Man thrills crowd in Wewak

 A neatly-attired lone man in traditional costume from Wau village turned up at the Wewak district headquarters and thrilled a small crowd, including Wewak district administrator Ricky Wobar, with his traditional dances last Friday.

The crowd was there to see the cruise vessel Pacific Dawn that visited the district. 

Melchior Sak was in town to entertain tourists aboard the cruise liner at the invitation of his Turubu local level government president, David Kausik.

Sak was selected from among many cultural groups from the inland Turubu area because of his ability to perform.

Hundreds of other were people disappointed that tourists from the ship were unable to come ashore due to rough seas.

However, Sak said he had nothing to worry about as he still kept his culture and tradition alive.

The short cultural dances he performed were adopted from stories about pigs, the cockatoo, flying foxes, fish, bees, food and people.

Kausik, who was disappointed with the turnout of the event, said Wewak district contributed K50,000 to the organising committee of the tourist ship visit but the money was wasted in an event that never eventuated.

Kausik said the unfortunate situation occurred because Wewak did not have a wharf that could accommodate large ships.

He said the Pacific Dawn’s maiden trip to Wewak was a waste for the people who hoped to cash in on tourists so there was a need to improve the Wewak wharf to handle large ships. The ship carried more than 2500 tourists. The visit was an opportunity for handicraft sellers to sell their wares.