Kove in Papua New Guinea

Introduction / History

The Kove are a people group with strong ties to their language and traditional culture. The men carve canoes, wooden fish and birds, and the women make shell necklaces, woven baskets and mats of sewn pandana leaves. At the age of five or six years, the boys are taken into a "men's house" to be circumcised. The Kove people have singsings (traditional songs and dances), and they also sell singsings to other language groups. The Kove people have a very strong sense of their own identity. The western influences to which they are exposed do not seem to be having an adverse effect on their own culture, but in many ways are just added to their own culture (e.g. attaching outboard motors to traditional wooden canoes). They are very direct and are more likely to take advantage of outside ways than to lose their own traditions to them.

Both the Roman Catholic and Seventh Day Adventist churches have a significant presence among the Kove people. Education is important to them, and they have indicated that they want to have the Scriptures translated into their own language. Church leaders say that a Kove translation would be used both inside and outside of church services. The people are spiritually hungry, and having the Word of God in their heart language would help them to come to a better understanding of it, as opposed to reading it in English or Tok Pisin.

Text Source:   Anonymous