Every September about a hundred tribes gather in the highland town of Goroka to dance, sing and show off their finery at the Goroka Show — among them the Asaro Mudmen, whose clay masks have become a symbol of the whole country.
Photo: Anselmo Lastra, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Papua New Guinea’s entry in this atlas is the Goroka Show, the Eastern Highlands Agricultural Show, a sing-sing held every year close to Independence Day, 16 September, in Goroka, the capital of Eastern Highlands Province. It began in 1956 and remains the largest cultural event in the country.
Close to Independence Day, about a hundred tribes from across Papua New Guinea gather in Goroka for the country’s biggest sing-sing, with painted faces, music and dance — and the ghostly Asaro Mudmen in their clay masks.
September 16, 2027Estimated