Papua New Guinea
Tari (Southern Highlands)
This cool alpine town is the home of the famous Huli Wigmen. Famous for their elaborate and colourful dress, these proud warriors have great reverence for birds, imitating them in ceremonial dances and decorating their wigs with feathers, flowers and cuscus fur. The wigs are woven from human hair. Everlasting daisies are especially cultivated for use in the wigs, while their faces are painted with yellow ochre. The women, by contrast wear black for their wedding and coat themselves with blue-grey clay when mourning.

Clans have a strong and intricate social system little affected by change. It is one of the few places where the traditional way of life can be seen in everyday living. Ceremonial rituals are strongly observed. Men and women can still be seen wearing traditional dress, tending their gardens and pigs and building their bush material huts.

Geographical Setting

The land in which the Huli people dwell is one of contrasting scenery, notable for its rugged mountain ranges and fertile, swampy valleys.  The rivers that drain the area are subterranean in sections, and there are numerous caves and potholes in the limestone rock formations.  In places, the rivers run swiftly through deep gorges, while elsewhere they take a less hurried course through swamplands in the wide, expansive intermontane basins. 

The slopes of all but the tallest of the mountains are covered in dense rain forests, with here and there an outcrop of white limestone cliff or a patch of light green sword grass.  The rain forests provide timber, vine and bamboo for the construction of dwellings and the crafting of artefacts, while pandanus palms in the high bush yield crops of nuts, rich in protein and harvested each year.

There are many areas of volcanic soil ideal for the cultivation of sweet potato, the staple diet of the Huli.  Arable land is to be found along the higher ridges of the swamps and on mountain knolls and the smaller high plateaux where people plant their gardens and husband their pigs.  Small game animals, such as pigs, possums and cassowary, provide protein, and are also hunted for their pelts and feathers.

The success of Huli subsistence economy is linked to the climatic conditions, especially to the high annual rainfall.  Persistent and heavy rain always brings the threat of flooding and crop damage, while even short periods of drought can bring frost to the higher regions. 

Some people live at heights as great as 2,000 metres above sea level, while others dwell in the deeper mountain valleys and in lower areas of the central cordillera at altitudes of only 1,000 metres.  Consequently, temperatures across Huliland can vary considerably, although the main body of the population  -  in the Wabia-Lumulumu-Burani-Goloba region  - enjoys a daily temperature of about 20C and an average nightly temperature of around 10C.  This temperate climate persists throughout the year.

The climate, the rugged terrain, the flora and fauna: all are important environmental factors in Huli life.  They are constant referents in Huli poetical expressions (cf  Pugh-Kitigan 1975: 191) and function as a significant form of communication, both phatic and ritual.  Such environmental factors are also determinants in Huli structural and behavioural patterns, and in Huli technology and ideology.

Ambua Lodge
The Ambua Lodge is nestled on a mountainside south-west of the Tari township, along the Southern Highlands stretch of the Highlands Highway. When the Highway was in pefectly driveable condition, a bus ride to Ambua from the Tari airstrip used to take 40 minutes. It now takes one hour 50 minutes.

Among Ambua's top tour activities are bird watching, orchid viewing and village study tours, which include wig-growing and wig-making, widows in mourning, spirit dances, sun worshipping, traditional weddings, singsings and other cultural demonstrations.

There are also soft adventure activities like nature walks along the Wota and Magara Rivers viewing rhododendrons, orchids and the serenity of free-flowing waterfalls that cascade into crystal-clear pools.

Commonly sighted around the Tari Gap area and the birding sites around the Lodge are the Blue Bird of Paradise, Crested Bird of Paradise, Loria's Bird of Paradise, Yellow-breasted Bird of Paradise, Brown Sicklebill, Black Sicklebill, the magnificent Astrapia species - Ribbon-tailed Astrapia, Arfak Astrapia, Stephanie's Astrapia (Princess Stephanie) - Wahnes' Parotia, King of Saxony Bird of Paradise and the Superb Bird of Paradise, popularly worn by the Hulis on the front of their headdresses.

For more information on the Huli Wigman, go to: The Huli People of PNG