Ruddy is a member of the Kokoda cultural dance troupe that performed at the Oro community sing-sing show at the Botanical Garden on Saturday. The show was a fundraising effort of the Tembari Children’s Care (TCC) day care facility.
Ruddy (right) performing with her dance troupe. – More pictures by AP HERNANDEZ after the story.
By ALREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children
A GERMAN couple who were on the last day of their tour of Papua New Guinea felt very lucky on Saturday.
“We have been here in PNG for a month, visiting villages that included those along Sepik river in the hope that we could see sing-sing groups there…” said Stefan and Christina Lang.
“But there was none … and we were in Lae for the same thing … but it was not the season for such a cultural show… so we moved around some more until we came back to Port Moresby,” Stefan told me.
The couplewere to leave the city today on their way back home via Manila.
“So, we decided to just visit the Botanical Garden (in Port Moresby) for some more interesting pictures that we could shoot and show back home,” Stefan said.
“But when we were at the gate, we saw a group of children in traditional attire … we asked what was it for and we were told that there would be a sing-sing show going to be held today …”
“We got excited and immediately bought tickets,” Christina said.
The show that the couple encountered was actually the one presented by the children from Oro settlement at 7 Mile outside Port Moresby.
On Saturday, about 80 children from seven ethnic groups in Oro province gathered for a rare presentation of traditional dances at the Botanical Garden.
The children, who belonged to seven villages in their home province of Oro, presented the respective tribal dances of their villages.
The dancers were from Tufi, Oro province; Central Kaiva, Oro province; Kivori-Kairuku, Central province; Central Ioma No. 1, Oro province; Central Ioma No. 2, Oro province; Kokoda, Central province; and Tembari group from Oro province.
Each of sing-sing group had its queen who competed for the title Queen Tembari of 2012.
Tembari referred to a day care facility called Tembari Children’s Care (TCC) which looks after about 200 unfortunate, abandoned and orphan children from the Oro settlement.
A number of those who participated in the dance are actually beneficiaries of Tembari, which is the show sponsor.
The sing-sing was Tembari’s contribution to the celebration of the World Children’s Day this month.
It was also held to raise fund for the unfortunate children back in Oro province.
After the show, the German couple made a token donation towards the fundraising effort.
Tembari is hoping to set up a facility that would cater for those children, according to Tembari co-founder Penny Sage-embo.
For your donations, please contact Patison Kopada, Tembari administrator, on telephone 726-19552 and cellphone 726-19552 and telephone 3422-047.
The Tembari sing-sing group.
The Oro Ioma No. 1 dance troupe
The Oro Ioma No. 2 dance troupe
Dance group from Kivori-Kairuku, Central
Dance group from Tufi, Oro province.
Dance group from Central Kaiva
Email the blogger: ahernandez@thenational.com.pg and aphernandez58@yahoo.com
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