During my summer vacation as a student, I spent a few weeks in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea with some classmates for a university research project. One memorable moment from that trip was meeting the elders of Taguru Village in the Pangia District. I was there to work on my history dissertation about ‘First Contact’ in the region.

To gather information, I teamed up with a local student who helped me as a translator. Together, we interviewed many of the village elders about their first encounters with white men, which happened in the 1940s. Before that time, the locals used stone axes, and shells were their currency. It was only after the 1940s that steel started being traded in the area.

One elder, in particular, made a lasting impression. Wearing a pith helmet, he humorously demonstrated how he used to mock-attack, showing how they fought with neighboring tribes. We shared many laughs during this interview.

If you’re curious about where this took place, Taguru Village is far from any tourist routes and might still be quite remote even today. It’s been about 20 years since my visit, but I imagine Papua New Guinea remains an off-the-beaten-path destination. Has anyone else had the chance to visit Papua New Guinea?