Episode 25 - Showtime!

This weekend the Goroka show came to town. Groups from all over the country come to Goroka and show off their traditional dances and music, not to mention most noticeably, their traditional dress. A real party atmosphere has fallen over the whole town, with the streets full of people along with their excited chatter, music playing from every street corner and the sounds of children playing filling up any space left empty. I had the privilege to attend the show itself and to stand on the showground itself as the groups entered each in turn, singing and dancing to their spot on the field. It was incredible to watch and see all the different cultures, all just from this island. Some had similarities to other near neighbours, but each was clearly unique and individual. It was a true testament to the diversity of this island, and of the creativity of human kind. The dress was spectacular and each spoke of its own place. The dancing possessed such energy, seemingly making their owners costumes come to life and tell their own story. Lastly the music was so varied and beautiful, much the likes of which I had never quite heard before, whether unaccompanied singing, war cries, or instruments of many types from bamboo flutes to PVC pipes played with flip-flops. It was amazing just to be able to listen to the tok ples (village language) of so many different people, languages which were truly unfamiliar to an ear which has only ever really heard Latin or Oriental based languages. Most of the languages were made up of sounds I didn’t even know the human mouth could make, some of them more closely resembling bird song than speech, I didn’t know the spoken word could sound so beautiful. It was a privilege just to stand amongst people from so many different cultural backgrounds yet who stood united together and to be part of it all. It's hard to say too much about it all to describe it (although I seem to have gone on quite a bit already) so I will just leave you with some pictures as they say more than I ever could. Sorry about the quality leaving much to be desired… For better pictures check out my Facebook page where I have shared pictures taken by my friends who are much better photographers than me!