GOROKA SHOW 2006

Sometimes even I forget how amazing my country is. It can be way too easy to get mired in the drudging awful mean reality of just how tough it is to be making it in this paradise (insert irony here). PNG is like the hardest thing, the simplest thing, the rightest thing and the most natural, yet taxing. It can wear you down if you don't stop weighing all the heavy on your back and start sitting on top of it instead, delaing with it from a more positive, new perspective. Some pretty amazing and inspiring encounters ricebag has had this week and will tell of soon. In the interim, let me remind you why PNG is indeed the Land of The Unexpected ... The Unexpected Charm ... The Unexpected Disarming Beauty ... The Unexpected Innocence ... The Unexpected Generosity ... The Unexpected Truth ... The Unexpected Delight ... The Unexpected Soul.

Some people never saw some things like a mourning dance or a come-love-me dance or a warrior thrum or a cargo cult. Some people never saw a thousand different stories on display with pride and with steel, all on the field, all in one day. And that's what the Sing-Sing in PNG is all about. The annual gathering of highland tribes and island brides, the clash of feathers and spears and the sheer intensity and overwhelming sense of history and passion. And if you're one of those people, who has never seen that, then you're living a life half lived and you really REALLY really need to come ... to this land, my land, PNG-land.

I went to the Goroka Show this year over Independence Weekend with Miss Pinky U. I have scanned some of my photographs for your viewing pleasure - but as you will no doubt see, ricebag is a bit better photographer than scanner - so pls forgive for wonky angles and jagged edges - but in a strange way, that's kinda me anyhew.

The Show was AMAZING. 2 days of an athletic field full of BILAS and I have to say it was heady stuff. The ground was shaking and hips were swaying. People came from AAAAAALLL over man. Highlands to Islands. Cargo Cult to the Momase Boys to the Hagen Warriors and all the lines in between. Each group wore a specific dress related to their specific 'ples' and performed a specific dance or story.

So what did I feel? Yeah man. PRIDE. P. R. I. D. E.

We stayed with the incandescent Vivi via my old mate Mali and I have to say the hospitality was a treat! Not to forget Petie and his rustbucket that toted us around town.

And they were selling loads of hand0made highlands goodies. Pinky U and I went on a bit of a gluttonous bilum-shopping spree. Me buying oldie bilums made the oldie and dying-out way and Pinky U buying newer, cooler models for family.

Goroka shone like a brand new penny - might have had something to do with the clean clean streets of this highlands town where the grass is always green and the rubbish is never seen. yes - there is a place in PNG where people are proud of their public spaces. I'll drink to that!

So - thanks GKA - this won't be the last!