Gems of the World: Madang, Papua, New Guinea

Sunday, February 27, 2011_____86 degrees 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Playing on dock when we arrived

Situated between Australia and Indonesia. We will be docked in town. Madang is known as one of the prettiest ports in the South Pacific. We will approach the port through the Dallman Pass. The town of Madang lies on the northwest side of Shering Peninsula and is the most naturally beautiful town in Papua, New Guinea. We berthed at Bode Point. A local band played on the dock for the duration of our stay.

There are few traditional homes in Madang now. In earlier times, men and women were housed separately. Homes with woven mat walls are still built on stilts inmost placed as a practical measure against drastic tides. The market is a busy place, but even with all the activity, flocks of flying foxes (bats) sleep in the trees above.

It is not unusual for visitors to Papua New Guinea to encounter a Sing Sing – a gathering of tribes or villages to show their distinct culture, dance and music. The villagers paint and decorate themselves. Kundas and garamut drums beat out dizzying rhythms in the sweet sticky heat. The vegetation surrounding you is on growth hormones – an over-productive superabundance of greenery. A remarkably untamed land, filled with mountain ranges, mighty rivers and stunning beaches, and 5 million people living much the way they have for thousands of years.

Due to changes caused by outside contact over the years, cultural loss has been great but isolation of many groups has caused that rate of change to be diversely uneven. Because of the environmental diversity, this province also has a very diverse culture as well. Tall, lithe coastal people from Karkar Island, short nugget highlands men from Simbai and river people from the Ramu.

Many Madang area costumes include bamboo frames decorated with the very common cockatoo and parrot feathers as birds of paradise are relatively uncommon. The men’s headdresses had bird of paradise feathers. The Ramu people are prolific carvers.

Bilbil women make pots, which are still produced in the traditional way. Clay is collected in the bush, mixed with sand and water and left to dry. A few days later it is formed into a wet mixture and again left to dry. Then the women pull off enough clay and shape the lip of their pot. Red clay is painted on the pot before it is fired.

The poignant post-WWII Coastwatchers Memorial is a tribute to the brave civilians and soldiers who stayed behind enemy lines at personal risk to provide accurate reports about Japanese troop and ship movement.

While in Madang, we did a shore excursion on a 30 minute drive to the village of Bilbil, where we watched native women create earthenware pots, enjoyed a traditional cultural dance with both men and women in their traditional attire and listened to the beat of the kundu drum. We saw the traditional village houses, church, meeting hall as they went about their daily activities.