Baining

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The Baining people are among the earliest and original inhabitants of the Gazelle area of East New Britain, Papua New Guinea. They currently live in the Baining mountains on the Gazelle Peninsula where they are thought to have been driven to by the Tolai tribes who migrated to the coastal areas in comparatively recent times. Another factor that may have driven them away from the coastal areas to the mountainous interior was major volcanic activity that took place over centuries. (As recently as 1994, the nearby town of Rabaul was almost completely destroyed by two volcanoes, Tavurvur and Vulcan)

The Baining tribes get their name from the Baining mountains which they inhabit. Their language is also called Baining of which their are a few different dialects.

The Baining are somewhat of an of an oddity amongst Melanesian cultures because they create art forms that have a very ephemeral existence. The masks you see in the pictures are laboriously made from bark cloth, bamboo and leaves and used just once for the firedance ceremony before being thrown away or destroyed.

The origin of these firedance ceremonies was to celebrate the birth of new children; the commencement of harvests and also a way of remembering the dead. The Baining firedance is also a right of passage for initiating young men into adulthood. The fire dance is a totally male event and traditionally the Baining women and children do not take part in it or even watch it.