We're there. . . Now what?

Argh!
Hehe.
*ahem* Okay, I'm almost done with my novel (happy dance)! However I keep returning to one chapter that was never written and to be honest I don't know how to tackle it. . .

The characters have been training to take on the challenge of getting 'combat rights' with what serves as the 'good guys' in my novel. These people are actually a race of people who are physically diffrent than humans, who have developed their own culture and through centuries of warfare had to subvert themselves for their very survival.
I personally know the ins and outs of these people but I find myself at a loss when I go to actually start writing this. I don't know how to say 'this color means this' (whether by directly stating it or alluding to it and letting the reader draw their own conclusion) without just dumping buckets of exposition on the story (which thusfar hasn't really happened.)
So I read travel articles and watch movies from the library but again, its all documentry style which wouldn't fit well with my style- I read a lot of sci-fi but run into the same problem with style clashes (and having never actually sit down and read the atypical 'human goes to a new planet' thing I guess I'm not really prepared to make the best judgment call)
Okay, as convoluted and hopeless as that bit sounded my basic problem and question are as follows: How do you personally hand taking on obscure cultural reffrences and bringing them to the reader in such a way that it makes sense without interupting the flow and narritive while at the same time making it 'feel' like it's coming from the character who sees it.
I know theres as many diffrent ways to do it as there are writers but whats your slant on it?
Thanks for any responses and even more for tips
-Johnathan

Thanks for the replies, now to try and answer your questions :x

Okay,
Up till this point the characters have been given snips and bits, mostly relating to the history of these people, some things such as cultural intricacies have been left out (which is why I kind of want to build on the shock value) such as how they treat women (being a race of all females they give human females a second class citizenship and admonish mating, obviously)
I *hate* info dumps handled wrong, those handled 'right' are more documentary than a good narrative, unless the POV character is prone to doing that. I wanna avoid that as much as possible. I'm kind of thinking of it as a variation on the tourist goes to a country with only a little guide book and no real direction (IE: Someone to say 'oh, that means this'.)
My POV character through most of it is a 17 year old young man who's already seen what their common enemy will go to so they can destroy these people (and his friend which dragged him into this) It's all told from a third person but in his psychological voice.
Most of the cultural references are with ceremonies and things like combat doctrine (leaving weapons behind when you go to enter someone else's establishment unless either invited or under combat conditions, certain shamanistic rituals involving spirit animals and the like.) Other references would include how they organized their fighting forces into four major houses to control various aspects of life (such as construction, religion, food, direct combat.)
Some things are told flat out by either the antagonist (through learning about his enemy) or by the main character's allies. But when it comes to going down into the depths of what it means to be one of them, the culture shock would still be there, not as bad obviously, but still present. . .
Oy, my head, sorry.

Oh, and thank you very much for the kind words.