Aussie tourists

The Aussie surf tour blokes had an afternoon free and wanted to see a bit of culture, so the local people put on a cultural dance with music. They had been preparing for an upcoming event, so it was handy that they already had something prepared up their sleeve.

It was happening at the next village along the beach from us, so a bunch of us walked over to watch too. It was just the weirdest thing having all these tourists here! It was quite the novelty to me, so I took photos of the tourists…

I also took photos and videos of the dances too, like a local tourist.

And here they are on their little boat heading back to the big boat. I love this photo – click on it to see it bigger – it just has so much in it, especially the traditional (canoes) and the modern (small boat and fancy big boat in the distance), with the ocean and Teop island as the backdrop.

Children's Day

On 20 November last year, we celebrated Children’s Day after the church service. (The UN has marked 20 November of every year as Universal Children’s Day). We heard children reading out what the rights and responsibilities of children are, and there was lots of songs and dances. Here are some photos of the celebrations.

Children decorated and waiting for their time to perform.

Here is a video of some children singing a song. I liked this song; the words went like this: “We are the children of Bougainville. We are the leaders of tomorrow. Together we come, united we stand. Respect our rights as we stand.”

The adults performed some items too. I thought it was pretty cool to see a guy playing the guitar behind his head in this photo:

Some ladies singing and dancing.

ABG Day celebrations

ABG stands for ‘Autonomous Bougainville Government’, and on 15 June the celebrated the anniversary of when the ABG first started in 2005. It was a very ceremonious occasion, with the Governor General of PNG coming, and there’s a lot of protocol involved with that.

Sir Michael Ogio, GG of PNG, and in the background, spectators with their cameras out, and people dressed up ready to perform traditional dances.

Have I mentioned that Sir Michael Ogio is a Teop speaker from the inland dialect? I have met his relatives and visited his village.

Here he is giving his speech:

The President of the ABG, Chief John Momis, was also present and gave a speech. This is a picture of him:

Three flags flying – PNG flag, Bougainville flag, PNG royal flag (flown to signify the presence of the GG):

A traditional dance group. I forget where this group was from. Maybe Central or South Bougainville.

A female dance group from the Carterets Islands.

Men from Mortlock Atoll. Their items are always a real hit as they are so different from what the other groups in Bougainville do. It reminds me of the Maori Haka dance, but it is different. Its popularity draws the crowd in closer to get a good look, as you can see in the background.

ABG day cultural items – Part Two

Some more photos of cultural performances from ABG day 2011.

Modern-day bamboo band, PVC pipes instead of bamboo. It still sounds good!

Performance by Carterets Islanders:

The men from the Mortlock Atoll do a performance that is quite different from all the rest, and because of that it is very popular with the crowds (which you can see have come closer in the background of these photos). It’s hard to describe what it’s like, but when the beat gets quicker, they move faster. Maybe you can get the idea from these two photos.

Finally, a photo of the faithful late-afternoon crowd after many people had gone home.

ABG day cultural items – Part One

Groups of performers from all over Bougainville performed various cultural items for the entertainment on ABG day. I have so many good photos to share with you that it will take two blog posts! I don’t remember where all the groups came from, but I will mention the area for those that I do remember.

A couple of performers walking past:

Men performing:

Boys:

Ladies with bows and arrows as well as a bamboo tube:

Men from Nissan Island:

New Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG)

I was lucky enough to be in Buka for the swearing in ceremony of the new president and the second house of representatives for the ABG. It was far from boring! There were lots of song and dance items presented by the various language groups in the Bougainville region. The politicians’ speeches weren’t boring either, in fact I thought they were rather inspiring.

One of the cultural items:

At one stage when we were standing around watching the dances, the police shooed us away, saying ‘Hide, hide’. We didn’t do much other than just move along a little bit, then they told us all to sit down, which we did. The police were actually enforcing culturally appropriate respect for the next group who were coming out. There were some ‘born-chiefs’ in this group and they wear traditional ‘upe’ hats. They stay in their houses in the bush all the time and you would never see them walking around town. Women aren’t supposed to be near them and should show respect to them, so that is why we were told to hide and sit down. The men grow their hair and the hats are only held on by their hair inside it. I’m amazed that some of the ones that are on a bit of an angle don’t fall off!

Here are some of the men with the upe hats.

It was a really hot sunny day, and we wanted to be in the shade, but still see everything, so we ended up joining others who had crawled under a stage that the dignitaries were seated on. I turned around and took this photo of the people behind me under the stage:

The people of Bougainville are hoping that this new government will prepare Bougainville for independence. The earliest that they could gain independence is in five years, but it could be 15 years away at the latest. My friend Ailyne told me that three things need to be established before they gain independence: weapons disposal; economy; and good governance. Mining is Bougainville’s best option for economy, but that was what caused the civil war from 1988-2000. The new president, the honourable John Momis, is considering re-opening the mine however, in consultation with the landowners. The local newspaper recently said that independence for Bougainville is still a long way off.

Bush dancing

On Saturday night there was an Australian Bush Dance on and I went to it. I enjoy dancing and had lots of fun. I danced nearly every dance and this was 2 days after I started malaria treatment. The tablets work well! I was sick with malaria mid-week, and up and dancing on the weekend! I feel so well now that it's hard to believe that I even had malaria last week. I know I didn't imagine it though, because I had a positive blood test.