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The Culture, Traditions, and Heritage of Papua New Guinea

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The culture of Papua New Guinea is complex and many sided. This is because of the existence of an estimated 1000 different cultural groups in the country. Each group is said to have its own language and its own way of expressing or doing certain forms of art, dance, singing, music, costumes and weaponry. A language—the Pidgin English—has been developed apparently to help put away diversity and unify the country and through which all groups would be able to communicate with each other.

In most part of the country, traditional music is still being played in Christian hymns, ute or taibubu, and they still hold traditional celebrations like singsing, where dancers wear colorful costumes. Traditional music used to be played with string bands, which became very popular in 1950, and the bamboo bands which were brought to the country from the Solomon Islands in 1970, when a local recording industry was established to produce recording artists in the person of Sangume and George Telek who mixed the native style with Western style like rock music and jazz.

In the field of literature, the country has produced such writers as Ulli Beier, who published the Papua Pocket Poets; Natachee, first Papua poet to appear in print; Albert Maori Kiki, with his autobiography in 1974; and Vincent Eri, who wrote the Crocodile, the country’s first novel.

In architecture, the country maintains the style of the traditional Haus Tambaran, or Spirit House in the Sepik River, one of the world’s largest rivers, with impressive carvings representing ancestor spirits and made by a pool of artists and craftsmen from some of the country’s villages. This style is evident in the construction of the Parliament House.

The Papua New Guineans are also both sports lovers and players themselves of football, rugby league, soccer, cricket, volleyball, softball, and basketball. Among these sports, rugby is most popular in the highlands, as cricket is popular in the provinces where the British have the most influence.