@katie.caf.travel: I’m getting ready for the Skeleton Tribe’s “Omo Masalai” performance with the help of Mary and her baby. This Sing Sing dance preserves a 200-year-old legend of warriors who painted themselves as skeletons to camouflage among bones and ambush a cave-dwelling masalai (monster). According to the Chimbu chief’s son, the masalai was possibly a real animal, which perfectly matches the region’s paleontology. Nearby caves hold the fossils of Nombe nombe, an extinct giant kangaroo with massive claws that roamed the highlands when a land bridge connected PNG and Australia. While the story spans centuries, the hyper-realistic skeletal body paint we’re wearing today was actually refined in the 1970s by a tribal chief named Alphonse. This is one of 5 Sing Sing cultural performances I’m attening in PNG with the help of tribesofpapuanewguinea #PapuaNewGuinea #OmoBugamo #SkeletonTribe #katiecaftravel #travel

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Wednesday 29 July 2026 18:11:15 GMT