Papua New Guinea
Kiriwina Island, Papua New Guinea
Kiriwina Island: Trobriand Coral Lagoons and Traditional Culture at the Edge of the Pacific
Kiriwina is the largest of the Trobriand Islands, a group of low coral islands in the Solomon Sea that belong to Milne Bay Province in Papua New Guinea. Hospitals and clinics in Papua New Guinea offer only basic care, and serious cases are flown to Australia, so check that your travel insurance covers medical evacuation before you sail.
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Good to know
What Cruise Travelers Should Know
Your ship will explain how and where you come ashore on Kiriwina, a low raised-coral island more than 40 km long in the Solomon Sea. Losuia, the island's government station, has its airstrip, and Kiriwina's lodges are where visitors find restaurants and bars.
- The currency is the Papua New Guinean kina (K), divided into 100 toea.
- Kilivila, also called Kiriwina, is the island's own language and is used in local schools, where English is a required subject.
- The islands are hot and humid all year, with frequent rain, so bring sun protection, water and a light rain layer.
- Papua New Guinea keeps UTC+10 all year. All-aboard is usually about 30 minutes before sailing, your ship posts the exact time, and a ship will not wait for passengers who are late.
- Check your government's current travel advice for Papua New Guinea before going ashore.
Food and Drink on Kiriwina Island
Yams are the center of Trobriand food and farming, grown in large gardens and stored after the harvest. Places to eat are few on Kiriwina, and its restaurants are in the lodges.
- Yams: Yams dominate farming on the island, and in drier areas Trobrianders grow them to send to other islands.
- Betel nut: Many people chew betel nut with lime, which they carry in decorated gourds.
- Drinks: Beer and other drinks are sold in local stores, while the island's bars are in the lodges.
Culture and Traditions of the Trobriand Islands
On the Trobriands, descent passes through the mother's line, and the yam harvest sets the rhythm of the year. The islands are also one of the communities of the Kula ring, in which shell valuables travel from island to island across the sea.
- The Kula: Red shell-disc necklaces travel clockwise around a ring of 18 island communities, and white shell armbands travel the other way. On the Trobriands, the exchange is in the hands of the chiefs.
- Yam houses: Harvested yams are kept in tall storehouses raised above the ground, and carvings of these yam houses are a common Trobriand craft.
- The harvest festival: The Milamala yam festival has grown into the Kiriwina Cultural Show, a week of singing, dances and yam rituals. Its dances include the cricket dances and the circle dance called wosi mwaya.
- Trobriand cricket: A missionary introduced cricket in 1903 to reduce fighting between rival groups, and the islanders made it their own. Teams can have 40 or 50 players, the bowling is underarm, every out is followed by a dance, and the home side always wins.
- A lunar year: The Trobriand calendar follows the moon, and the year begins with the sighting of a spawning worm, which opens the Milamala festival.
History of Kiriwina Island
The first European ship reached the Trobriand Islands in 1793. A Methodist minister settled on Kiriwina in 1894, an anthropologist's books made the islands known around the world, and in 1943 Allied troops built an airfield on the island.
- 1793: The French ship Espérance reached the islands, and Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux gave them the name of his first lieutenant, Denis de Trobriand.
- 1850s and 1860s: Whalers stopped at the islands for food, water and firewood.
- 1894: The Methodist minister Samuel Benjamin Fellows and his wife, Sarah Margaret Fellows, moved to Kiriwina, the first Europeans to live in the islands. Colonial officers from Australia set up a government station about ten years later.
- 1903: The Methodist missionary William Gillmore introduced cricket, hoping it would reduce fighting between rival groups.
- 1915 to 1918: Bronisław Malinowski lived on the islands on two long expeditions, pitching his tent in the middle of the villages he studied. A plaque to him in Polish and English now stands in Omarakana, home village of the Paramount Chief, who says it marks where the tent stood.
- 1922 and 1929: Malinowski published Argonauts of the Western Pacific, his account of the Kula, and later The Sexual Life of Savages in North-Western Melanesia, which earned the Trobriands the name "the Islands of Love."
- 1930s: A Catholic mission of the Sacred Heart opened a settlement with a primary school.
- 1943: Allied forces landed on Kiriwina on June 30, 1943, and United States Army engineers built a coral-surfaced airfield. A taxiway finished on October 12 let it support a major air raid on Rabaul.
- 1975: Papua New Guinea became independent, and its own currency, the kina, was introduced in April of that year.
- 2022: In October, fighting between two groups on Kiriwina, set off by a death at a football match, killed at least 30 people.
Family Experiences at Kiriwina Island
A Kiriwina day with children is about people rather than attractions: dancing, yam houses and perhaps a game of cricket, in steady heat and far from the medical care you are used to. Keep the day short, carry water and repellent, and stay together.
- Younger children: Protect them from sun and mosquitoes, because malaria and dengue occur in Papua New Guinea and medical care there is basic.
- School age: Trobriand cricket is easy to follow at any age, with underarm bowling, a dance after every out and a home side that always wins. Children here wear traditional dress to school for a culture day each Wednesday.
- Teenagers: The Kula ring makes a good story for older children: shell necklaces and armbands are never kept for long, must be passed on, and bring prestige to whoever holds them, even briefly.
Shopping on Kiriwina Island
Wood carving is the craft the Trobriand Islands are known for, from small models of yam houses to bowls and walking sticks. Prices are in kina.
- Yam-house carvings: Carved models of the traditional yam storehouses are a typical Trobriand souvenir.
- Walking sticks and bowls: Trobriand carvers also make walking sticks of ebony and bowls set with mother-of-pearl.
- Lime gourds: Decorated gourds, made to carry the lime chewed with betel nut, are another island craft.
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