Mona Festival amongst others remains Buka’s best

By PETER S. KINJAP | THE NATIONAL Newspaper - Weekender Edition.

FESTIVALS are part of the indigenous lifestyle in Papua New Guinea.
Everywhere you go you find celebration of feasts or festivals most of which have now become annual events turning into tourism attractions for the country.

The Mona canoe race in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville is one such event that is hosted annually together with other activities. In 2014, Bougainville for the first time set dates for Bougainville festivals including the Mona that was held throughout the region starting the same year.

Some familiar faces from Kuhilin Cultural Group readying to perform at Mona Festival, Buka ARoB this afternoon 28/08/14

It was first held from Aug 28 to 30, 2014 at the Buka Showground.
Bougainville’s bi-annual Reed Festival is another cultural event for people to show their culture, beauty and diversity over several days through dancing, songs, plays, drama and other traditional and creative arts.

The Reed Festival is staged in Arawa and performers come from all over Bougainville.
The festival provides the opportunity for young Bougainvilleans to learn about and partake in their own culture from the older generation.

One important part of the Reed Festival is the ‘Cool Culture’ component that incorporates cultural activities and displays by the local children.
Its sister event, the Mona Festival is held annually in Buka town to celebrate the seafaring tradition of Bougainvilleans.

Mona Festival, Buka.

It is staged in August every year and attracts cultural performers from all over the region.

The Mona Festival is sometimes referred to as the Canoe Festival.

The name Mona actually refers to a large canoe which was used in the past for the purpose of trade or to conduct lightning raids on other communities and islands in the Solomon Sea.
The Mona is not a ‘dugout’ canoe made out of hollowing out the trunks of large trees.
Instead, the canoe is crafted out of hewn planks (using stone tools) of hard lightwood, expertly held together using special vines.

The Mona was made water tight using the sap from the seeds of a certain tree. The canoes could hold up to 10 rowers and move swiftly over water.
The Buka township is usually given a rare treat with the hosting of the annual Mona Festival.
Festival committee chairman and tour operator Lawrence Belleh anticipates a good number of tourists to visit the region during the festival period each year.

“The popular Kuri Resort is fully booked throughout the festival period,” he said.
“We’ve had calls from as far as the United States of America for accommodation. Other guest house operators are also taking in bookings for that period,” Belleh said.
In 2014 when the festival was first hosted, it attracted 18 groups from South, Central and North Bougainville.

Mona Festival is Alive n well, Buka town. Kuhilin Cultural Group, Hagogohe Constituency getting ready to perform

Belleh explained that the festival aimed to unify all Bougainvilleans as part of the restoration exercise towards peace building and return to normalcy after the civil war on the island.

“It also aims to promote Bougainville as a preferred tourism destination,” he said.
The Mona is a Bougainville traditional canoe which carries the pride of Buka people as it was used by their ancestors as a sea transport means. It comes in three types – for wars, long voyages and fishing.

Belleh acknowledged Lae Biscuit Company for its cash and kind donation to the value of K15,000. Digicel PNG has undertaken to be the major sponsor acquiring naming rights.
The last festival started from Malasang Village with a welcome and tradition rituals performed by the village chiefs.

A voyage was then taken to Ieta Village then to Sohano Island before heading to Buka township.
Together with the festivals, the beauty of black-skinned people from the Autonomous Region of Bougainville is also an attraction itself.

Apart from some African black people and other Solomon Islanders, Bougainville is said to have the blackest people on planet earth.
Black is a unique skin colour and often when photographs are taken the camera lens makes it appear that these people are ‘too black’.

The countdown to the 2014 Bougainville Mona Festival continues, only two more sleeps...We would love you to join us at the main boat stop in Buka on Thursday morning as we welcome Mona paddled through the Buka Passage to open the show! The welcoming of the Mona will be followed by a parade and the festival opening ceremony at Bel Isi Park.

But when you see them face to face and take a look with your natural camera, your eyes, you’ll call them ‘black beauties’. A beauty of nature’s own design.
Bougainvilleans are sometimes nicknamed kawas, so when love songs about Bougainvillean girls are sung by PNG musicians, instead of saying, ‘Bougainville babe girl’ they say, “kawas babe girl”, an expression that is popular throughout the country.

Actually the meaning of the word kawas is not really known in Buka. Some say it means friendly, beautiful, cute and wonderful but Bougainvilleans may have a different definition.
Some say kawas is from the Manus language which may mean a traditional trading partner. We don’t know how it came to be the usual Manus name for Bougainvilleans although many have ended up in Manus since the 1930s.
It’s a term implying close relationships and friendships between peoples of Manus and Bougainville.

Mona Festival, Buka.

Being seen as black is unique and beautiful, just like the white, yellow, brown and light skinned people. If you don’t believe this, don’t hesitate to go to Bougainville and see for yourself how beautiful a kawas is and enjoy the festivals of their culture.

Mona Festival is held in Buka town and there is also the Hantoa Cultural Show, the Tinputz Cocoa Festival, the Siwai Cultural Show and many more.

Joyce Bagi from Central admits that she loves black. “What is your favourite colour? “Black.”
Why? “Because the two most special people in my life are black, my mom and my boyfriend.
“Yeah, no doubt black is beautiful!”

That night was awesome Mona Festival Fundraiser. Tatok bamboo band and all, the mortlock knife dancers and buka hits all night long.

The Buka show ground will be the main host for the festivals.

The Mona Festival is a yearly event therefore the chairman, Lawrence Belleh is appealing to the people to fully support and learn from it.
The festival is promoting culture and with that it can attract a lot of tourists to the province.
This cultural festival will also encourage the people to hold fast to their culture and traditions.

Mona Festival, Buka.

Therefore, cultural activities such as singsing kaur groups, bamboo bands and Solomon dances will be an integral part of the festival every year to attract participation from all around the autonomous region.

ABG’s chief eecutive officer for Commerce, Albert Kinani has yet to confirm the dates for Mona Festival for 2019.

Groups from Halia, Hahalis, Gogohe and from Malasang are regulars at the festivals which are yet to be confirmed for participation at the show.

Mona Festival is on again this year...28th to 30th August on Buka Island. The festival is held annually since 2009. The festival is about recognizing the significance of the canoe (Mona) in the North Bougainville traditional society. The canoe is traditionally built with three unique designs to indicate its purposes of transport (voyage), fishing (food gathering) and fighting (warrior). 

Kinani is appealing to business houses and corporate sponsors for the 2019 festival.

The CEO also announced recently the opening of a new website to promote tourism in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville: www.bougainvilletourism.org.pg

The ABG recognises the largely untapped potential of tourism and is aware Bougainville has the natural attraction to lure adventure and niche’ travellers to its shores. But a lot needs to be done.

Kanage @ Buka(mona festival 2mas!!.)hiiiyeeh!

Success does not come overnight. There are no short cuts and quick fixes for success in anything.

ABG’s financial resources and capacity which have to be shared with other areas and services seeking more urgent attention for tourism development in the region has not been easy.

Clearly, this creates a lot of room for private enterprise driven participation in an industry that can be both profitable and enjoyable with the right advice and approach and sense of ownership.

Bougainville’s natural beauty and attractions, including its vibrant culture, like the rest of the country, can be best showcased with serious and deliberate government involvement.
This is lacking now and can be attributed largely to a lack of resources, capacity and focus and the fact that since it was established the tourism office and responsibility has been moved from pillar to post.

The settling in, focus, funding and seriousness have been amiss.
With so much potential staring at us in Bougainville it is time our political leaders and bureaucrats alike take the attitude that if tourism is to contribute to ABG’s coffers, then it should be well-intended.

A number of private operators that have been self-starters to promote tourism are the ones carrying the baton up front. The amount of promotion they are doing both out of joy in promoting the beauty of the Island and as a business is a good story.

For more information about the festival and the tour packages, contact via email: pngattractions@gmail.com

• Peter S Kinjap is a freelance writer and a blogger. He writes for The National newspaper,weekender edition, email: pekinjap@gmail.com

Students celebrate indigenous cultural values and traditions at Divine Word University - Madang

By PETER KINJAP | THE NATIONAL NEWSPAPER

THE Divine Word University (DWU) community in Madang is always pleased to host the DWU Cultural Festival every year in the third week of August.

It is a lively event with traditional songs and dances as students take the centre stage with those from neighbouring Solomon Islands also showcasing their culture. A musical group from Fiji performing at the last festival made it a somewhat Melanesian event.

The students from all 22 provinces in the country usually participate. The public in Madang and visiting tourists and the growing expatriate community of Chinese, Filipinos and Europeans usually take the chance to see a sampling of the diverse cultures and traditions of Papua New Guinea and the Pacific.

Many students have their parents, guardians and extended relatives on campus to assist them with the preparations and performances as well.

A Simbu student in his traditional attire. 

The inclusion of mostly highlands parents is a testament to the level of pride and support they have for their sons, daughters, nephews and cousins.

The highlands students usually appear more spectacular when their elders put the finishing touches on the face painting and traditional attire.

The annual festival is set by the university administration for the students to acknowledge their indigenous roots in traditional song, dance, costumes and folklore.

A Welda-female student from Western Highlands Province. 

Former president of the Divine Word University and now Higher Education Secretary Fr Jan Czuba said the cultural day was not a “show” but a day the students must be given a chance to reflect on the importance and values of the indigenous cultures of Papua New Guinea amidst the influences of modern ways.

Living up to the university’s slogan “Valuing our culture and heritage through collaboration”, students from various provinces in PNG put on a lively display of their cultural heritage through their bilas (traditional regalia), dancing and singing at the Madang campus.
During preparations on the day, if you go around the university, you would see parents and relatives crouched over seated students to get the arrays of beautiful feathers aligned.
It’s a proud moment for parents and relatives to see their young ones take to the arena to promote their culture.

The event has now no doubt become part of the Madang calendar and is one of the national cultural festivals with recognition from the Government through PNG Tourism Promotion Authority.

New Ireland females students waiting for their turn.

DWU, a keen promoter of Melanesian culture, encourages students to value their traditions and cultural heritage. In 1996, it was declared a university by the Government thought then Prime minister Sir Julius Chan, from Divine Word Institute.
The annual cultural event provides the avenue to get together to share heritage through songs, dancing and enactments of ceremonies.

You would be captivated by the colours of the costumes, the differences in their attire and also some of the dances you have never seen before.

There is a wider range of singsings than other cultural events in the country.
You can take as many photos as you could and there is no restriction – you might run out of space in your memory card. Note to take extra batteries and cards for your cameras if you are photographing.

On their way to the field these lasses from Central Province are happy to stop and pose in their traditional finery.

DWU as a tertiary institution is a special place for students from different backgrounds to come together and study and engage in peace and harmony with each other as Jesus Christ the “Divine Word” has taught us.

DWU has remained a beautiful campus, carefully tended and well-known as a safe, peaceful and pleasant environment in which to pursue one’s higher education.
The university also has a heart, a soul, a spirit, a social, spiritual and cultural environment in which academics can easily transmit knowledge and students can grow in wisdom and grace.

Siassi Cultural Group from Morobe warm up.

Many times the international news is not good – wars, suicide bombings, terrorist attack, killing in a school or community, violence in the streets or on a university campus. The list is long. There is too much violence.

The local news is also bad, of tribal fights, murders, rapes, corruption, domestic violence and child abuse. There is too much violence.
What can any of us do about these things, this violence? Perhaps, we think, not much – except for each of us to build a habit of nonviolence in our own hearts, in our own personal behaviour.

A Central lass after a hectic day of celebration.

And, we can influence others close to us to do the same. Every Papua New Guinean should be proud of your ethnic heritage and traditions.
In the country’s political events, let us passionately discuss and debate the issues that face our nation but not allow political rivalries to destroy friendship and the unity of our nation.
Leave anti-social behaviour, such as drunkenness, drug abuse, bullying, manipulation and every kind of violence out.

Students from Enga are crowd pleasers. 

How wonderful it is, how pleasant it is, for God’s people to live together in harmony.

Against the background of his alluring calls comes a cacophony of traditional songs, kundus, the rhythmic beat of the brass band, bag pipers, intermingled with the happy claps and delightful shouts of children and adults.
Culture is a rich tourism commodity. We have our carvings, traditional dances, arts and crafts, contemporary theatre groups and so forth.

Madang dancers in action. 

Culture has a lot to offer to the development of the tourism industry in Papua New Guinea.
While institutions like DWU are trying to promote the cultures, all Papua New Guineans should also ensure that those cultures are protected from exploitation because they are their pride and give them their identity.

Welda girls from Western Highlands 

It is thus important that cultures are maintained and passed on from one generation to the next.

Students from throughout the country including those from Solomon Islands and Fiji, and our Melanesian friends from West Papua attending DWU also display their unique cultures during their cultural festival.

In 2016, Ramu NiCo in Madang also took the opportunity to display its project by way of awareness and reaching out to the public at the DWU cultural festival.

Tolai dukduk dancers from Rabaul.

Ramu NiCo’s participation has been ongoing since its inception in Madang and such involvement is due to the strong relationship between DWU and Ramu NiCo to date.

President of Ramu NiCo, Wang Jicheng with other senior staff also visited the cultural day to experience firsthand unique cultures of the country while also supporting the promotional activities by Ramu NiCo staff during the day.

“I am very excited to come here and see the different cultures of PNG as shown by the dances and the beautiful body decorations,” Wang said.

Academics John Imbal and Nathaline Murki from the DWU’s tourism and hospitality department also did a paper on the cultural festival.
Their study reports on an assessment of the 2010 Cultural Day event and implications for management of cultural events.

Western Highlands young girls. 

It investigated the opinions and reactions of a sample of visitors to the cultural day celebrations and provides information on aspects of the promotion and programme for the event, the economic impact of the event and visitor demographics.

The assessment is intended to provide useful information as a guide for improvement of this event through promotion strategies; planning the programme, services and facilities; income generation; and economic impact.

The study should be of interest to stakeholders and the organisers for ongoing development and improvement of cultural event management.
The university student representative council (SRC) cultural committee facilitates and organises the event.

Goroka Asaro madman. 

SRC secretary Lavina Lore, a third year Tourism and Hospitality student says the festival is scheduled for August 17 this year.

For more information about the festival and the tour packages, contact via email: pngattractions@gmail.com