Abstract:
Despite the changes that have happened from inter-tribal relationships, Christianisation, colonisation and modernisation, the Sulka people of Papua New Guinea perceive that most of their traditional practices remain unchanged. And while an outsider may say traditional practices of the Sulka have changed, the Sulka people themselves may say otherwise. This study examines understandings of tradition in the lukara feast practices of the Sulka people of Papua New Guinea. Lukara is a ritualised feast that involves initiations, rites and musical performances. When a lukara is performed it embodies and expresses all other aspects of Sulka people’s culture including their social values, traditional knowledge and practices, social status and group identity through initiations, rites and musical performances. By using ethnography and auto-ethnography, as well as archival research, this study looks at changes in Sulka people’s lukara feasts, initiations, rites and musical performances, to understand the Sulka people’s perspectives on tradition and change. The study reveals that social processes are important in defining the ‘traditional-ness’ of a lukara feast today than its contents and functions. For the Sulka, lukara is a process of expressing social values and identity as tradition through initiations, rites and musical performances. This study adds to our understanding of ‘tradition’ as a concept in the Sulka society and Papua New Guinean socieites in general. It adds to our understanding of tradition as a ritual or process more than as a ‘thing’ of the past. It also helps us understand the significance of musical performances in defining ‘tradition’ in the context of Melanesian cultures.
