Neville Nema is a second-year law student celebrates 49th Independence on Monday, 16th September. He comes from a mix parentage of Western Highlands and Southern Highlands province. He is the fifth child out of seven siblings. Growing up from both of his parent’s place, he sees traditional bilas as a most sacred thing for anyone to part take in special events. It is mostly showcasing our identity and honoring how our ancestor has brought our culture life as we still see it today. During our ancestor’s time, getting ready to dress in a traditional attire requires them to kill pigs, as a result of exposing too much skin. Even though, during performance of singing traditional songs, students must sing it with heart and mean it. For it is believed that if the songs are not sung properly, bystanders from the village coming to watch will not be happy and curse the ones singing the songs wrongly. Therefore, students are told in the beginning of practicing that everything must be perfect before they go out there to perform. With that knowledge in mind Neville takes part in dressing traditional attire for his mother’s place from Imbongu Southern Highlands. The Southern Highlands Student Union in the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) have decided to come up with three singsing groups. They have divided the groups to each district in Southern Highlands Province. The first group is Imbongu and Ialibu Pangia, the second group is Nipa Kutubu and Mendi Munihu, and the third group is Kagua Erave. Neville joins the first group of Imbongu and Ialibu Pangia as his mother is from Imbongu. He was positioned in front with other group of men to lead the march, as well as taking lead in singing traditional songs from Imbongu. He mentioned that you have to mean business when you are part taking in this sacred traditional attire to show others what your culture us like. Dressing in traditional attire must be taken serious all through out PNG, not just to show off on social media and for the likes of other people but to understand the true meaning of being a Papua New Guinean and to feel blessed that you are coming from a rich diverse nation around the world. As a second-year law student in Unversity,, this year will be my first time as a Uni student dressing up in my traditional attire to celebrate the 49th Independence. He shares how proud he is to show case his culture from his mother’s side and to experience what it is like to celebrate Independence as a Uni student. The excitement and the pure joy in seeing PNG’s traditional culture coming together from students was a beautiful sight to see at the Independence celebration at UPNG VC Oval. Blessed is our nation for having a diverse and unique cultures with 800 plus languages across the Pacific and around the world.
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