Hela Province

Hela is a province of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital is Tari. The province covers an area of 10,498 km², and there are 249,449 inhabitants (2011 census figures). Hela province officially came into being on 17 May 2012, comprising three districts previously part of Southern Highlands Province.

Districts and LLGs

There are three districts in the province. Each district has one or more Local Level Government (LLG) areas. For census purposes, the LLG areas are subdivided into wards and those into census units.

Historical Establishment

Hela Province has been an established politically in recent years but the notion of an independent province has been in the hearts of the ethnic Huli people who are the largest single Ethnic group in Papua New Guinea numbering up to over half a million in population. Recent estimates put them at 7-800,000. Oral History suggests that the grand Ancestor of the Huli was a man named Hela who had 4 sons and a Daughter from which the Hela nation was to emerge. The off springs of Hela were sons Huli,Opene,Duna,Tuguba and only sister Hewa. Traditional Hela Territory range from whole of Enga Province (Opene) (Mt Porgera specifically Kumbi Para, ipa Yambale where sacrifice to traditional gods took place) to mt Tundaka (Sacrificial sacred area) to lake kutubu to mt bosavi to mt gigira to the strickland gorges bordering western and West/East Sepik Provinces.