English pair bitten by PNG’s cultural bug

By LORRAINE JIMAL
A PAIR of tourists from England’s Birmingham are making plans to connect Papua New Guinea (PNG)’s traditional dances with England.
“The two weeks of World Cultural Diversity Day adventure programmes have given us vast knowledge about PNG’s culture and traditions,” Humanhood Company artistic director Julia Robert said.
“It was simply amazing meeting the locals and to feel their emotions and passion for their culture and traditions.
“I knew little about PNG’s tribes and bird of paradise before coming here.
“The different cultural performances in Port Moresby are mesmerizing and enjoyable.
“There are future opportunities for us to work and support the different traditional dancers and contemporary artistes in the UK.
“We will see how to approach the matter,” she said
Julia said PNG’s culture was totally different from where she came from and “I am amazed to see how Papua New Guineans value their culture”.
“I actually Google search which is the most cultural diverse country, and PNG came up as the answer.
“PNG also came out as a commonwealth country and that makes sense for me to celebrate the day here,” she added.
Humanhood chief executive officer Rudi Cole said it was great to visit a cultural diverse country for the first time.
“The people are beautiful, the biodiversity is rich and as far as artistes being inspired by nature, this is a fantastic place to visit and to understand the people’s interaction with nature and traditions,” he added.
The pair also visited parts of the Highlands and met up with a few dancers.
“We will return next year to engage more traditional dancers in the communities.
“I really enjoyed all this.
“It is very inspiring to come to a country where the culture is portraying the people’s lifestyle,” he added.
Global festival events manager David Taim said the day was celebrated to bring peace, harmony and to elevate from poverty.