Sing-Sing

The Mud Men

(Zara) Once upon a time there was a group of men who lived in a village in Papua New Guinea. One day some intruders came and took over their village leaving them homeless in the bush. After months of having no home the men got together and decided on a plan to get rid of the people who stole their village. They coated their entire bodies in white paint/mud and wore heavy 6-kilogram clay masks on their heads to look like spirits, giving them the name The Mud Men. Each man stood in front of a hut, attempting to invoke fear in their enemies and eventually scared them off their property and they had their homes back.

To learn about other stories and customs from the many tribes of PNG, we experienced a Sing-Sing where villagers from all over Papua New Guinea travelled far distances to preform their local dances. Sing-sings normally occur in times of celebration such as battle victories or holidays. When we arrived at the village, the tribes were putting on their intricate makeup and costumes as they greeted us. Once we sat down under the tourist tent each group came out singing short songs in their local language and danced which usually consisted of jumping up and down and walking in circles around someone playing an instrument. In total we watched about ten different groups preform. Sometimes when it wasn’t a tribe’s turn they would sing their songs in the back even though they weren’t supposed to, louder than the tribe preforming. I also liked how little kids dressed up and performed enthusiastically with their parents.

The Skeletons attack

My favorite tribes were The Mud Men (Goroka Tribe) and The Skeletons (Chimbu Tribe). The Mud Men didn’t say anything or sing any songs like other groups but instead crept slowly towards us with big leg movements and snapping their long pointed bamboo fingers at the crowd. Every once and a while they would go up to someone and touch them with their creepy hands. The black and white painted Skeletons were more fun to watch as they came out running and chasing after an evil spirit that to me looked like a wolf/gorilla. They jumped over its long tail, pulled on it, and even pretended to cut it off with a log. The strangest group we saw were the Sili Muli Tribe who were all women and had no tops on. Their dance for the entire song was locking their arms together and jumping up and down. The movements seemed very painful, especially after doing it four times and of course dad got a picture with them at the end.

The Sing-Sing was a great introduction to what we would be seeing on future village visits in Papua New Guinea and it made me very excited about our next outings.