Meisoga

The play is about the legend of how Meisoga matriarch warrior, Sine Kepu, led her clan to find an island to save their lives and reclaim and protect their culture.

Set many centuries ago, the play tells of how the Meisoga tribe eventually found a new home on Misima Island in Milne Bay.

Fellow actor, Alphonse Aisi, says Meisoga is an important play for Papua New Guinea.

“Today the younger people forget their culture. Plays like Meisoga help keep the culture alive,” said Aisi.

“Meisoga”, will tell the legendary tale of the Meisoga clan’s matriarch, Sine Kepu, and how she led her people to find safety, food security and water on a new island in Milne Bay.

The play, which deals with cultural taboos, interfamilial marriage, witchcraft, and inter-tribal bloodshed, is written and directed by Andrew Kuliniasi, a sixteen-year old student who has already been involved in a number of productions staged by the Moresby Arts Theatre.

In the interview below, Andrew discusses the play, the importance of theatre in PNG culture and his own cultural background.

So Loop PNG Entertainment had a chat with the young director to know more about him.

Kuliniasi is from Milne Bay and currently a grade 11 student at Port Moresby International School (POMIS).

He was drawn to the magic of theatre by age eight and started taking part in school productions by age 12.

It were the Disney films that attracted him and the first theatre play he directed was a Disney film remake of Hercules in 2015.

16 year old Andrew Kuliniasi asks this question with the concern that in this era, many cannot trace back their historical roots.

“I feel that it is important as a young Papua New Guinean to understand my culture, or history. So many now don’t have a sense of where they come from, but of where they are now.

“If we lose our cultural identity, there won’t be anything special to say I’m Papua New Guinean,” he says.

Breaking this trend, Kuliniasi is capturing the story of his clan – Meisoga from the Milne Bay province, in the newest play for Moresby Arts Theatre.