Just off the Highlands Highway

On September 11, 2001, a flight of then truly intrepid travelers made it to Tari. Most of the group was American. The news was not fully understood by any of the Papua New Guineans, more accurately, Hulis, working at Ambua Lodge, but they knew that they had always liked the American tourists that had come through. The Huli people, being both protective and violent in nature, were ready to fight for the Americans. They had a map up in the lodge and some of the Americans were showing pointing to Afghanistan on the map to show where the believed terrorists were based. 

Using the Australian map, where Papua New Guinea is in the middle, the Hulis were convinced that the war would take place in PNG since it is located in the middle. To calm down the Huli staff, those explaining the situation said that they should not worry because the soldiers would just go the other way, e.g. overland through Europe. The Huli workers did not understand – they didn’t get that the world was round as they were looking at a flat map. This is really not that surprising when you realize that up until the 1930’s, their universe existed inside of a few mountain ridges and they didn’t have the wheel.

This is the land to which PNG LNG is coming. More than half of our lodge guests right now are PNG LNG workers. They are very nice (and even gave us two PNG LNG shirts as souvenirs since we knew about the project), but they are very, very out of place. Oil workers are used to needing to conduct their business in far off and often dangerous places, but even they confessed that this is a bit different. These workers are actually just here to locate the appropriate places for training facilities, but even their job is tough.

Just off the ever busier “Highlands Highway” that passes through Tari and all of the surrounding villages towards Mt. Hagen, the largest highland city, the 1930’s world is still visible. This morning we visited the tiny homestead of Tigibi. There are not really villages in the traditional sense here since Huli live in family compounds surrounded by high mud walls to protect them from other clan invaders. They performed a sing-sing for us. This was only different from their day to day for the extra make-up and hairwigs they put on – otherwise, this was pretty standard. The sing-sings are performed throughout the year at special events. It was an incredible experience. It was extremely intimate and we were able to speak to them and learn more about the culture and tradition in a setting very comfortable to them. They were very friendly, but one of them had a highly visible stab wound from recent tribal fighting.

Also, just off the road, believe it or not, are PNG’s famous bird of paradise. Early morning birding, feeling very much like the crew of Planet Earth, we set off in search of Stephanei’s Astrapia and the King of Saxony. In a rare feet, we saw both. They were positively beautiful and were undisturbed by the large semi’s passing by preparing for work at PNG LNG. All of this at 6am on a Saturday.

We visited two other small settlements throughout the day and learned about the Huli Wigman tradition where young man go to “wig” school to grow their “everyday” and ceremonial” wigs for 18-36 months at a time. These men could not have yet had “relations” with a woman or killed a pig. Otherwise, the magic spell they use to grow the wigs wouldn’t work.

We returned back to the lodge and had a chat with the manager on politics and business in PNG. Abundant in natural resources, the place should, also figuratively, be a goldmine. But, it seems, as with pretty much every resource rich (and lots of other) country globally, most of the wealth simply lines the pockets of the politicians. Corruption is endemic here and there is essentially zero hope it will get better. That is tragic in a country that could benefit so much from this wealth, but there is almost no optimism from the people that anything will really change. Exxon and the various international agencies that are funding the project have promoted large scale community involvement, but no one thinks this will work due to the government.

The culture is fascinating to a point that is almost beyond words, but the violence is so omnipresent and matter-of-fact that you only wonder what the area would be like if they had handguns instead of bows and arrows as their weaponry. Interclan warfare starts on a dime – we would not stop in the Tigibi market today for fear that our white presence could incite discussions and fighting. MSF staff located in the area that we spoke with at the lodge has been sent here to try to combat domestic violence – this is a term barely even understood by the Hulis as it is not a term that carries a stigma or even really definition.  

The area around Tari is positively beautiful. The waterfalls are spectacular, the terrain is magnificent and the birds are vibrant. The people are friendly. Western development, moors and technology are almost no where to be seen but the aspects that will arrive here first, in combination with the centuries old culture could be quite inflammatory. This will be an interesting place to watch in the coming years.