How do I travel on the Sepik River?

By motor canoe — a long dugout with an outboard engine — with a local guide and a driver, arranged before arriving at Pagwi, and with the price for the boat, the fuel and the guide agreed before setting off. Nights are spent in simple village guesthouses, a mattress under a mosquito net; another way is a river boat with cabins, from which the villages are visited by day. Mosquitoes, which carry malaria here, are thick at dusk, so repellent and long sleeves go with every evening on the river, one of the habits of staying healthy in Papua New Guinea.

Can I go inside a haus tambaran spirit house?

Only with the village's leave, asked through the guide before approaching the house. The rule belongs to each village: in some that receive visitors, men and women alike are welcomed onto the ground floor, where carvings are often laid out for sale; in others the house is closed to women, or to all outsiders. The places where the sacred objects are kept belong to initiated men and are not entered. A contribution for the visit may be asked, agreed through the guide, and photographs inside are taken only once the guide has asked for them.

Can I buy carvings in the Sepik villages?

Yes, from the carvers themselves, who lay out their work when visitors land. A carving is paid for in kina, in cash, at a price agreed first. Asking the carver about a piece — what it shows, whether it was made for sale or for the village — tells a buyer what is being bought. Domestic baggage allowances are tight, so the size of a large mask or figure is thought through before it is bought, with the flights home in mind.

How many days does a Sepik River trip take?

Three or four days on the water reach a handful of the Middle Sepik villages and the Chambri Lakes. With the road from Wewak to Pagwi and back, that makes five or six days from Wewak. A longer trip continues downstream to Angoram, on the lower river, which has its own road back to Wewak.

Travel deep dive

By Motor Canoe on the Sepik: Spirit Houses and Carvers of the Middle River

The Sepik winds across the lowlands of northern Papua New Guinea to the Bismarck Sea, through rainforest, grass swamps and lagoons, past villages, most of them beyond any road. It is travelled slowly, by motor canoe with a local guide, from one village landing to the next. What draws visitors is the life of those villages: their tall spirit houses, the haus tambaran, and the wood carving of village after village, from masks and ancestor figures to the crocodile carved again and again.

Updated 2026-10-05

From Wewak to the river at Pagwi

The way in runs through Wewak, the provincial capital of East Sepik on the north coast, a domestic flight from Port Moresby. From Wewak a road crosses the coastal hills and runs south through Maprik to Pagwi, the usual landing for the Middle Sepik, a drive of several hours. Around Maprik the Abelam villages build spirit houses with a towering painted front, the form that Parliament House in Port Moresby takes, and the drive can stop at one. At Pagwi the guide and the canoe are waiting, arranged before arrival, and the same road brings the trip back to Wewak.

Seasons and the Crocodile Festival

The country's wet season, from November to May, swells the Sepik and spreads its water across the grass swamps; the drier months between are when most river trips are made. Ambunti, upstream from Pagwi, holds the Sepik River Crocodile Festival, usually in August, when dance groups come in from villages along the river. Canoes and beds for the festival days are arranged well ahead.

The Middle Sepik villages and the Chambri Lakes

The villages of the Middle Sepik are largely those of the Iatmul, and the ones visitors know best, Palimbei, Kanganaman, Yentchen and Tambanum among them, are known for their spirit houses and their carvers. Houses stand on posts above the flood line with canoes pulled up beneath them, and sago from the palms of the swamps and fish from the river are the daily food. South of the main river, channels lead into the Chambri Lakes, whose villages carve in a style of their own; Aibom, on the lakes, is known for its clay pots. Each landing is made with the guide, who introduces the visitors in the village.

The haus tambaran, the spirit house

The haus tambaran is a village's men's house and ceremonial house. On the Middle Sepik it is a long building raised on posts, its saddle-shaped roof rising to a tall peaked gable at each end, its posts and beams carved with ancestor figures and spirits. It keeps the village's ceremonial objects — the slit drums, the sacred flutes, the figures brought out for ceremonies — and in some villages it is where young men are initiated, the patterns then cut into their skin recalling a crocodile's back.

Masks, figures and the crocodile

Carving on the river is a working craft, done for ceremony and for sale. Masks set with cowrie shells and painted in earth colours, ancestor figures, hooks for hanging food and bags out of reach, bowls, and story boards that tell a tale in relief across a flat panel are the pieces visitors see most. The crocodile is everywhere: on canoe prows, on the ends of slit drums, along the rim of a bowl. Styles differ from village to village, and a carver will say what a piece shows.

This overview comes from Visaja's worldwide missions database (visaja.com), checked against official government sources; for binding answers, the mission itself always has the final word.