Fifty Years Ago Today - In the Simbai Valley of Papua New Guinea

On July 26, 1963, I woke up in the little thatched house in the hamlet of Gunts where my husband and I had been living for the past five months.  We were learning about local agriculture, social organization and visual communication among the Maring people. Each day brought new experiences. On this particular day we heard cheerful shouting from the nearby trail that linked Gunts with all the other villages and hamlets scattered along the northern slopes of the Bismarck Mountains.  We grabbed our cameras and went out to see what was going on.

A contingent of dancers from across the mountains was proceeding 

ceremoniously along the trail, the men beating drums and singing. 

Local women on the way to their gardens, stopped, turned and responded with encouraging shouts.

Little boys joined in, and then ...

... in a rush to try to keep up with the dancers,
crowded between the women and clambered over a pile of stakes
that had been prepared for the building of a new house and fence.

The dancers had already disappeared into the distance.

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