Special Events at Walindi Resort

The Wedding Story
of Stuart and Michele
Westmorland.

For nearly a year, they had planned and anticipated their return to Walindi Plantation on the island of New Britain for their wedding. The complications hadn't involved decorations or invitations, but rather plane tickets and tribal preparations. Kimbe Bay and the distant volcanoes served as backdrop. A golden beach lined with vine-laden palm and hardwood trees formed an uncrowded aisle. A thatched-roof hut dripping with lush orchids shaded the dirt floor where they would exchange vows.

It was less then an hour before the ceremony and she was surrounded by chattering women from the Bougainville tribe, who argued with each other over how to decorate the bride with body paint. When the bickering died down and a decision was made, one of the elder women took the furred round seed-pod from a tree she could not name and split it down the middle. She extracted the small seeds and crushed them in her hand, added a bit of coconut oil, and smeared the resulting orange paste across the left side of the bride's body. When painted from left temple to left toe in brilliant saffron, another women coated her right side with deep charcoal, which blended onto her perspiring skin to create a chalky shadow. A sash weaved of palm fronds was placed across her chest, and a skirt crafted of broad green leaves stained pink on their undersides was wrapped around her slender waist. Bands of bright fuschia blooms were fastened to her arms, just above the elbows. Finally, an arched crest of curved bamboo shafts, downy-white gull feathers and brightly colored yellow, red and deep green plumage was set atop her head, adding nearly another foot to her height.

On the other side of the plantation, the groom was also prepared for the pending ceremony. Bare-chested, with an intense violet sarong wound snugly around his waist, his feet was bare and his mind was full. Long intertwined vines criss-crossed his chest , lounging from each shoulder down to the opposite hip and climbing diagonally up across his back. From a red, yellow and blue beaded necklace draped around his neck hung a white crescent formed of two wild boar's tusks, bound together with dried vines. His forehead, nose and cheeks were streaked with deep vermilion salve, and, like his bride soon to be, he wore a crest of feathers-yellow, white and black.

Kundu drumbeats pulsed throughout the plantation-the Siassi tribe was announcing the groom. Bougainville pan pipes, each over three feet long, sounded full and low across the ground, accompanying the bride to the wedding grounds. Excited children crowded around her, barely clothed in bright colors, their dark-framed eyes wide and anxious. The groom stood in the ceremonial hut with the Provincial Administrator, waiting. As she approached the hut, clad in palm fronds and hibiscus, two elder women swooped her up off the ground-the bride must be carried to her fiance. They gently set her down, facing the groom, and each stared into each other's eyes as the Provincial Administrator announced their union-husband and wife. At his words, both tribes exploded with music and dancing. A Siassi man lofted the groom to his shoulders and paraded around in celebration. The festivities continued throughout the day, filling the passing moments with feasts of mumus, fresh fish and fruit, and vegtables cooked in banana leaves. Finally, the thrumming beat of the Kundru drums faded into silence as the sunlight passed below the horizon.

The newly wedded couple dealt with no triple-tiered cake, no waiting limosines, no tossing of the bouquet. Instead, they ran into their honeymoon immediately -- capped with crowns of colorful feathers and marked with flower-based paint, they jump-started their new life in this island community. They didn't have to travel to paradise, they were already there.