Madang celebrated revived Maborosa Festival in style, by Esther Haro

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“Ten toea ring, ten toea ring, baim ten toea ring na winim K2, K5, K10,” a man calls out to attract people to his stall to try out their luck. Ten toea ring, buy one ring for ten toea and win K2, K5 and K10.

Against the background of his alluring calls comes a cacophony of traditional songs, kundus, the rhythmic beat of the brass band, the police bag pipers, intermingled with the happy claps and delightful shouts of children and the adults.

Beautiful Madang came alive last weekend with the staging of the four-day Maborosa Festival from the 13th - 16th of September.

The Festival was last held in 1997 and was revived this year.
The show was organised by Agatha Yama, the owner of Smugglers Inn Resort, and the wife of Minister for Labour and Industrial Relations Peter Yama.

During the day the people were treated to various cultural and theatre performances, they watched with great amusement a funny event called greasy pole where people compete to climb a pole daubed in thick engine grease for prizes ranging from electronic goods to household goods and money strung above.

Band Show:

Photographs: Courtesy - Patrick Matbob - teacher of journalism at DWU.

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There was also canoe racing from Krangket Island to the Smugglers Inn Resort. At night, the crowds reveled and danced to the music by live bands and a Fijian music group.

The show goers took their chance on various games of luck such as trying to pop a balloon with tennis balls, throwing rings around bottles and cups which had cash from K2 – K20 wrapped around them, dart and throwing rings onto coins placed on cards on a table to win amounts from K2 to K20.

The show kick started on Saturday with colourful floats, followed by a parade from the police band, the brass band, the Correctional Institutional Services and students from primary and secondary schools in Madang.

Siassi Sing Sing Group:

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The Show was officially declared open by the Governor General of Indonesia, John Djopari. Also present was the Governor of Enga, Peter Ipatas, Minister for Tourism Nick Kuman, Minister for Labour and Industrial Relations, Peter Yama, Governor of Madang, James Yali and other dignitaries.

Governor Yali said out of the 800 different plus languages found in PNG, Madang had 170 different languages.

He said the geographical location of Madang on the map of PNG made it seem as if it was the eye of the country.

“The eye of the country is in Madang, you want to see PNG come to eye of the country and that is Madang,” he said.

This year Madang hosted several important conferences including the South Pacific Judiciary conference, Women and Mining conference, the Australasia and Pacific Regional Ombudsman conference and others more.

Tourism minister, Nick Kuman said most travelling tourists to Papua New Guinea are attracted by the richness of the cultures and this makes culture an essential tourism product apart from bird watching, scuba diving and trekking.

New Ireland Guys:

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“Culture is a rich tourism commodity. We have our carvings, traditional dances, arts and crafts, contemporary theatre groups and so fort.
“Culture has a lot to offer to the development of the tourism industry in PNG,” he said.

Mr Kuman said whilst trying to promote the cultures, people should also ensure that their cultures are protected from exploitation because it was their pride and gave them their identity.

He added that it was important that culture was maintained and passed on from one generation to the next.

Colourful Garamuts:

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The Maborasa Show committee under the Smugglers Inn Resort spent about K134,000 to stage the four-day show.

The Chairman of the organising committee, Francis Steven said Smugglers Inn Resort took the initiative to stage the show because they wanted to revive the show, promote the cultures of PNG through the 48 cultural groups that participated and to give the people of Madang a treat.

Mr Steven said they will look at how the show went this year and improve upon it and make it bigger and better next year.

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Siassi Sing Sing Group: