Papua New Guinea

Highland dance photo courtesy of PNG Tourism Papua New Guinea (PNG), is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands (the western portion of the island is occupied by the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Irian Jaya). It is one of the most diverse countries on Earth, with over 850 indigenous languages and at least as many traditional societies, out of a population of just under 6 million. It is also one of the most rural countries along with one of the world’s least explored, culturally and geographically. Many undiscovered species of plants and animals are thought to exist in the interior of Papua New Guinea.

Human remains have been found on New Guinea which have been dated to about 50,000 years ago. These ancient inhabitants probably had their origins in Southeast Asia. Agriculture was independently developed in the New Guinea highlands around 9,000 years ago, making it one of the few areas of original plant domestication in the world. Little was known in the West about the island until the nineteenth century, although traders from Southeast Asia had been visiting New Guinea as long as 5,000 years ago collecting bird of paradise plumes, and European explorers had encountered it as early as the sixteenth century.

The culture of Papua New Guinea is many-sided and complex. It is estimated that more than a thousand different cultural groups exist in PNG. Because of this diversity, many different styles of cultural expression have emerged; each group has created its own expressive forms in art, dance, weaponry, costumes, singing, music, architecture and much more. Most of these different cultural groups have their own language. People typically live in villages that rely on subsistence farming. In some areas people hunt and collect wild plants (such as yam roots) to supplement their diets. Those who become skilled at hunting, farming and fishing earn a great deal of respect. No matter where else you’ve been, Papua New Guinea is “the Land of the Unexpected”!

Suggested Papua New Guinea Discoveries


More from Australia & Pacific