Portrait of a little Papuan girl holding a impaled bird in his right hand. The picture was taken in the surrounding mountains of Kundiawa, capital city of Simbu province. The bird is an emblematic animal of Papua New Guinea. The bird of paradise is also on the national flag and there are around 800 species of birds in the archipelago, almost half of which are native to New Guinea. But it is in this same Highlands Region that we also find the Huli people, the most important tribe of the island. Animist, this ethnic group has the habit of decorating their hair with feathers and their ritual dance copy the movements of birds… It is therefore not surprising to see this little girl displays this dead bird which uses it as a “playmate”, or an “ornamental mask”.

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