English: Firedancers of the Baining people on the Gazelle Peninsula of New Britain in Papua New Guinea (2008). They live in the Baining Mountains and may have inhabited this area for thousands of years. The Baining are somewhat of an of an oddity amongst Melanesian cultures because they create art forms that have a very ephemeral existence. The dance mask in the picture is laboriously made from bark cloth, bamboo and leaves and used just once for the firedance ceremony before being thrown away or destroyed. The origin of these firedance ceremonies was to celebrate the birth of new children, the commencement of harvests, and also a way of remembering the dead. The Baining firedance is also a right of passage for initiating young men into adulthood. It's a totally male event and traditionally the Baining women and children do not take part in it or even watch the firedance.