It’s the original free love community where women rule the roost: Welcome to the gorgeous Trobriand Islands in the South Pacific where the ladies can have as many lovers as they please and marriages are sealed with a gift of yams and polished stone.
And as you’d expect from a place where free love rules the roost, conflicts on the islands, which are officially part of Papua New Guinea, are settled over marathon games of cricket in which even girls can take part.
Girls learn about contraception very early and virginity has no value at all.
‘If a girl gets pregnant, her family keeps the baby, because, according to the local custom, men just help to open up the woman to pregnancy – the real father is a Baloma or spirit.’
Unfortunately, the Trobiand Islanders relaxed approach to sex and relationships has left them vulnerable to HIV and AIDS.
All villages are home to a special hut called a bukumatula which is set aside especially for unmarried teenagers and their lovers, although condoms and other types of contraceptive are nowhere to be found.
Discovered by the West in 1793, the islands were named after Denis de Trobriand, a lieutenant on the French ship, Espérance, but remained untouched until a Methodist missionary moved in in 1894.
He was followed in the 1930s by a Catholic Mission but the islanders, although ruled by first the British and then the Australians, clung firm to their traditional ways.
Now part of Papua New Guinea, the Trobrianders continue to live much as they always have, using yams as currency and operating a matriarchal system that sees children become part of their mother’s clan rather than the other way around.
They also settle scores and disputes by playing cricket, which was introduced by colonial authorities after they banned tribes from going to war with each other.
‘A cricket game is always the occasion for mocking remarks and challenges between villages. It is played with much whistle blowing, singing and dancing.’
‘Girls also take part in these “battles” and dance topless, only wearing grass skirts and flowers. They also adopt very suggestive poses, which would probably come as a shock to the authorities who introduced it.
PNN
