Papua New Guinea: Bougainville Reeds Festival

The Reeds Festival, held in Arawa town on the remote Bougainville Island of Papua New Guinea, is the unique opportunity to experience the rich culture and traditions of the island. The festival is an excellent occasion to admire dancing, singing, and beautiful traditional costumes of Bougainville region.

Papua New Guinea festivals: Bougainville Island

Our descent to Bougainville was slowly opening the stunning views over the crystal clear blue waters and giving us a taste of what is to come. Our feelings were probably much close to those of the French explorer Louis de Bougainville, who has first discovered this beautiful volcanic island about 250 years ago and has named it for himself.

Despite its location in the remote corner of Papua New Guinea, the name of Bougainville is widely known. Even those thinking Papua New Guinea is an African country confusing it with Guinea in the West Africa, have heard about Bougainville war for independence, better known as Bougainville Conflict, the largest conflict in Oceania since the end of World War II. But Bougainville is also known for its unique culture and traditions, which have much in common with its close neighbour, the Solomon Islands.

Arriving in Buka, we were greeted with large smiles of the friendly charcoal-faced locals looking as if they have rubbed oily black paint into their skin. Although people from Bougainville look very different from the natives of other provinces in Papua New Guinea, they have something in common. They all share their unconditional love for buai, or betel nut, which grow in giant sizes in Bougainville, the highly praised “Buka buai”.

Having attended Papua New Guinea festivals in the Highlands on several occasions, with the tribes distinguished by colourful and eye-catching costumes and body paint, and huge headdresses made with the birds’ feathers, here, in Bougainville, we found a very distinctive traditional attire.

The Reeds Festival originated as a way to display and protect the vibrant and unique culture of Bougainville.

The support from sponsors, passionate about the PNG culture, made the Reeds Festival a regular bi-annual event held over two days in Arawa town, in the south of Bougainville island. The venue, located near the beachfront, has beautiful views of Pokpok Island, or Crocodile island, the name given to the island due to its shape in the form of a large crocodile. The name pokpok is derived from the Papua New Guinea Tok Pisin word for crocodile – pukpuk.

The name “Reeds” Festival comes from the reeds, the bamboo panpipes used as a musical instrument. The reeds are the unique style in making music, which is practiced in the villages of Bougainville as well as in the Solomon Islands for ceremonial and ritual occasions.

Attending the Bougainville Reeds festival is a great way to see the traditional attire of Bougainville people.

Gone are those days, when people were wandering around in grass skirts. Nowadays, you won’t see people dressed in traditional clothes on a daily basis. Although the locals eagerly adapted the Western style clothes, for special occasions, such as the Reeds Festival, they don their most beautiful traditional costumes.

The Papua New Guinea festivals are always a colourful affaire. Traditional clothing in Bougainville is very similar to the one found in the Solomon Islands, which isn’t surprising given the proximity of the islands. The common attire is grass skirts and tapa cloth made from tree bark and dyed with natural colours. Traditionally, both men and women leave the upper body unclothed and cover only the lower body and the thighs, and decorate themselves with different kinds of traditional jewellery such as necklaces, belts, armbands, and hairbands.

String bags, called bilums, are also part of the costume. On a daily, the bilums are used basis to carry everything, from firewood to babies. If in the Highlands region of Papua New Guinea, the bilums are now often made of wool-based bright and colourful yarns, the bilums in Bougainville are still made using woven plant reeds.

The Bougainville Reeds Festival is the unique opportunity to experience the diverse culture of the island as it attracts the performing groups from all over Bougainville.

Bougainville possesses a unique and rich culture, which is kept alive in the form of ceremonies and elaborate rituals still performed today for such important events as birth, death, marriage, tribe reconciliation and young boys’ initiation.

The people of Papua New Guinea are ethnically Melanesian but the country is home to more than 800 tribes characterised by their own distinct cultures and languages. With its 23 languages spoken throughout Bougainville, the island possesses a wide range of tribes, and the culture varies from region to region.

If for tourists, the Reeds Festival, with its dancing and singing, is a great opportunity to experience Bougainville rich culture, for young Bougainvilleans the festival is the opportunity to learn about their culture and be part of the performing groups. Hopefully, having the younger generation interested in its origins, the unique culture of Bougainville will survive.

The festival is starting soon, and the performers are getting ready.

Similar to other Papua New Guinea festivals, with the first sounds of music, men and women start performing their captivating dances.

With gracious movements and broad charming smiles, the women in traditional grass skirts are swaying their hips to hypnotic sounds of music.

Dynamic music definitely gives a tone to a festive and cheerful atmosphere.

While waiting for their turn to perform, men and women watch the others dancing and playing music.

Everyone is in high spirits. Women hardly finished their cheerful and hypnotising performance when men start their distinctive dances, including warrior dances traditionally performed for different occasions, such as to welcome chiefs from other tribes, before starting a war or after the war has ended.

All of a sudden, rhythmic and energetic sounds come from a corner. A gang of men are hitting the end of a stack of bamboo pipes …. with their flips-flops producing an incredibly dynamic music! Traditionally, coconut husks were used for beating the bamboo pipes but the modern influence made a quick re-adjustment. In any case, coconut husks or flip-flops, the famous music from Bougainville, their trademark, remains very lively and contagious.

The Reeds Festival attracts many locals coming to see the performance, have fun, and meet their relatives and friends.

Some cannot resist from dancing and joyfully join the performers.

If the locals coming to the festival will find their extended family or friends to chat and exchange gossips, the tourists will find beautiful handcraft for sale – various kinds of bilums, hand-made jewellery, pottery etc.

At the time, when traditional cultures are rapidly declining worldwide, the festivals, such as the Bougainville Reeds Festival, provide a way to conserve the traditions for future generations. More importantly, they preserve the culture, something that makes us all unique – our differences.

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