G ogodala C anoe F estivals, Customary Ways and Cultural Tourism in P apua N ew G uinea

G ogodala C anoe F estivals, held in the W estern P rovince of P apua N ew G uinea, are important and recurrent regional events that constitute as well as reiterate and reconfigure local relatedness as sites of potential engagement between G ogodala villagers and foreign tourists. C anoe races have been part of G ogodala practice since before the 1900s, when early colonial administrators noted the presence of magnificently painted and carved racing canoes. Since then, racing canoes have been part of local and exogenous discourses about culture and identity in colonial and postcolonial PNG . This paper explores the extent to which G ogodala C anoe F estivals, while primarily regional events concerned with relationships between people, groups and villages, are also designed to attract foreign tourists and as such constitute moments of potential relatedness outside of the region. In a wider sense, the paper explores these festivals as one way in which G ogodala engage global others through the establishment of a network of potential relationships based on ‘customary’ practices and objects.