Not quite National Geographic, but plenty of boobs
Soon after I started posting items about the Goroka Show, a reader commented that my photos reminded of him of old National Geographic magazine stories. Not really erotic, but filled with an abundance of interesting flesh.
I have to admit that I was a little surprised by all the flesh on display at the show. I’m no prude, but I simply hadn’t expected that at least half of the performing women would have stripped down to their bare bums and breasts.
I suppose the show offers locals a time of year when they can embrace the culture they used to live. Having said that, I suppose plenty of women don’t want to strip off these days.
Poor John visited Papua New Guinea twice during the 1980s (I didn’t get to go). He never got to Goroka back then, but he did get to other highland communities. He clearly remembers seeing many locals ‘roll’ into town in similar get-ups. There wasn’t any show on at the time. It was simply the dress of the times.
Frankly, it makes a lot of sense. Good grief, it gets hot in PNG, and many people have no source of cash income, so they have to make-do with what the earth and sea have to offer.
It didn’t take us long to figure out that the materials and ‘fabrics’ on hand for clothing tend to be leaves, grass, shells, bark, bush rope (made of bark), gourds (more about them soon), feathers (and sometimes whole birds), branches, skins, fruit, seeds, straw, dyes, mud and clay.
As an aside, the Goroka Show reminded me of our two visits to Brazil—where anything you wear that’s skimpy is totally okay. After a couple of months in Brazil, I even got to the point where I thought it might be okay for me to buy and wear a bikini. Luckily, I came to my senses. It might have been okay in Brazil, but no where else in the world.
But after me dangling the ‘boob’ carrot for a while, it’s time to produce the evidence. So here it is.
I had to laugh (and agree) when one reader commented that if we all looked this good without clothes, the habit might catch on everywhere. Of course he’s right, but I guess it might depend on the season and the weather. Also have to admit that I’ve now seen boobs of every single shape and size imaginable. Have even seen some you can’t imagine.
As you say. All the material seems to be natural Where does the bright pink com from? Is it Betel nut juice?
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Oh darn, I forgot to ask about the pink, but betel nut juice looks very similar. I bet you’re right.
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I might consider going topless if I could adorn the rest of me as creatively and colorfully to scramble other people’s visual fields, overwhelm their senses and make them marvel.
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What a perfect way to describe the effect—’scramble other people’s visual fields’. Wish I’d thought of it. 🙂
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This has to be the best blog entry I have read
I knew a bloke who said he had lived here with his family for over 10 years, he never mentioned any of this
The pictures here have been great and this has to be on anyone’s ‘To see list’
I am just blown away with the colours, the outfits, masks, I know anne has told me bring nothing home any more from my trips, but there is more than a few I would bring back from here (even if I had to chuck stuff out of my back pack)
I hope these displays go on long enough for me to get out there and see one
Thanks for this Peggy (and John) it has been a really good entry, I have enjoyed every photo
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Thanks Derrick. It’s taken me a couple of days to choose photos and bring it together. Next instalment will be skirts.
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It has very reminiscent of the old NG magazines, I dont think you could have taken any better photos
Looking forward to the skirts next
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🙂 I’ll get started on the writing. Have already chosen five or six pics.
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I think somewhere you mentioned you had taken over 800 photos,
I know I have said about how many photos you take, but with this Goroka display, I cant think why you never took more (I know I would have taken hundreds and probvably lots of video as well)
It is a truly amazing display 🙂
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Thanks, Derrick, for admitting that you would have gone overboard too. It really is overwhelming and breathtaking.
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I enjoy reading about your travels.
Regards,
Helen
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Thanks Helen. I enjoy sharing.
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G’day! Definitely National Geo quality Peggy and is always interesting to learn more about all cultures around the world and through your unique eyes! Cheers! Joanne
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Thanks Joanne. PNG is so fascinating. Hope you get there one day.
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Quite fascinating! How did you and John stay cool?
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As usual, we wore shorts and short sleeves. No chance of me copying the locals! 🙂
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Fabulous post Peggy – and what an attention-getter! It really takes me back to my NatGeo days. Beautiful costumes and I love how you handled the whole subject. 🙂 ~Terri
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Thanks Terri. It took some time to decide exactly how to present the pics, and to choose the ones to show.
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What amazing photos. And full of color. Thanks for sharing the photos. The show must be such an experience.
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Thanks, I hope more people take the opportunity to go.
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Now that I know about it, straight onto my bucket list!
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This is who we travelled with—http://www.bestofpng.com/
Much of Papua New Guinea is not safe, so best to go in a group.
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Very…revealing post, lol. I just couldn’t help but think to myself what it’d be like to walk into that environment and go, what’s sagging…er…I mean hanging? 🙂
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Hahaha—there was a lot of sagging and hanging. 🙂
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Interesting pictures, abundant images of what we cannot see here!
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Yes, I think these pics could be taken only in Papua New Guinea.
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Hi,
Like many have said, some excellent photos of the Goroka Show in PNG. And you have done a great job of getting some close up face shots as well. I have some general questions and comments:
1) The woman and with painted faces appear to look more male then female?
2) The woman appear to be overweight somewhat? Is that normal for PNG?
3) Being overweight and having big “Breasts,” Do you think that is why they have been chosen to represent their tribe at this show?
4) I have been told that in the Philippians the natives can care less about beautiful looking birds and kill them. Do you think that is also the case in PNG?… and destroying their beautiful bird population (based on seeing so many performers with colorful feathers).
5) Have you had the time to go to some restaurants and what is their food like? Similar to the Philippians and other cuisines in Asia.
6) Are the people friendly, like other Asian countries?
7) Since PNG does have dangerous areas, would you consider going to a few interesting places in the future?
SyS
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Hi Sy, sorry to take so long to reply, but it’s been super busy here. Also had to think about answers to your questions. So here goes.
1, 2 and 3) PNG has about 800 languages and probably about as many tribes. In Goroka, I noticed so many different facial and body features, skin colours, heights, weights and such. More than 100 tribes were represented and some had overweight (and busty) performers and others didn’t. Not sure whether it’s down to tribal traits, genetics or diet, but I don’t think body type had anything to do with who performed.
4) Papua New Guineans love their birds, but I guess they love their costumes too. All the costumes rely heavily on organic materials. Sadly that includes feathers. Not sure if the birds are always killed to obtain the feathers. But I do know that the same costumes (except for the grassy and reedy materials) are used again and again.
5) We ate in a few restaurants in Goroka and had Western and Chinese food. But that’s just for foreigners. When we stayed in villages (we overnighted in four different villages) we ate mostly carbs because that’s what’s so readily available. Some meals were based on three or four types of carbs.
6) We found the people friendly. The four villages we stayed in knocked themselves out to welcome us. The Goroka performers were wonderful too.
7) Many parts of Papua New Guinea are extremely dangerous and I plan on writing a separate post about that. But I’d be willing to travel if accompanied.
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Hello Brave Leggy and Pour John,
With all the countries you both have been to, I can’t imagine you not going to and traveling through some hostile, potentially dangerous areas. When you have the time perhaps you can post about the other villages you visited…. The Goroka Show and your photos and commentary were very interesting, but it would be nice to see some scenery of the countryside and other interesting sights. Too bad you have not done any snorkelling and get some underwater fish/coral photos. I know asking to much?!
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I’ll be posting lots more about the villages we visited. Stay tuned. Oh, and we did go snorkelling, but I don’t have an underwater camera.
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This is totally off the subject…well, not really but….when I was a kid my WW2 veteran grandfather, who only ever cursed once in front of me, employed the word “boob” as a synonym for “idiot.” To my sister, who was being a brat, “stop being such a boob.” Over dinner, “all those boobs in congress.” I guess i was around 10 when this started to just SLAY me every time he said it. I nearly choked on food a dozen times over, because my complete illustratied boob database at that point consisted of photos like those you posted above. I’m giggling right now despite myself, because I’m a terrible person. I’m sorry, but thank you.
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Oh JunkChuck, you are most welcome! But a big thanks to you too. You can bet I’ll start referring to ‘all those boobs in Parliament’ and ‘what a boob of a Prime Minister Australia has’. Perhaps together we can help this word to recover its, by far, more useful meaning. And none of this giggling business for me, I’m still laughing and laughing and laughing. Many thanks for such a great story to start my day.
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It doesn’t take long for the entire boob thing to become ho hum. One, two boobs done. The outfits however are really fun and your writing of the limited sources of materials for making clothing reminds me of a company here in the U.S. (USAgain) that collects clothing in metal containers spread throughout cities. They have trucks on routes picking up the donated clothing and then in each location there is a huge machine that puts the clothes into bundles similar to very large bundles of hay. The bundles are then packed in containers, sent to third world countries where people bid on the bundles so they can usually open a shop selling the clothing from a world away, an ocean anyway.
I think the owner needs to ship some containers to PNG! Maybe a whole ship full! Quite amazing to not even have scraps to sew together.
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The developing world is full of our castaway clothing. Thirty years ago I noticed a kid’s outfit in Burma. It looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it. No, it wasn’t from our family. It was part of a uniform from a well-known fast-food outlet.
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It’s interesting. It’s as though the bared top is part of their art, the way those leaves below the waist accentuate and follow the shape/lines of the breasts.
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Every group of costumes is so carefully planned that I’m sure you’re right.
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Beautiful photos greetings Wolfgang
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Thanks and cheers.
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You’re the only other blogger that I’ve ever run across on WP who has been to the Goroka Show. I went back in 1995. My photos aren’t nearly as good as yours. I had only a crappy camera back then and then the photos nearly got ruined by humidity. But there are plenty of boobie shots. It’s funny how modest the dress is outside of the show. I was told that women couldn’t show shoulders or knees. I sure suffered from the heat because of that.
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Thanks so much for stopping by.
Yep, the Goroka Show doesn’t draw a lot of tourists. I think about 400 VIP tickets were sold, up a little from the previous year. I doubt the show has changed much since 1995, although there are no rules now in relation to women showing shoulders and knees. I wore shorts the whole time. I was quite pleased with many of the pics, and still have more to post including a trip north to Tufi.
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I think there were just 50 of us VIPs when I was there…
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Wow, that’s amazing. I’m so glad you dropped by with your comments.
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Maybe not National Geographic, in that you didn’t get paid, but the pictures are just as colorful, in focus and full of eye catching contrast though.
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You are absolutely right. I didn’t get paid, but I still had a great time. Glad you liked the pics.
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Reblogged this on Spiritual challenges and commented:
My recommendation, for Sunday afternoon !With love maxima
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Thanks so much.
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Beautiful world, wonderful people.
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And amazing too. 🙂
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wow, genuine boobs! They’re not silicone…! 🙂 🙂
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Definitely the real thing. 🙂
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🙂 🙂
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Yeah, nothing wrong. The human body is awesome
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Totally awesome.
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I quite agree. I don’t understand why America has such a huge problem/obsession with it. This country definitely distorts the way we feel about ourselves based on our body composition. I think there are better things for the media to focus on, no?
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Much better things for the media to focus on.
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Outstanding photos! What kind of camera do you use to take these?
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Thanks Ray. I have an Canon EOS 600D camera body with a rather expensive EFS 15–85mm lens that I use most of the time. The lens does most of the work. I just push the shutter button. 🙂
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We have something similar in Florida. Google some images of “key west fantasy fest”. Lots of colorful costumes but, many of them are nothing but paint. I don’t think National Geo has covered that festival.
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Oh my, those are definitely colourful and fantasy costumes. I think the National Geographic might skip covering this event.
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Whilst in the south of Ethiopia I met 4 soldiers, dressed in tattered clothes – one was a girl. I asked if I could get a photo, they agreed. But she wasn’t going to be photographed in rags so stripped, and I got my picture. Maybe I’ll find it again one day.
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I’d love to see it. Reminds me of a gal I saw at a bus stop in Cameroon. She was wearing shoes and pearls.
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especially like your title for this piece Peggy – it made me chuckle. be well and… continue…
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Thanks. It took me a while to think up the title. Stay well, stay sane, stay home.
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The thing that impresses me it is not immodest nor done to flaunt. Thanks for the post!
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You’re welcome. It was an amazing experience.
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Not quite Playboy either, but plenty of colour and natural material 🙂
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I’d love to go to the Goroka Show again. Such a fabulous experience.
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I do so love encountering your past adventures! I hope you and yours are well. Apart from the typical sniffles from Autumn colds, we’re doing well–just driving each other crazy being at home all the time. 🙂
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So good to know the autumn sniffles are your only health problems. Sorry the proximity is causing angst.
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We’ll make due here. You just be safe as best you can!
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Thanks Jean, Canberra has been a real safe haven. No cases for 97 days. You stay safe too.
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Beautiful story splashed with a rainbow of colors 🙂 Pacific Islands on my wish-list. Perhaps not easy to access now with COVID restrictions. Bliss.
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Thanks so much. I can highly recommend the shows in Papua New Guinea. I’d love to go again.
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