Motu people

The Motu are native inhabitants of Papua New Guinea, living along the southern coastal area of the country.

They and the Koitabu people are the original inhabitants and owners of the land on which Port Moresby — the national capital city — stands.

[2] Every year, they practiced the hiri, when community members made trading voyages through the Gulf of Papua.

[3] American painter Caroline Mytinger visited Motu villages during her voyage along Melanesia in the 1920s, painting native portraits along the way, including the scene of a Motu girl in dancing costume with a local sorceress in Hanuabada village.

These include the value of traditional music and dance, observing the bridewealth and still retaining most of the land rights in the Port Moresby region.

Tattooing among females of the Koitabu people of Papua New Guinea traditionally began at age five and was added to each year, with the V-shaped tattoo on the chest indicating that she had reached marriageable age, 1912.