About Papua: The History & The Tribes

The History

In 1999 it was proposed to split the province into three government-controlled sectors, sparking Papuan protest. In January 2003 President Megawati Soekarnoputri signed an order dividing Papua into three provinces: Central Irian Jaya, Papua and West Irian Jaya. The formality of installing a local government for Jaraka in Irian Jaya Barat (West) took place in February 2003 and a governor was appointed in November; a government for Irian Jaya Tengah (central) was delayed from August 2003 due to violent local protests. The creation of this separate central province was blocked by Indonesian courts, which declared it to be unconstitutional and in contravention of the Papua's special autonomy agreement. The previous division into two provinces was allowed to stand as an established fact.

The Amungme

The Amungme are a Melanesian group of about 13,000 people living in the highlands of Indonesia Province, Papua. They practice shifting agriculture, supplementing their livelihood by hunting and gathering. The Amungme are very tied to their ancestral Land and consider the surrounding mountains to be sacred.

The Kombai

The Kombai are a Melanesian tribal people from the Indonesian province of West Papua. They live primarily in tree houses.

The Asmat

The Asmat are an ethnic group of New Guinea, and residing in Papua province of Indonesia. Possessing one of the most well-known and vibrant woodcarving traditions in Pacific, their art is sought by collectors worldwide. The Asmat inhabit a region on the island's southwestern coast, totaling about 19,000 square kilometers and consisting of mangrove, tidal swamp, freshwater swamp, and lowland rainforest. The land of Asmat is located both within and adjacent to Lorentz National Park and World Heritage Site, the largest protected area in the Asia-Pacific region. The total Asmat population is estimated about 70,000. The term "Asmat" is used to refer both to the people and the region they inhabit.

Even today, the Asmat are relatively isolated and their most important cultural traditions are still strong, though their interaction with the outside world has been increasing over the last decades. Many Asmat have received higher education in other parts of Indonesia and some in Europe. The Asmat seek to find ways to incorporate new technology and beneficial services such as health, communications, and education, while preserving their cultural traditions. The biodiversity of their area has been under some pressure from outside logging and fishing, although this has faced significant and not unsuccessful resistance. In 2000, the Asmat formed Lembaga Musyawarah Adat Asmat (LMAA), a civil society organization that represents and articulates their interests and aspirations. LMAA has been working with Indo-Pacific Conservation Alliance since 1999, and has established separate traditional sub-councils, or Forum Adat Rumpun (FAR) to implement joint activities. In 2004, Asmat region became a separate governmental administrative unit or Regency, and elected Mr. Yufen Biakai, as former director of the AMCP and current Chairman of LMAA, as its 'Bupati' (head of local government).

The Bauzi

The Bauzi tribe consists of a group of 1500 people living in the north-central part of Indonesia province, Papua. The Bauzi area consists of much of the lower Mamberamo area in northern Papua. While the Bauzi people were historically a fierce animistic people group, they are now 65% Christian. For the most part, tribal warfare is no longer a large part of Bauzi culture and all Bauzi people speak the same language. In recent years, linguists have been studying the language and translating various literature, including the Bible, into the Bauzi language.

The Dani

The Dani people, also spelled 'Ndani', and sometimes conflated with the Lani group to the west, are a people from the central highlands of Papua. Linguists identify at least four sub-groupings of Dani: The Lower-Grand Valley Dani (20,000 speakers), Mid-Grand Valley Dani (50,000 speakers), Upper-Grand Valley Dani (20,000 speakers), and the Western Dani (180,000 speakers). They are one of the most populous tribes in the highlands, and are found spread out through the highlands. The Dani are one of the most well known ethnic groups in Papua, due to the relatively numerous tourists who visit the Baliem Valley area where they predominate.

The pig features very strongly in their local culture, being the most important tool used in bartering, especially in dowries. Likewise pig feasts are extremely important to celebrate events communally, the success of a feast, and that of a village chief or organizer, is often gauged by the number of pigs slaughtered. The Dani have an unusual method of cooking pig, and other staple crops such as sweet potato, banana, and cassava. They heat some stones in a fire till they are extremely hot, they then wrap cuts of meat and pieces of sweet potato or banana inside banana leaves. The food package is then lowered into a pit which has been lined with some of the hot stones described above, the remaining hot stones are then placed on top, and the pit is covered in grass and a cover to keep steam in. After a couple of hours of broiling, the pile is opened and food is removed from the pile and eaten.

The Dani language does not differentiate between any colors, except for the achromatic black and white. This trait makes it an interesting field of research for language psychologists, e.g. Eleanor Rosch, eager to know whether there is a link between way of thought and language.

Changes in the Dani way of life over the past century are tied to the encroachment of modernity and globalization, despite the tourists' brochures describing trekking in the highlands with people from the 'stone age'. Observers have noted that pro-independence and anti-Indonesian sentiment tends to run higher in highland areas than for other areas of Papua. There are cases of abuses where Dani and other Papuans have been shot and/or imprisoned trying to raise the flag of West Papua, the Morning Star.

Source:www.indonesia-tourism.com