Dance of Papuans in the Rabaul area of New Britain. The masked figures performing to the beat of drums are locally known as ‘duk-duks’. The occasion celebrated here is the opening of a new village co-operative shop which will buy copra from its members and supply goods to the village. (Australian Official Photograph by W. Brindle) MAORI, ABORIGINAL AND NEW GUINEA ETHNIC DANCES

THE CONTRASTING STYLES OF THREE DIFFERENT RACES Part II, by Beth Dean What is New Guinea dancing like? If you can imagine crowds of dancers swirling and turning in undulating masses; their bodies painted red, yellow and black like an ultra modern abstract painting; from shoulders and arm bands are draped long golden leaves mixed with those of the purple and red croteus plant, yellow grasses fringe the waist, two palm fronds spurt upward from the small of the back like a fountain above the Mahl loin cloth of soft dark bark, the Bird of Paradise head-dresses float in such splendour and delicacy as to leave you breathless, then add to this spectacle the beating of drums, the weirdly shouted songs in impelling rhythms and you have the atmosphere of a New Guinea sing-sing. In New Guinea, the dancing is most frequently a communal event with nearly everyone participating. There were occasions when a single dancer showed a talent for inventive movement, but it seems less usual than among the Australian aborigines. Sometimes a whole village will mass in a great oval, circling round and round the village square, bodies swaying forward and back like the lapping tide of a calm sea. Frequently a dozen or so of the men will form a circle for the stylised pig-hunt dance called “Tainpul”. A man takes