15. The Cuscus and the Wind

A retold fable from Numfor, West Papua

By CELLY AKWAN

One day, when the western wind was blowing, the cuscus was sitting on the branch of a banyan tree. To the cockatoo, parrot, and bird of paradise also sitting in the tree and to the cassowary under the tree, the cuscus boasted, “I can sit here so firmly that the wind cannot throw me off from this branch!” The three birds exchanged glances and smiled wryly and the cassowary looked up to the cuscus.

“We won’t believe your words unless you prove them to us,” said the cockatoo. “Challenge the western wind!”

“Don’t try the eastern wind,” warned the sober cassowary. “She’ll blow you off from the branch easily.”

But their words meant nothing to the overconfident marsupial. He faced up to the western wind and said, “Western wind. You surely can’t blow me off from this branch!”

The western wind laughed and said, “You, tiny and weak fool. Haven’t you seen how I topple the sturdiest ironwood trees and flown off even the strongest walls and roofs of houses? I’ll blow you off much more quickly than the wink of a human eye. I’m much stronger than you.”

“Say whatever you want,” said the proud cuscus, “but I’m not what you’ve destroyed. I’ll win because I’m much, much stronger than you.”

The mammal then stuck his curved claws into the branch to keep him stay firmly there. The cuscus was certain the western wind would not be able to rip them out.

Meanwhile, the birds and cassowary left the banyan tree. They sensed that the competition for power and dominance between the cuscus and wind would be fierce and could endanger their life. But they stayed at a safe distance as witnesses.


The confronted, masculine western wind then increased his puffs, whooshed, and blustered to the branch where the cuscus was trying to hold himself firmly. The branch moved to the left and to the right and up and down and caused the marsupial to sway along. But just as the wind was able to loosen the grips of the cuscus to the branch and almost blow him off, the cuscus quickly curled his tail around the branch to hold him more firmly to the branch and prevented himself from being thrown to the ground.

The western wind that had raged from morning until evening caused a lot of destruction. A lot of trees and houses were blown off; canoes along the beach were lifted and crushed against the stone bridges for village houses on stilts. In spite of the destruction he had caused, the might of the western wind began to weaken during the evening. The western wind subsided and was not able to blow the cuscus off from the branch. The cuscus proved himself to be stronger than the western wind.

His victory made him more bigheaded and daring. He provoked the eastern wind. “Eastern wind, eastern wind, you can’t blow me off from this branch!”

The calm, feminine eastern wind heard the challenge and said, “You’ll feel sorry for what you’ve just said.”

“Come on,” said the impatient cuscus. “I’ve defeated your friend, the western wind, and I’m going to defeat you, too. I’m stronger than you.”

But the eastern wind was shrewder than the western wind. She knew she could defeat the cuscus through his weak spot and by working together with Mr. Rain and Mr. Sun.

“Help me, gentlemen, to teach the cuscus a lesson,” said the eastern wind.

“You can count on me,” said Mr. Rain.

“I’m on your side,” said Mr. Sun.

The eastern wind waited until it was night and cold in the forest. Then, she said to Mr. Rain, “Pour your rain down.”

Soon, it rained all night. The cuscus got wet, sat quietly, and got terribly cold. In the morning, the marsupial still felt terribly cold. The eastern wind then said to Mr. Sun, “Come out and shine on the cuscus.”

“I’m coming,” said Mr. Sun.

The sun soon rose and began to shine on the branch of the banyan tree where the cuscus was still sitting. He felt warmer and fell asleep.

The eastern wind did not blow strongly. She blew very gently on the cuscus and made him sleep, sleep, sleep like a log. The sleeping cuscus did not hold himself firmly to the branch.

Then, the eastern wind sent a gust to the sleeping cuscus. "Whooosh!" sounded the gust at the cuscus. The cuscus suddenly fell on the ground.

“Didn’t I tell you that the eastern wind is stronger than the cuscus?” asked the thoughtful cassowary.

“You’re right,” said the bird of paradise.

“The cuscus should be more thoughtful next time,” said the parrot.

“And humble, too,” added the cockatoo.

“And understand that gentleness is power,” said the wise cassowary.

Copyright © 2008. All rights reserved. Published with written permission from the author.

14. The Legendary War Hero from Biak

(A Legend from Biak and Raja Ampat Islands, Papua and West Papua)

He Defeated the Enemy of the Sultan of Tidore with Just a Single Arrow, Married His Beautiful Daughter, and Became His Vassal.

By CELLY AKWAN


Centuries ago, the island groups that lie between Halmahera, an island in North Moluccas, and the western tip of the present-day West Papua, were not named the Raja Ampat Archipelago – the Four-King Archipelago. They were named Sup Amber, the Foreign Land, by the Biak seafarers. Centuries ago, the present-day Papua and West Papua were called Kawasa Or I Sar, Land of the Rising Sun, also known as the Gold Land.

Later, the island groups were called the Raja Ampat Archipelago. Then, the natives living on the islands and in the mainland of Kawasa Or I Sar were called the Papuans.

How and why did all these changes happen? The legend of Gurabesi, the illustrious war hero from Biak, reveals the answer.


The Hero and His Men

Centuries ago, Gurabesi and a crew of twenty Papuan paddlers traveled in a large, outrigger canoe from Sup Amber to the West. They rowed and sailed along myriads of islands and coral reefs that unraveled the great sea currents between Halmahera and the Land of the Rising Sun. Gurabesi did not worry about traveling to the West. He and his crew had already freed Sup Amber from the superiority of the Sawai people of Halmahera. Before that decisive battle, the Sawai people settled everywhere in the archipelago; then, they were defeated by the strong arms of the Biak hero.

Gura Besi was originally from the island of Biak. In the old times, the Biak people were famous and brave seafarers who voyaged even to East Java. Then, they settled in various places along the east, west, and south coasts of the Gold Land. Following the spirit of that time, Gurabesi also took a long voyage to the West and settled with his clan and tribal members in Sup Amber.

Long before they settled there, Gurabesi’s forefathers held their looting raids on the islands of Ceram and Ambon. They were the Vikings of the Geelvink Bay. Traces of their raids were discovered hundreds of years later in the harta, the valuable goods, which their descendants used to pay traditional dowries and fines. These were the loots of the great Biak seafarers who fearlessly traveled toward the West.

One thing that made Gurabesi a great war hero was his great strength whose source was a magic wood. When he knocked the side of his large canoe with the magic wood, the canoe glided rapidly through the thundering and foaming sea. In such a way, he and his tribal members ventured a life of adventures.

During their voyages, Sekfamneri, Lord of the Utopia, did not hesitate to test their fortitude. When the wind died away in the middle of the sea, the sea looked as smooth as a mirror and the sky above them was bright, but the sun was searing them. The crew was terribly sweaty and thirsty. So thirsty were the paddlers that their tongues lay in their mouths like dry shark fins. Their bamboo sheaths containing drinkable water were almost empty and they could not tell when these painful situations would end soon. So, they desperately held the bamboo sheaths on their heads and searched for the last drops of water. Then Sekfamneri knew how great their fortitude was, stopped the test, and let the rain pour down.

But it was not the type of rain that raged off and passed them by. It was a sudden downpour only to their canoe. They had to get as much water as they could before the downpour stopped. So, they spread their sail and caught the cool humidity of the rainwater with their bamboo sheaths until they foamed and overflowed.

However hard their test of courage was, it was not as great as the later deeds of Gurabesi. He showed them how to break through the enemy’s defense, how to gather food, and how to find the way to the Sultan of Tidore, the powerful king in North Moluccas in those days.

Becoming an Ally

When the great hero and his men arrived at the sultanate, they found out that the kingdom had already been thrown into disarray. A fierce war had already broken between Tidore and Jailolo, another kingdom in Halmahera, North Moluccas; the war had ravaged both sultanates.

The Sultan of Tidore was known as a powerful ruler. He was supported by a strong army: brave and fearless fighters who had often brought victory and glory to his sultanate. But at this time, he was at his wits’ end. He needed strong arms to restore the peace of his people. Unfortunately, he missed them at this critical moment, and he did not know what to do to maintain stability and order in his sultanate. No wonder he was frightened by this desperate need and uncertainty of the future of his sultanate. From being frightened, he became panic-stricken when he got the news that a big attack that targeted his kingdom was expected to happen soon.

Soon, the news came true. The sultan and his people got terrified when they noticed that the white canoe sails from Jailolo were approaching them from the sea.

Just at that critical moment, the canoe Gurabesi and his crew were rowing hit and scoured the sandy beach of Tidore. The war hero jumped on the shore and stepped on land.

How amazing was the difference in the demeanor among the Tidorese, their sultan, and Gurabesi! While they showed great anxiety, he showed great composure. Just as he heard how terrifying the situation was, he reported himself to the sultan. So imposing was he that he savored of respect from the king and his people. Then, he stood face-to-face with the sultan. The king and his people noticed that white shells were strung together around his neck and chest and glittered on his dark skin. His appearance before them became more than flesh and blood could bear when they also noticed that the yellowish-gold feathers of the bird of paradise were stuck in his curly hair. They waved along with the beautiful obeisance he paid to the sultan in which he said, "Jow, jow! Hail, hail, Lord!”

The sultan immediately knew for sure that he was dealing with grandeur. So, he was not ashamed at all to make Gurabesi an ally to overcome his great anxiety.

“I trust you as my ally,” he said. “With your support, we will defend this kingdom.”

The great trust given to the great hero made his chest swell with pride and made his dark eyes sparkle. In that trust, he nosed a great adventure out.

Suddenly, the sultan got nervous. His hands trembled. While pointing to the sea with his right hand still trembling, he said to Gurabesi, “Look at the approaching fleet over there at the horizon. Our enemy must be there and we must do something quickly to get rid of them.” His voice also trembled; but when he looked at his ally, he was amazed at how composed the war hero was. As a hero who talked less but did more, he did not comment on the king’s fear. Instead, he held his palm against his eyes to enable him see more clearly and cast his eyes over the horizon to examine the strength of the enemy fleet.

“Is the fleet strong?” asked the nervous sultan.

Gurabesi shrugged. The fleet was still far away; so, he could not tell how many war canoes and fighting men it had. His shrug was a gesture that he hoped would answer the sultan’s question correctly.

But the sultan who did not expect such an indirect answer then became aware that he had not known his ally well. In his haste to find the strong helping hands of Gurabesi, he had forgotten the rule of getting to know his ally better before he closed a deal with him. Sensing that it was not too late to amend his neglect, he began to give more attention to the strong, imposing, and dark-skinned hero from the Land of the Rising Sun.

What amazed him was his great self-control at the time everybody else, including himself, were trembling from fear, frightened, panic-stricken. Look at him! While he and his people were very afraid of the terrifying enemy still approaching them from the horizon, Gurabesi calmly scanned the enemy. The sultan wanted to know more about him.

“Who are you?” he asked.

It was not in the blood of this man of action to talk much. But this time, he had to because the man asking the question was a powerful king and his ally.

“I am Gurabesi, His Excellency. I am from Sup Amber.”

“I certainly have heard of it,” said the sultan. “It is the land with the high mountains and the innumerable islands.”

But the sultan was shrewd enough not to reveal the slave hunting carried out there on his behalf. It was the land where he had slaves robbed and sold at the slave offices in Tidore. So, he kept silent about this issue.

Another thing that amazed the Sultan of Tidore was the great power of Gurabesi. Did he get it from his strong arms, his “big heart,” or his audacity that kept his head erect?

“Tell me, how is it that your power is so great?” he asked.

The war hero who was not used to speaking much did not answer the sultan’s question. He did not stare at him either. To him, action spoke louder than words; so, he was waiting for the right time for actions.

The perceptive sultan quickly understood the habit of this man of action. So, he did not press him for an answer to his question.

There was a cape in Tidore that gave a natural protection, including against attacking enemies from the sea. To be able to attack Tidore, the enemy should circle the cape.

The Jailolo fleet suddenly appeared and circled the cape. Frightened women and children ran for their lives. The fighting men of the Tidore fleet were wavering between battling the enemy and escaping it by sea. The nervous sultan did not know what to do in this tense situation.

Why were they terrified by the enemy? The Jailolo fleet and their fighters had been recognized for their superiority. Such superiority made the courage of Tidorese raiders sink away and made their hands hang down limply.

If no action is taken to overcome the fear, the sultan reasoned, then the power and glory of Tidore will sink soon – for good. No, I have to show courage and inspire courage to my fighters so that we can defeat the enemy.

So, he took the bull by the horns. To Gurabesi, he begged, “Please, choose my side with your strong men and fight against my enemy. If you win, I will reward you with all that you desire, including my beautiful daughter, Boki Taibah, as your wife.”

This time, it was show time for Gurabesi. He responded indirectly to the sultan’s plea: he straightened his back, knit his eyebrows, and winked at his paddlers who were also raiders. Then, he took an arrow, grabbed his magic wood, struck it along one side of the arrow points, and held his bow ready. This was the hero bow, the bow whose bowstring only the strongest shooter could draw to its farthest span.

The Amazing Sea Battle

The Tidorese fleet was still ready on the beach. All the fighters, including Gurabesi and his raiders, were waiting for the order from the sultan.

“Pull you canoes to the sea!” the sultan shouted. “Attack the enemy – now!”

All the fighters pulled the war canoes to the sea. Gurabesi’s raiders rowed their large canoe so hard and fast that it moved quickly to the front of the Tidorese fleet; while rowing toward the enemy, the dark-skinned but strong paddlers sang war songs to uplift their fighting spirit.

Then, the Jailolo fleet spread itself to make a siege movement. The fighters were impatient for battling their enemy; so, they rowed their canoes so fast that the vessels shot through the blue sea toward the approaching Tidorese. Both warring parties would soon kill and loot one another.

Gurabesi noticed their maneuvers and suddenly saw his lucky star.

“Row faster!” he shouted to his paddlers.

They were able to speed up their canoe to its maximum speed.

Gurabesi then pointed to the left flank and his fellow-fighters moved with a sharp turn to the side of the battle arena. He needed such a turn to keep themselves at a safe distance from the arrows of the Jailolo shooters.

At such a position, he noticed that the whole fleet from Jailolo formed one line of attacking canoes. It was an ideal formation for him to begin his deadly attacks.

Gurabesi noticed that the leading canoe of the Jailolo attackers had a foreman in it. He was standing at the bow, was holding a chopping knife in his hand, and was waving it furiously above his head while dancing wildly and yelling to his fellow-fighters to uplift their fighting spirit.

Because the war canoes from Jailolo were aligned in one straight position, this alignment also formed a straight line of fighters from one canoe to another. Gurabesi would make a clever use of this stupid formation to kill his enemy with only one arrow! The killing would start from the foreman.

Sensing what was up for grabs, he jumped up from his canoe, held his bow firmly, put the arrow whose points he had struck with his magic wood, and drew the bowstring. His muscles swelled and his body bent forward. Then, he drew the bowstring to the farthest span, and let the spanned bowstring hurl the magically powered arrow. The unique arrow flew so fast that it made a muffled rumbling sound like that of a gong.

The wonderful arrow buzzed to the dancing and yelling foreman on the first Jailolo canoe, hit him, pierced his body, and killed him on the spot. But the arrow speed was so stupendous that it also killed from the second Jailolo fighter behind the dead foreman to the last fighter in the same canoe. Not only that. The magically laden arrow also flew with the same velocity from the second enemy canoe to the last and pierced the bodies of the Jailolo fighters one by one, and killed them all. No dead men could steer the Jailolo war canoes. So, they drifted aimlessly to the approaching Tidorese fleet. They were amazed at the way Gurabesi killed the sultanate’s enemy with just one arrow. For some time, there was a sense of awe and admiration for the great hero; then, the plentiful loots left by the enemy killed diverted their attention from the hero. They tugged the unmanned war canoes from Jailolo to Tidore. The victory for Gurabesi and Tidore was perfect.

Becoming a Vassal

So, the hero of the sea battle that day was Gurabesi. In the evening of the same day, Boki Taibah, the beautiful princess of the sultan, was carried to Gurabesi’s canoe.

But the courageous hero had to wait for several days before he could leave with his bride to Sup Amber. The sultan would like to talk some important matters over with Gurabesi. So, both the father-in-law and his son-in-law met.

“Now that you will have a royal princess as your wife,” the sultan said, “I hope the bond between you and me will last long. Let the coastal people in Sup Amber know that you have returned on behalf of the Sultan of Tidore whose people now include them. Every year, they should return this grace by bringing in to me valuable goods such as turtles, pearls, big canoes, and . . . slaves. Tell your people that from now on they belong to the powerful Moluccan sultanate of Tidore. And I appoint you as the first king in the Land of the Rising Sun.”

And so it happened. On behalf of the Tidore kingdom, Gurabesi went back to the Gold Land to rule as the first native vassal of the kingdom over his people. For the first time, Sup Amber became a part of the sultanate.

But Gurabesi proved not to be an effective ruler for the Tidore sultanate. For some time, his rule was not more than the encouragement he gave to his people to pay their tributes to the sultan. The native islanders he ruled over were unimpressed by his performance. But they soon carried out their duties when a small fleet from Ternate, a part of the Tidore kingdom, arrived in Sup Amber every year and reinforced Gurabesi’s rule.

What happened when the tributes were not paid off? The sultanate gave a terrifying example that sent his message forcefully and clearly to those who neglected their yearly duties: whole groups of people were dragged to Tidore. Years later, the silent witnesses of these kinds of disciplinary retributions were discovered at the graveyards of Tidore and Ternate.

The Tidorese then called those dark-skinned natives living in Sup Amber and in the northwestern coasts of the Gold Land the pua-pua, the curly-hair people. It was a name that later became “the Papuans” and included other natives living in the Gold Land. It was under the last mentioned name that the Papuans made themselves known to the outside world.

A man of action in war time, Gurabesi seemed not to have been aware of Tidore’s real politics. It was the politics of taking advantages of his rule as its representative. So, what was he actually up to? He dreamed of power and a great kingdom. To make his dreams come true, he had his “palace” built on Waigeo, the largest island of Sup Amber, and lived there with Boki Taibah, his wife. But his life and power were sustained by the glory of his past and the people’s fear of Tidore.

Who and what was the great Sultan of Tidore Gurabesi had dealt with and become an ally of in the sea battle against the Jailolo fighters? He was Ciliaci who ruled over the sultanate at the end of the fifteenth century. He was mentioned in the history of Tidore sultanate as the first sultan who embraced Islam.

To a certain extent, he owed his greatness to the celebrated war hero from Biak. Gurabesi’s heroic deeds opened not only the port of Tidore but also that of Islam.

The Four-King Archipelago

Gurabesi and Boki Taibah who had lived in their “palace” then got four sons. All of them were born from eggs and immediately became adults.

Under the rules of these princes, Sup Amber was divided into four kingdoms. The Raja Ampat Archipelago, the Four-King Archipelago, has ever since that time gotten its name from these four kings.

Biak people had a strong sense of tribal bonds and impetus for adventures as well as for settlements outside their home island. Gurabesi, who was from Biak, was not an exception to these sense and driving forces. Living with his four sons and beautiful wife as rulers in Sup Amber, he persuaded his tribal members from the far-away island of Biak to move to the four kingdoms. Following their “call of nature”, they took long voyages and settled in the archipelago.

Like their great hero, they also rowed and sailed to Tidore to pay tributes to the sultan. The king honored them by giving them the title of “Sengaji”. Using this honorary title back in the Raja Ampat Archipelago, they served as intermediaries between inhabitants of the hinterland in the archipelago and Tidore. Traces of these Biak people can be easily noticed from the Biak language or a variant of it still spoken on the islands and from family names that bear their Biak origins: Mamoribo, Sauyai, Rumbewas, and some others.

Conversions and Foreign Power

Gurabesi and other Biak people in the archipelago who encountered the Sultan of Tidore and his people were originally pagans. They did not know about and believe in Allah of Islam or the Christian Trinity. For centuries, they had been exposed to Islam; so, a part of them were later converted to Islam. Others embraced Christianity that arrived on the islands early twentieth century.

The influences of the Tidore sultanate on the archipelago and later along the northwestern and north coasts of the mainland and other islands signify something important. For the first time in their history, a foreign power came and dwelled among the people of the Land of the Rising Sun.

Copyright © 2008. Published with permission from the author.

13. The Saga and Drama of Papuan Glory and Its Decline

By CELLY AKWAN

“... the history of Tidore and the Papuan islands teems with hongi voyages, raids everywhere, revolts wherever possible,” contends Dr. F.C. Kamma. This tumultuous period that lasted for around four centuries typifies the relations between both regions. Gurabesi, the war hero who originally came from Biak, achieved fame and prominence during the earliest part of this historical relationship when the Papuans lost their independence and when their homeland was no longer wholly owned.

Prior to this decline of Papuan power and glory, Fakoki and Pasrefi, two heroes from Biak, and Papuan raiders appeared on the political stage. As fiercely independent people, they painted Papuan history with colors of victory, power, and glory in the region nowadays called eastern Indonesia.

The Period of Fakoki and Pasrefi

To better understand Gurabesi’s role during this historical relationship, we also need to understand the period before the Papuans lost their independence. This period came before the Tidore Sultanate existed and came to power. It was made popular by the saga and drama of two Biak heroes: Fakoki and Pasrefi.

The ancestors of the Biak people during their period of independence did not have chiefs, kings, nor great authorities. Instead, their leaders were older men who were in charge of their clans. In additon, they also had some celebrated figures: heroes, clever speakers, and wealthy men. Their heroes conducted raids and discovered far-away islands in the north-west of what is nowadays called West Papua. These celebrated figures sighted and visited the islands of Waigeo, Ayau, and the Sawai people of Patania, Halmahera.

Coastal Papuans and Papuan islanders in the old days not only made long voyages with their long, outrigger canoes to other places along the northern and north-western coasts of their homeland. They also rowed and sailed their canoes as far as various islands and places in what is nowadays called eastern Indonesia outside the Papuan Islands and were known here as notorious pirates.

The Biak-Numforese islanders, adventurous and daring seafarers, were among those Papuans who made their long and eventful voyages. They then settled on various islands of what is later known as the Raja Ampat Archipelago, west of the present-day Sorong.

As emigrants from Biak-Numfor, they came from seven groups. First, the Numforese from Efman and Arar who had lived in the Raja Ampat for centuries. Due to the influence of the Muslim Sultanate of Tidore, they became Muslims in 1912. Second, the Beser people who originally came from Sowek, Biak, settled on West Waigeo, Pam, and Kofiau; they experienced inter-marriages with the Tobelo people from East Halmahera. Third, the Biak people from Wardo, Usba, and Mamoribo who settled along the northern coast of the Bird’s Head and the east coast of Waigeo and Ayau islands. Fourth, the Omka or Kafdarun people from Sowek who later lived on North Batanta. They carried out raids to Ceram and Haruku, two islands in South Moluccas, captured slaves there, and adopted them. Their culture is typically Biak culture. Fifth, the Biak people who became members of the Moi, a non-Biak tribe, in the north-west Bird’s Head. These Biak people originally came from Sor in North Biak and adopted Malibela as their new clan name. Sixth, the Biakkers from Sowek; a part of them were adopted into the Madiek, another non-Biak tribe, and another part continued their voyage to Sorong. Those living in Sorong became the descendants of Sengaji Warfandu and Warwei. Seventh, members of the Rumbiak clan who originally came from Sowek. They drifted on their canoe to the inlet of Waigeo.

Fakoki and Pasrefi, the two heroes from Biak, were two of the most notorious pirates. They led their fellow-Biakkers in various rak or raids as far as Timor, Gorontalo, Ceram, Ablaw, Buru, and Saleier, all are located in the present-day eastern Indonesia. Their raids here included killing villagers, marauding, and robbing their belongings.

No wonder the word “Papua” in Timor meant “pirates”. As a traditional record of their raids as pirates outside their homeland, they sang songs that mentioned the places they had attacked. About the effects of their raids here, they said: “We killed the men and captured the women.” To commemorate their raids, they named their children after these places, such as Haruku, Amblaw, two islands in South Moluccas, and Ponyenamberi (“the first on the beach of the strangers”).

The notorious Papuan pirates were also described by other sources. “All these inhabitants of the Papuan areas are big and famous pirates, and the people of the Island of Ceram are extraordinarily afraid and scared of them,” reported Valentijn, a Dutch traveler, mid 17th century. The commercially profitable Island of Banda was also not free from the destructive effects of the Papuan raids. “Due to the increasing brutality of the Papuan pirates, the trade of the Bandanese was nearly crushed and became almost impossible,” wrote F.C. Kamma in 1948 about the raids that had taken place in Banda before the 20th century. In 1765, Papuan pirates destroyed Amblaw, an island near Ambon and Buru.

The most daring voyage ever made that involved Papuan crew occurred in 1824. Seventy pirate vessels were sighted near the coast of Banyuwangi, East Java. They appeared to be “pirates” from the Moluccas who also had Papuan slaves or paddlers as their crew. The Papuans mentioned here had clearly lost their independence.

These Papuans came from a rather limited area. As slaves and paddlers, they never returned home. Instead, they were used and sold as slaves. Playing their roles as such, the part they played in the conquest of Ternate, an island north of Tidore (which rivaled Tidore for political and economic dominance in the Moluccas and a part of Papua) on July 21, 1801 together with the Tidorese and Patanians was unknown among the Papuans in their homeland. “This past remained silent,” commented Kamma.

It did not remain silent, however, when it came to the saga and drama of Fakoki and Pasrefi in their battle against the Patanians. The Biak raiders led by their heroes and the Patanians encountered in a lot of battles. Their personal experiences that stretched for years and that were filled with exciting, tense, and gripping events and actions were proudly told and retold by their tribal members from one generation to another. Their saga and drama were tales of Papuan glory, of Papuan exaltation and achievement, of Papuan fame and power embodied by Fakoki and Pasrefi.

The two heroes were known as the first two Biak blacksmiths from Wardo, a village in Biak. As blacksmiths, they forged spears, arrow-heads, and other weapons and went raiding, pirating, marauding, and capturing inhabitants in Waigeo and in other islands, such as Ceram, Buru, Amblaw, Halmahera, and Ambon in the Moluccas, a group of islands in the present-day eastern Indonesia.

Both heroes had their own strongholds in Asokweri and Wauyai, two villages in Waigeo, also called Wardo. According to oral tradition, Wauyai was formerly the center of the Kawe tribe. The tribe claimed it had rajas or kings long before Tidore rose into a powerful sultanate.

The time Fakoki and Pasrefi settled in Waigeo, the Sawai people had lived in Patani, Halmahera, an island in Northern Moluccas. Because they lived in Patani, they were also called the Patanians. The Patanians or Sawai people were actually Biak emigrants or their descendants who had lived there before the two heroes emigrated to Waigeo.

Though the Patanians and Biak emigrants or their descendants in Waigeo were clearly brothers and sisters, they were also at war against one another. So, the two heroes from Wardo waged a war against the Sawai or Patanians and defeated them. The Sawai retaliated; they first pursued both to Asokweri but then withdrew their fleet. Both heroes later planned to attack Patani again.

Meanwhile, they built another territory on the Ayau Islands, north of Waigeo. Then, they were ready for another raid on Tiwyan, a great fortress in Patani. They besieged it, took it by surprise, and massacred the garrison.

The Sawai people, however, reorganized their forces and fleets. With the help of the people on Gebe, an island southeast of Patani, the Sawai people traveled in a huge fleet, pursued the Biak fleet, and besieged Kapakja, a Biak fortress near Asokweri. The Biak warriors led by Fakoki and Pasrefi attacked the Pataniers by surprise: they stood on platforms hidden behind shrubs and rolled heavy boulders that killed hundreds of Sawai fighters.

However, the Biak raiders who got the upper hand did not enjoy their victory for a long time. The use of nature around the fortress by the more tactical Sawai and Gebe soldiers finally turned the battle into their favor. The Kapakja that was located on a barren table-land could no longer supply the Biak raiders with food and water. Through treachery from within the Biak fighters, their supply-line was cut off by the Sawai and Gebe fighters who besieged the fortress with their fleet. Fakoki and Pasrefi and the raiders they led eventually ran out of food and water and were starving.

To save their lives, both heroes decided to propose a truce on certain conditions. Both offered to deliver tributes consisting of slaves, sago, turtle shells, and mats to the Sawai after three months.

The Sawai and Gebe raiders accepted the conditions and withdrew their fleet. The battle that had been fiercely fought and continued with starvation ended after five weeks. For the first time in their history, Fakoki and Pasrefi and the Biak people they led lost their independence and became subjected to Tidore.

After waiting for three months, the Sawai an Gebe people got the tributes promised to them. To carry out their duties, the chiefs of Patani and Gebe escorted Fakoki and Pasrefi and their tributes to Tidore.


Under the Rule of Tidore Sultanate

They arrived at the court of the sultan and presented their samson, their tributes to him. The slaves and products they had to offer that necessitated a long voyage to Tidore were new cultural elements for them. The word samson has the word som also spelled as syom, a word in the Biak language. Som or syom means bowing down, prostrating oneself; hanging, pendent, like legs of hair.

When Fakoki and Pasrefi and their Biak followers arrived at the palace of the Sultan of Tidore, both heroes, for the first time, had to prostate before him. They had to approach his majesty they called Mansren (Lord) who ruled over Sup Mansren, Land of the Lord, the Tidore Sultanate, by “crawling” on all fours.

This precept that they had to keep and control strictly actually did not flow in their free-roaming and adventure-searching pirate blood. Such crawling was in fact a humiliating posture. The free-loving, individualistic, and adventurous heroes had to admit for the first time that they were no longer lords of themselves and of their tribal members. This time, they had to subject themselves to their new mansren: the Sultan of Tidore.

Why did they contradict their sense of independence with their subordination by humiliating themselves in front of the sultan? In their world-view, the samson ritual would endow them with mana or magic power and with barakas or blessings. They noticed that the magic power and blessings radiated from the solid, shining building and floor of the palace. To profit fully from these new, magic elements, they took care not to touch them with their feet but to nearly embrace them by prostrating and crawling on hands and knees. By offering the tributes in such a fashion, Fakoki and Pasrefi became givers who were superior to the sultan as the receiver of their slaves, products, and other valuables. Demonstrating such a symbolic action and its significance to the sultan meant Fakoki and Pasrefi still kept their dignity. The sultan, in turn, conferred each of the heroes a functional title. Fakoki was given the title of Dimara and Pasrefi the title of Sangaji Wardo. The heroes, sultan, and other people present at the court understood the meaning of such a reciprocal relation.

After they returned home, their spirit of independence took over. They realized that they had become “representatives of the Sultan of Tidore”. To be submissive to the sultan, however, was more than their flesh and blood could stand. As fiercely independent people, Fakoki and Pasrefi and their tribal members did not want to succumb easily to the sultan.

They, therefore, made another attempt to break free from the sultan’s grip. They demonstrated their defiance of authority by establishing a new stronghold on Abidon, an atoll island of the Ayau group, north of Waigeo.

It was a strategic choice. This island was protected by an extensive barrier-reef. It was nearly inaccessible, especially, for an enemy attacking it from the sea because its entrance was small. An enemy and its fleet that ventured on passing the entrance would expose themselves to easy attacks by the Biak raiders from both sides of the entrance. In addition, the island had very fertile soil and was remotely located.

Fakoki and Pasrefi who lived on Abidon thought about their past and future. The allures of victory and fame in the past as pirates were not over and done with yet.

How could they revive this glory of the past? Through planning and reorganization of their fighting forces, they hoped they would restore their former glory.

To try to regain their past glory, Fakoki and Pasrefi needed supernatural favor. They had to make sure Manseren Nanggi, Lord of the Sky, favored their plan.

So, they erected a ten-meter tall, three-story scaffold to carry out the rituals of fan Nanggi, the feedings of heavens. They offered the Lord plenty of food, utensils, and other offerings as near to the sky as possible. Acting as a shaman and a priest, Fakoki stood with outstretched arms on the highest platform. To appeal to the favor of the Lord, both heroes sang a hymn: “Oh Sky, look down upon us.” No favorable signs from Lord of the Sky were noticed even after they added more offerings. Fakoki then turned his attention to his arms to see whether they were shaking, a sign that his earnest prayer for help was heard and answered. They were not. The Lord still kept silent, a sign that He did not grant their request.

The heroes, however, did not give up easily. This time, they challenged Lord of the Sky himself who did not allow them to start another battle with their enemies. They shot their sharpened arrow-heads, and even used a small bronze cannon to fire cannonballs, over and over into the sky. At the same time, the gun and lightning from the sky boomed and flashed. The two heroes were struck dead on the spot. Their death ended a heroic history of the Biak Papuans.

The Sawai probably lived on Abidon for a long period of time. Nowadays, some villages and sites bear witnesses to their presence on this island: Yensawai, Nyandisawai, and Bukor-Sawai (“Sawai skulls”).

Other Biak leaders or dignitaries after Fakoki and Pasrefi who entered the court of the Tidore Sultan also crawled on their fours when they approached the place where the sultan sat enthroned. This time, the som ritual they performed introduced a new cultural element. When they arrived at the feet of the ruler, they did the som, that is, they bowed their heads and seized for a moment the big toe of his right foot. Then, they greeted the sultan: “Jow Mansren (Be greeted, o Lord)!” Catching hold of the big toe in those days is the same as shaking hands with someone nowadays. After touching the big toe of the sultan, they offered him their tributes.

The Period of Gurabesi

The legend of Gurabesi appeared during the time the Tidore Sultanate in the North Moluccan Archipelago claimed to have certain rights on the Raja Ampat Archipelago and even to the fringe of the Geelvink Bay area. The influence of this sultanate on the north-western and northern parts of the current West Papua and a small part of Papua was recorded to have lasted from the fifteenth to late nineneenth century. It was also reported that Gurabesi came into contact with this sultanate in the fifteenth century when he helped the Sultan of Tidore defeat his enemies, married his daughter, and was appointed a vassal (bearing the title of Kolano or Raja) of the sultan. He and his wife lived in their “palace” in Waigeo, a large island of the Raja Ampat Archipelago.

The earliest years of Gurabesi’s relations with Tidore, however, was part myth part history. Gurabesi was a descendant of the Biak tribe in the Geelvink Bay. Either he or his parents then emigrated to Waigeo and lived there. As a war hero from the Papuan Islands, those west of the present-day Sorong, he and his fellow-Biakkers (all were men) helped Ciliaci, the first Sultan of Tidore, in the war between Tidore and Gailolo, the present-day Jailolo on the island of Halmahera, North Moluccas. With using only one magic arrow, Gurabesi was able to kill all the enemy soldiers and made Tidore the winner of the war. As a reward for his assistance, he succeeded in marrying Boki Taibah, a daughter of the Sultan and a princess of the sultanate. Both returned to Waigeo where Gurabesi served as a representative of Tidore. (The Biak immigrants who lived on the island during those days also called the island as Wardjo, their place of origin in Biak.) The couple got for sons born from four eggs. They became the four kings who then rules the Papuan Islands later known as the Raja Ampat Archipelago, the Four-King Islands.

While living on Waigeo, Gurabesi and his wife became very influential and popular. They lived during the time Ciliciati became the first Muslim sultan in Tidore for seventeen years: from 1495 to 1512.

Treaty of cooperation

To strengthen the relations between the kings in North Moluccas and Papua, the Moluccan kings (raja) made a treaty of cooperation with Papuan kings in the Raja Ampat Archipelago in 1535. According to a report, they included the kings of Vaigama, Vaigue, Quibibi, and Mincinbo. The first two names were later identified as Waigama on the island of Missol and Waigeo; Quibibi is probably the present-day Gebe, a large island west of Waigeo, but the present-day name for Mincinbo has not been identified yet. The same names of the four islands were mentioned again in 1569. Possibly for the first time, a report in 1643 mentioned “Raja Salwatti”, nowadays known as Salawati, another island of the Raja Ampat Archipelago. It is possible that the four sons of Gurabesi and his wife were the Papuan kings who made a treaty with North Moluccas in the early sixteenth century.

Then, the influence of Tidore on the Papuan Islands emerged. A report in 1660 stated: “The Papuans of all the islands are subjected to Tidore.” Eleven years later, another report mentioned “Waigama, Salawati, Batantam Mesowal or Misool, Waigeoe or Pulau Wardjo”. Batantam is Batanta and Waigeoe is Waigeo nowadays; Pulau Wardjo means Wardjo Island. In 1678, a report stated: “Nothing is known about the supremacy of Tidore on the coast of New Guinea.” The coast meant was probably the north-western and northern coasts of the present-day Indonesian province of West Papua and a small part of Papua, another Indonesian province. Both provinces were called Netherlands New Guinea or Dutch New Guinea during the Dutch colonization of the western half of New Guinea. In 1700, another report mentioned the influence of the Tidore Sultanate in Papua: “Tidorese influence has increased on the Papuan islands.”

The ways Tidore exercised its power on the Papuans

How did Tidore exercise its power on the Papuans? It effectuated obligatory tributes, slavery, and destructions of Papuan properties and life. Depending on their need, the self-servicing Tidorese occasionally took advantage of the Papuans. Sometimes, rebellious Papuans fought against Tidore which retaliated.

The obligatory tributes were reinforced by rewards and brutal punishments. Each year, the Tidorese Sultanate sent its notorious hongi fleets to take tributes from the Papuans. Papuans who paid their tributes, including those who came to Tidore, were given various awards, including various titles such as Kolano, Raja, Vassal or King; Sangaji or Sengaji, District Chief; Mayor (Major, an army rank); Kapitaraw, Kapisai, Admiral; Utusan, Representative, Ambassador; Gimalaha, Gimara, Dimara, Village Chief; Sawo, Sawor, Overseer of the Sultan’s Estate; Marinyo, Marino, Mirino?, Overseer; Jurbasa, Interpreter; and Suruhan, Suruan, Ambassador, Village Chief. Some of those titles such as Mayor, Kapitarau, Kapisa, Dimara, Sawor, Mirino, and Suruan have been retained as family names of Biak-Numfor Papuans. Those who did not pay their tributes, however, were brutally punished. They were captured as slaves, their villages were marauded, their garden plots were pillaged and destroyed. Those who refused to obey Tidore’s order or neglect it were killed. A Numforese informant said: “The Sultan of Tidore once gave the message: ‘Everyone who does not pay the obligatory tribute will be killed, together with all the members of his clan or village.’ ”

Some relevant facts from what one of the notorious hongi fleets from Tidore did for five months in 1790 confirms what the informant just said. Those who suffered from their neglect of the obligatory tributes were Papuans from Kumamba islands, north of Sarmi, now a coastal town some hundred miles west of the present-day Jayapura. It was reported that “178 people were captured as slaves, 53 killed, 3 villages destroyed.”

Not all hongi crew members were safe and sound. Two men were killed, two others were missing, and many were injured.

A hongi fleet used a very large vessel resembling a sea-turtle and was therefore called cora-cora. It had two or three decks or rowing platforms that looked like the Mediterranean galleys or triremes. Fifty to sixty men carefully selected rowed or sailed the vessel; they were armed with spears, rifles, and sometimes bronze cannons. From eighteen two twenty cora-coras went raiding along the north-western and the northern coasts of the Dutch controlled New Guinea.

Killing and destroying were not always carried out by the hongi fleets. When their food rations diminished, they made villages they visited feed their crew. When they entered uncharted waters or territories, they sometimes made villagers join them as pilots and show the crew the way.

There were times, however, when the Papuan kings or vassals on the islands near the Moluccas revolted against the Tidore Sultanate. To assert their defiance, they traveled with their hongi fleet to Salawati and proclaimed themselves independent rulers. They captured 150 people, including 104 family members of the Raja of Salawati, but the king was able to redeem them.

Tidore responded to their revolt strongly. The sultanate brought 254 Papuans to slavery.

Another uprising was instigated by the Sawai people in Patani of Southeast Halmahera through an alliance with the Salawati people in the early eighteenth century. Long before the emergence of the Tidore Sultanate, the Sawai people emigrated from Biak and settled in Patani and, as a result, were also called the Patanians. These Biak emigrants later settled in Maba and Weda in Tidore and also in north-eastern Ceram; here they were named Tidorese Papuans. The Patanians in Halmahera compelled the Salawati people, immigrants from Biak or their descendants, to help them as crew members on their fleet in an uprising against Tidore in 1725. For around three years, the allied Patanians and Salawati people were able to blockade Tidore.

Another treaty and the end of slavery

A treaty, however, ended their blockade in 1728. The treaty lasted for over forty years.

In 1771, Tidore which was still thirsty for dominance sent a retaliatory expedition consisting of 30 c0ra-coras and 1.500 men as crew to Salawati. They punished the Sawai of Patani and executed six of them by hanging.

This incident was brought to the attention of the Dutch Government, but the information it provided was scanty. The government, therefore, had to collect more information it could rely on to decide on a policy concerning that incident and others related to the future status of Tidore Sultanate in the Dutch governance.

Definite steps concerning hongi raids and slavery were taken by the colonial rulers in 1859. The raids were brought to a stop in that year and slavery was ended in 1879. As a result of these decisions, 3.078 “slaves” in Tidore and 1.371 others in Ternate were emancipated. The Dutch Government redeemed those in Tidore by paying the sultanate 50 thousand guilders, the former currency unit of the Netherlands, and those in Ternate by paying 51 thousand guilders. It was estimated that there were more than those slaves redeemed by the government. How many were still held in captivity in the Moluccas, however, were not known. It took around 60 years since 1859 before the last “slaves” in Salawati were emancipated in 1918.

The waning days of Papuan glory

Long before the emancipation policy was carried out and the Tidore Sultanate still exercised it power on the Papuans, the sultanate appointed Papuan kings or vassals as its representatives in the Raja Ampat Archipelago. Though serving as such, the phrase “Papuan kings” does not always refer to Papuan dignitaries in that area. A report in 1521 mentioned “a Raja Papua in Gilolo”, the present-day Jailolo in East Halmahera. Papuan kings in the sixteenth century could also come from Ceram, South Moluccas.

How come? At that time, a lot of people, Papuans and non-Papuans, did not know who the Papuan kings were and where the Papuan Islands were located. The locations could refer to East Halmahera and Ceram and the Papuan kings could come from these areas.

Gurabesi is a different case. This Biak war hero and Tidore dignitary appeared during the time the glory of the Papuans outside their homeland began to wane. This decline was caused by the dramatic defeat of Fakoki and Pasrefi after their battle with the Sawai people. Slowly but surely the Sawai people also caused the loss of independence of the Biak people in the Raja Ampat Archipelago, along the northern coast of the main island inhabited by the Papuans, and around the Geelvink Bay. They would be subjected to the ruling power of Tidore.

The following story about Gurabesi and his Biak raiders, though adventurous and renowned, took place during the waning glory of the once proud and fiercely independent Biak people. Their belief in their Lord is noticeable from the prayers of the Biak crew to Sekfamneri, the Appointed Person, another name for Lord of the Utopia.

Some Effects on the Relations between Eastern Indonesia and Papua

“Who were the ancestors of the present-day Moluccans?” I once asked an Ambonese friend of mine.

“They are a mixed stock of Polynesians, Malayans, and Melanesians,” he answered.

The relations between the coastal Papuans and Moluccas, including Tidore, and Timor in the past seem to have also resulted in the inter-marriages between the coastal Papuans, the Melanesians, and the people living in the Moluccas and Timor. Nowadays, one can recognize the Melanesian physical features among various men and women from the Moluccas and Timor.

The long relationships between the people living on the Papuan Islands, the Moluccas, and Timor have also left cultural similarities. Similar folktales, folklores, and language elements have been discovered among the people living in these regions.

Genetic research on the DNA makeup of these people will likely confirm the idea that the people with Melanesian features in the Moluccas and Timor are also genetically related. If this research proves to be true, it will have some implications on nationality and nationalism as understood by both Indonesia and Papuan separatists.

For Indonesian politicians and military figures defending Indonesian unity, the discoveries of biological, cultural, and genetic affinities among the people living in eastern Indonesia, including Papua and West Papua, would of course strengthen their fight against Papuan separatists who want to establish their independent state and nation. The Papuan separatists would probably reject this idea as contradictory to historical facts. They would point to the fact that historical affinities did not prevent, for example, descendants of the Anglo-Saxons in Britain to establish other independent states and nations, such as the USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The problem of overcoming Papuan separatists seems to be more complex than just affinities among various ethnic groups in eastern Indonesia.

Copyright © 2oo8. All rights reserved. Published with permission from the author.

12. Awaiting the Utopia through Singing and Dancing

By DAVID DEBA

After Lord of the Utopia left for the West and the Biak-Numfor people failed to meet him, they chose to wait for his return to them and other Papuans. After eight generations since his departure, he would then fulfill his promises of Koreri, of the Utopia: material abundance and eternal life for all.


Koreri Movements

Those who believed in him and his promises waited for his return through Koreri movements. According to Dr. F.C. Kamma, a Koreri movement was the concentration of a small or large group of Koreri believers in their lord and the Utopia he would fulfill. They gathered to wait for his return and the “new age” he would reveal. To welcome his return and the heaven-like condition he would bring along with him, the Koreri followers made necessary preparations by dancing and singing for several nights at certain meeting-place centers. Such a movement was started by members of a clan; however, as soon as the preparations and the centers were known by more believers, members of other clans and even other communities joined the movement.

A Koreri movement started when a messenger called konoor stepped up. He gave witnesses to the believers that he saw the appearance of Lord of the Utopia through a dream or vision. The mythical hero told him he would return and proclaim the Utopia. “A time of abundance will dawn; ‘goods’ and food will become everyone’s ownership.”

One of the important meeting-point centers of the Koreri movements in Biak during the Second World War when the Japanese Army occupied this island was Manswam in South Biak. The Koreri believers, however, no longer wanted their Utopia; instead, they wanted freedom from the Japanese. To send a strong message about their desire to the Japanese, they rose in rebellion against their occupiers on October 10, 1943. The Japanese Army that seemed not to have understood the reasons behind the Koreri movements attacked the Koreri believers by land and sea through their battle ship. The Koreri soldiers armed with machetes and spears fought one to one against the Japanese soldiers who were armed with guns and bayonets. The rebellion caused heavy casualties on both sides and eventually the Koreri army retreated to the hills, carrying along with them and waving the Koreri flag. Between 600 and 2.000 Koreri soldiers were killed on the beach of Manswam. The three Koreri army leaders who were also brothers to one another, Yan Ronsumbre, Zadrach Ronsumbre, and Kaleb Ronsumbre, were taken prisoners by the Japanese military and beheaded in Korido, Biak.

Advent Nights

Originally, the word “advent” means the arrival of something important or awaited. If preceded by a capital A not at the beginning of a sentence, the word “Advent” means the coming of Jesus Christ.

“Advent nights” is probably not a Christian tradition in which the Christians await for several nights the return of Jesus. What they do celebrate is the four-week period leading up to Christmas, beginning on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day.

Kamma used the term “advent nights” when he discussed the Koreri movements. Except at the beginning of a sentence, he did not use the word “Advent” to refer to the coming of Lord of the Utopia; instead, he used the word “advent” to refer to his return. The return of this mythical hero is an inseparable part of the myth about him. If he returns to Irrian, the oldest name of the present-day island of New Guinea, he will reveal the secrets of life previously rejected by the Irrians of the dim past to the present-day Papuans. These secrets include abundant material wealth and eternal life. The arrival of the lord and the Utopia he promised was then awaited during several nights. Therefore, the advent nights in Koreri movements are the nights of waiting for the return of Lord of the Utopia.

While waiting for the return of the lord, his believers sang and danced. Their songs followed certain sequences and reflected mounting tensions. These songs were often accompanied by dances and traditional drum beats.

When were the advent nights held? After a messenger of the lord made a proclamation to villages that Lord of the Utopia was returning. Those who believed in his announcement responded to it by gathering at the village of the konoor.

However, not everybody needed to come there. Those who did not come there could hold another meeting to await the return of the lord. Various clan members then gathered at the most spacious house of their clans. In spite of this, the gathering was not as big as that at the konoor’s village.

What did those who had gathered at the messenger’s village do? They brought their friends along so that, according to their clans, they would appear on the dancing site. It was the most spacious site in the middle of the village or another spacious space already prepared. Sometimes, the beach sand was also used if there was enough space during low tide.

Then, the advent nights started. In this gathering, the Koreri followers started the event with wor, a song accompanied by a dance, on the first day. The time for dancing and singing was before the sunset.

On the next day, the dance and songs started around three in the afternoon. It was the time they anticipated the “start of a long night”, the night that lasted until dawn.

Advent nights on Insumbabi

The advent nights on Insumbabi, a small island near Biak, started with community singing that involved men and women. The singing was usually in the form of calls and responses or narrations. The songs they sang were composed by Angganitha Menufaur, a charismatic woman who was a relative of Lord of the Utopia and a main figure of the Koreri movements on Supiori, another island near Biak.

Kamma who witnessed such movements and the community singing during the advent nights was impressed by their call-and-response or narrative songs. He wrote: “The mixed singing of the men and women contains something moving through the heavy adult male voices that sound low tones, from which the higher female or male tenor voices sound as if they released themselves from the dark, close embrace of the heavy male voices and rumbles of the tifa [native drums]. There is something about the struggles of a canoe crossing sea waves and strong wind blows. Especially when hundreds of people get involved, their songs are moving.”

Participants in the advent nights on Imsumbabi admitted that when they joined the singing, they felt as if they had been at a mystical world at another time dimension. One Biak’s informant wrote about this experience: “Due to the songs that appealed very much to the feelings of the people, there were eventually spirits that moved their tongues to speak in different languages.” His explanation suggests glossolalia (speaking in tongues), a part of that mystical world.

Mourning songs

Before daybreak, the participants in the advent nights sang mourning songs also called songs of the Morning Star. The songs included all songs about the respected positions and quality of their ancestors, such as their deeds, goods, songs, journeys, and victories. The singers said they “cry out” the mourning songs. Actually, this is normal singing but with a slow tempo, with sound variations that are moving, and that sometimes do remind us of an atmosphere of mourning, of crying.

The Morning Star Mourning Song, for example, is a ballad, a narrative song, sung at daybreak. Here is a free translation of its lyrics: Great Lord, /ah, may You not be dangerous, / so that I can welcome the dawn of Morning Star, / descend on the piece of wood thrown, / thrown at that woman. /He threw it as a man, /the Morning Star reached for it, /he threw it at the woman’s breast, /the Morning Star lost.

The Great Lord in the lyrics refers to Lord of the Utopia. The piece of wood thrown at the woman is the fruit thrown at her breast in the main text of the myth about Lord of the Utopia.

When singing mourning songs, each clan called upon their deceased family members or relatives to resurrect. In such a way, no one was left behind in the Koreri order.

Thousands of Wor (Dance and Song) Participants

Several songs accompanied by dances called wor awaiting the return of Lord of the Utopia and the new world order he would bring about involved thousands of participants. This occurred, for example, on Rani, an island near Biak. Thousands of singing voices accompanied by the sounds of hundreds of tifas during the advent nights gave enormous impacts, both to the participants and listeners. A participant described the impacts through a typically vivid analogy: “Had Rani been a ship, during those nights, we would have danced it into the ground.”

Row Songs

The Biak-Numfor islanders in the past were known not only as fisher people. They were also famous as intrepid seafarers. Using their large, dugout canoes with outriggers projecting from both sides, up-to forty adult men rowed the canoes or sailed the wide seas for trade, warfare, and colonization even to Malacca in Southeast Asia. These islanders also developed a folklore about the sea life, such as their traditional row songs.

The songs resembled Western rounds. The Biak-Numfor row songs, however, were sung following the tempo of the oars that propelled the canoe; the tempo could be between 78 and 82 beats per minute. If a half of the crew started a row song for some time, the other half interrupted the song by starting from the beginning. When the first group finished the first round of the song, it sang the song again from the beginning; the second group that finished its first round repeated its interruption. In such a way, both singing parties gave listeners the impression of chasing one another through the song. This cycle of singing went on and on until one of the groups stopped singing.

The Biak-Numfor row songs are very lively. Frequently, the C-D-E-G-A pentatonic scale underlies these songs.

A row song about the new Koreri

“Kururye!” is a typical Biak-Numfor row song about a spiritual voyage to the new Koreri or Utopia: the biblical heaven. The new Utopia also suggests the new ideal reality for the Biak-Numfor Christians as the new people.

The lyrics of the song have two strata of meanings. At the factual or physical stratum, the lyrics were sung when the sail of a canoe was blown by a tailwind in such a way that the canoe glided “sweetly” or gently on the sea. In such a situation, the oarsman who steered the canoe expressed his pleasure in a falsetto-like voice by uttering a unique exclamation: “Kururu!” or “Kururuye!” At the deeper, ideal or metaphysical stratum, the row song connotes a spiritual voyage to the spiritual harbor longed for by the Biak-Numfor Christians: the calm and shaded harbor of the biblical heaven, of the new Koreri, the timeless Utopia.

The Biak-Numfor people who became Christians used the word “Koreri” to refer to the biblical heaven. The old meaning of this word has, therefore, been enriched and renewed by the Christian teaching of heaven. The Koreri Harbor as a result has gotten a new meaning: the Heavenly Harbor.

Here are the complete lyrics in the Biak-Numfor language and their slightly free translation in English:

Biak-Numfor language

Kururu, kururuye! (repeated) Wai bedi nema i marandar payamyum kaku raryo: Wabe ruar yo? (repeated) Yabe yayun, yabe, kururu, sewar, sewaro Sau Koreri, sau bebrin, bebrin kaku. Kururuye! (repeated)

English

Kururu, kururuye! (repeated) This canoe is gliding sweetly. Whereto will you sail? (repeated) I will sail. I want, kururu, to search for, search for the Heavenly Harbor, the very calm, very calm harbor. Kururuye! (repeated)

Copyright ©2008. All rights reserved. Published with permission from the author.

11. Lord of the Utopia

(A Retold Sacred Myth from Biak-Numfor, Papua)

This Messiah-like Figure Mastered and Promised the Secrets of Utopia to All Papuans (with End Notes Added).

By CELLY AKWAN and BECKY SIMSON

His power has been greater than that of any great heroes and dignitaries of the mythical past. From an ugly old man most people looked down upon, he became a handsome lord and dignitary. He was a creator and created things from nothing. So, he created springs and islands, light like sunshine in his house at night, abundance of food, and a ship complete with its captain and crew. He made Western people wealthy, prosperous, advanced, and powerful. He mastered the secrets of eternal life and resurrections of the dead, and was the only hero and dignitary who had seen the utopian world. Even one of his song poems is so influential that the word irrian it contains has been used to name that huge island in the South Pacific formerly known as New Guinea. He had the power to reward anyone accepting the secrets from the utopia and the power to curse those who rejected his secrets. This unforgettable hero, this powerful dignitary, has lived for centuries in the hearts of generations of Irianese. He has very often been known as Lord of the Utopia.

After he left for the West, the Irianese spread across the island in search of him. They were disappointed because they could not meet him. But he promised to return to them after eight generations since his departure to the West.

So, instead of trying to find Lord of the Utopia, the people have been waiting for his return. They have organized a lot of Utopian movements throughout the centuries to anticipate his return or to make Utopia come true to them. Despite all these efforts, the Lord himself has not returned yet.

How and why did the belief in Lord of the Utopia start? It all started from a mysterious event experienced by an old man.

A Mysterious Pig

The man lived on the plateau of Yamnaibori, a mountain in Biak. He had laid out a garden there, planted a lot of tubers in it, and made a strong fence around it. As soon as the tubers were big enough, he dug as many as he needed for his daily food.

One day, he was startled by a weird incident. A pig had penetrated his garden and eaten his taros. He wanted to find out how it came in. So, he walked along the fence but did not discover a weak or low spot through which the animal could have entered. He was very surprised.

Then, he built a big fire. Its smoke permeated through the whole planting. After that, he returned home.

The next morning, the uncanny event happened again. He examined the fence again for any weak spots but could not find any. But after a closer look, the man noticed something unusual. The pig not only routed out the taros randomly. It had also continued the weed pulling where the owner had ended his work the previous day.

The man thought about how to cope with these strange events. He got an idea. He would be on the watch for the pig and kill it if it came in again.

So, he prepared his lance and went to his garden. He sat there the whole night.

Just before dawn, he heard the champing of a pig. The man sneaked nearer and hurled his lance. Just as the beast was hit, he heard it shout in a human voice: “I stop.”[1] The event shocked the man and made him feel afraid. He regretted having thrown his lance.

As soon as it was daybreak, he looked for the traces of the pig. And what he saw was suprising. Instead of finding the footprints of a pig, he found those of a human being! He did not find his lost spear either.

I want to know what all these events mean, he told himself. So, he followed the footprints and blood splashes from the spear wound. He just kept walking until he arrived at a deep cave. What he saw there was again puzzling: he saw a lot of blood but did not see any person, alive or dead.

Could it be possible that the wounded mysterious pig enter the cave? He wondered. To find out the answer, he entered the cave. And what he soon saw boggled his mind even more. The cave was not dark; it was very bright. So, he kept following a well-marked path.

Then, the path sloped down. The man descended it and when he reached a certain spot, he saw his lance standing there. He examined it, but he did not find any traces of blood; besides, the lance was not broken either. He was confused with the mystery. So, he just stood there, not being sure of whether to continue his search or return.

Then, he was startled by another puzzling event. Just alone in that cave, he heard the roars of laughing and shouting. To find out where they came from, the man looked into every hole and corner of the cave. Suddenly, he heard a voice. It called him and said, “Unreal man.[2] Where are you going and what would you like to take from here?”

But the man was so awe-stricken that he was stunned for several heartbeats and just listened. The voice that seemed to have come from nowhere continued: “Take your spear and walk backwards.”

The man gathered enough courage and sobriety and replied, “I do not know how to walk.”

He did not know that the voice speaking to him was from the snon soroka, the man from the Land of Souls.[3] The man from this land said, “Just do what I said. Otherwise, you will trip and fall.”

He obeyed the commands of the man from the Land of Souls and began to walk backwards. But the entity from the Land of Souls spoke again: “Do you hear these singing and shouting voices?”

“Certainly, I do.”

“Have you recognized any family members?”

“No, the voices sound far away, so I do not recognize them.”

“Would you like to see them at a closer distance?”

“Certainly, I would like to.”

Suddenly, he sensed as if his inner eyes were open. He saw a mass of people in a gigantic village; so huge was it that the roofs of the houses were merged. And what he saw and heard was breathtaking. This village was exceptionally beautiful and it was full of singing and dancing people. Then, he saw his relatives. But he could not recognize other people because they appeared vague to him. Despite his vague view, he could see and hear that men and women were rejoicing together. He was surprised that he could not see a single old man or old women among them: they were all young men and women. When he had witnessed all of those, he was filled with rapture and did not want to leave that place. But the man from the Land of Souls told him, “Your time has not come yet. You are still in envelopment, [4] still subject to sleep and hunger. This is a Utopia [5] place.”

Pondering upon the Utopia

After this splendid vision, the man walked backwards. He could not see the misty people anymore; he only heard their voices. While walking backwards, he arrived at the place where his spear stood. He came close to the lance, but he could not seize it. A snake that was lying nearby barred his way. He wanted to walk on as quickly as possible, but he did not know the way anymore. So, he had to make a choice of getting out that made him sad and regretful: he turned around, faced the cave, and walked out of it.

After walking forward, he arrived again at his garden. But the fruits in it had disappeared, except for one pumpkin.

Then, he ascended the top of a mound. He sat on it and pondered upon all things he had seen and heard. His thoughts filled his heart with sadness.

He called the plateau where his garden was located, Yamnaibori, the Mountain Where I Stopped. [6] The word yamnai was taken from the first word he had heard when he hit the mysterious pig in his garden with his lance. He thought that the mysterious pig was the disguise of a man from the Land of Souls.

He sat there and pondered upon everything he had experienced in and out of the cave. He thought over the phrase “unreal man” that was used to address him in the cave. He also thought over the statement that his time had not come yet because he was attached to the bindings of his life. He thought over all of these and felt deep remorse. He could not enter the Utopia because he had walked forward when leaving the cave. He also felt deep remorse because he had not been able to take the spear along with him.

These thoughts made him lose interest in taking care of his garden. He let the only pumpkin grow and fall apart naturally.

Then, he descended the mound and went to his village. There, he met his fellow-villagers. They were surprised to see his appearance: it did not look tidy. They also noticed that he looked sad and older than he actually was. So, they asked him about what had actually happened to him, but he never replied. Some showed their sympathy, but most had scornful words for him.

Those who pitied him kept saying, “What is going on? Formerly, you were very hard working in your garden and now you sit the whole day and stare and neglect everything, including yourself.”

And then, he told them what had happened. Some believed his words. But when they told his story to other people, some scoffed and spit on the ground.

So, the man became an old man. He did not take care of himself any longer and, as a result, got a skin disease and was called Manarmakeri, the Old Man with Scabies or the Old Man with Scaly Skin. [7]

These thoughts made the Old Man toss in bed. He thought that The Land of Souls and Heavens [8] were both perfect. This world is imperfect because there is still night and all people are still in bindings; they are still unreal people. So, he was going to search for the Utopia the living people are yearning for.

How could he make it come true for them? One thing he was sure of: they should not spoil blood and keep pigs anymore. They should not kill snakes either because snakes guarded the way to the Utopian Land of Souls. And if the Utopia appeared, it would last for only three days and nights because he himself walked for three days and nights in darkness before he reached the Utopia place.

To search for the Utopia, the Old Man descended the small hill he had lived on. He went to Sopen, a village at the foot of the hill. There is a creek called the Sopendo on the south coast of Biak, and the village, is located on the banks of the creek.

Sopen and the Mountains

All Biak people have considered the village sacred. It is the source of the Manarmakeri myth. In addition, nearly all myths of the Biak people, their history, and culture originated from this village. The myths of origins and of the princes or lords also came from this place. The lords include heroes and dignitaries. Sopen was at the same time the place for the worship of the “gods.”

There are three mountains behind Sopen. The first is called Yamnaibori, the mountain of rest; the second, Sumbinyabo, the mountain where men kidnapped the princess; and the third, Mansuarbori, the mountain of the cassowary bird or the mountain of love.

Manarmakeri who possessed the “secret” of life and death lived on Yamnaibori. He cultivated woodcarving and other art forms, such as writing poems, for the Irianese, especially the Biak people.

Before he got scabies or kaskado, a skin disease resembling scales of a fish that covered his body, Manarmakeri was called Yawi Nusyado. His mother was Inggimos Mandos and his father was from the clan [9] of Nusyado. He was a widower and kept a garden of pumpkins and took care of a pig.

The Capture of the Princess

The village chief of Sopen was a prince. One day, his son left his house armed with his bow and arrows. He wanted to shoot fish at the beach.

Near him, he was surprised to notice an unusual sight. A cassowary was fishing in a lagoon. The bird was doing something very unusual in the water. When he felt that enough fish had already swum or drifted into his feathers, he paddled out of the water and shook off the fish on a dry spot of the beach.

Then, at the edge of the lagoon, the large bird put down his fish and put them into a woven basket. The young prince was surprised again to notice that the cassowary was not alone. After putting the fish into the basket, he lifted a child and the basket, put them on his back. Then he returned to Mansuarbori, his dwelling. After watching these amazing events, the young prince returned home. Later, he came to know that the cassowary was the grandfather and the child was his granddaughter.

The child was in fact a beautiful princess and the young prince fell in love with her. He wanted her to become his ladylove.

In the evening, he summoned a meeting between him and a group of fighting men. He gave them an order to capture the princess. “If anyone of you can capture the princess,” he promised, “I’ll ask my sister to marry him.” The men who knew that the sister of the young prince was beautiful accepted his condition and agreed to help him.

The next morning, an army of an age group set forth and placed itself in an ambush. Just at that moment, the princess came, sitting on the back of her grandfather, the cassowary. She was going to fish like she did every day.

Suddenly, the cassowary and his granddaughter were surrounded by the army. While being surrounded, the prince’s men shouted loudly, beat drums and gongs, and blew triton shells – signs that they were trying to seize the princess. But the grandfather was able to escape easily, with his granddaughter on his back, through the army and ran into the forest.

The army returned empty-handedly. Surely none could be offered the marriage with the sister of the young prince.

The next day, another group of men from another age group went out. They lay in ambush to capture the princess, but the grandfather and his granddaughter escaped them, too.

More attempts were made for several days to capture the princess. None succeeded. At last, a lot of men lost the courage to try again.

Suddenly, an old man appeared. He was covered with scabies or scaly skin that made him look very ugly. He was Manarmakeri. The Old Man was walking with a bent back and holding a stick in one hand and a bunch of leaves in the other to drive away flies from his wounds. He requested to the young prince that he be admitted into the army. Those who saw him and listened to his request laughed and ridiculed him.

The army leader asked him, “Can you, an ugly old man, do anything that we, strong men, cannot really do?”

“Come on,” he replied, “just let me try.”

Finally, the men permitted him into the army.

The Old Man was put under a mangrove tree. Then the army, with loud shouts, set out on another pursuit of the princess and her grandfather; the latter ran as fast as he could toward the mangrove tree. Suddenly, Manarmakeri, the ugly old man, appeared from behind the tree, used the curve of his golden rod, and hooked the princess’s neck. The successful capture forced the cassowary to stand. Finally, Manarmakeri grabbed her and gave her to the young prince so that she could become his wife.

Manarmakeri endowed the married couple with riches, glory, and abundance. They became the king and queen who ruled over Biak and Irian.

One of his blessings was revealed through music. To honor the wedding party of the prince and princess, he composed a lot of songs and melodies. Some of them show that Manarmakeri and the Biak people had already crossed Mainland Irian.

One of his song poems expresses adoration of him and mentions the departure of the Biak people to Mainland Irian,[10-12] not to Papua.[13] It also mentions his struggle with the Morning Star and his voyage to the East.

Father Kayan Sanawi,[14] stand up, you are holy./ You cover up the sunlight on Yamnaibori, the mountain of the princess from Biak/ So that we load all your blessings and depart to Irian, the mainland/ Because I have seen the Morning Star [15] rise and not stay on Kumamba in the East.

Meanwhile, the cassowary had escaped into the forest and was alone and sorrowful. Finally, he got so angry that he called on all his folks and left with them for the island of Yappen. That is why cassowary birds are not found on Biak. But the cassowary bird, previously called Mawis, has ever since that time been called Manswar, [16] the loving bird, because he had once loved a human being. The top of the mountain where Manswar once lived has been called Manswarbori.

The Ill-treatment

According to the promise, Manarmakeri who had captured the princess would be given the sister of the young prince as his wife. But the prince broke his promise. Instead of giving him his sister, he gave him a pig. His kinsfolk then brought the pig up to his pumpkin garden.

They all gathered there to hold a party. They asked him to borrow his chopping-knife, and he gave it to them.

He himself rowed directly to his clan from the Mandof clan in order to take a plate. He would present it as a counter-gift to the party holders.

After staying overnight at his cousin’s house, he returned home the following morning. He met his kinsfolk again, but he was disappointed at what he discovered. They had already slaughtered the pig and forgotten him: they did not leave almost any single pork for him.

The indifferent Sopen people ate the pork and ill-treated him. They included folks from the Nusyado clan, his own clan, and a village chief having the title of Sengaji Gim. To build a fire, they pulled out the wooden fence of his garden and used it as firewood. They also had snatched all the pumpkin leaves to wrap the pork for broiling it in the broiling pit. His chopping-knife became blunt because they had used it to chop the pig’s skull into two halves. Then, they gave the Old Man a small piece of the pork, but he rejected the offer. He gave it to a grandchild.

He was very angry with them.

“I do not mind your having eaten up my pig,” he said, “but I really cannot stand your deeds. You have already destroyed my garden, used the fence as firewood, and pulled off the leaves of my pumpkins. I am leaving here immediately.”

He then descended the mountain, walked to the beach, got into a small canoe, and headed for the southeastern direction. His departure would prepare him for greater things in the future.

When the people saw that he really went away, the women sang a song to express their contempt.

“Oh, what a pity!” they sang. “It is not anything important that he is mad at. He is just upset by the pig’s bones and pumpkin leaves.”

Early Miracles

While rowing to Maudori, a village, he got thirsty and went to land. He did not find any water and, so, decided to create it. While standing at the foot of the rock walls, he called up a spring. The spring is still there and is called the Manarmakeri Water.

After having arrived near Samber, another village, he dived with his golden rod. By using the curve of the rod, he hooked the imanen, a kind of fish, behind its gills.

He took the fish into his canoe and headed for Samber. There he stayed at the house of his cousin who had Padawankan [17] as his title or name. There he gave the fish he had caught to his cousin. His cousin shared the fish with other people but did not keep a part for his absent wife. When she came home, she smelled the fishy smell and asked about it. Her husband told her what he had done. Because of this, she got angry and said, “Why did you not keep a part of the fish so that I can eat it? The Old Man is going to leave us because you lack love.”

Manarmakeri left his cousin and rowed to Meokwundi.[18] The island had already been inhabited by five clans from Biak: Rumbarak, Koranu, Samfane, Rumpapap, and Rumambor. He arrived in Meokwundi and pulled his canoe onto dry land in Wusyami.[19] That place is called Amoyaundi and is located on the corner of the island on the side where the sun rises. There he planted a budded coconut he had gotten as a gift from Padawankan and then stayed at the Rum Sram, [20] the secret men’s house, in Sukani.

Struggle with the Morning Star

Manarmakeri asked the inhabitants for a coconut tree in order to tap wine from it, but nobody granted his request. So, he took care of the coconut he had planted. It grew so fast that it became a tree within a month. By using a bamboo knife, Manarmakeri could already cut into the spadices. Then, he hung four bamboo sheaths under the trickling spadices he had already cut into. After the first night, he climbed the tree and took the palm wine and drank it. He did the same thing in the afternoon.

One morning, he climbed again to the top of the coconut tree and discovered that his wine was drunk up. He made a lot of uproar and questioned the people to know who had drunk up his palm wine. Nobody confessed, though.

The next morning, he climbed again to the top of the coconut tree. Like the day before, his palm wine had been drunk up.

He guessed that a thief must have drunk it up. He wanted to spy on the thief.

That day he made a scaffold at the foot of the tree and stayed overnight on it. But until morning, he did not notice a single footstep of a thief. He climbed again to the top of the tree and discovered that the bamboo sheaths were empty again. He got angry for having been fooled by the puzzling disappearance of the wine.

This time, he built the scaffold a little higher against the trunk of the tree and kept watch there the whole night. The following morning, he discovered that his palm wine was gone again.

Then he built his scaffold higher and stayed overnight there. In the morning, his palm-wine sheaths were empty again.

So, he made the scaffold each time higher until it reached the part under the leaves of the coconut tree. He was forced to sleep on the leaf stalks to guard his palm wine.

Before the morning broke, he was startled by some awesome power coming down from the sky. He saw a great light that came from the sky and descended towards him. In that light, the Morning Star came down on top of the coconut tree. The Morning Star wanted to drink the palm wine.

Though Manarmakeri was facing an alien, he was not afraid of him. Suddenly, he seized the star and embraced him while saying, “You there, do you not know any pity? Look at the misery that has become my share. First, you stole the taros from my garden. Then I came here, planted my coconut tree, and again I do not get anything for the work I did. Have you not noticed what I look like? I cannot take care of my own food, do not have any property, and, besides, I am a widower.”[21]

The Morning Star tried to wriggle out of Manarmakeri’s hands, but he held him firmly. So, both wrestled on top of the coconut tree.

Because Kayan Biak [22] would not let the Morning Star go, the alien said, “Let me go – the dangerous thing for me is coming up.” He meant to say that he had to go back to the heavens because the daybreak he was afraid of was already coming. But Kayan Biak said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me and reveal your secrets to me.”

The Morning Star agreed and began to reveal his secrets to Kayan Biak.

“Would you like to get wealth?”

“ I have already gotten that secret.”

“Would you like to have life of abundance without shortages?”

“I already possess that secret.”

“Then what would you like to have?”

“I would like to have the resurrection of the dead and the arrival of the Utopia.”[23]

“In order to make the resurrection of the dead come true, leave here and take the bintanggur fruits.[24] Cast a spell on them and throw them to Princess Insoraki. She is going to become pregnant and bear a son who will be called Manarbew.[25] This child is going to bring about the dream of resurrection and eternal life.”

After getting the secrets, Kayan Biak released the Morning Star. The latter left and then the sun rose and it was daylight.

The Birth of Manarbew

Manarmakeri returned to the village of Sokani and had a stroke of luck. Insoraki, the daughter of the village chief Rumbarak, was bathing in the sea across from the mares tree, a kind of tree growing near the beach. The Old Man came, picked two bintanggur fruits, and threw them into the sea. They drifted toward the girl and touched her breasts. The girl threw them a few times away, but they kept drifting back and touched her breasts. Then, she got upset and flung them away and said, “Those damned things!”

Soon afterwards, she paddled to land. There, her breasts began to itch so that the nipples turned black like those of a married woman who was expecting a baby. After that, she sensed that she was pregnant.

She returned home and four days later a son was born. She called him Konori. [26] The child also called Manarbew grew up in four days.

The birth of the child caused a commotion among the villagers. It was an illegal birth. Insoraki’s parents were embarrassed by the unexpected birth. So, they asked their daughter about the man who should be blamed for the illegal birth. But no man could be held responsible for the birth.

Just as one misfortune was not over yet, another misfortune hit the Rumbarak’s family. Manarbew cried endlessly and his endless cry not only bothered Insoraki but also made the family wonder what the boy was crying for. Then, Insoraki and other villagers felt that he was crying for his missing father.

If that was the problem, how could they know the father of the boy? He could be discovered through a dance party.

So, the inhabitants of the Padaido islands and Biak gathered. They consulted among themselves to organize a big dance party. It was through this party that they thought they could find the father of Konori or Manarbew.

As a result of the consensus, Meokbundi, an island, was swarmed with people from various islands. They all wanted to know how the party would end. Would the father then be discovered?

Then Korano [27] Rumbarak, Insoraki’s father, gave instructions to the whole village. “Go, take up your arrows and bows according to your age groups,”[28] he said. “All of you are going to dance tomorrow.”

The next day, the big dance party was held. First, the children with their bows in their hands were selected to sing and dance. But their efforts did not calm down the crying child. After that, the young men, followed by married men already having two children, and old men at the end did the same thing. But all their efforts failed to stop the crying boy.

On the border of the dancing site, the young mother and her child were sitting. The boy kept crying, “Father, father, father!!” The endless cries of the child were so disturbing that people found it hard to tolerate them.

Then, the aged men were assigned to dance and sing. They appeared on the dancing site and, far behind, Manarmakeri followed them. He was leaning against the stick he was holding in one hand. Another hand was holding a bunch of leaves he used to drive away flies that were swarming around him.

When he appeared, all the participants laughed at him. The men shouted, “Start a song [29] so that we can respond and sing.” Just as they had spoken this, the old man began: “The coconut leaf coming from the Utopia/ out of the kingdom of the dead.” [30]

Then, they began the dance. The dancers circled the dancing site and approached the place where Manarbew and his mother were sitting. Just as they were approaching them, Manarbew cried at once, “There is my father, there is my father,” while running toward him. The boy then hugged him.

The discovery of the boy’s father ended in uproar. There was an outburst of noise and excitement among the aged men in the dance group because they had not expected that the Old Man would be the father of the child. Everybody began to scream and rebuke the girl because she had let such a hideous man in her life. The embarrassed parents of the young mother and her son bore the brunt of the tumult. Insoraki’s father gave instructions to prepare the canoes and desert the island. Then, the men cut down the trees and let them drift away in the sea so that Manarmakeri could not make a canoe and follow them. The houses were demolished, fruit trees felled, and drinkable wells filled with sand. After that, they pulled their canoes to the sea.

Insoraki, Manarbew, and Manarmakeri stayed behind on the beach of Meokwundi. They entreated the departing people to let them go along, but they were not permitted to go on board. Every time they gripped a canoe, the rowers beat their fingers. So, the three people stood there and watched the canoes leave one by one.

But Saneraro, [31] Insoraki’s younger brother, was filled with pity for his sister. He jumped on the beach and stayed behind with her and his brother-in-law. To his sister, he said, “I will stay with you. If we live, then we live together; if we die, then we die together.” Meanwhile, the canoes had left for Krawi Bay on the island of Yappen. People departed in all directions and the Biak people went to the East and West and settled along the coasts.

Miracles for the Family

At the beginning of their marriage, Insoraki was at odds with her husband who was patient and showed understanding. Every time Manarbew complained about anything he needed to his mother, she nagged at the boy’s father. The father would then respond by performing miracles for the family.

One afternoon, Manarbew was hungry and asked his mother for food. She sent him to his father while saying, “Go to your father and ask him for his scaly skin as food.”

Then Manabew entered the dining room, met his father, and told him about his hunger.

“Come along,” his father said. “I am going to let you see something and you are going to eat.”

Then, he brought the boy to his room. Manarbew was surprised to see that the room was filled with various kinds of fruit and food. He was given a banana and ran with it to his mother. At first, she and her brother did not want to believe what they had just seen and heard from the boy; but later, they also went and had a look. The room was indeed full.

Then, both cried.

“Oh, had this happened earlier,” Manarmakeri’s wife said, “our family and relatives would not have departed. Now we are alone.”

When the three of them had eaten and stood up, all the food disappeared. The same thing happened the following day: the room was full, they ate the food, they stood up, and the food disappeared.

Despite the miracles the Old Man had made, Insoraki’s attitude toward him did not change much. She could not stand the bad smell of her husband. She scorned him for his scabies and scaly skin.

Because of his wife attitude, Manarmakeri slept on the front veranda. He tried to respect his wife attitude toward him for three days. On the fourth day, he could no longer stand the loneliness; he wanted both to live a good life as husband and wife. So, he awoke at midnight, approached his wife, and said, “I wish you did not despise me any longer and come near me. I think we can leave and pursue your family someday.”

When it was morning, Manarmakeri got up and said he was going to fish. He took his spear and went to the beach. There, he hurled his fish spear toward a school of fish. Amazingly, the fish swam at the spear so that the shaft became full. After this, he went home.

That night, when his family members gathered in the dining room, another miracle happened. The room was lit by a light as bright as daylight. Then, another miracle happened. Before Insoraki smoked the fish her husband had miraculously caught, she was surprised to see that they had already been smoked without using any fire.

The Fire Baptism

The following morning, Manarmakeri went to the beach again. Manarbew was at home, waiting for him. Suddenly, he shouted to his mother, “Mother, look. Father is coming from there.” But the man his mother saw was not the Old Man. So, she said to his son, “That is not your father. He has a lot scabies and scales on his skin.” In fact, Insoraki was not aware of what had happened to the Old Man. He had rejuvenated himself.

How had that happened? After Manarmakeri left his house, he walked along the beach to Maudiru, Yaunya. Following the instruction of the Morning Star, he built a big fire there and jumped into it. His old skin was burned and he stepped out of the fire. His old skin was then changed into antique plates, bracelets made from shells, necklaces, and other priceless goods. Then, he stood on a stone and looked at himself in the sea surface. A miracle had happened: his skin had turned as white as a European’s. He did not like it and, so, he jumped once more in the fire. He stood there until he was burned into a brown man. He looked at his reflection again and liked his new appearance very much. After that, he put on the Biak loin clothes made from pounded bark of banana trees, stuck a comb in his hair [32] into which he tied cock’s feathers. Then, he adorned himself with bracelets, armlets, and necklaces. After this, he took colorful leaves, stuck them under the armlets, and looked again in the “mirror” of the stone: it was good this way. Manarmakeri had undergone fire baptism.

Then, he returned home. On his way back, he waved with his hand toward the land. Suddenly, thunderbolts rolled, rumbled, and flashed.

Before he reached home, he walked along the beach and flung his fish-spear once more. Soon he caught plenty of fish.

The fish caught and the fire baptism initiated the life of abundance. From now on, his family would not worry about their future needs. Besides, he wanted to share the life of abundance with other people.

When it was dark at home, he did another miracle. He illuminated it through a miraculous light he had created out of the night.

After the fire baptism, his wife was no longer at odds with him. So, she, her brother, and her son lived a new life with Lord of the Utopia.

Blessings and Curses

Then, he shared his blessings with the inhabitants of Irian. The mainland inhabitants got plenty of sago trees. To the Biak people, he gave them the axe to clear away the forests and cultivate gardens. That is why the Biak people are farmers. To the Sowek [33] people, he gave the kofya shells to prepare food from mangrove-tree fruits. That is why the Biak people have to struggle hard to provide for themselves.

In order to impart his secrets to the Irianese, Lord of the Utopia needed a canoe. He did not have one; so, he wanted to create one. He drew a boat filled with sailors and all things in it on the sand. Then he said, “If my father and mother were lords, [34] let this boat appear, go to sea and drift.” After that, he stamped with his heel in the sand. There was the boat, drifting with its crew and captain.

One day, Lord of the Utopia carried out his promise to his wife. To look for his wife’s family, he sailed with his family and brother-in-law to Krawi, Yappen.

After arriving in Krawi, Manarmakeri wanted to sail into the bay and pulled his canoe on the dry ground. Before he could go up and land though, he asked his mother-in-law who had already lived in Krawi to lie on the beach. He wanted her to serve as a roller on which his canoe could be pulled easily to the land. She did not have to worry if she would be rolled to death. Her son-in-law, Lord of the Utopia, had received the secrets of life and death from the Morning Star; so, he would revive her. Not only that. If his mother-in-law served as a roller, her willingness would help turn his boat into a brilliant palace. There, the Utopia would dawn for the people. As a result, they would not know want anymore and old people would change their skin and become young again. The dead would be resurrected and all secrets would be revealed for all people.

Despite the blissfulness promised, the mother-in-law and the crowd gathering on Krawi beach did not believe and welcome him. So, Lord of the Utopia went to the East and sailed up the Mamberamo River until he approached the high mountains there. He wanted to see and put his signs on them. His desire is stated in the following poem:


Listen! Friends of the forefathers:/ Girls! Your scoff at the Sopen River was the cause./ You, women from Biak, for that reason, yes, for that reason, I descended Yamnaibori/ and rowed against the current to Mamberamo, the whirling stream./ I sailed upstream but did not stay there./ I did not stay in the land of Darakya;/ instead, I put a sign of our land Biak out there:/ The sign that just kills. [35]


After that, he left for Tabi, a coastal area in in the present-day Yos Sudarso Bay, Jayapura. On his way, he called at various islands such as Kumamba, Yamna, and Masi-Masi. He continued sailing to the East until he reached Tabi. He also visited Tabati, [36] a coastal village near the present-day Jayapura.

After that, Lord of the Utopia went about and sailed again to the West. He traveled about Swanyaburi [37] and arrived on the island of Numfor. At that time, Numfor did not exist yet. What had been there was an isle located nowadays in front of Pakikri, a village.

Manarbew wanted to play. So, his father threw the stone called Poiru [38] into the sea. There emerged the island of Poiru, a part of great Numfor. Poiru had white sand where Manarbew could amuse himself. The people living on Poiru were called Numforese and their chief was Fun Kayan.

The Lord Himself [39] had also created the islands of Aibai, Indi, Rani, and Insumbabi. No people lived on Mananer, the big island of Numfor. It was quiet and uninhabited. The Lord Himself pricked the sand with four sticks and they became the four big clan houses: Rumberpon, Anggradifu, Rumansra, and Rumberpur – all with their inhabitants.

Sailing by boat, he headed for Rwasidori and lay at anchor here. On this island, Lord of the Utopia wanted to perform his miracles and reveal his secrets to all people so that many would be comforted.

So, he asked the inhabitants of Numfor: “What should we do?” Indfadwarni Rumbruren, an old woman, replied: “Our men will make oars, we women will plait mats and barter food on the island of Arwa.” [40] Through this reply, the people had decided on their destiny: they will have to row and work and roam about everywhere to look for food. The Lord Himself also cursed the island. That is why no sago trees can be found in Numfor nowadays. Besides, venomous snakes began to appear. The people clearly received miseries and suffering because they did not believe in the miraculous power of Lord of the Utopia.

One day, the Numforese who had brought back food from Arwa returned with a sick child. The Lord Himself forbade them to lament and cry because their expression of sadness would not help revive a dead person at all. Unfortunately, the mourners ignored him and sang a dirge when the child died.

While mourning over the dead child, the Lord Himself asked Infadwarni, “When someone dies, will he return alive?” “Whoever dies, will not return,” the old woman replied.

That response made the Lord Himself angry. He took a mat, folded it up, tied it around with a string, and gave it that way to the Numforese. In such a way, they would wrap up the dead who would not be resurrected.

Return after Eight Generations

The people who rejected his blessings did not understand his intentions. So, he became wrathful. To show his wrath, he made an oath and threw a cannon [41] on the spit of land of Inaryori. [42]

“I want to go to the West,” he said, “and when the right time comes, I will return to the East.”

The following morning, Lord of the Utopia disappeared in the West. There he brought abundance and eternal life to the peoples so that they became rich and built factories. All of them have been indebted to him for their progress. But after eight generations since his departure, he will return. The Utopia will then dawn in Irian.

After his disappearance, people began to understand the importance of his blessings they had rejected. So, they tried to follow him so that he could reveal his secrets again to them.

In search of Lord of the Utopia, the Numforese and the Biak people scattered themselves to the South and to the West. They inhabited the Raja Ampat [43] Archipelago and the northern coasts of the Bird’s Head [44] and the Swanyabruri coasts in the South.

End Notes

1. “I stop” is a translation of the original Biak word, Yamnai.
2. The Biak word for “unreal man” is manaibu. This word consists of man (man) and aibu (unreal). The latter is also related to two other Biak words: yenaibu and Sup Aibu. Both refer to the underworld. Yenaibu is the abode of the dead. Their dwelling consists of the inner part of the earth that includes caves, deep wells, trunks and roots of very high and “sacred” trees found on land, and seas with caves on isles that are the “doors” to the world of the dead. Sup Aibu, is the Land of the Dead or the Land of Souls. Therefore, a person experiencing death or living in the Land of the Dead is believed to be manaibu. Symbolically viewed, the inner part of the earth is the source of rejuvenation and eternal life.
3. Snon soroka, a Biak phrase, means “the man from the Land of Souls.”
4. The Biak word for “envelopment” or “enwrapping” is sasor. Figuratively, it means man cannot experience the ideal reality witnessed by the old man because he is still bound or “enwrapped” by the factual reality that includes hunger, illnesses, old age, and death.
5. The Biak word for “Utopia” is Koreri. Dutch government administrators, Protestant missionaries, and cultural anthropologists living and working in the former Netherlands New Guinea later divided into two provinces, Papua in the East and West Papua in the West, do not differ in their opinions about the basic meaning of Koreri. They differ, however, from each other concerning the word form. The root word rer means change of skin as, for example, what a snake does with its old skin. Dr. J.V. de Bruyn, a government administrator, correctly translated rer as “metamorphosis.” According to him, rer refers to “an eternal static condition . . . in which there are no more difficulties, no suffering, illnesses, and death. People remain eternally young and the slave has become the lord.” Rev. J.L. van Hasselt Sr. and his son, Rev. F.J.F. van Hasselt Jr., two Protestant missionaries of the Dutch Reformed Church Missionary and authors of a Numforese Dictionary, agreed with de Bruyn’s definition. Rev. I.S. Kijne, one of the most prominent Protestant missionaries of the Dutch Reformed Church Missionary, and an educator, a musician, and an ethnologist, presumed that Koreri meant somebody or something with a lot of or, a Biak word whose equivalence in English is “miraculous power.” Dr. F.C. Kamma, another Protestant missionary of the Dutch Reformed Church Missionary and a graduate in social sciences from Leiden University in Holland, states that Koreri is a substantive noun formed from rer as the root word. The whole word can be separated into Ko (the inclusive “we”), rer (change), and i (it); so Koreri literally means “we change it”. Kamma who wrote an excellent dissertation on the Koreri myth and its movements simply translated the word as “Utopia”.
6. Yamnaibori has the Biak word bori. The latter means “top, plateau, or mountain”.
7. Manarmakeri, a Biak word, is formed from two words: manar and armaker. The first means “old man” and the second “scabies or scaly skin”. However, the syllable mak can also mean “star”. So, the name can refer either to “the Old Man with scabies or scaly skin” or “the Old Man from the star”.
8. The Land of Souls and Heavens refers to Nanggi, a Biak word. In the Biak world-view, the central power in the universe is called Nanggi: the firmament or the “starry sky”. It is the first layer in the Biak stratification of the universe. Manseren Nanggi, the Lord of Heavens, lived in Nanggi and could be appealed to in times of trouble through a ritual called fan Nanggi, the “feeding of the heavens”, which was led by a shaman.
9. The Biak people differentiate between the principal clan they call keret or er and the subclan they call keret kasun, the small clan. The keret or er is preferably an exogamous, patrilineal kinship group from which the principal clan traces its kinship to a traditional subclan of a real ancestor. The subclan could be called a family.
10. The colonial name “New Guinea” that formerly included Netherlands New Guinea and Australian New Guinea – now called Papua Nugini – originated from Ortiz de Retez, a Spanish navigator of the sixteenth century. He reached an area near Sarmi, now a coastal town in North Papua, and gave this name because the dark-skinned natives he saw reminded him of the black natives of Guinea in West Africa. The Dutch began to rule over the western half of this huge island in the South Pacific in the 19th century; later, they named the western part Netherlands New Guinea. When Indonesia became independent in 1945, Soekarno, the first president of Indonesia, claimed that Netherlands New Guinea was part of the newly independent country because it was part of the Dutch Indies. The Dutch thought it was not, and kept Netherlands New Guinea as another colony. Political, economic, and military pressures from Indonesia, however, finally forced the Dutch to hand its sovereignty over West Papua, the new name for Netherlands New Guinea, to Indonesia on May 1, 1963. In relation with nationalistic movements in Indonesia for independence from the Dutch, Frans Kaisiepo, an Irianese from Biak who was an official of the Dutch government in Netherlands New Guinea – later, under the Indonesian government, became one of the governors of the former West Irian – introduced the name Irian for the first time in Malino, a recreation resort east of the present-day Ujung Pandang, South Sulawesi, on July 15, 1946, one day before the Malino Conference was held. The conference was initiated by H.J. van Mook, that time governor-general of the Dutch Indies, and was attended by 16 representatives from 15 regions outside Java and Sumatra, parts of the young Republic of Indonesia. The conference was meant to form a federal government consisting of Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, and Netherlands New Guinea. The name Irian introduced before the conference later became popular among Indonesian politicians and leaders such as Soekarno and was officially used as West Irian to substitute for the name West Papua in 1963. Then, this new Indonesian province was changed into Irian Jaya; later, this huge and sparsely populated province was split into two separate provinces: Papua and West Papua.
11. The word irian has various meanings. In the Biak language, it comes from the word iryan that means “easy, light, pleasant or agreeable; emerging from the sea like an island that one approaches” by canoe. Communities living around Geelvink Bay (now Cendrawasih Bay) said that irian meant “land without the spilling of blood.” For other communities in North Papua and Northern Part of Dutch New Guinea, irian meant the “rising or coming-up land.” The name iryan, irrian, or irian is presumably mentioned in various old Irianese myths.
12. During the conflicts between the Dutch and Indonesia concerning the political status of Netherlands New Guinea between early 1950s and early 1960s, some pro-Indonesian Irianese and non-Irianese said that IRIAN was an acronym for Ikut Republik Indonesia Anti Nederland, Follow the Republic of Indonesia Anti the Netherlands. This acronym however is of recent origin and is historically and mythically unsubstantiated.
13. The Spanish explorers of the sixteenth century were familiar with Ilha de Papoua, the name they gave to the land and inhabitants of New Guinea. It contains the word “Papoua” later spelled as “Papua” whose meaning is not clear. It could mean “curly hair,” “slaves”, a word related to captured Irianese treated as slaves by the Tidore (Muslim) Sultanate of North Maluku from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century, “the land that lies below the Tidore Sultanate, or “goods” which is papus in Biak-Numfor language.
14. The real meaning of Kayan Sanawi is obscure. Dr. F.C. Kamma guessed that this Biak phrase means “the Rich Man”, another name of Manarmakeri.
15. The Morning Star is also called Makbon, the pig star in the Biak language.
16. Manswar, a Biak word, comes from man (bird) and swar (love, have affection to). Manswar therefore means “the bird that loves or has affection to.”
17. Padawankan or Padawakan is originally a word that refers to a two-masted ship from the Buginese, a seafaring ethnic group in South Sulawesi. The cultural contacts between the Buginese and Biak seafarers are implied by this word that has been adapted into the Biak language.
18. Meokbundi, according to an old spelling, is also called Meoswundi. Meok or meos means “island.” Another name for Meoswundi is Meoskoburi that literally means “the island that we have left behind.”
19. Wusyomi means “the sand that has been blown together.”
20. A Rum Sram literally means a house (rum) of Islam (Sram). The name refers to mosques the Biak seafarers must have seen and been impressed by during their historical contacts with the Tidorese Sultanate. Actually, it refers to a secret men’s house where young men were initiated into adulthood. The last Rum Sram, however, disappeared when Western Protestant missionaries from Germany and Holland were able to convert the northern coast inhabitants of the former Netherlands New Guinea, especially around the Geelvink Bay.
21. Here “I am a widower” means “I have no wife who can work for me.”
22. Kayan Biak, a Biak phrase, is another name of Manarmakeri. It probably means the Rich Man from Biak.
23. “. . . the resurrection of the dead and the arrival of Utopia” is a translation of the Biak phrase, Koreri syeben.
24. Bintanggur, a word from the Indonesian dialect used since the former Netherlands New Guinea, is called maresbon – literally, the fruit (bon) from the mares tree – in the Biak language. It is a kind of inedible, hard, and green fruit that looks like an inverted cone with four or five angles running from top to bottom and is about the size of a young coconut tree. The bintanggur has a shape that alludes to a woman’s breast. The mares tree grows near the sea.
25. Manarbew, a Biak word, means the Bringer of Peace.
26. Konori is another name of Manarbew. Later, it refers to a believer in Lord of the Utopia who served as the forerunner in the return of Manarmakeri from the West. It contains three Biak words: ko, or, and i. According to Rev. I.S. Kijne, konori probably means somebody or something with a lot of or, miraculous power.
27. Korano was a title given to a village chief, especially in the northern part of the former Netherlands New Guinea. Traditionally, it was a title given by the Sultan of Tidore to any Biak man who paid tributes to him. Later, when the Tidore Sultanate lost its power on the northern part of what was later called Netherlands New Guinea, the title was still used by Biak village chiefs.
28. “. . . according to your age group” refers to the dancer of an age group who should bring two kinds of female bows, one adult male bow, or the hero’s bow that required extra strength to draw it.
29. This kind of song is called kankarem in the Biak language. It is a traditional Biak song usually built on a pentatonic scale that lacks the fourth and seventh tones of the Western diatonic scale.
30. The original words of the song in the Biak language sound: “Sarai ramo, ramo, eee – sarai ramo, ramo eee.”
31. Saneraro, a Biak word, means the Moved Heart. It refers to Insoraki’s younger brother who showed love or compassion to his sister.
32. Traditional Irianese combs were made from a certain kind of bamboo or wood and resembled a fork.
33. Sowek is a large village in South Supiori, the part of an island near Biak. With a size of around 700 square kilometers, Supiori is an island smaller than Biak that has a total area of 2,000 square kilometers.
34. The word lords refers to free Biak people, people who are not slaves. In the Biak language, a lord is called manseren that literally means the pure, clean, or holy man. When the Biak people became Protestants through the work of missionaries from Germany and Holland, the word has been used in Manseren Yesus, an equivalence of Lord Jesus or Holy Man Jesus. In addition, Koreri has become a synonym of the biblical heaven.
35. The last sentence in the poem refers to the sign of property that had killing power.
    Tabati is another spelling of Tobati, a coastal village near Jayapura, the capital of the newly established province of Papua.
36. Swanyaburi is the Biak name for the Geelvink Bay, a Dutch name. Since 1963, it has been called the Cenderawasih Bay in which the islands of Biak, Supiori, Numfoor, Yappen, Meoswar, Roon, Moor, Mambor, and other smaller islands are located. Cenderawasih, an Indonesian word, means the bird of paradise, a beautiful bird also found in Papua and West Papua.
37. Communities living in Yappen and Waropen call the bay Sairera or Sairera Bay.
38. Poiru, a Biak word, means, “It emerges.”
39. The Biak phrase for the Lord Himself is Manseren Manggundi. It is the name given to Manarmakeri after the fire baptism.
40. Arwa or Arami is another Biak name for the island of Yappen.
41. The cannon meant is a big stone and is called syade in the Biak language.
42. Inaryori means the “princess ascends”.
43. Raja Ampat is a phrase from the Indonesian dialect used in the eastern part of Indonesia (North Sulawesi, Maluku, West Papua, and Papua) and means the Four Kings. The name originated from the legend of Gura Besi, the Irianese war hero from Biak. He helped Ciliaci, the Muslim Sultan of Tidore at the end of the fifteenth century, to defeat the sultan’s enemies from Jailolo in North Maluku. As a tribute to his courage and dexterity, he was given Boki Tabai, the sultan’s beautiful daughter, as his wife. Gura Besi and the princess ruled over the island groups located between Halmahera in North Maluku and the western tip of the present-day West Papua. They got four sons who were born from eggs and quickly became adults. The archipelago was then divided among these four princes and as a result the island groups have been called the Raja Ampat Archipelago.
44. The Bird’s Head is the name of the western half of West Papua that resembles the head of a bird.

Copyright ©2008. All rights reserved. Published with written permission from the authors.