Fire Dance

The descriptive phrase "malagene na iap"may be translated to English as fire dance.  No, in Tolai culture fire dance is not part of the types of dances. However, our neighbors the Bainings do perform fire dance as it is part of their culture. Recently I learnt that there is a type of Baining fire dance that is performed during the day.  The other type that i had witnessed many times is the one performed at night over a big fire. And big fire means a fire of small size logs with flames  higher than an adult height.

The fire dance that is performed during the day was recently performed at the Kenu and Kundu Festival in Alotau, Milne Bay Province. A photograph of it appeared in the Post Courier (7/11/2016, p.8).  I posted this on Facebook in the New Guinea Islands Historical Society Group  because i doubted that this was a Baining fire dance and sought help there.  Indeed it was a Baining fire dance; the one that is performed during the day as confirmed by Gideon Kakabin in his description with photo:

These creatures do not jump into the fire. They dance around a small fire during the day. I photographed them dancing last month.

I also interviewed the man in charge and he said that this is a fun creature that lives in the trees. When it comes out to dance it carries goodies in a small bilum bag that kids and adults keep running over and stealing.

The dance was performed by the Uramat at Gaulim village.

Further confirmation of this type of Baining fire dance are reaffirmed by the following photographs by Angie Kolita-payne taken during the Kenu and Kundu Festival in Milne Bay.

Head dress
Photo credit: Angie Kolita-payne

Fire Dancer
Photo credit: Angie Kolita-payne

Members of the fire dance group.
Photo credit: Angie Kolita-payne

Fire dance performance.\
Photo credit: Angie Kolita-payne

Acknowledgement

My gratitude to Gideon Kakabin (one photo and description) and Angie Kolita-payne  (4 photos) for enabling me to do this post, Iau watang boina tuna.

Note: After about a month of this post the borrowed photos no longer appear due to "expiry of url" iki 13/9/2017