![]() ![]() We then make our way deep into Papua New Guinea’s Southern Highlands in Hela Province, one of the last places to be discovered by Western civilization sometime in the 1930s. We fly into Port Moresby and then to Tari town, followed by a drive to a remote valley in Tari’s countryside and the only “guesthouse” available in the area. PNG is the second-largest island on Earth and, culturally, the most diverse, home to more than 800 of the world’s 7,000 languages. It has a reputation for being especially dangerous – clan conflicts in the Highlands owing to the isolation topography and Port Moresby with complicated issues related to high unemployment rates and alcoholism. We are on the island’s eastern part – Papua New Guinea – a country that only gained independence from Australia in 1975. The western half, formerly known as Irian Jaya, comes under Indonesia’s control. ![]() ![]() Nineteenth-century colonial history divided it. ![]() The island of New Guinea – a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean north of Australia – feels incredibly far from anywhere I’ve ever been, both geographically and culturally. It’s early October and the start of a journey in search of the most engaging tribes that remain in Papua New Guinea. A line up of ancestors’ skulls from a fortune-teller tribe in Tari, Highlands ![]()
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