2016 Hiri Moale Festival

Attending Marianville Secondary School, 18-year-old Olive Tau from Poreporena Village was crowned at the Miss Hiri Hanenamo for 2016 at the Hiri Moale Festival last weekend at Ela Beach.

Inspired by her aunty who was once a Hiri Henanamo back in the 70’s, Olive went ahead to take a bold stand for her family to take part in the contest.

“I felt that there was a need to learn more about my traditions and culture and that most of them were dying away slowly and losing its meaning in the change of times,” she says.

Security personnels and police were on high alert allowing only media, participating groups and tourist to enter the main arena of activities to capture the event.

PNG Loop caught up with some tourists of which some said they had never witness such event like this before.

Tourists, when asked said they were either travelling or just passing through to head back to their home countries.

There were Chinese, Filipino, Australians, North and South Korea, New Zealand and even South Africa.

Those that were residing in Port Moresby said this year was yet another bigger and better festival compared to the 2014 festival.

Chairman of Motu-Koita Assembly, Udia Opao, on behalf of the Assembly and the Hiri Moale Festival organising committee, says the launching is one of the main highlights of the lead-up to the Festival.

“The building of the Hiri Moale Lagatoi this year was awarded to Pari Village and they have done a tremendous job in constructing it,” Opao says.

Opao commended the people of Pari Village for having the Lagatoi ready and in time for the Hiri Moale Festival this weekend. This is a sign of fulfillment of the agreement made to kick start the festival celebrations.

Teams from Central Province and Motu-Koita will vie for awards and cash prizes during the two-day canoe racing fest on Friday (Sept 30) and Saturday.

David Davai, a member of the Motu-Koita Assembly and coordinator of the competition, says the canoe race will coincide with the sailing of the Lagatoi out from Manubada.

Three separate divisions of C, B and A Grade will take part in the competition, which begins at 9am, and presentations of awards later in the afternoon.

Both C and A Grade will race on Friday while the B Grade division race is on Saturday.

And he has begun that process by partnering the Motu-Koita Assembly in hosting some of the events in this year’s Hiri Moale Festival in Port Moresby.

Governor Haoda presented a mock cheque of K100,000 to Acting Motu-Kota Assembly Chairman, Opao Udia, at the Governor’s official residence today, 

“This partnership will strengthen our deeply rooted relationship with one another,” said Haoda when handing over the cheque before the media and other Central Province and Motu-Koita leaders. 

The two day event is set to be held on Sept 30-Oct 1 at Down Town, Ela Beach.

The last time the festival was held was in 2014.

However, it was put off last year due to the South Pacific Games.

 Chairman of the Motu Koita Assembly Udia Opao said after much delay of deferring the launch since its announcement, he apologized that  some of the arrangements were out of the Assembly’s control resulting in the launch being deferred a couple of times at the last minute.

The festival is set to be a another crowd pleaser for Port Moresby city residents and visitors and is set to be staged on Friday September 20 and Saturday October 1, this year at Down Town, Ela Beach- the home of the Hiri Moale Festival.

Chairman of  Motu Kiota Assembly Udia Opao on behalf of the Assembly and the Hiri Moale Festival Oraganizing committee apologised for having deferred the launching dates as some of the arrangements were out of their control.

The Festival is an annual event celebrated in Port Moresby and has been dubbed the premier cultural show of the Capital City.

It brings together the Motu and Koitabuan people, native landowners of the Port Moresby, with the aim of reviving their cultures, customs and traditions, which have been passed down from generation to generation.