2010 Hiri Moale set to be bigger and better

THIS year’s Hiri Moale festival, to be staged next month to coincide with the independence anniversary, will be bigger and better.
Apart from the usual sailing of the lagatois (multi-hulled canoes) from Manubada Island to Ela Beach, the lagatois will meet a ship travelling from Townsville, Australia, out at sea.
“A visiting delegation will be on the ship and will be led by the new mayor of Townsville,” Motu-Koita Assembly (MKA) chairman Miria Ikupu said yesterday.
“Two young women from Townsville will also enter the Hiri Moale 2010 Queen contest.”
The festival will run from Sept 17 to 19 and Ikupu said people from as far as Gulf in the west and Abau, Central’s last eastern district, had been invited.
Ikupu said the festival had been useful to the Motu Koita people.
“It has taught personal development to the young people,” he said.
“It has created an awareness and co-operation among Motu Koita villagers in using their gifts and skills.”
The festival re-enacts part of the hiri (voyage) that their ancestors made up the Papuan Gulf in traditional times to trade.
The Motuan men brought their clay pots and exchanged them for sago in the dry season when food was not plentiful.
The Hiri Lou (return of the voyage) of the lagatoi, now laden with sago, is welcomed with festivity by the wives and daughters of the sailors and other villagers.
It is this similar spirit of co-operation and effort of the traditional Motuans (and later Koitabuans) in organising these voyages that is shown in the Hiri Moale festival.
Ikupu said the total cost of the festival was K1.3 million.
The National Capital District Commission has given K200,000 and MKA  gave K250,000.
“The traditional sponsors are yet to help,” he said.