Hi all,
Just thought I'd share photos of some
of the faces of Papua with you. We saw many people, and I think that these
photos are the best that I managed to get. The full stories behind these
shots are still being typed (up to 30 pages and only done 3 days of 14!) Stay
tuned for the release of the stories.
Faces of the Kamoro:
The Kamoro were the first people we
spent time with. Although, like the others we had limited time with them,
they are relaxed, fun loving people- as are many Papuans. Kamoro live on the
lowlands, farming Taro, collecting Sago and catching fish,
crocodiles and mudcrabs.
This man here, like many Kamoro is a
carver, he made a paddle from a single log, totally practical and not all
arty, Rowan bought it for 150 000 IRP (~7000 IRP = $1AU.) He is smoking
tobacco, most likely home-grown, packed in a rolled up banana leaf.
We met him while
fishing with Gaffey.
This bloke was in the market at
Timika. Likely to be Kamoro, but I didn't ask.
Typical Kamoro house
Moses, who was part of the crew to
take us up to Iweka for two days is shown here
cleaning out the stomach of a speared
pig. Yum!
Faces of the Baliem Valley
Wamena is the main town in the Baliem
Valley. You will see it on my locality map that you should have all
received. The main group we encountered was Dani, but we met some Lani as
well.
This fella was perhaps one of the
grumpiest we met around Wamena. He is showing off a headdress made of Bird
of Paradise (Cendarwasih.) People buy these and directly contribute
to the killing of more birds of paradise. About three species make up this
item.
This is the first naked man we met at
Wamena. We called him "Pak" (he is one of the senior men in his village)
Apart from the seed necklace, all he wore was a gourd. Pak and his people
were incredibly warm and welcoming, We stayed with them for a night in
their traditional village. Before a handshake, they extract a finger from
the nose, or quickly adjust the gourd- or both!
Also hanging out with Pak in town was
this man. We didn't know much about him, still very welcoming.
Rowan being kissed for the first time
by a naked man. This bloke was on the verge of begging, actually he was
trying the whole begging thing out at the time. When all they wear is a
tube-like gourd it can be a bit of a culture shock for us westerners. The
pointy gourd poking you in the ribs as a mostly naked man tries to give you
a kiss is, well, unusual. Men holding hands and kissing is seen as very
manly, not even slightly gay to these people. Once again, it takes getting
used to!
We went to a village that had never
had tourists, yet strangely was westernised. Well, electricity was limited
to dry cell "ABC" brand batteries on the town AM/FM radio but these people
had western style buildings that the Indonesian government had built to
assimilate them. They don't use the buildings, instead live defiantly in
traditional houses. They did have a school and all wore clothes. We had an
amazing time with these people. More on that later...
We broke the ice partly by taking
pictures. First the kids warmed up to us, then the adults. At first they
were very afraid of us.
Once a picture was taken, the kids
would flock to the back of the camera to see what they looked like, followed
by squeals of laughter.
I let some kids take some photos
themselves.
These photos were taken at
nearly the same
instant:
Some of the kids of the village. The
first one with the fire is wearing a Papua New Guinea shirt. Now, West Papua is
a province of Indonesia. Most Papuans we met desperately wanted to be part of
PNG, but of course Indonesia would never allow that. Wearing the PNG flag on a
shirt is one way they quietly protest against Indonesia.
Jiweka village was the next we stayed at. They have
kept it as traditional as possible, to the extent that you don't seem to see any
plastic or rubbish lying around, it looks like first contact in some strange
way. They do have clothes, some wear them (especially the women and
children) but most prefer to parade around in traditional clothes, or
lack thereof. You have to pay to stay with them, as they are
looking for income from the limited tourists. Well worth it
though.
The first person you get introduced is this old fella-
about 350 years old! He was apparently a great warrior in his time, so they
cured him in smoke. He's bought out to meet visitors. Having a spare shrivelled
up dead guy lying about in a cupboard somewhere is a great ice-breaker for
guests.
The "Big Man" (chief, or one of them) is wearing a red
feather headdress, with a Papuan Marsh Harrier feather in it. White cockatoo
feathers are worn above the ears. This is common in the Baliem Valley. The
feathers have the vanes removed to give them a barbed look, and curled outwards.
The gourd is of the diplomatic style, long and straight- it has a possum/tree
kangaroo tail hanging down like a flag.
This man had a headdress made of Cassowary
feathers.
Natalius, a respected man is in his
traditional gear. He had a large variety of bird feathers in his hut, not shown
here- including the 3 foot long tail of an Astrapia bird of paradise, which
was black in the shade, but gleaming rainbow in the sunlight. Pig tusks are in
his nose.
One of the kids wanted to take a
photo of me. He aimed the camera, and immediately three other kids came running up for
the photo.
More shots:
We hiked up to some villages for the
day, higher up the valley. They were slightly different to the Dani of
Wamena itself, a few km away, they spoke their own language and apparently don't
get tourists. They grow all of their food and live in totally traditional round
houses. They were lovely people, some men refused to wear western clothes,
although all of the kids and most adults do. We have loads of photos, but for
now I'll share these two. They still hunt with bow and arrow apparently. I'll
share the rest of the photos later...
Finally, my favourite shots of all. This little kid was
back at the first village we stayed at. He saw us coming back from hunting
frogs, and came over to greet us in a dugout canoe. He was very curious and not
sure about what we were up to. He stood there, not knowing what face to pull
(Papuans have a habit of draining all expression from their faces when a camera
is pointed at them- they think that we want photos of straight faces for some
reason.) I caught him slightly off guard with this shot.
Rowan showing him what he looks like
Hope you enjoyed those shots. Stay tuned for the full
stories behind each one.
-Nathan
