Preserving oral history through dance
Naomi Fail Simet, 23/6/08
In some parts of Papua New Guinea dance performances play an important role in preserving a society’s oral history. Creation and origin stories which tell of how a particular ethnic group came to be can be traced through a dance performance. The staging of the 4th Mini-Mask festival held in Toare village, Gulf province, last Friday featured various mask dancers accompanied by male and female performers. The eleven cultural groups that participated at the festival were from the Kaipi-Melaripi constituency along the East Kerema coastline. A good number of these performing groups performed dances that were associated with the historic journey of their ancestors.