The Western Highlands

PAPUA NEW GUINEA | Tuesday, 8 January 2013 | Views [887] | View Smaller Image

Racky Negundi, son of Jimi and a keen hunter with the catapult he wears around his neck. In a typical day, Racky claims he can catch 5 parrots and if he’s lucky a Bird of Paradise. Mysteriously disappearing tax income in Papua New Guinea means there is no public education and, as the Negundis live entirely off the land without financial income, Racky will miss out on schooling altogether.

The Karunga Valley in the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Each spur and valley separates one tribal territory from another. These families trade pigs for wives and only rarely brutally attack one another in order to settle scores, usually motivated by inter-village romances gone wrong. Otherwise, family life goes by slowly in this little slice of paradise where 85% of people live self-sufficiently off the land that they own as they have done for millennia.

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Grandfather Negundi on his way home from an unsuccessful day hunting with his bow and arrow. Although he doesn’t know his precise age, he thinks he is roughly 70 years old. His teeth are stained red by years of chewing a mixture of betel nut and crushed coral, a highly alkaline paste that causes the teeth to rapidly decay. For a man of his age in the Karunga Valley, Mr Negundi has a fine set of teeth.

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The Western Highlands

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