A STUDENT TEACHES HIS PEERS TO DANCE

PAPUA New Guinea is an interesting country and we continue to find interesting things with the young people.

I was looking through my files and came across a newspaper report submitted after the Independence Day celebrations in 2010.

It was about a Grade 10 student and his group performing a traditional dance. The interesting thing was the young man taught his school mates and they performed it during the celebrations in Port Moresby.

The story below appeared in The National on Sept 20, 2010.

(NB. I will show you a video clip that I took of the dancing boys and girls  in the next post. I think it is awesome.)

Picture: Badihagwa School student Cedric Kini, the teacher, with his kundu drum.

The 35th independence anniversary which was celebrated in Port Moresby’s Pidik Park last Friday was witnessed by hundreds of the city’s citizens. Even during the night fireworks illuminated the black sky.

Participants during the day time included school children who marched in the parade and danced on and around the main stage at the park in their colourful costumes.

Among the student groups were students from Badihagwa Secondary School who were performing a war dance from Kalo in Central’s Rigo district.

The dance is called Kwale and was taught to the students by Grade 10 student Cedric Kini. Kini was taught the dance by his cousins.

“You notice that it is the girls that are singing. In the first part they are farewelling the males before the fight. In the later case the females are welcoming the males back from the fight,” Kini said.

Kini and his group will be performing the war dance again next Friday at UPNG’s drill hall for their cultural day.