Papua shield entirely handmade by Papuans in 2020.

The Papuans are the original inhabitants of New Guinea island and some neighboring islands. They live scattered across two countries; Indonesia (the provinces of Papua and West Papua, for 2000 together Irian Jaya) and Papua New Guinea. In addition, live by emigration Papuans in the Western world, especially in the Netherlands. New Guinea is inhabited by nearly one thousand different tribes and there is almost an equal number of spoken languages, which are divided into two language groups, a mutually very diverse group of Papuan languages ​​and deAustronesische languages. The speakers of the Papuan languages, the largest group, live mainly on the island of New Guinea and the speakers of Austronesian languages ​​live mainly on the islands of the north and east coast of New Guinea and in a narrow coastal strip of New Guinea. With Papuans are usually referred to the speakers of the Papuan languages, but sometimes also means the Austronesischsprekende among minority. The Austronesischsprekende strains are also referred alsMelanesiërs, in Melanesia, New Guinea, where a part of.