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Papua New Guinea Folktales

Sepia-toned parchment illustration of a giant crocodile lying on a riverbank as the first man emerges from its body, depicting the Sepik River creation myth from Papua New Guinea.

The Crocodile Father

November 3, 2025

Melanesian Folktales·Papua New Guinea Folktales

In the beginning, before the first human footprint marked the earth, the world was a place of water and wilderness. The great Sepik River wound through the northern territories of Papua New Guinea like a living serpent, its dark waters flowing endlessly between walls of impenetrable jungle. Massive trees rose from the swampy banks, their roots tangled in the mud,

Parchment-style illustration of Tamoa, a Trobriand Island fisherman, climbing a tall palm tree at night, holding a glowing shell that becomes the moon, casting silver light over the island and sea.

Melanesian Folktales·Papua New Guinea Folktales

Tamoa and the Moon Shell

In the time before the moon existed, when the world was divided sharply between the blazing day and the impenetrable night, the people of the Trobriand Islands lived half their lives in fear. When the sun descended beyond the western horizon, painting the sky briefly in shades of fire before