Papuan

Huli tribesman, New Guinea. The Huli are the largest ethnic group in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. The tribesmen wear traditional face paint, nose quills, and intricate decorated wigs.

Native to or inhabitant of Papua New Guinea; speaker of any of various Papuan languages, used mainly on the island of New Guinea, although some 500 are used in New Britain, the Solomon Islands, and the islands of the southwest Pacific. The Papuan languages belong to the Indo-Pacific family.

Papuan is a more geographic than linguistic term, since the languages are so varied that it is doubtful that they belong to the same family. Two of the best known languages in Irian Jaya are Marind and Nimborau. In Papua New Guinea, Enga, Kate, Kiwai, and Orokoto are spoken, while Baining is used in New Britain.

The interior regions usually support a mixed economy based on cultivating, pig-rearing, and hunting. Since the Republic of Indonesia acquired Irian Jaya, formerly part of the Netherlands East Indies, there have been periods of tension between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. There has also been a steady influx of migrants under Indonesia's controversial transmigration scheme, into Irian Jaya. The Free Papua Movement (Organisasi Papua Merdeka) have carried out attacks on Indonesian government installations in recent years.