The Trobriand Islands

Flat coral islands in Milne Bay's north, the Trobriands run on institutions anthropology made world-famous and the islanders never stopped practising: the kula ring's ceremonial shell-valuable voyages still link the archipelago, chiefs' yam houses fill each harvest with painted, carved prestige, and the carving villages produce ebony bowls and figures collected globally. Village guesthouses host the modest visitor trade on Kiriwina, the main island: days move between gardens, beaches and lagoon paddles, and if timing favours you, the islands' own cricket - reinvented into a chanting, dancing festival of dozens-a-side - or the yam-harvest celebrations turn ordinary weeks ceremonial.

History

The first European visitor was the French ship Espérance in 1793, and Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux named the islands after his first lieutenant, Denis de Trobriand. Whalers called in the 1850s and 1860s, the Methodist minister Samuel Fellows and his wife Sarah settled on Kiriwina in 1894, and the anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski, following C. G. Seligman, made the kula exchange famous (Wikipedia, Trobriand Islands).

The landscape

• The yam houses - carved, painted prestige granaries at the villages' hearts.
• The carving masters - ebony and kwila work from the famous villages.
• Trobriand cricket - the colonial game gone gloriously local.
• The lagoon shores - coral shallows and paddling flats around Kiriwina.

When to go

May to November for drier weather; the yam harvest period - roughly mid-year - brings the festival energy the islands are famous for. Flights are few and small: fix them first, plan around them.

Practical notes

Tourism here is village-scale: guesthouses are simple, cash is essential, and customs - fees, permissions, modesty conventions - are navigated through your hosts; the famous openness of Trobriand culture does not mean visitors' rules lapse. Photograph people only by permission. Patience is the island clock's only setting.

Nearby

Alotau and Milne Bay's dive waters, and the wider island-hopping of the province.

Key facts