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Michael Mel is a Papua New Guinean academic in visual arts at the University of Goroka, curator, philosopher, musician and playwright. Mel was born in 1959 in Wila near Vulcano Hagan in the Western Highlands. [1] [2]
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Michael Mel is a Papua New Guinean academic in visual arts at the University of Goroka, curator, philosopher, musician and playwright. Mel was born in 1959 in Wila near Vulcano Hagan in the Western Highlands. [1] [2]
Michael Mel born in 1959,was from wila village, Mount Hagen. His father had great memory remembering family history up to 5 generations. His parents never tasted rice and bread, and Michael revealed he grew up on kaukau (sweet potatoes). He went to school with Sisters of Mercy. [3]
As an artist Mel principally specialized in performance and installation art and body painting. Furthermore, he is known for his Chanted Tales, traditional historic stories of local people that serve for passing social responsibility and morality. Mel exerted himself to it that people obtained access to them again, since they had fallen into oblivion since English language had become the principal language in the country. [1] [2]
In 2006 Mel was honored with a Prince Claus Award for his key role in the cultural development of the communities of the highlands of Papua New Guinea. [4] [5]
Papua New Guinea is a country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and its offshore islands in Melanesia. Officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, it shares its only land border with Indonesia to the west and it is directly adjacent to Australia to the south and the Solomon Islands to the east. Its capital, located along its southeastern coast, is Port Moresby. The country is the world's third largest island country, with an area of 462,840 km2 (178,700 sq mi).
Trans–New Guinea (TNG) is an extensive family of Papuan languages spoken on the island of New Guinea and neighboring islands, a region corresponding to the country Papua New Guinea as well as parts of Indonesia.
The Papuan languages are the non-Austronesian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands in Indonesia, Solomon Islands, and East Timor by around 4 million people. It is a strictly geographical grouping, and does not imply a genetic relationship.
Paias Wingti is a Papua New Guinean politician. He served as the third prime minister of Papua New Guinea between 1985 and 1988, and again from 1992 to 1994.
Western New Guinea, also known as Papua, Indonesian New Guinea, and Indonesian Papua, is the western, Indonesian half of the island of New Guinea. Since the island is alternatively named Papua, the region is also called West Papua.
Southern Highlands is a province in Papua New Guinea. Its provincial capital is the town of Mendi. According to Papua New Guinea's national 2011 census, the total population of Southern Highlands is 515,511 spread across 15,089 square kilometers (5,826 sq mi).
The culture of Papua New Guinea is many-sided and complex. It is estimated that more than 7000 different cultural groups exist in Papua New Guinea, and most groups have their own language. Because of this diversity, in which they take pride, many different styles of cultural expression have emerged; each group has created its own expressive forms in art, dance, weaponry, costumes, singing, music, architecture and much more. To unify the nation, the language Tok Pisin, once called Neo-Melanesian has evolved as the lingua franca — the medium through which diverse language groups are able to communicate with one another in Parliament, in the news media, and elsewhere. People typically live in villages or dispersed hamlets which rely on the subsistence farming of yams and taro. The principal livestock in traditional Papua New Guinea is the oceanic pig.
Michael James LeahyMBE was an Australian explorer and gold prospector, famed for his exploration of the Highlands area of Papua New Guinea. He photographed, filmed and published many of his explorations widely.
East New Guinea Highlands is a 1960 proposal by Stephen Wurm for a family of Papuan languages spoken in Papua New Guinea that formed part of his 1975 expansion of Trans–New Guinea.
The Prince Claus Fund was established in 1996, named in honor of Prince Claus of the Netherlands. It receives an annual subsidy from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Andrew Kenneth Pawley, FRSNZ, FAHA, is Emeritus Professor at the School of Culture, History & Language of the College of Asia & the Pacific at the Australian National University.
Daulo District is part of the Eastern Highlands Province in Papua New Guinea. It is along the Highlands highway leading to the other Highlands provinces, namely Simbu Province, Western Highlands, Southern Highlands and Enga Province. Daulo District shares geographical border with Simbu Province and Madang Province. Part of Daulo District's Upper Asaro Constituency is a walking distance to Mt. Wilhelm, Papua New Guinea's highest mountain in Simbu Province. Daulo is the real home of the famous Asaro Mudmen. It has a total population of over 45,000 people. It has a small district office administered by the District Administrator who is a representative of the provincial government. The electoral member for Daulo, with the help of the governor for the province, is responsible for the set up and running of Daulo District similarly with the other districts in the Eastern Highlands Province. The district was partly the implementation of the reform initiative undertaken by the Morauta government in 1995.
The Great Papuan Plateau is a karst plateau in the Southern Highlands, Hela and Western Provinces of Papua New Guinea. It is bordered the upper stretches of the Kikori River and the Strickland River on the east and west, respectively, and the Karius Range, the southern edge of the highlands, including Mount Sisa, to the north, and Mount Bosavi to the south.
The New Guinea Highlands, also known as the Central Range or Central Cordillera, is a long chain of mountain ranges on the island of New Guinea, including the island's tallest peak, Puncak Jaya, Indonesia, 16,024 ft (4,884 m), the highest mountain in Oceania. The range is home to many intermountain river valleys, many of which support thriving agricultural communities. The highlands run generally east-west the length of the island, which is divided politically between Indonesia in the west and Papua New Guinea in the east.
James Marape is a Papua New Guinean politician who has served as the prime minister of Papua New Guinea since May 2019. He has been a member of the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea since July 2007, representing the electorate of Tari-Pori Open in Hela Province in the highlands. He has held Cabinet Posts as Minister of Education (2008–2011), Minister of Finance (2012–2019), and Minister of Foreign Affairs (2023–present). Marape entered the 2022 elections under the banner of Pangu Party and won more seats than any other party. He was therefore entitled to form the government. His new government was elected unopposed by the new parliament.
The monarchy of Papua New Guinea is a system of government in which a hereditary monarch is the sovereign and head of state of Papua New Guinea. The current Papua New Guinean monarch and head of state, since 8 September 2022, is King Charles III. As sovereign, he is the personal embodiment of the Papua New Guinean Crown. Although the person of the sovereign is equally shared with 14 other independent countries within the Commonwealth of Nations, each country's monarchy is separate and legally distinct. As a result, the current monarch is officially titled King of Papua New Guinea and, in this capacity, he and other members of the royal family undertake public and private functions domestically and abroad as representatives of Papua New Guinea. However, the King is the only member of the royal family with any constitutional role.
New Guinea is the world's second-largest island, with an area of 785,753 km2 (303,381 sq mi). Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the 150-kilometre wide Torres Strait, though both landmasses lie on the same continental shelf, and were united during episodes of low sea level in the Pleistocene glaciations as the combined landmass of Sahul. Numerous smaller islands are located to the west and east. The island's name was given by Spanish explorer Yñigo Ortiz de Retez during his maritime expedition of 1545 due to the resemblance of the indigenous peoples of the island to those in the African region of Guinea.
The West Trans–New Guinea languages are a suggested linguistic linkage of Papuan languages, not well established as a group, proposed by Malcolm Ross in his 2005 classification of the Trans–New Guinea languages. Ross suspects they are an old dialect continuum, because they share numerous features that have not been traced to a single ancestor using comparative historical linguistics. The internal divisions of the languages are also unclear. William A. Foley considers the TNG identity of the Irian Highlands languages at least to be established.
Joe Nalo is an artist from Papua New Guinea. Nalo is a painter, printmaker, art teacher and curator. He was the first curator for contemporary art at the National Museum and Art Gallery of Papua New Guinea. Nalo has been described in the journal Pacific Arts as "one of the best contemporary artists" in Papua New Guinea.
The karuka is a species of tree in the screwpine family (Pandanaceae) and an important regional food crop in New Guinea. The nuts are more nutritious than coconuts, and are so popular that villagers in the highlands will move their entire households closer to trees for the harvest season.