Kwato Island, Papua New Guinea

Kwato Island, Papua New Guinea (PNG), photograph # 1 – our first “port-of-call on the PNG and Solomon Islands 3-week expedition was Kwato Island, lying at the southeastern tip of PNG in what is referred to locally as the island’s “Dragons Tail”

To begin our three-week Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands expedition on the ship, we sailed northeast from Cairns, Australia, for 36 hours to reach our first “port-of-call”, Kwato Island, Papua New Guinea (PNG).  It lies at the southeastern tip of PNG in what is referred to locally as the island’s “Dragons Tail, adjacent to the China Straits.  Although tiny, Kwato Island is a meeting point for the surrounding islands (e.g., Rogeia Island, Samarai Island). 

Kwato Island, Papua New Guinea, photograph # 2 – we were warmly greeted on the island by many children, women and men from the island and, mostly, its neighbors

Kwato Island itself is home to only seven families, numbering about 50 people.  The neighboring islands’ population are about 1,000, or less.  We were fortunate that many people from several other islands in Milne Bay Province came to Kwato Island to both perform (traditional dances and singing) and to set up blankets as “booths” for selling artefacts that they had collected from the sea or created (wood carvings, shell jewelry, etc.).

Kwato Island, Papua New Guinea, photograph # 3 – children from a neighboring island canoed over (with their parents) to perform traditional dances for us

Kwato Island, Papua New Guinea, photograph # 4

Kwato Island, Papua New Guinea, photograph # 5 — your blogging photographer hard at work; photograph courtesy of Ashley Faull

Kwato Island, Papua New Guinea, photograph # 6

Kwato Island, Papua New Guinea, photograph # 7

Kwato Island, Papua New Guinea, photograph # 8

Kwato Island, Papua New Guinea, photograph # 9 – the man is chopping up the fibrous trunk of this local Sago Palm tree with an adz; the fibrous material – pith — is then soaked in water and mashed by hand (see next photo), to then settle in a resting “pond” – at the bottom, a flour-like residue settles out and will be dried for baking bread

Kwato Island, Papua New Guinea, photograph # 10 – this woman is working with the fibrous material – pith — (see above photograph), produced from the Sago Palm tree trunk, that is soaked in water and mashed by hand, to then settle in a resting “pond” – at the bottom, a flour-like residue (Sago Palm flour) settles out and will be dried for baking bread (without yeast), resulting in a fairly hard cake/bread

Kwato Island, Papua New Guinea, photograph # 11 – our ship’s Zodiac boats’ landing spot (a wet landing) was on a gentle sloping sandy beach

Kwato Island, Papua New Guinea, photograph # 12 – hand carved fishing canoes

Kwato Island, Papua New Guinea, photograph # 13 – the local children and adults (of both sexes) performed both singing and dancing, including some war dances, on the field below the trail up to the island’s Christian church (see photograph # 20)

Kwato Island, Papua New Guinea, photograph # 14 – a war dance drummer and his friend, a warrior; this dance group from a neighboring island rowed over in a war canoe to “attack” men (dancers) from another island

Kwato Island, Papua New Guinea, photograph # 15 — a fierce warrior dancer

Kwato Island, Papua New Guinea, photograph # 16 – homage to National Geographic Magazine of the 1950s

Kwato Island, Papua New Guinea, photograph # 17 – one family’s pet was on display – a Spotted Cuscus, a type of marsupial “monkey” that lives in New Guinea and Australia

The common spotted cuscus, also known as the white cuscus, is a cuscus, a marsupial that lives in the Cape York region of Australia, New Guinea (comprised of Indoneaia, on the west, and Papua New Guinea, on the east and many islands), and nearby smaller islands.  “In New Guinea, common spotted cuscus are found in secondary forests, and tropical lowland forests… Within these forests, common spotted cuscus forage in the understory, subcanopy, and canopy layers.  Common spotted cuscus can also live in close proximity to human civilizations, where they inhabit agricultural matrices and coconut plantations.” — https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Spilocuscus_maculatus/

Kwato Island, Papua New Guinea, photograph # 18 – beautiful local wood carvings for sale

Kwato Island, Papua New Guinea, photograph # 19 – on of the seven homes on Kwato Island (population ~ 50 people); most of the locals we met on Kwato Island had canoed over from neighboring islands; note the rain water storage tank, a critical component of the home’s yard

Kwato Island, Papua New Guinea, photograph # 20 – the local Christian church is located on top of the island’s small hill, with spectacular views of the surrounding islands and the PNG mainland (yes, that is the Intrepid Explorer walking out of the church)

Kwato Island, Papua New Guinea, photograph # 21 — we were treated to a beautiful choral performance in the church by women from a neighboring island

Kwato Island, Papua New Guinea, photograph # 22 – Behind the church on the promontory was a stone marker with two plaques: “In this garden lie the founder of Kwato [a Christian missionary from England] and his wife and some of the pioneers.  They believed that God had a plan for Papua and lived to bring it about.  Charles W. Abel 1862 – 1930, Beatrice Abel 1869 – 1939, …”

“In 1891, Reverand Charles Abel and his wife Beatrice commenced a mission on this island, which developed into a non-hierarchical church, and self-supporting mission, teaching boatbuilding, agriculture and management skills.” – Wikipedia

“Kwato Island is about 3 km [1.8 miles] west of Samarai Island.  The Reverend Charles Abel and his wife, Beatrice, founded the non-hierarchical church in 1891 on Kwato.  The Mission on Kwato functioned as an educational and boat building centre.  The mission’s boats were used to transport and supply the Australian Coastwatchers during WWII.” – Facebook post by “Visit Papua New Guinea”

wato Island, Papua New Guinea, photograph # 23 — the views from the church, on top of the island’s hill, include the mainland of Papua New Guinea, shown here across the water, above the banana trees growing on the hillside

Kwato Island, Papua New Guinea, photograph # 24 – a beautiful fern grove greeted us on our walk downhill from the church back to the Zodiac landing beach

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