Baining people

The Baining migration inland may also have been influenced by major volcanic activity taking place over the centuries around the present day town of Rabaul on the north-east coast.

[2] With the additional stress of epidemics and forced acculturation, mid 20th century missionaries spoke of the Baining as a "dying" people, but the community has since recovered.

[2] Colonial administrators forced the Baining into settled villages, changing their previous semi-nomadic lifestyle, though their cultivation methods remained mostly unchanged.

[3] Attempts to introduce bananas, beans and other staple crops to Baining villages were generally resisted, although a variety of other vegetables are grown alongside taro.

[3] Ethnographers have noted that, similar to Samoans, Baining culture places little emphasis on attributes given a high value in the West, such as individualism and emotional expression, and instead focuses on an egalitarian outer social world where there is a strong commitment to the good of the community.

Masks are of two main types: in Kairak areas these are the kavat and the larger vungvung, the latter featuring an axial bamboo pole up to thirteen feet in length, and traditionally represented various male-associated animals and plants of the forest.

[8] The origin of these fire dance ceremonies was to celebrate the birth of new children; the commencement of harvests and also a way of remembering the dead: in the late 20th century tourism has encouraged their revival.