IN SOMEe parts of Papua New Guinea dance performances play an important role in preserving a society’s oral history. Creation and origin stories which tell of how a particular ethnic group came to be can be traced through a dance performance.
The staging of the 4th Mini-Mask festival held in Toare village, Gulf province, last Friday featured various mask dancers accompanied by male and female performers.
The eleven cultural groups that participated at the festival were from the Kaipi-Melaripi constituency along the East Kerema coastline.
A good number of these performing groups performed dances that were associated with the historic journey of their ancestors.
For instance, the group from Evei Firu village performed the dance called paraijah (warrior/war dance).
The Evei Firu people believed that their ancestors came from Evei Purari (West Kerema) and settled in the present village, now called Evei Firu. The dance paraijah was only performed during those days when two conflicting groups fought to conquer new land.
Another dance told of how a certain ethnic group came to settle where they are now in Aike village.
These people believe that they came from a place called Maru Saia’ara. According to their story, women and girls were in the form of crabs, prawns and mermaids while men and boys were in the form of fish and shark.
These sea creatures were washed ashore and eventually transformed into human beings who then inhabited the village now called Aike.
This story has been preserved by the old people and told for generations. The dance which was performed to depict this oral history is called eore.
Although the focus of the Mini-Mask festival was on the preservation and revival of the mask cultures of the Gulf people, dance performances added to the significance of the status of the masks.
Apart from the actual mask and dance performance, the design of the mask also depicts the origin and history of the Kaipi-Melaripi people and its relevance to today’s lifestyle and tradition.
Every performance that took place that day related to the people’s beliefs of how they came to be. Each mask represented a clan’s totem.
For instance, the Porokou clan of Karama village’s mask is called meiu (which means fish). The performance depicted the story of this fish and the journey that it took to get to Karama village.
Other clan totems include various bird and crocodile species. Each totem is a symbol of the people’s culture, history and tradition.
This year’s 4th Mini-Mask festival was meant to revive and maintain the Eharo/Kovave mask cultures of the Gulf people.
The festival is an annual event supported by the National Cultural Commission. The participation of the Institute of PNG Studies at the festival was in line with its function to carry out research on the many existing cultures of PNG.
Recordings of the dance and music performances staged at the festival will be documented and kept in the Institute’s archive for research purposes.

* The writer is a dance researcher with the Music Department, Institute of PNG Studies.