New Guinea culture is all about finding ways to connect with others, sometimes across great distances: engaging in trade, acquiring new kin through marriage and adoption, and learning other people’s customs and languages. Carved from a hollowed-out tree trunk, the slit drum, or garamut, is used not only to accompany singing and dances but also to summon people to gather and to send important announcements by beating rhythmic signals on the drum’s resonant body with a wooden pounding stick.