Who Are the Huli?
The Huli are one of the largest indigenous groups in Papua New Guinea, numbering approximately **250,000 people** inhabiting the Hela Province in the Southern Highlands. They are renowned worldwide for their spectacular **wig culture**—ceremonial headdresses made from their own hair, cultivated over years and adorned with bird-of-paradise feathers, flowers, and ochre paints. The Huli have inhabited their fertile highland valleys for at least **1,000 years**, developing sophisticated agricultural systems based on sweet potato cultivation and pig husbandry. Their society is organized through complex kinship networks, with elaborate ceremonial exchanges and warfare traditions that shaped regional politics until the mid-20th century.
The Sacred Art of Wig-Making
Huli **wig culture** represents one of the world's most elaborate male adornment traditions. Young men enter **wig schools** run by bachelor cult masters, where they spend 18 months to 3 years growing their hair while observing strict taboos—no contact with women, special diets, sleeping with neck rests to protect hair growth. The hair is carefully cultivated, then cut and woven into mushroom-shaped ceremonial wigs decorated with bird-of-paradise plumes, everlasting daisies, and brilliant paints. These wigs, called **mali**, represent spiritual power and masculine beauty. Men may own multiple wigs for different occasions—warfare, courtship, and ceremonies. The tradition continues today, with Huli wigmen regularly appearing at cultural festivals, their spectacular appearance having made them icons of Papua New Guinean heritage.
Highland Agriculture and Society
Huli society centers on **sweet potato** (kau kau) cultivation in the fertile highland valleys, supplemented by extensive pig husbandry. Pigs are not merely food but sacred wealth used in bride price, compensation payments, and ceremonial exchanges. The Huli developed sophisticated **mound gardening** techniques, rotating crops through multiple garden plots to maintain soil fertility. Society is organized through **clans** (hameigini) traced through patrilineal descent, with complex relationships between cognatic kin groups. Traditional warfare between clans was endemic until Australian pacification in the 1950s-60s, with elaborate systems of compensation and alliance maintaining social order. Men and women traditionally lived in separate houses—a practice reflecting beliefs about pollution and the dangers of female sexuality to male spiritual power.
Cosmology and Spiritual Beliefs
Huli cosmology centers on **Datagaliwabe**, a powerful spirit associated with fertility and social order, and numerous **dama** (spirits) inhabiting the landscape. The Huli believe they live in a world of declining moral and physical power from a pristine original state. Rituals aim to restore fertility to land, pigs, and people. **Bachelor cults** prepared young men spiritually and physically through taboos and body decoration. Spirit mediums communicated with dama, diagnosing illness and prescribing remedies. While Christianity has transformed Huli spiritual life since missionization (1950s-60s), traditional beliefs persist, often syncretized with Christian practice. The spectacular **tege** ritual, performed to restore cosmic order, involved massive ceremonial gatherings with thousands of decorated warriors—a tradition now revived for cultural festivals.
Contemporary Challenges
The Huli face significant challenges from resource extraction—their homeland contains vast **natural gas reserves** exploited through the PNG LNG project, generating billions in revenue but limited local benefit and considerable social disruption. Land disputes, inequality, and expectations of development have created tensions. Traditional governance systems struggle against modern pressures. Yet Huli culture remains vibrant: **wig traditions** continue, adapted to tourism and cultural performance; the Huli language thrives with approximately 150,000 speakers; and community leaders work to preserve traditions while navigating modernity. Annual **sing-sings** (cultural festivals) showcase Huli performance arts, attracting tourists and reinforcing cultural pride. The Huli demonstrate remarkable resilience, maintaining distinctive identity while adapting to unprecedented change.
References
- Goldman, L. (1983). Talk Never Dies: The Language of Huli Disputes. Tavistock.
- Frankel, S. (1986). The Huli Response to Illness. Cambridge University Press.
- Ballard, C. (2000). "The Fire Next Time: The Conversion of the Huli Apocalypse." Ethnohistory, 47(1), 205-225.
- Wardlow, H. (2006). Wayward Women: Sexuality and Agency in a New Guinea Society. University of California Press.