The Huli tribe live in the remote Southern Highlands of PNG. There are roughly 100,000 of them, with most living fairly traditional lives in scattered family homesteads rather than communal villages or towns.

​

From my observation, it’s the women who do most of the work – looking after the children and pigs and tending the family garden. The men just look after themselves – a more difficult task than you might (at first) imagine. They spend several years training in a “bachelor school”, but since I’m only a woman, I’m not privy to the entire curriculum....

​

One very important thing a Huli boy must do in order to become a man, is grow his hair quite long, so that it can be plucked and collected and eventually turned into an elaborate, ceremonial wig. While they are growing their hair, Huli bachelor-boys live in a jungle hut, apart from their mothers and sisters. They sleep on special headrests that stop their precious hair from being squashed and eat a special diet to make their locks grow fast and strong.

​

They also go out hunting, collecting feathers to decorate their wigs. They’re particularly partial to the iridescent blue plumage of the Superb bird of paradise – a species the Huli are said to have a mystical affinity with. They mimic the bird they revere when they dance… showing off for the ladies in the hope that they too, might find a suitable mate.

​

Using feathers in headdresses is a common practice right across the nation and clearly many birds have been killed over the years to facilitate it… there are literally thousands of feathers used in each piece. As more efficient methods of hunting become widespread, the question of sustainability will inevitably rise… and the people of PNG may be asked to curb this cultural practice. But is this right, or even fair?

​

I just wish the European fashion industry in the early 20th Century had paused to consider sustainability, when they set in train the events that saw more than half a million birds of paradise harvested from PNG for feathers that would grace the hats of people living on the other side of the world… People with no spiritual or mystical connection whatsoever to these iconic birds of PNG. I think it’s quite likely that this wholesale slaughter over a mere handful of years wrought immeasurable damage, so surely that industry should fess-up and shoulder some of the responsibility... but will they?