This unmissable festival, which takes place during the first week of November, is a spectacular celebration in Milne Bay, a maritime province of more than 600 islands. Here, canoes (kenu) and drums (kundu) have long been culturally and spiritually important, and the festival celebrates this with live music, dance performances and a carnival-like vibe. Tribes come from all over the province for the event—some traveling upwards of a week—which culminates in the famous kenu race where warriors in traditional dress go head-to-head, paddling fiercely to the beat of drums, with each distinctive canoe representing the tribe and area it comes from.
