Welcome back everyone! It’s your favorite show on the airwaves… Continental Drift! We’ve missed you all, and we’re happy to be back. Some of y’all may remember that we lost our dear member Kirby last semester to grad school, but Aiya and I (and maybe a new person) will be holding it down this semester as we take you on a worldwide journey of music. Expect themed episodes, deep dives on countries, and some real cool tunes from all around the globe.

To start this semester off, we’ll be going allll the way to Papua New Guinea! This island country in Oceania comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea (which it shares with Indonesia to the west), and is situated just north of Australia. PNG has a complex history, and traded colonial rulers a few times during the turn of the 19th century before being ceded to Australia and finally unified following WWII. The country was only granted independence in 1975. 

The music of Papua New Guinea is heavily influenced by a combination of the traditional music of the country as well as syncretic forms of genres from the Western hemisphere such as rock and jazz. Let’s look first at some folk music! Music tended to accompany celebrations that would involve visual performance elements, so while you’re only getting half the experience, we can talk about the instrumentation; one instrument found both in PNG and Indonesia is the suling, which is a type of aerophone, specifically a flute. Sulings tend to be made of bamboo and, as with other flutes, their sound is affected by fingerings and the speed of the player’s air stream. In public performances, they’re often combined with the tifa in a suling-tambur combination (this is not the same tambur as the type of Middle Eastern lute). There also are slit drums called garamuts, which have been historically made of hollowed tree trunks and used for communication in addition to their musical role. Though Western instruments like the guitar were eventually incorporated into folk music over the years, in some recordings you still hear native instruments like the jaw harp, other types of percussion such as rattles, and a panpipe-type instrument.

Folk music 

Gaima Plays the Bamboo Jew’s Harp // Gaima (you can read over this one if you like, it’s entirely instrumental)

Sadness // Lus Mangi Grin Neks String Band

Oh No! // Kemuli String Band

My Father, My Heart // Kemuli String Band

1950s-on

Like many communities in the pacific, Papua New Guinean music was highly influenced by the diffusion of radio and western music after the second world war. However, the cultural exchange (imperialism) was not a one-way street — 1949 saw the first Papuan to achieve international fame, Blasius To Una Turtava. Starting by composing hymns on a guitar he borrowed for 5 shillings, To Una became well known in the community of East New Britain for his ballads in his native Kuanua tongue and satirical songs in pidgin. Let’s hear one now:

Iau Lus Man Takado

Since the early days of colonization, Christian missionaries, gold miners, and seafarers brought their own instruments and merged their songs with local music. As a result, string bands became very popular throughout the island and formed the bulk of pop music at the time. Perhaps the most famous and certainly most enduring group is the Paramana Strangers, formed in the ‘60s, who have continued playing in generational incarnations — the current formation is a blend of second- and third-generation musicians directly descended from the original group. While we don’t have recordings from the original group, let’s hear what their descendants sound like:

Amongai Wai

Kapu Polu

The ‘60s also saw the development of syncretic forms of western rock music on the island. One group, known either as the Kopy Kats or the Freebeats, consisted of a group of australian immigrants who translated many common standards into motu, one of the native languages of the region, and wrote their own music. Here’s some now:

Heisi Emu Nega

The importation of bamboo bands, a style of music from the Solomon Islands using bamboo tubes played by hitting them with sandals first arrived in the area of Madang in the mid-1970s, and soon spread throughout the country. It’s pretty cool stuff! Though the genre is popular now in the autonomous region of Bougainville, the only available recordings we could find are from artists hailing directly from the Solomon islands. 

Mato

With their newfound independence from Australia, the music of PNG saw a distinct transition to emphasize the cultural traditions of the region more heavily. One such group to do so was Sanguma, a musical ensemble active from 1977 to 1985. They combined music from the cultural traditions of Papua New Guinea with Western instruments and were one of the first Papua New Guinean music groups to perform internationally. Sanguma was formed at the Papua New Guinea National Arts School in 1977 through a training program called the creative workshop that valued learning in the real situation and the natural oral tradition ability of Papua New Guineans. Students were encouraged to share traditional music and culture from their local communities and create a contemporary arrangement of it. 

Garden Song

Another example of this contemporary mix of styles is given by George Telek Mamua, known simply as Telek. His music blends the traditional three-part harmonies of his native Tolai and modern forms of pop, jazz and rock. He is best known for his music created with the group Painim Wok in the ‘80s, and his 1997 self-titled debut, for which he won the ARIA Award for Best World Music Album

Painim Wok

Melbourne City

PNG Reggae

There’s this one specific guy, known mononymously as Anslom, who apparently is one of the leading reggae acts out of Papua New Guinea! Here’s some of him now (why yes this is Kirby Jamaicaning the show from beyond the grave)

(thank god we have our expert on the case - JW)

Can’t Lie // Anslom

Till The End of Time // Anslom

Bucket Ren // Anslom

PNG Rap

At present, Papua New Guinea has a thriving local hip-hop scene, with performers rapping in both English for international audiences and local dialects. Let’s hear some  music from Sprigga Mek, an award-winning multilingual artist rapping in English, Pidgin,Mekeo and Motu.