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Prior to 1904, theBilibil people lived on anisland offshore fromMadang, Papua New Guinea, trading clay pots along the coast fromKarkar Island to westernMorobe Province. The island was too small to produce enough food for the inhabitants, and the trade therefore was an essential element of their life. They moved to the mainland to their existing village site to improve theirsubsistence levels. They speak theBilibil language, anAustronesian language.
Bilibil women makepots, which are still produced in thetraditional way.Clay for the pots is collected locally, and mixed withsand and water. The pots are hollowed out with stones and smoothed on the outside by beating with a flat board. Before they arefired, red clay is painted on the pots. This turns them a glossy red and black when they are pulled out of thefire.
The pots are put to many uses; most importantly, they are used forbride price ceremonies. Sometimes pots are stillbartered for food. Inland people meet the Bilibils at a pre-arranged place, and pots are exchanged fortaro andyams from the mountains. No money is used in these exchanges.
Traditionally the Bilibils have been greatseamen. They built large two-mastedcanoes which they would use to travel hundreds of kilometres along the coast to trade with other villages. Tools for boat building were made from wood, pig's bone, sharpened bamboo and stone. In 1978, it had been 40 years since a traditional canoe had been built by the Bilibil people, and the skills for building these boats had been almost lost. Four elderly men taught the others how to build a canoe using local trees for thehull, theoutrigger and the supports. The sail was woven out ofpandanus leaves, a shelter was built frombamboo with palm leaves for a roof, and a woodencockatoo, a clantotem, was attached to the mast.
Traditional houses had roofs that came to the ground, and each clan had a men's house which the women were not allowed to enter. Nowadays each family lives in their own house. They are made from bush materials and have large airyverandahs. The houses are about two metres off the ground; the women sit underneath and make their pots.
Most of the cooking and eating is done outside.Yams andtaro are the staple diet and these are grown in large gardens behind the village. The men do the initial preparation of a new garden, but the women do most of the gardening. The yams are ready for harvest in June, and the harvest is celebrated with yamfeasts. June is also the traditional new year as marked by the appearance of thePleiades.
Young men are initiated intomanhood by the older Bilibil men who take them over to Bilibil Island for about 12 days and instruct them in the way to behave as adults. When they return to the village, they are paraded through the houses and a celebration is held with feasting and dancing.
