80 Miles

The Mighty Sepik Puts On Its First Show Some Walked For 80 Miles

From a New Guinea Correspondent

New Guinea’s vast Sepik

District had a big day in Sep

tember when it made its first

venture in staging a District

Show.

KNOWING next to nothing about Shows, the 5,000 or so New Guineans who flocked into Wewak for the occasion just didn’t know what to expect. Most of the Australians and other Europeans there were in the same boat, for though they were no strangers to Shows, nobody could foretell how the Sepik would take to this new kind of “holiday-cum-singsing”.

But by nightfall everyone had the answer. When the last of the fire works had rocketed across the sky and the last drum-beat of the sing song died out, Wewak and all its visitors had had a wonderful time and were feeling well content with the day’s effort. And for the Sepik villagers there was “talk” enough for scor°s of evenings back home at Lumi, at Aitape, Green River and all the other far points of the district. Some villagers had walked up to 80 miles to get to the show ground.

It was, perhaps, because nobody could be sure of the Sepik’s re sponse that such a tremendous amount of planning and effort went into exhibits, but the results were first rate The Agricultural Depart ment’s display was easily one of the best yet seen in the Territory.

Curator's Dream The Show was a Museum curator’s dream so far as native crafts and artifacts were concerned. One quite unexpected aspect of this section was the intense interest shown by the Sepiks themselves in the ex hibits. They not only entered a fascinating range of artifacts, but then crowded the display all day to see what everybody else had sent.

One exhibitor from a village near Wewak arrived dressed in ceremonial style “true”, and brought along his two wives and two small daughters also in ceremonial dress. And then, as his exhibit, he presented a beautifully carved figure of a Sepik woman which was a wood-sculptured replica of one of his wives.

Yauwiga, a popular and outstand ing leader of the Sepik people (and also a decorated war veteran), had his own special entry, bringing along his pet cassowaries whose sharp powerful beaks and great taloned feet made it necessary for them to be stoutly caged behind arc mesh.