I remember watching that black and white footage in anthropology class. Huge battle. Interesting stuff, thanks!

War never changes, nor the reasons behind them. We ain't better. Atleast these guys are honest about it and admit they just want revenge.

I worked in PNG for a year. Tribal war is a way of life for these folks, and the government just lets them get it out of their systems. A lot of these people haven't made it all the way out of the trees yet. I know that is real un-PC to put it that way, but the best I can come up with. The further back in the Highlands you go, the worse it gets. People outside of the place don't realize how far behind the power curve a lot of these people are It's a shame, it's a beautiful country

i love the highlands.. and PS: they only fight when they have REALLY SERIOUS issues. besides that i love my culture; i love my highlands and I love my country

may i ask a question why do ppl in PNG kill each other like this? its very sad to me.....i hope one day all the ppl in PNG will all come together peacefully and live in happiness Fijians lived like this in the olden days....but we put aside our differences and thats why its a peaceful nation today i hope all can do the same

Tribal fighting in new Guinea Highlands is active when there is lack of Government presence and law and order authorities has less power to solve the problems. Vast majority of highlands leaders are so corrupted and they are not putting heads together to lead people in peace process and restoring government services. Therefore, local natives resort to tribal law as to protect their interest. PNG Government and NG highlands leaders has role to deliver Government services and actively enforce law and order to all entire Highlands region..

I'm a yank - grew up in the highlands of Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea; don't have specific information re: this particular matter, but I know things are much worse than when I was there. I still love the country. I don't think we can understand the rational or culture from the outside, just as they don't understand ours. Some of the nicest people I've ever known are the nationals of PNG and I'd love to get back there with my kids and wife.

People need to remember that this is tribal warfare, not industrialised warfare. Here they pick a place and time to fight and agree upon the rules if the battle is won or lost. Its basically their equivalent to a football game, except the injuries are far more severe. The problem with PNG right now is that warriors are basically 'cheating' by buying M16s to give them an unfair advantage, thus the death toll from these small conflicts is soaring far beyond what it would be with bows and arrows.

You speak an unpopular truth - but truth none the less - well done.

This tribal fights only happen in the Highlands areas, but the coastal areas are well civilized and live in modern lifestyle, dont comment negetive thoughts about the whole of Papua New Guinea if you dont have any idea wat u talking about, i live in PNG on the coastal area where there's alot of tourist and they regard PNG as a wonderful place. PEACE OWT TO ALL.

Very useful document.

Wise words. Thank you for knowing.

Oh Emmanuel my brother.I like your English.And good translate.

I don't understand how these people could fight and fight over decades ( if I'm correct) Here we are in the 21st century yet I feel that these of our brothers still couldn't find it in their hearts to forgive and work together as one whole community!! THIS IS VERY SAD !! I blame their tradition, culture and ways of living, all these have really currupted them!! I.M.O I feel that western culture needs to intervene and deliberate them !!

Freeze it at 5:43 !! Aaaaahhhhhhhh That is sooooo sweet Daddy taking his yrs old boy to Battle with him on "Fight Day".Now that's how a Father should spend quality time with his boy!!!

In almost every tribal conflict everywhere in the world, drugs is always the main financier of illegal guns. Being a tribal myself who came from a region in India that had witness insurgencies and inter-tribal conflicts which had stopped only about 20 years ago, I can see and feel how destructive this is all. For 75 years from 1947-48 till about 2000-2003. The NE region had witness such internecine warfare. Armed tribal groups are fighting with everybody and everybody was fighting with India. Thousands of innocent lives were lost accompanied by social and economic destruction that was perpetrated by illegal trade on drugs and guns. No, the fightings were not caused because of lack of education or because of religion; North East Indian states literacy rate is higher than most Indian states, yet fighting occur because of centuries old tribal feuds or because of economics where the control of resources and power over others override religious and education lines. Ethnic and racial flames were ignited, where divisions were made between the "sons of the soil" and the "refugees" Age old land disputes were revived and established boundary lines were ignored. Fights occured on tribal and ethnic lines even though rather than on religious beliefs; Christians of one tribe or community against Christians of another tribe or community Hindus of one community vs Hindus of another community , Animists of one tribe vs Animist of another tribe. Thankfully today there is not much of such things, except very sparse or sporadic incidents at times. And I do hope that good sense will prevail on the people of PNG and will learn to coexists in peace.

I lived in PNG during 1 year (June 2007 to June 2008). Still visiting PNG every month. Very interesting place despite its less favorable reputation and to certain extent its violent traditions and culture. My colleagues and I never faced any major incident, though.

Although it sounds fun to have a traditional annual war orsomething liek that, this is fucked up. They should've turned it in to traditional cultural fighting sport competition or something like that.

You make it sound like ALL of them there don't know God coz most of them there are soo passionate about their relationship and love for God - its great sharing that with them:) peace.

@Vanessa901 How the hell did you afford a flight when you have not graduated high school?

This video is no exception, people (media) always focus on the negative impression to paint a bad image which is not a reality in the daily lives of the many Papua New Guineans. While I do agree tribal fights do exist in some localities, this is always one of event...If there was any place I would prefer to live, thats Papua New Guinea, where true love is evident among the innocent majority pacific islanders!

Im Torres Strait Islander and i know the illeagal trade very well...Ganja comes down from the highlands, then taken by boat down to Torres Strait. in Torres Strait, it's exchanged for weapons. It's nothing new. What is new is the increasing amount of people smuggling going on across the border. Papuans who live along this southern coastline have long had traditional links with the people of Torres Strait in Australia, and those across the border in Papua.

Yes, guns are an extremely destructive force compared to spears and do much more damage. Do think wars would kill this many people today if people used hunting spears and arrows?

Why are they showing scenes from the Los Angeles riots here?

Scary!!!...

the government dosen't want too stop it

who are the tribe at the beginning of the video?

The sound is very out of sync.

no that's wrong. archeological studies have shown that a higher percentage of young men die in tribal warfare than in industrialized warfare.

The savage at 10 38 is wearing a trendy Kiwi shirt!

No such thing as "illegal" rifles in PNG. If you want a SLR, M16, G3 you just go ask a cop or someone who knows one in Mt Hagen. It is stupidly easy.

The audio and video is out of sync.

i will go there with everything from glass 2 mobile phones and declare myself their lord XD

It's amazing that these people are the most genetically distant from black Africans. They are genetically closer to a Japanese or a blonde Swede than they are to a black Nigerian. As such, race is a social construct.

i don't get it what do you mean?

@htia075 What are you talking about? This video was shot in 2007.

@hatloverxxx From wiki: The largest genetic distance between any two continents is between Africa and Oceania at 0.2470. Based on physical appearance this may be counterintuitive, since Indigenous Australians and New Guineans resemble Africans with dark skin and sometimes frizzy hair. I think you bought that degree you claim you have.

I LOVE PNG

Countries who were born some hundred years ago still facing problems of all kinds, we are new born country, no matter what the foreign media and foreign people say don't give a dam on them. This our country yumi go PNG.

Cool, I heard Papua New Guinea is very wild, even today, is that true?

It’s like watching a bunch of kids with Adhd play Nerf

Badass

yeah whats the story there? i am just curious but i have no idea why people in papua new guinea look like people from africa. when did they migrate over there, and why to that eastern part of the island?

The M16 there probably cheaper than iphone4 (without contract). :P

galing ako doon noong 2010 dilikado taga doon lalo na kong gabi ka lomabas sabayan nila.

i would have smoked all that weed

@owlandtree yeah well... im too scared to face things i dont yet understand...

wtf!? little boys in the battlefields with the men

. I think it is in their best interest to carry war trough some type of aggressive sport like rugby.

i have no clue what you mean...

@momok35 yes and we proud :D orang2 ini moyang kami

im from PNG :D but im not living in PNG :(

Bows are kept in Museums nower days in PNG 😜😜

They're not wasting time with old weapons, they still have to track and hunt the animals just as long they just have a better shot at it when they find it.

@TiminPhoenix When you say "before", you're talking about before western contact? Before contact you and I both can't give a proximate status on their lifespan What does having a computer, electricity, a full belly, and not suffering from Malaria have to do with Western culture? And you ask why should others have that? Why does America send millions of dollars to Israel, but don't lend a helping hand to it's own American citizens, Haiti, or Brazil?

paradise lost

.. at the moment.. they only say that because they're not familiar with the technology that's involved in making guns.. if they had their own I'm sure they would be more than happy.

And can words really settled anything ? If I took something from you that you need for living and refused to give you back that thing, no matter what, what will you do ? Call a police ? And what does the police going to do if I refused to give in ? They're going to use force, and they going to fight me. In the end, it's violence. Moreover, what if it's not me taking things from you, but my country taking things from your contry ? What police can settle this ? Humans are animal,my friend.

@SamoaMoSamoa537 Real talk bro!!!!! Thats what ive always wished we'd do

@aldomovielovers jika yang kamu katakan malaysia juga bagia dari mereka...sudah tentu indonesia juga bagian dari malaysia dan sebaliknya...betul?jika betul sosio budaya juga dari rumpun sama..betul?jadi mengapa masih ada pertikaian?

I don't know where you got your information from. What is now Papua New Guinea was armed because of the Japanese invasion, not Christion missionaries. Even most of the (small number) of Australian defense forces there were did not have guns when the Japanese first invaded. Widespread armament happened because of the arms left behind as a result of thousands of dead soldiers from the invasion, not Christian missionaries. Also Indonesia is a major supplier of PNG arms.

yea right

I love these people mentality !!! Bring this to the west

I love my country :) Even though its abit crazy hahah!

I wonder if it isn't mostly for show, and that killing each other is not the true goal, because then the deaths would have to be avenged. I think they fight and then give women and pigs to the ones they have wronged. I think actually killing your enemy would be a mistake in this culture and they take precautions to avoid warranting true revenge. I'm basing this only on having seen Ongka's Big Moka, and this video... it's just a theory.

he also says straight after that he buys them for the young men

Seems like a ripe market for arms and munitions. Think PROFIT :)

whole world is running behind, fight for 3 things... WEALTH, WOMEN, LAND....if people stop this we will have very peaceful and beautiful world....

It depends on the bow!

The police don't fight anymore. I asked one of them if they wanted to fight me but I ended up getting tasered and convulsing on the floor, so I don't bother now.

putting aside the fact that they're fighting for a very stupid reason, they've been fighting for so many years. It has never occurred to anyone of them to fight in a more organized way?

@diablojorgen any time u can come to penang n call me.

The second part of your post contradicts the first part. If the contractual terms of their conflicts were purely based on morality, then no one would be trying to cheat. BTW, Industrialized warfare also has rules.

Infinity Ward to release Pre-Modern Warfare, based on PNG tribal warfare.

Bad Days in Nebilyer llg..

Hey i am from png and now the trible war is still going

No tribal society can survive with high authority and the government.

why the Indonesian? This is PNG not west-papua a land that is occupied by Indonesia.

Wagawagawaga

Widespread guns didn't come until after the Japanese invasion and the Australian response. If you think Imperial Japanese occupiers protected the indigineous cultures, and were afraid of guns and civilization, then you are obviuosly deluded from samurai movies or something. And you also ignoring the fact that the majority of guns on the street come from the PNG government itself and a significant amount come from Indonesia show that you have an ax to grind against Europeans and Christianity.

@1000gohead how can you hate all Europeans? Some nations never ever enter wars or nothing like that

So who here was able to choose where they were born? Anyone? I rest my case.

sure i am, but i will be in their nayional museum as soon as they r in their 80s era XD

Where? Missionarys are pulling out more then anything and their work is a drop in the ocean. Most highlanders don't bother deluding themselves either - frankly over there whether it be expat or local, no one pays attention to the missionarys.

It`s more the other way around. gangs are like copying tribal wars.

Fix the God damned sound, its way out of sync.

Let's face it, these people aren't exactly considered that bright.

What you said is really offensive. Before then guns were introduced they used to live, fight, and survive like animals. They really did live with the nature and depends their life on nature. We are the wrong one here. Their way of living was the correct way. What we call civilization or Human's evolution is in fact, the path to doom. And we are also the one who forced this to all tribal people. Read Ismael: The Wandering Spirit.

@Juggernautishere its not the religion, its the people who interpret it the wrong way

I wish there was a facepalm icon.

@kaptenlemper What?? Prove it??

and you should fire your video editor hes terrible at lip syncing

they look like a bunch of kids playing in the grass

i mean that its hopeless. I mean theres no effort to stop this crazy wars and frm an outside view, they put all of us in one category even though its just what happens in the highlands many may think the whole of png is violent

When have guns helped them at all? There are almost no large or medium game animals and shooting a tree kangaroo with an AK-47 is going to take of most of its meat.

scary guys

they have m-16 cool !

how about leagalizing pot, and then paying this people cash for it, give them a decent home and television and they'll stop killing each other.

but that means its coming! oooo

guy with the red cap, Lebron James.. Like if you see it :)