Tackling Papua New Guinean Symbolism

Blog Post One

Literature and music are often the ways in which a place can be symbolised and  portrayed to an outside audience.

For Papua New Guinea literature reflects not only a kind of life people live but also reflects the educational progress. Not long after the University of Papua New Guinea opened the most notable writers began to appear.

Before this Papua New Guinean history and symbolism was passed on through story telling, music and dance.

Music is therefore perhaps a more accurate form of expression of Papua New Guinean culture. Their national anthem may not be the best representation of the people, for starters it is in English, a language that was introduced into Papua New Guinea and still isn’t widely spoken. Considering there are over 700 languages spoken in Papua New Guinea, and many individual tribes, the need for a national anthem doesn't seem important. The song was written by an English marine, who is clearly not a representation of the population. Instead of using the Papua New Guinean national anthem to represent this population, I looked for more cultural relevant songs.

After youtubing some Papua New Guinea music I came across this beautiful song called Abebe (Which means butterfly). 

After reading up on Papua New Guinean culture and life it has been very apparent the significance of animals to their lives and rituals. They do have the most diverse and largest range of animals on the planet. But each tribe, of which there are hundreds, have their own beliefs and symbols.

The ‘primitiveness’ of their culture is what is exported about Papua New Guinea to the rest of the world. Tourism often focuses on tours designed to travel 'back in time' and experience the life of primitive indigenous tribes. 

It's important to understand the complex cultures of Papua New Guinea, but any symbolism is going to be vast due to the complexity of Papua New Guinean cultural life. It's not an easy country to define or discuss in a short amount of space where much much more can be explored.