Nick’s boss up there as the program said that the mud-men were performing at 1pm and I was keen to see them. It was an interesting afternoon – my companion, who is visiting from Japan for a few weeks, only spoke Japanese so we communicated mostly in sign language. It was hot, windy and dusty and no performers in sight!

We sat under a Coca Cola ‘tent’ for an hour and were rewarded for our patience – although not by the mudmen as they were a no show that day. However, from 2pm onwards there were several performances by Tolai Tubuan groups – from six different villages.

After our long wait, some men and boys assembled by the ‘sacred men’s area’ (no females allowed in there) wearing red laplaps and carrying their traditional ‘man bags.’

They then sat together on the oval, chanting, singing, playing drums and clacking sticks ‘calling’ the performers and accompanying their dances. They sat in the hot sun doing this for a couple of hours!

There were a few Duk-Duk dances.

But most of the groups featured the ‘female’ Tubuan mask.

Whilst all similar, there was some variety in appearance across the groups.

They danced in pairs and there was great variety in the dance style of the different groups.

One group featured an action where they dropped to the ground and rolled. They were very flexible and agile and despite their masks and costumes were able to quickly get up and continue dancing again.

We really enjoyed these dances and I took HEAPS of photos – thank goodness for digital cameras!
Nick and I returned to the festival on Saturday morning and much to my joy we saw the mud-men – more about this in Part 3!

The Mask Festival was held here over four days of last week. We missed this festival last year as we were in USA for Ben’s wedding – so we were really looking forward to experiencing our first mask festival – and we weren’t disappointed!

A bit of history first:
The first National Mask festival was held in Port Moresby in 1995 as were the following three festivals. In 1999 the festival moved to Madang where it stayed for two years before it moved to East New Britain (ENB). This is the 16th year of the Mask festival with ENB hosting it for the 10th consecutive year. In 2001 the then Minister for Culture and Tourism declared ENB as the permanent home and the Festival has stayed here since.

The performing groups that have participated over the years have been varied, manifesting mask cultures of the respective Provinces. This is a result of the great diversity of mask culture which is found in PNG today.

For many years, the main features of the Festival have been the Tubuan performances and the Baining fire dancers of ENB. However, the groups coming from the other Provinces are also very interesting to watch and are quite spectacular in appearance.

The National Mask Festival is one of four annual National festivals which are funded and partly organised by the Cultural Commission.

The main purpose of these Festivals is to encourage the maintenance of traditional cultural forms by the people as ‘living cultures’ – in this case Mask Cultures.

The festival commenced with the arrival of boats at daybreak – these boats transporting Tolai Duk-Duks from local villages.

Some history for the local Tolai Duk-Duk (male) and Tubuan(female) masks:
The Duk-Duk is a revered god– part of a secret society, and part of the traditional culture of the Tolai people of the local area. The Duk-Duk society has religious and political as well as social objectives. Once women and children were forbidden to look at this figure – but traditions are more relaxed now.

The Duk-Duk society uses male Duk-Duk and female tubuan masks. Tubuan and Duk-Duk masks are made of barkcloth or mesh shaped over conical cane frameworks. Both have layered skirts of red and green leaves down to their knees. Tubuan masks are topped with tufts of feathers. The less important Duk-Duk are faceless, but taller and have elaborately carved openwork wood peaks.

Duk-Duk (Male mask)

Tubuan (Female Mask)

The society originally featured the Tubuan, accompanied by the Duk-Duks, acting as enforcers. They collected fines assessed against rule breakers and their relatives by the village elders. Traditional fines were paid with strings of shell money. Penalties for not paying up could include burning down an offender’s house. It would seem that the society is today much discredited and its practice has been dying out since around the start of the 20th century. However, the Tolai of Papua New Guinea generally regard the Duk-Duk and Tubuan masks as a prime symbol of their “traditional” culture. This is most clearly evidenced by the deployment of the Tubuan in “modern” settings, such as church celebrations, state functions, and tourism events where Duk-Duk and Tubuan dancers are often featured.

Until the festival and a bit of research on my part, I just called them all Duk-Duks – probably not uncommon these days! Although throughout the festival they were all referred to as Tubuans.

I have had these little model Tubuan (which I call Duk-Duks!) for some months and love them – so was really keen to see the ‘real thing’!

I bought the little mask during the festival – the detail on it is amazing!

We set the alarm for 4am last Wednesday so that we could drive out to a nearby beach to see the arrival of the Duk-Duks at daybreak. However, we didn’t need the alarm as one of the groups set off from a beach area just down from our house. Their drums and chanting woke us regularly from 2am until they set off around 5am.
When we got to the beach area we were amazed at the number of people waiting to see the boats arrive. Whilst this tradition/culture has somewhat changed over the years, it is still an important feature of the local Tolai community.

The breaking of day was spectacular!

You could hear the boats before you could see them – they came from two directions, ‘dancing’ their way along the water with much drum beating, singing and chanting! In the distance they looked like small islands moving along the water!

Some women stood along the water’s edge with white cloths to welcome the boats – as well as many older male members of these groups. There was much noise and obvious traditional routines before the Tubuan and Duk-Duks and accompanying male villagers came ashore.

The atmosphere was amazing!
Part 2 and 3 coming soon!!!

A couple of big shakes here last night. I was watching golf on TV around 11pm when the house started to shake and creak, things fell off shelves, not unusual – BUT when the fridge started to rock I ran to the bedroom to wake Nick to get out. He was already up and trying to quickly get some pants on when it stopped! The bed had rolled halfway across the floor and he was balanced on one leg, having trouble getting his pants on due to the shaking of the floor! Very funny. This was a 6.9 shake then another one hit at 11.30. It was 7.3 – that woke him too – same scenario!

Following is report from Google news:

Strong earthquakes strike off Papua New Guinea
Two strong earthquakes struck off the South Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea late Sunday, a U.S. monitor said. There were no immediate reports of casualty or damage.
The first quake, a magnitude 6.9, struck around 11 p.m. local time 325 miles (525 kilometers) northeast of the capital, Port Morseby. It struck 35 miles (57 kilometers) beneath the ocean floor, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The second, a magnitude 7.3, struck a half-hour later in the same area, at a depth of 31 miles (50 kilometers).
Indonesia issued a tsunami warning but lifted it soon after. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did not issue an alert.
The archipelago nation is part of the Pacific Ocean’s “ring of fire,” where earthquakes of this magnitude are relatively common.

Copied these details from the earthquake site:

Magnitude 6.9
Date-Time Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 11:04:13 PM at epicenter
Location 6.116°S, 150.522°E
Depth 57.5 km (35.7 miles)
Region NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Magnitude 7.3
Date-Time Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 11:35:02 PM at epicenter
Location 6.019°S, 150.497°E
Depth 57.6 km (35.8 miles)
Region NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Have to admit they got my heart racing – but gave us a good laugh this morning as I described to Nick what he looked like – trying to get his pants on!

Back soon with some great photos from the mask festival – just taking me a while to decide which ones!!

Last night we went to a dinner party – held at the house of a member of the local Chinese community. As usual we were offered a wonderful banquet of food and enjoyed a great variety of delicious dishes such as lobster salad, coconut battered prawns, fish, pork and beef didshes, spring rolls etc. The desserts were amazing and I loved the creme caramel that I had…….. BUT I WIMPED on the soup. I just could not bring myself to try the SNAKE AND TURTLE soup even though I was assured that it was good for my sex drive! Thank Goodness Nick didn’t have any either!

Garbage collection is a bit ‘hit and miss’ here! It is also very different to the automated garbage trucks they use at home. The company pays the local government authority to have our garbage collected once a week but it is rare for the truck to come weekly. It had been over two weeks since a collection and, as our bin was full, we had rubbish sitting everywhere. Usually someone in the neighbourhood goes down to the yard where the truck is kept and complains and we are always given a reason ‘truck gone bugger up’ (needs repairs), or no fuel this week (means can’t afford fuel!). However, they usually turn up in the next couple of days.

Finally the truck came this morning so I took a couple of photos. This is how it works – the truck stops and sounds its horn. The housemary runs out and takes the garbage out and puts it on the truck. The driver doesn’t get out. The passenger who is probably the supervisor will get out but will usually sit and watch or have a drink or chew buai (that’s him in the blue hat – sitting outside our fence)! Sometimes (as today) there is a third man who travels in the back of the truck and organises the rubbish! If nobody happens to hear the horn then they drive off without collecting – so the neighbours all watch out for each other and call when it arrives.

One time, soon after we arrived, there was no collection for several weeks and the very small plastic bin we had inherited was riddled with maggots – Stephanie called them ‘little snakes’ and was quite unconcerned that the children were playing with them. We soon morteined that problem and quickly invested in a bigger wheelie bin – the only one in our street! Actually, I have only seen a few of these in use.

Many of the locals don’t have bins at all but hang their rubbish in plastic bags on the fence. Some even have a purpose built ‘ledge’ to place it on (up high so the dogs won’t get it!) until it gets collected.

and others just hang it in a tree!!!

Last Saturday was Kayline’s second birthday and Toshi will turn 4 in a few weeks time. We will be in Australia when Toshi has his birthday so told Stephanie (our housemary – and their mother) that we’d fund a combined birthday party for them. We view Stephanie and the children as part of our PNG family and we are very fond of them all!

The party was held last Saturday on Kayline’s birthday. Stephanie did all the planning (she is a great organiser!)and we took her shopping at the market and a couple of tradestores. Nick paid and I crossed items off the list. Masses of food ingredients were purchased and we only bought lollies, balloons, party hats etc at my suggestion. I had previously asked Stephanie how many were attending – response ‘Not too many”, next question from me – ‘Maybe 15 or 20?’ – response ‘Yes!’ (with a smile). It was obvious by the food we purchased that we were feeding many more than this -but no worries! It quickly became apparent that this was not a children’s birthday party as we know it! It was a feast for the neighbours and villagers, children and adults alike! And boy do they know how to put on a feast!

Several girls from the village arrived early to help prepare the food

Some of ‘the boys’ came early too – but they typically just lazed around for about five hours until the food was on then they came in!

The birthday kids had new outfits (from the Chinese tradestore!)

Stephanie had a written program and there was a process to follow – obviously following local customs! Another village truck arrived, Nick’s Office staff turned up and the neighbours came until there was close to 100 people under our house – many more adults than children!

The food was put onto the tables (where it sat for an hour or so – they don’t mind eating it cold!)

Then Stephanie officially welcomed everyone (and asked me to do the same!)

Next everyone gathered around the cake and sang Happy Birthday – and May God Bless You (imagine that at an Aussie kids’ party!!!)

I’ll digress slightly here with a story about the cake – a local store has a bakery section and does cakes. I ordered one and requested just Happy Birthday and the kids’ names to be on it. When I went to collect it this is what it looked like (they obviously needed to fill the cake with writing!) – don’t you just love the ‘cheers’ at the end! I might add that the cake inside was three layers of VERY dark red, green and brown! One lady I know ordered a cake and on the order form where you had to write the message she wrote ‘No message’ – and that’s what was written on her cake – so I didn’t fare too badly!

After they sang Happy Birthday, there was the ‘presentation of gifts’ – everyone lined up (and it was a long line!) and little Kayline and Toshi shook hands with each person and said thank you – without being allowed to open any gifts yet – had to wait until the end of the day! – can’t see many children at home managing that!

Next, one of the elders from the village said a prayer before Kai Kai (food!) then the feasting began. The kids lined up

and plates were piled high with food! Even this little two and a half year old neighbour helped herself – and she ate that whole plate full! Many of the Nationals only eat breakfast and one main meal a day – often rice based.

After some time, there was the cutting of the cake

and my cupcakes were allowed to come downstairs – they were popular – and for many of them – never seen before!

The lollies and whistles were handed out and in line with tradition, Stephanie, as the hostess, had icing from the cake rubbed through her hair!

Nick and I had to leave late afternoon as we were going out to a curry night. We took plenty of photos so here are some more favourites!

I’m a sucker for those big brown eyes!!!

one of several favourite photos of the day! love that hair!

The funniest moment of the afternoon – I was taking a photo of Kayline and Toshi and went to straighten Kayline’s dress – she pushed my hand away and said ‘Heh!’. I then realised she had commandeered the bag of balloons and was hiding them in her pants. She then went over by the fence to finish the job!!! I love this little girl – so full of personality!

Kayline with her great uncle – one of the elder men of the village – typically wearing his laplap as most of the older folk do!

All in all – a very different kids’ party – but a great local experience for us!