The traditional rituals involved at gi ala paunga are the same across all 13 Simbu tribes. In the Kuman language, it is called ambai ingugl pagua, in the Tabare gai igal pauwe and in the East Elimbari kubai erme igar pama.

A young girl will see her first puberty between age 13 and 16. At this age there is noticeable physical and behavioural changes in the girl. After the short period of isolation in alla paunga, these features become more manifest.

When Olmi, now 14, saw her first menstruation in early February 2025, she reported this immediately to one of her mothers, who ushered her into the al ogu (female house).

A temporary bol (bed) was constructed and the girl put to bed, where she will sleep and stay in isolation for seven days.

During this time, she will not come out of the house into the open sunlight and will not communicate with any other people. For all her needs, she will talk to her sisters and her mothers, who are with her.

Food is served to her and when she needed to visit the toilet, she is covered in a blanket and carried discreetly by one the mothers to the back of the house, where a small hole has been dug in the ground for her.

Word goes around that Olmi had alla paunga. The mothers of the village bring food each day and the fathers bring firewood for the mumu and evening fires. This continues for seven days.

Apart from food, the members of the village bring presents like cloths, oils and powder, a mirror and comb, laplaps and meri blous, blanket, oil paints etc to her which are seen as an investment for the future gi aibe di tobe (girl’s bride prize) which they can ‘extract’ when Olmi gets married.

The whole village collaborates to ensure any girl who under goes alla paunga, is a success.

In the Simbu culture everything is communal and is reciprocated at every opportunity. In the near future when the young girl finds a suitor and is married off, the bride prize is shared among every person that had assisted in the girl’s development into womanhood.

The main purpose for this period of isolation during gi alla paunga is that this is a time for the mothers to put their daughter under intense initiation and trainings on the roles of women, the standard behaviours of a young unmarried girl growing up which would prepare her for her later life as a married woman in another village.

These teachings include helping mothers with household chores like cooking, feeding pigs, helping mothers in the garden, always friendly, sharing and caring for old people and more.

The other folktale is that the young girl at first puberty and in isolation must be treated very courteously like a habe yaure (a prized type of cooking banana) which had been bagged on its tree until maturity. When the banana is harvested, its fruit is big and tasty.

If the girl had a prearranged engagement to a neighbouring clan, the family of the boy visit bringing food and other presents. Their dream of an in-law is closer to realisation.

Olmi was engaged to a boy named Yoba from Kia tribe across the Maril River in Omkolai. During Olmi’s alla paunga, Yoba’s parents had visited with a cooked whole pig and a bilum of food. 

On the morning of the seventh day of alla paunga, the temporary bed must be lowered to the floor, bol agru dunga. This signifies that Olmi can now come out of hibernation into the sun to start the next chapter of her life.

Early that morning a few mothers dress Olmi inside the house in the finest Chimbu bilas (traditional attire) they have.

Other mothers and men of the village prepare the mumu for which a pig or two is killed to mark this important time in the life of their daughter.

After she is dressed, Olmi must leave the house and come into the sun in full traditional regalia. As she emerges through the front door, all eyes are on her.

The women of the village shout exclamations of delight and elation, aiyauuuu aiyauuuu, na Bomai gi haia bri gauwiyooo, moni nolma sine omen si yu unauga nenauniyoo, aiyauuuuu aiyauuuuu. (Aiyauuuu aiyauuu, my Bomai girl is a big girl, she will bring money, pigs, birds plumes and things for us to eat aiyauuuuu aiyauuuu). Other similar phrasesof deight are uttered by the villagers.

As Olmi comwa through the door, she steps on a long sugar stick placed at the entrance. She breaks it to the applause of the family members. Breaking the sugar stick signifies that Olmi will have a bright and prosperous future in later married life.

Olmi’s splendid traditional attire includes a headdress of many tall black Stephanie Bird of Paradise featured prominently in the centre surrounded by various numbers of the national bird, the Raggiana Bird of Paradise, its cousin the Emperor Bird of Paradise with many brightly coloured parrots neatly arranged in between.

Hanging from her neck is a necklace of kina shell and around her breast she wears a beautiful possum pelt fur of a black and white color in a bra-like elegance that is tied to her back and hides her breasts.

Her belt is made of thick woven possum furs uniformly arranged and tied in place by yellow strips of orchid stem in the front.

From the waist down, Olmi wears a thick string of possum furs also attached in place by the same yellow strips of orchid stem covering her knees down to her ankles. Her buttocks are covered in colored tanget (cordyline and other ornamental leaves).

She wears armbands on both her arms and calf muscles with coloured leaves and a parrot tugged in each armband. Her face is painted with red and yellow mineralised soil and her body oiled with pig grease, ensuring her skin is shiny and dark.

The full length of Olmi’s alla paunga and the excessive bilas she wears today augments the family’s wealth and position in the village. 

Olmi is now led for a walk through the village by her sisters to the admiration and well wishes of the villagers.

After a while she returns to the house where her attire is carefully taken off and stored. Now Olmi changes into the new colourful meri blausand and matching laplap given to her as gifts.

While this is going on, a few of the other mothers gather all the rubbish in the house that may have resulted from Olmi’s isolation and together with the dismantled bed the rubbish is taken to the back of the house where the temporary pit toilet was and all these things are put into a heap and burnt.

The smoke coming from the fire is observed. If the smoke bends towards the Wahgi, they conclude their daughter will be married to a Kuiyan Gunage man, if the smoke goes towards Maril river, their girl would be married to a Kia man and if the smoke goes towards the Sua river, the girl would marry into the Golen and Mian people. If the smoke goes towards Dawa and Gugama Mountain, they conclude their girl would either be married to a Keri, Keneku, a Yuwi or a Kiakubleku man further inland.

The smoke today points towards the Maril so the family conclude their alliance to the Kias will see fruition.

After an hour or so, the mumu is opened and the food is distributed among all the people who have assisted in the event. The heart of the pig with some pieces of meat and some pieces of yam, taro and bananas in a big dish are given to Olmi who will share them with her sisters.

This occasion of Olmi’s alla paunga is an authentic signal that she is now ready for tanim het or karim lek as is known in North Simbu.

Who to invite for the first tanim het is fair game for all eligible suitors from the clans around but usually follows existing marriage lines where match making were initiated by the women who are married into the girl’s clan and by women of the clan married out.

During the months and years when the young girl lives with her parents, it is acceptable for the girl to befriend and be visited at night by other boys from the clans around until she finally decides to settle for one of them.

However in Olmi’s case, she already has an engaged boyfriend who she will marry in the near future.

On an agreed evening a few days after Olmi came out of the alla paunga, Yoba and his friends from the Kia tribe will climb down the dangerous Noi escapement, cross the death-defying torrents of the Maril River and climb up the Deboma before converging on the Sua village for the first tanim het with Olmi.

This is a big occasion for Olmi and Yoba and sometimes food can be cooked on the day of the first tanim het to mark the occasion.

In the months and years following, the relationship may sometime fallout in which case the association terminates and they both can take on other partners of their choice. This is not the case for Olmi and Yoba because the two are truly in love and there is already a strong bond between the two families.

From then on and for many more nights Yoba will walk the track from Omkolai to Sua. Yoba can finally take Olmi home to Omkolai to be his wife.

Mathias Kin is author of My Chimbu, a short history of Chimbu in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. The book is available from Amazon at the rather exhorbitant price of $145, well worth the money if you can afford it. My Chimbu by Mathias Kin, Simbu Writers Association, 2018, 4127 pages and many coloured plates