Gogodala people

Gogodala is the name of an ethnic/language group from the Middle Fly District of the Western Province of Papua New Guinea. It is one of about a thousand distinct ethnic groups in the country, each which has its own language and culture.

The Gogodala are a tribe of approximately 25,000, located in 33 villages in Papua New Guinea. Their territory extends from the Aramia River to the lower Fly River, and it is the most populous Local-Level Government area in the province. Their territory is divided into West, East and Fly areas. The Gogodala occupy mostly the flat terrain and the floodplain areas. (Wilde 2004)

Canoes are a very important part of the Gogodala culture. "The Gogodala use of dugout canoes for everyday activities such as fishing, collecting firewood, carrying house posts, transporting sago and garden produce, people also characterize themselves as metaphorically 'being inside', or standing inside, their clan canoe." (Wilde 2004) Canoes are an important means of transport and an aid to hunting. The tribe is located along a river in order to have access to this transportation, in addition to fishing and using the river for water. The network of rivers and water channels enable the Gogodola to have access to a wide area.

Their origin story says that the Gogodala ancestors traveled to this area in large canoes. The Gogodala trace their lineage to the original members of clans who settled in the area at the time. They also trace their lineage to the canoes which their ancestors used to travel there. (Wilde 2004)

Until the mid-twentieth century, Gogodala villages typically consisted of a single communal thatched-roof longhouse, often more than 100 m. in length. The longhouse at Isago, constructed in the 1950s, was three stories tall and 127.7 m. long. It was pulled down in 1979. The Gogodala now live in smaller one- or two-room thatched huts scattered about the village site. (Baldwin 1989)

The Gogodala have a clan-based kinship system. They trace their origins to the eight clans said to originate from Ibali, the father of the Gogodala. It is said that he gave a powerful canoe to each of his eight sons, who were the patriarchs of eight clans. "Within each of the eight clans, people are further divided into several sub-clans, or canoes, which trace their lineage back to the primary ancestor and clan canoe. The premise of this clan and canoe system is a marriage practice that continues to be organized along the lines of a prescribed clan exchange system, referred to elsewhere as 'sister-exchange'." (Wilde 2004)

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