24. The Primeval Mother of Procreation

A folktale from Ormu, west of Jayapura

Retold by CELLY AKWAN

In the beginning, there were no human-beings, no plants, and no animals. Then, came Ajechoi, a high-ranking woman in her community from the East. She became the primeval mother of all people, grass, and animals. She was the mother of procreation, the Papuan Eve from Ormu, a coastal village west of Jayapura which  lies at the northern foot of Cyclop Mountains.

She drifted off to the sea and ocean while floating on some driftwood. She drifted off that way for months, driven westwards by the currents of the ocean. But it was not known why she was carried along by the currents farther and farther from her village, family members, relatives, and other fellow-villagers.

Still clinging to the driftwood, she was hungry, thirsty, exhausted, and afraid of dying. But she gained strength and hope as soon as she caught sight of a coast and drifted nearer to it. There was surf pounding on the beach. As she drifted near the surf, her driftwood was caught by the surf and she and the driftwood were washed ashore. Still clinging to the driftwood, Ajechoi was carried along by the current and foamy waves toward some burned rocks near Ormu. Luckily, the current and waves drifted her closer to the beach, away from the dangerous, battering surf, where she saw a slope of rocks.

A cascade near Ormu

Though worn out, she managed to reach the safer part of the beach and scramble up the slope of the rocks. Then, she moved on while searching for a place she hoped she could stay in for some time. After some time, she found a cave where she could stay for the time being.

Alone in there, she sat at the entrance of the cave and thought about her land, family members, and relatives. She surmised that her village was far beyond the place where she stayed. For the first time in her life, Ajechoi was alone and her loneliness filled her heart with sorrow and yearning for home. She expressed her grief in a mourning song, a song that articulated her bitter complaint.

“Oh, I have nothing: no food, no water to drink, no adornments that show my rank, and nobody else to stay with me.”

But the sorrow she uttered was reverberated by the cave and disappeared in the silence of her surroundings. There was no one else who listened to her grief. She did not know she was the only human being there. These made her feel sadder and lonelier.

No one? No, someone high up in the sky she did not know heard her song. He was Maiwa, a snake; in fact, he was known as the snake from heaven. He responded to the song by descending from heaven and keeping Ajechoi company.

Ajechoi who had never met such a being before was filled with awe.

“Do not be afraid,” said the supernatural snake in a human voice. “I have heard your sorrow and have pity on you. I came down from heaven to console and be with you.”

Then, she was surprised by the wonders the snake did only through the power of his voice.

“Let there be every kind of food for the lady here,” he said. “Let there be water for her.”

Out of nowhere, lots of sago flour, sago cakes, sago porridge, cooked and roasted fish and pork, various vegetables and fruits, sweet potatoes, yams, other edible food, and plain water he called forth appeared in abundance in front of Ajechoi in the cave! She was amazed at the display of such wonders.

Still overwhelmed by the awe she had witnessed, she ate and drank to restore her strength. Before she finished her meal, the snake from heaven said, “Let there be every kind of adornments for the lady here.”

Unexpectedly, her hair was done by some invisible hands and ornamented with fresh, fragrant, and colorful flowers; the rest of her body was mysteriously bathed and cleaned from the remains of sea water and enhanced with heavenly fragrance; her ragged clothes were also invisibly replaced with the most expensive clothes she had never worn before; a beautiful necklace suddenly appeared around her neck; armbands of the best make and models appeared around her upper arms; and bracelets of the loveliest type were worn around her wrists! She was dumbfounded by the display of this awesome magic.

Turning to Ajechoi, the snake said, “You will not feel sad and lonely anymore. I will stay with you here as long as you want me to keep you company.”

The woman nodded. Such magical fulfillment of her desire for peace and companionship took away her sorrow and bitter complaint. She began to get used to the presence of an alien, supernatural being whose love for her surpassed that of any man, even the best magician, in her village. So, she finally accepted him as her companion in the cave.

Despite their friendship, Ajechoi still yearned for her home, family members, relatives, and fellow-villagers. She wished anyone of her family members or anyone else from her village could discover her in the cave and brought her back to her village. But her wish remained a wish: nobody showed up there.

She finally gave up her hope and chose the companionship of the snake from heaven. Then, they married and lived together in the cave.

After some time, Ajechoi was pregnant. At this time, her snake-husband left her behind and went back to his abode in the sky. The time for bearing drew nearer and nearer, but her husband had not descended yet.

She thought her snake-husband would not come back to assist her when she delivered her offspring. This would be her first labor pains and she had no experience at all in giving birth to her offspring. What would happen if nobody else helped her during her labor pains and she failed in giving birth to her descendants? Sensing the danger of possible failure, she became afraid. So, she made a decision not to deliver her offspring unless there was help from elderly women. She remembered that elderly women in her village always assisted wives during their labor pains. Had they been here, they would have assisted her.

Ormu Beach

Just as Ajechoi was going to deliver her offspring, her snake-husband came back. He helped her in her labor pains.

Then, what she gave birth to were amazing. Those born were not human babies; the first born offspring included a lot of grass, a snake named Mugu, and every kind of small and big animals!

After delivering her progenies, her snake-husband waved his hand down and said, “Stop childbirth.” The childbirth event stopped.

Then, the snake-father gave some advice to the animals just born.

“All of you go and hide yourselves in the forest,” he ordered them. “The dust of soil will be your food. Take cover under the trees.”

The animals ordered disappeared in the forest. Since then, they have eaten the dust of soil.

He then turned to the snakes and said, “Do not bite human beings who call you brothers because, if you do, you have nothing to fear. But you are allowed to bite them and cause them to die if they do not consider you as their brothers.”

After having established the rules of life for his snake offspring, he went back to his wife. By lifting his hand, he enabled his wife to continue her labor pains. This time she gave birth to four human beings, two pairs of twins: two girls and two boys. Each of the girls had a secret name, but each was called Baal. Each boy was called Awi and Nafri. Together with their mother, the girls and boys were the only human beings in their surroundings.

When Ajechoi’s children were young adults, they were ready for marriage. Because there were no other boys and girls in their surroundings they could marry, they had to marry among themselves. So, Awi and Nafri married their sisters.

Their descendants multiplied and intermarried. Their former surroundings became land. After living in their land for quite a long time, they grew into multitudes of people and their land had not enough space for them to live in. So, they dispersed to the East, West, North, and South.

© 2011

23. The Lost Secret of Eternal Life

A folktale from Sentani, Jayapura, retold by Celly Akwan

Who created the first human beings? Nobody knows. People only remember from their oral tradition that the first human beings were a father and his two children, a brother and a sister. Nothing was mentioned about their names and who the mother of the children was and also what her name was. The three human beings emerged from Dafonsoro or Dabonsolo, a small mountain range as high as 2.160 meters   north of Sentani Lake and west of Jayapura.

The red arrow shows a map of Sentani Lake, with Cyclop Mountains in the north. This name used during the Dutch period in Dutch New Guinea  was given by Louis de Bouganville (1729-1811),  a French admiral and explorer who, while saaling along the north coast of New Guinea,  saw for the first time the massive, rugged mountains that reminded him of  the Cyclops, the one-eyed giant from ancient Greek mythology. The Sentani natives call the mountain ranges Dafonsoro or Dabonsolo.

Present-day Sentani Airport with Dafonsoro Mountains in the north

The children lived together with their father. When they got old enough, the brother married his sister!

Marriage between siblings is not customary among the Sentani people. The rule held for generations is marriage outside the family. So, why did the siblings marry? There must have been no other clans to choose their spouses from for their marriages. Or both siblings loved one another so much that they preferred to marry inside their family. Nobody knows for sure why they married.

An aerial view of a part of Sentani Lake

Then, their father suddenly died. The couple missed their father very much and so gave him a proper burial. Without their father, the young couple had to continue their life. They were not sure what their future would hold for them and were not prepared for it. Had their father still been alive, he would have guided them with his experience and wisdom before they were able to manage their own life.

Louis de Bouganville, who saw the Dafonsoro Mountains for the first time and named them the Cyclop Mountains.

“How I wish him to be with us now!” said the daughter with a sigh.

“I also do,” added the brother.

The next day, they were surprised to witness their wishes coming true. They could not believe their eyes, but they really  saw their father walk towards them. Just in front of their eyes, what they had thought was impossible became real: their father was alive and well.  He had risen from the dead!

So happy were they that they cried out: “Father.” Their father smiled and embraced them.

Despite this fact, the children still did not grasp the mystery of the resurrection of their father. The time he was still with them before he died, he told them about life without death that had existed in the past. That eternal life created by their ancestral god had disappeared because of human folly. Nevertheless, he had known and mastered the secret of eternal life, including its language; as a result, he could rise from the dead.

It was supernatural power given to him on one condition. He would lose it if he did not pass it on to other people.

Stilted houses in Sentani Lake

His children did not know and possess the secret of eternal life and also master its language. This mystery was beyond their grasp and so was not of great interest to them. It was beyond their imaginations.

Their father who failed to inherit that secret to his children was very sad. That secret would disappear forever if he died again. He did not want it to disappear forever; he wanted to inherit in to other human beings so that they could learn its secret and master it for their future life.

But the only people living there included him and his two children. He had tried to find other people farther away, but he had not met anyone yet.

 Sentani bark painting of a lizard-like image

In his deep concern of his inability to share the secret of eternal life with other people, he got an idea. What if that secret was revealed to other living creatures?  That secret would be learned by people living after him and his two children and applied to themselves. In such a way, they would inherit the secret.

So, the father tried to share the secret of eternal life with animals. He then revealed it to snakes and spiders and other animals.

The secret is now seen in the ability of these animals to cast off their old skin, like snakes, and get new skin. It can also be seen in the ability to metamorphose from caterpillars into colorful butterflies.

  A woman from Sentani

But his sharing of the secret led to an unforeseen curse. During his transfer of the secret to the animals, he unwittingly forgot the supernatural instruction that the secret could also be shared among people and, as a result,  lost it. He had to die again.

After some time, he died and the secret of eternal life went with him into his grave.

Brightly colorful adornment of Sentani youths during Sentani Lake Festival

Today, this secret remains as a symbol in animals and other living beings that are able to shed off their old skin and become new-born again. These living beings are also the symbols for the state of bliss, the Utopia in the future.

© 2011

22. A Short Visit to the “Shangri-La”

To: Agus H. and Tetty (BuTet)

From: Celly Akwan

Subject: Dani in Baliem Valley

Date: April 20, 2005

Dear Agus H. Yahya and Tetty:

…. The larger part of this e-mail will be spent to let you have some glimpses of the Dani highlanders in the Baliem Valley. Other kinds of information related to your short visit will also be given so that you can have a fairly balanced picture of the Baliem Valley and its natives.

Expeditions into the Highlands

American Richard Archbold was the first white man who viewed and discovered the Baliem Valley on June 23, 1938. On that day, he was flying in a huge Catalina-like aircraft dubbed the Guba that eventually landed on Lake Habbema. The craft was a Consolidated PBY 2, the standard U.S. long-range patrol bomber, later specially modified by Howard Hughes for salmon fishing expeditions to Alaska and then sold. Archbold was on his third 14-month long expedition to the highlands of New Guinea; he first sighted the Baliem Valley during one of the exploratory flights of the Guba. The expedition was under the auspices of the American Museum of Natural History.

A map of Papua and West Papua, with the Baliem Valley in the highlands, Wamena as its impportant town

Actually the Dani had been contacted six times by various Dutch teams before Archbold discovered them. The contacts began with 1909-1910 Lorentz expedition and J.H. Kremer who crossed the Baliem River’s headwaters in 1921 on his way to Mt. Wilhelmina (later called Mt. Trikora that soars to 4,750 meters). But they missed the valley by several kilometers.

Discovery of the “Shangri-La”

During WW II, the valley would make international headlines as a sort of lost paradise rediscovered. The rediscovery was a coincidental but news-making event.

To fight against the Japanese in Hollandia (later called Jayapura) and secure a military base, the Allied Forces under the supreme command of General MacArthur landed in this small town of Netherlands New Guinea. It was defended by 11,000 Japanese troops, with about one-fifth combat soldiers. (A total of 55,000 Japanese troops defended the northern coast of Irian with considerable air power and substantial naval forces.) The Allies, however, defeated the Japanese stronghold in Hollandia, the largest Japanese logistics supply in the South Pacific. Using 1,200 airplanes of the U.S. Air Force, the Allies destroyed over 300 Japanese craft at Sentani, leaving only 25 serviceable planes. More than 4,000 Japanese were killed and 650 prisoners were taken. About 7,000 Japanese tried to escape to Sarmi, a stronghold over 200 kilometers west of Hollandia, but disease, starvation and wounds killed all but 1,000 men. The Allies lost only 159 lives.

The airfield compex at Sentani Lake was huge. It eventually housed 1,000 planes. Around 300 planes took off and landed at the airfield, first constructed by the Japanese then enlarged and improved by the Allies, every day mid 1944! It has been a record that has not been broken yet in both Netherlands New Guinea and Irian Jaya/Papua.

The Hollandia landing in April 1944 was considered the largest Allied operation in the Pacific. MacArthur employed 217 ships and 80,000 men, led by 50,000 combat troops. The Humboldt Bay (now Yos Sudarso Bay) was filled with hundreds of ships, linked with catwalks and lit up at night. The view at these ships in the bay from Hollandia at night was so fantastic that war correspondents described it as “a city at the sea.”

Within a short period of time, Hollandia and its tiny community of Dutch and Papuan civil servants mushroomed into a city of 250,000 – with 140,000 Australian and American troops and support personnel. It has been a population record not surpassed within the last 74 years since Hollandia was established in 1910. The present-day population of Jayapura of below some 200,000 has even not reached that record yet.

It was during World War II that Allied planes flew over the Baliem, looking for possible airfield sites. An American pilot described the valley as “laid out in checkerboard squares as perfectly formed as farmlands of the Snake Valley in Idaho.” He dubbed it the “Hidden Vallley.”

A majestic view of the Baliem Valley

A few months later, American pilots from Hollandia flew joy-rides over the Baliem. One of the planes crashed against the valley’s mountain wall, killing seven members of the Women’s Army Corps and 14 servicemen. Three people survived the crash, two men and a 20-year-old female corporal, Margaret Hastings. The survivors had to wait for 47 days before they were rescued by a Filippino team landing by parachutes and whisking them out in gliders. War correspondents George Lait and Harry Patterson, who covered the rescue, dubbed the valley “Shangri-La” for its beauty and idyllic setting.

A book about the lost Shangri-La , the Baliem Valley, rediscovered

The crash and evacuation of the survivors as well as the nickname made international headlines. They were also published in a Reader’s Digest issue some time later. Combined with Archbold expedition a few years earlier that had been published in a National Geographic article, the Baliem Valley would pique further scientific and missionary interest in the region.

Land Cultivation

The Baliem Valley has been populated by around 120,000 Papuans just stepping out the Stone Age. It is 1,600 meters high, 60 kilometers long, and 15 kilometers wide. The valley has the highlands’ largest and most fertile pocket of flat, arable land. Archbold who flew over the fertile land in the valley noticed neat geometric gardens and irrigation ditches. He described them as being “like the farming country of central Europe.” To grow sweet potatoes, the Dani’s staple food, the natives have for generations developed “a technically brilliant system of parallel or gridiron irrigation ditches allowing for fallow times equal to that of the cropping cycle.” They have gently shaped the landscape of the mild valley into what one author describes as “the only place on earth where man has improved on nature . . . as close to Paradise as one can get.”

Where the Dani Came From

No one knows for sure where the Dani came from. There have been various conjectures concerning their origin. They might have come from Southeast Asia or West Africa, have had their ancestors in the Indo-Malayan archipelago, or have been the result of an independent evolution in situ.

Some male and female Dani natives in front of a honai or grass hut

The Southeast Asia hypothesis indicates that the highland Papuans reached New Guinea as early as 35,000 to 60,000 years ago and as late as 16,000 to 18,000 years ago. For many milennia after reaching the island (that now includes the western and eastern halves of New Guinea), the Papuans expanded within New Guinea to the coasts and neighboring islands. Today, the Dani are a part of the Papuan highlanders who live in the Central Mountains – Jayawijaya, Mt. Jaya, Paniai, Nabire, Tolikara, Yahokimo, and Wisnumurti Range.

Intermarriage with the Seafaring Austronesians

Ancestors of the present-day Malays, Indonesians, Filipinos, and Polynesians have been traced back to Formosa (later called Taiwan). Collectively known today as Austronesians (formerly called “Malayo-Polynesians”), a handful of hardy seafarers left the coasts of southern China some 6,000-7,000 years ago, reached Taiwan as their jumping-off point, and voyaged through the Philippines to Indonesia and out across the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

This breed of Mongoloid stock brought with them a social organization of bilateral or non-unilineal descent. Within this organization, both biological parents are recognized for purposes of affiliation. This differs with the unilineal societies of New Guinea and Melanesia which are mostly patrilineal. In such a unilineal society, descent is recognized through the father – or sometimes the mother, but rarely both.

Austronesian speakers appeared in the islands of Indonesia by about 3,000 BC. Over the next two millenia, they developed superior technology in sea transportation and land cultivation and increased their populations significantly. They gradually displaced the Papuan populations who then lived there. But this displacement process never took place in the interior of New Guinea because of a combination of ecological factors and the existence of agriculturally sophisticated Papuans. In short, the Austronesians never penetrated to the interior of New Guinea.

A mummy in the Baliem Valley

The seafaring Austronesians then settled and intermixed with Papuans along the coasts as well as on nearby islands. They mingled their genes, but imposed their languages. Around the year 2,000 B.C., a major expansion of the Trans-New Guinea phylum (family) of Papuan language speakers also occurred. It spread west from Irian to the islands of Timor, Alor and Pantar, and replaced earlier West Papuan language speakers. These islands had already been settled by Papuan speakers long before the Austronesian arrival. Nevertheless, the Trans-New Guinea phylum was also strongly influenced by Austronesian loan words, and expanded into the island’s central highlands by about 1,500 B.C. This expansion also wiped out traces of earlier diversity there.

“Linguistic Babel”

A result of the intermarriage of Austronesians and Papuans can be noticed from the Austronesian languages, also called the non-Papuan languages spoken today in the northern and western coasts of Irian. They include Irianese languages spoken by natives living in the present-day Jayapura and its vicinity, Sarmi to the west, a large number of natives in Yapen, Biak-Numfor, most coastal natives from Manokwari to Wondama-Windesi-Roon, Nabire and the nearby islands, some parts of Waropen, and in the Raja Ampat archipelago, west of Sorong.

Linguistically, New Guinea has been described as a “linguistic Babel” by an author. The phrase that alludes to the religious story of the language chaos caused by the collapse of the Tower of Babel in ancient times is meant to indicate the rich diversity of local languages spoken in the western and eastern halves of the island. It has been estimated that the indigenous peoples of New Guinea totalling 2,7 million (in 1991) form just 0.01 percent of the total world population, with Irian Jaya/Papua having around 250  tribes (in 2004).Yet they contribute 15 percent of their known languages to the world’s language heritage. The total number of languages spoken here is approximately 800.

The major language families in Irian Jaya/Papua can be divided into two main phyla: the Papuan and non-Papuan phyla. The first phyla include the Trans-New Guinea Phylum spoken by highlanders such as the Dani, Cenderwasih Bay phylum used by some groups of people in Yapen-Waropen, East Bird’s Head Phylum spoken by tribes living in the Tamrau Mountains and near Sorong, and West Papuan Phylum used by tribes living near Mt. Umsini, southeast of Manokwari. The Austronesian phyla include the languages used by the coastal people already mentioned.

The Trans-New Guinea phylum is the most widespread on the island. It comprises 84 percent of Papuan speakers and 67 percent of the languages.

Plans for a Lingua Franca

Due to this language diversity in the western half of New Guinea, the different tribes cannot understand one another except if their languages come from the same mother tongue, such as the linguistically related languages spoken in Biak, Numfor, Doreh Bay in Manokwari, Roon in the southern part of the Cenderawasih Bay, and in the Raja Ampat archipelago of the north-western coast. Naturally, a lingua franca must be used and so Malay, the Dutch word for what is now Indonesian, has been taught at elementary schools and used by these tribes since the Dutch colonial period. After the Second World War, the Dutch who had separated West Irian from the newly formed Republic of Indonesia and retained their power there planned to introduce a local language, dominant enough, to replace Malay. The Biak-Numfor language used by one of the largest and most proggresive tribes in Netherlands New Guinea was proposed but later turned down because it was not dominant enough. Then, Dutch was proposed, accepted, and taught for some years before that last Dutch colony in Southeast Asia/South Pacific was officially handed over to Indonesia on May 1, 1963.

The Koteka and Honai

The koteka is not a word from one of the three language sub-groups in the Baliem Valley: the Greater Dani, Southern Dani, or Central Dani. It comes from a tribe living in the Paniai highland, west of Wamena, and simply means “clothes.” The Dani in Wamena call it holim. The holim and koteka are the formal clothes of the male highlanders living in the Baliem Valley and Paniai region. They are typical to the highlanders there; coastal Irianese whose traditional clothes are different and disappeared gradually before WW II have never worn either one of both.

The holim is also a sign of authority and dignity of the male Dani. A Dani “Big Man” wears a larger and longer holim, a sign of his power.

A comical scene has been reported in which a holim-wearing Dani playing soccer suddenly raced into the forest as if chased by the Devil and did not show up for the rest of the game. Another player had kicked the ball that had accidentally hit and broken his dear holim; afraid of being naked and laughed at by other players and the spectators, the unlucky man tried to hold his broken holim from falling apart while running as fast as he could into the forest.

The buah merah (red fruit) technically known as pandanus conoideus lam

The government started some largely unsuccessful campaigns from 1964 to 1998 to change the habits of wearing traditional clothes into modern ones of the highlanders. Frans Kaisiepo, an Irianese islander from Biak and a renowned pro-Indonesian nationalist since the Dutch period as well as the second Governor of West Irian, began these campaigns in 1964 to “civilize” these highlanders. His government wanted them to wear western or modern clothes, like those worn by the generally modern coastal Irianese since the Dutch colonial period. It virtually failed. The last anti-koteka campaigns (1993-1998) carried out by the provincial government under Yacob Pattipi, another coastal Irianese who became Governor of Irian Jaya, also failed considerably. The highlanders were given no extra clothes, soap for washing the only clothes they finally wore out, and understanding of their importance. Obviously, these campaigns were not thoroughly planned and carried out.

The pandanus tree and its red fruit

In spite of these failures, not all Dani, in particular, refuse modernization. Particularly, the younger and educated Dani have shown successful adaptation to the modern life by wearing modern clothes and experiencing other things, such as the lures of the city, that the modern life lays at their feet. This generation includes children of converted Dani and educated by Protestant and Catholic missionaries.

Like the holim or koteka, the honai is a traditional house typical of the Dani. The honai have never been constructed and used as houses by coastal Irianese whose tradtional houses disappeared as early as the 19th century.

The Buah Merah “Fever”

Recently, the Dani in the Baliem Valley have been put again in the national-news spotlight for a local fruit, the buah merah (red fruit, pandanus conideus lam). It has been claimed to have potent cures for AIDS/HIV and cancer patients and, therefore, has been feverishly sought-after. This oval-shaped and large fruit with its thorny and hard skin comes from the pandanus tree,  a palm-like tree. Perhaps, a variety of this grows in some coastal areas in the north; its fruit forms an irregular source of protein to the menus of the coastal people in the rural areas, such as in Roon and the Wondama Peninsula.

Bye for now,

Celly

Copyright © 2011. All rights reserved.

21. The Revenge: A True Papuan Christmas Story

(Original Title: “De weerwraak” in KRUIS EN KORWAR, Drs. F.C. Kamma, et al  Den Haag: J.N. Voorhoeve, 1955, pp 215-219)

By BABS KAMMA

Translated from Dutch into English by Celly Akwan

***

A Raja Ampat panorama

There he lay, the big muscular fellow, whose name was Yamuni; one of the strongest men in the village.

Crawling away in a thin cover, his small sleeping mat slid near the fire, puffed Yamuni in his sleep. His chest went gasping up and down; big drops of sweat glittered on his forehead.

And behind his closed eyes thumped the pulsation of his blood; Yamuni was sick.

“Very sick,” had the wise women of his village said and they rubbed with their dry hands his feverish limb and looked seriously at him.

One of them went into the forest to find healing herbs. Others squatted silently around the fire and waited until she returned.

They took fresh betel nuts and chewed them and were lost in thought while gazing at the little flames. Occasionally, they spat small jets of red liquids into the fire; then whizzed the burning small embers and smothered.

Suddenly, they heard the faltering steps at the doorway. They turned themselves half around and looked with stern faces at the young man who was standing behind them. The women immediately recognized him and they nodded at him to come closer.

Ashamed, a bit shy while looking around him, the boy let himself squat and shoved among them near the fire. His eyes searched for the sick man, and when he saw him lie, his face became sober. 

“How is it . . . . Is Yamuni sleeping?” he asked in a whisper and bowed over to the little old woman with gray hair who was sitting beside him. 

The little woman shrugged her shoulders and spat, apparently unaffected, into the fire.

“Just tell us, Kaneri,” began one of the women and she  stringently gazed with her sharp small eyes at him.

“You have fished, haven’t you? And then came the rain and it fell on you, in the middle of the sea. You came back  soaking wet and Yamuni, the strongest man, became sick.

“Because of a small downpour,” she decided and glanced at him scornfully. “What would happen to our people if our young men become sick only because of  some little water?  No, Kaneri. Tell me the truth.”

The boy was startled and glanced at the skinny woman opposite him. The old, scrawny little woman, with her eyes as those of a rat: watery and yet very mean. And Kaneri, the frightened boy,  was sad because his friend lay here while churning in his sleep and sometimes moaning softly. 

Then, he looked down and began waveringly, “Yes, er . . ., we rowed up to the bay, Yamuni and I. We wanted to catch fish at the reef, er . . . .”

“At which reef?” the old woman suddenly snapped at him. “At ours, right? At the Makebon reef. Kaneri, don’t tell me that you’ve gone farther away,” she suddenly exhorted him in such a way that the other women were startled by her shooting, strident voice.

“Er . . . yes,” Kaneri nodded and he tried to talk very convincingly.

“Yes, certainly. But we didn’t catch a lot and then . . . .”

Then, he suddenly  began to jabber off his story: “We didn’t catch any fish. Yamuni said: ‘Come, let’s go further on and try once more.’ We rowed across the bay and tried fishing once more, now close by the village of Yenkate. And suddenly things went better. We fished for a long time; then, I suddenly realized that the wind got up. Black clouds rushed from the mountain ridges over the bay. The wind screamed through the small clefts between the mountains on both edges of the bay.

“We were lying close by Yenkate; we could notice the houses on the beach.”

A shiver ran through the old woman; she nodded speechlessly.

But Kaneri continued: “And then the thunderstorm broke loose. The rain clattered down on our heads, but we rowed further as hard as we could. We were drenched. But it didn’t take a long time before our canoe drifted over the reefs of our own village. We pulled the boat on the dry ground, covered it up with some coconut leaves and ran for home.

“In the evening, Yamuni told me he felt warm and shivery. ‘I’m going to get some sleep,’ he said. And now he is sick,” Kaneri ended his story with a sigh.

“Why Kaneri . . .?” sounded the voice of the old little woman suddenly and her question was sharp and bitter as if she had already known the answer. “Why did you go fishing at the reefs of Yenkate? Don’t you know, Kaneri, that our village is forbidden to fish there? For years, it has been that way; our ancestors have taught us.”

“Yes, but . . .,” Kaneri hesitated. The guru, the guru said that we should no longer live in hostility with the people of Yenkate. Lord Jesus has offered Peace among all peoples. What the ancestors did was not good in His eyes.” He nodded and looked at the woman soberly. But she shrugged her shoulders again and laughed a bit sourly. 

Two other stilted houses in Raja Ampat

“What does the guru know to tell us about?” she said contemptuously. “He’s a stranger in our village. Only a short time ago did he come to live among us.

“And since then . . . .” She spat furiously into the fire. “Since then, our young men haven’t known what our ancestors have taught us. They neglect the old  laws; they dishonor everything, what was originally sacred to them. And they do only that because a guru told them about things none of us has ever heard of.”

Suddenly, one of the women stood up. “We will seek the offender,” she said. “We will foretell it and if Yenkate is shown, we know that it has called up the spirits  to take revenge on the offenders of the old laws.”

In the same evening, the offender was divined, and the lot cast pointed to Yenkate. But in the same night, while the guru was kneeling beside Yamuni and praying with him, the strongest man of Makebon died.

It was Christmas the next day; the school children were busy. They  joined brightly colored flowers and fruits with long festoons; in such a way, the little church was decorated.

Together with the guru, the bigger boys made a big Christmas tree. In the soft bark of a young but small banana tree, they pricked the tree with long palm leaves and supported it with strong branches.

Then, they stuck candles into long but small bamboo holders and fastened them to the branches. It became a splendid tree. Tomorrow, tomorrow would be the celebration of the Child in the Manger,  the joyful Christmas celebration!

But in the evening when the guru still had another look at the decorated church, a small boy sneaked off to him, very afraid and cautious.

And then he told the guru that the people from his village were preparing themselves for a crossing to the village of Yenkate, at the other side of the bay, to take revenge on the death of Yamuni.

***

Just after the break during the Christmas festivity; a half of the candles were burning out.

“People of Makebon,” said the guru, his hands holding firmly the edges of the small lectern while bowing his head forward and looking earnestly at the rows of properly dressed up people in front of him.

“We have celebrated Christmas, the festivity of the child of whom the angels sang ‘King of Peace.’ The Child who brings peace among the peoples.

“And we, here in Makebon . . . . We have buried a young man.” 

The listeners were startled for a while when they heard this, but the voice of the guru suddenly sounded loud and grim.

“We who will be baptized; we, the people of Makebon . . . .

“In the dusk, we come together to meet, to draw up a war strategy because . . . soon, we will pull our canoes in the sea and prepare our machetes; we want to murder somebody because of our fear for the wrath of our ancestors concerning the death of one of our young men.

“Aren’t we Christians? Why don’t we harass the spirits; isn’t Lord Jesus after all on our side? No, people of Makebon.

“We will put out our candles; we’re going to end our Christmas celebration because tomorrow, we’re going to sail to Yenkate and we will continue our Christmas celebration together with them. That will be our revenge. Lord Jesus Himself has set us the example when He died for us. And we want to honor His offer.”

It remained quiet in the church, but then some men stood up and put out the candles, one by one – and by the light of some resin torches hurriedly lighted, all went outside and returned to their homes.

And just as the guru and his school children had agreed upon, it also happened. The next day, very early in the morning, a small canoe crossed over the bay to Yenkate; the guru and the oldest school children went to the village to ask the people whether they might celebrate Christmas with them tomorrow.

The village head was first very suspicious. They had heard about Yamuni’s death, and were watching out for revenge. What did those people want with their “Christmas celebration” here at this time?

But he finally gave in. Good, if people trusted him in such a way, why should they then have fear for them?

The school children shouted for joy and while singing they rowed  with their guru back to Makebon.

So it happened that a Christmas was celebrated once more, but this time in Yenkate.

The guru told the story of the Child in the Manger and the school children sang as beautifully as they could accompanied by the small orchestra of bamboo flutes.

And when the candles were lighted, the village head invited the people for the feast. 

Suddenly, a fright ran through the guests. Eating . . . that was really  too dangerous! Since earlier times, people had already mixed magic spells with the food if they wanted to kill someone without his knowing this soon.

But the people of Yenkate thought: “Go ahead, then, if you  have a lot of trust in us, just taste it.” And they looked in silent anticipation at their guests.

The guru understood why the people hesitated. He, therefore, stepped forward and called: “We are happy that we could celebrate Christmas together. The feast of peace and friendship. And that’s why we’re delighted to sit around the feast and stick our hands in the same dish with them, who were formerly our enemy.”

And he and the school children crouched down around the steamy dining pots and merrily laughed with one another.

Then, the others were also encouraged, and they went sitting, young men from Makebon near old women from Yenkate, little children from Makebon near those from the village on the other side of the Dorehum Bay.

That was the revenge of the Christians from Makebon.

And later, when their canoes came across those from the other village, the rowers then greeted one another; first hesitantly and then with broad laughter on their faces.

And often there were boys who went out fishing at the reefs of the other village.

Copyright © 2010. All rights reserved. Published with written permission from the author.

20. The Revenge: A True Papuan Christmas Story (Background Info Updated)

By CELLY AKWAN

The Revenge, a true Christmas story from West Papua, occurred in Raja Ampat Archipelago, west of Sorong, a small town west of Manokwari,  presumably in the 1930s or before World War II. Babs Kamma, the original writer of the story who is from Holland, tells us about the mistrust and hostility that must have existed between the people of two coastal villages, Makebon (pronounced as “mackeBBON”) and Yenkate (pronounced as “yenKATTay”). Their suspicion and enmity would find their expression again in the scheme of some men from Makebon for revenge on a young man from Yenkate to justify the earlier death of  another young man from Makebon believed to have been caused by the sea spirit of the coral reefs near Yenkate. They believed that by doing so, they would appease the wrath of their ancestors on them. Their scheme, however, was aborted through the power of  Christmas. To understand the story well, it is considered necessary to provide some background information for readers with less or no knowledge of the traditions involved .

The location of Raja Ampat Islands (in red lined box)

Some Relevant Info from Church History

The first Western missionaries in Western New Guinea (nowadays Papua and West Papua) were two young men from Germany: C.W. Ottow and J.G. Geissler, both were Protestants. They first landed in 1855 and stayed for some time on Mansinam, a small island near Manokwari, later the capital of the former Dutch New Guinea and West Papua, an Indonesian province in Eastern Indonesia. Then, they moved to Manokwari. 

Both were then followed by Dutch Protestant missionaries sent by the Utrecht Mission Society in Holland. From 1855 to 1907, they all worked around the Geelvink Bay (later called the Cendrawasih Bay) in Central North New Guinea. Some worked in Manokwari and its vicinity, but others worked in Windesi, a coastal village south of Manokwari, and Roon, an island north of the Wondama Peninsula, which lies south of Windesi, and Meoswar, an island north of Roon.  From 1870 to 1956, their mission work became part of the Dutch Reformed Church Mission.

After the Great Spiritual Awakening of the Geelvink Bay Papuans that started in Roon in which the Rooners converted in masses to Christianity on January 1, 1907, this new spiritual awareness also spread to other places in the Geelvink Bay. It spread to Wondama, Windesi, Manokwari and its vicinity, Kebar, Biak-Numfor, Yapen-Waropen, and Nabire. Christianity was then disseminated to other places along the northern coasts of Western New Guinea: the Raja Ampat Archipelago to the west of the Geelvink Bay; Kaimana and Arguni Bay along the southern coast of Western New Guinea; and some other areas to the east of the Geelvink Bay, including Sarmi, Depapre, Tanah Merah, villages in and around the Humboldt Bay (near the present-day Jayapura, the capital of Papua province), Sentani Lake, Genyem, and Nimboran. The spread of this main-stream Protestant Christianity of Calvinistic background was then expanded to other coastal and hinterland areas or villages in Western New Guinea before WW II; after this great war, it reached the northern part of the highlands, including the Baliem Valley in the Central Mountain Range, Teminabuan and Ayamaru hinterlands near Sorong.  In 1956, still during the Dutch period, the work of the German and Dutch missionaries that began in 1855 and spread to other parts of Western New Guinea resulted in the establishment of the Evangelical Christian Church in Netherlands New Guinea. In 2006, this church had a membership of 600.000 people, making it the largest Christian church in Papua and West Papua.

Christianity in Raja Ampat 

Something of the past history of Raja Ampat Archipelago has been told in this blog. You might want to review this in the stories of Gurabesi and Fakoki and Pasrefi. 

The missionaries from the Dutch Reformed Chruch Mission reached the islands for the first time in 1913. However, three missionaries from Manokwari had reached, during their missionary voyages, these islands before 1913: Geissler, Van Hasselt, Sr, and his son, Van Hasselt, Jr, who became a guest of the King of Salawatti in 1894.

Raja Ampat Islands

Serious missionary attention was given to Raja Ampat after two requests for propagating the Gospel came from Waigeo and Salawatti, two main islands of the archipelago, in 1912. Van Hasselt, Sr in Manokwari then sent two teachers to have  a closer look at the possibility of establishing a new mission post there: Rumbekwan, a Papuan teacher from Biak, and Tatengken, another mission teacher from Sangir (North Sulawesi).

In 1913, the first official mission work began in Raja Ampat. On December 25, 1913, M.E. Tamtelahitu, a mission teacher from the Moluccas working for the Dutch Reformed Church Mission in Western New Guinea, conducted the first service in Sorong. After the New Year, a Christian elementary school was opened which, however, had Muslim children as its pupils. 

Three other mission posts were later opened in Meos Su, Salawatti, and Waigeo in Raja Ampat. Two Muslim kings lived in Salawatti and Waigeo. 

In 1928, Dutch missionaries began to visit these remote posts more often. They included Van Hasselt, F.J. Jens, and Grondel. Acting on the behalf of the Dutch mission in Manokwari, M.E. Tamtelahitu was appointed as a “Guru Besar (Chief Teacher).”

On Januari 1933, F.C. Kamma, one of the prominent Dutch missionaries in Western New Guinea (and his family) started his work in Sorong. This Dutch missionary, anthropologist, sociologist, and church historian is one of the “giants” in scientific research on the Papuans (particularly, those of the northern coasts)  in Dutch New Guinea. At the time he began his work in Sorong, there were twelve teacher posts: four were established in the mainland and the rest on several islands in Raja Ampat. 

The possibility of disseminating the Gospel beyond those posts was wide. The Word could be propagated by a lot of Christian Biak immigrants whose pagan ancestors had lived on several islands in Raja Ampat for centuries before the Gospel reached them. For centuries, they had established business contacts as traveling blacksmiths with hinterland Papuans in the mainland; after they became Christians, they made sure that the Gospel they had come to believe in was also spread to their fellow-Papuans in the hinterland.

Traditional Values in the Story

The Christmas story from Raja Ampat implies the lores, mores, and ethos of the islanders living in Raja Ampat. They are typically of Biak’s influence and, therefore, suggest that the characters involved in the story were Biakkers living in Raja Ampat. 

The lores

Their oral knowledge handed down by their ancestors included their belief in the sea spirit living in coral reefs  in the sea where a nearby coastal village had more rights than another far away to fish there. A fisherman with no fishing rights who unwittingly fished there would prompt the wrath of the sea spirit on him, which made him mysteriously sick. Once he was punished this way, he would have a slim chance of getting better. If he died and the cause of his death was identified through divination, then his fellow-villagers could take revenge on a person in the village whose sea spirit had caused the death of their fellow-villager. The village they attacked would also take another revenge on their attackers. In such a way, a vicious circle of revenge could happen between two villages, a circle that also developed into mutual  mistrust, hatred, and hostility that could last for years. 

An edible fish lying on a coral reef  of an island in Raja Ampat

In the Christmas story, however, the vicious circle was broken by the impact of the King of Peace, Jesus, on the two coastal villages which for perhaps many years had been victims of the vicious circle they had created. The fate of Yenkate the village identified through divination as the culprit of the death of Yamuni (pronounced as “yaMUnee”) was then prevented from this non-Christian spiritual influence. As a result, both villages lived in peace.

The mores

In addition to the lores, the story also implies some mores of the villagers. They include the exercise of authority of older or married women on family members and betel-nut chewing.

The true Christmas story opened with the description of women not only taking care of the sick Yamuni who was also visited by Kaneri (pronounced as “kaNEree”). It also revealed the exercise of authority they (particularly, Yamuni’s mother) had on younger men as noticed from Kaneri’s reaction or response to the insistent or commanding voices (a typically Biak character) of several married women; in addition, their tendency to be temperamental, assertive, and aggressive implies other character traits of the Biakkers. Some time later in the story, the authority of the women on their family members turned into decision making when one of the old women said: “We will seek the offenders.”

A Raja Ampat stilted house

Is the traditional Biak family maternal, then? No, it  is paternal. The authority of married women  is limited to internal family matters. Married men  are heads of their families, defenders against threats, and providers of  their daily needs, such as food.

Another established custom was betel-nut chewing. It had various roles, individual and social,  for traditional coastal villagers in Western New Guinea. In modern-day life, chewing betel nuts (a custom still practiced today, particularly, in the Papuan rural areas) is comparable to smoking cigarettes, a custom practiced for various reasons, such as stress alleviation and mood elicitation for an individual. In addition, chewing betel nuts had a social role; it could serve as a means for strengthening human bonds, including matchmaking rituals in which the host of the gathering offered his guests betel nuts and strong chewing tobacco called prompi (pronounced as “PROMpee”). 

In the story, betel-nut chewing (and probably strong-tobacco chewing) was practiced by the old women. Actually, this custom was, and still is,  practiced by both  men and women, young and old. The individual and social roles of both customs could be implied from the women chewing betel nuts in the story.

The ethos

What about the ethos of the community? Some of the shared fundamental traits suggested in the story include the attitude of an old woman toward the guru (pronounced as “GOOroo”). Its general meaning is “teacher”. He introduced new community “laws” that contradicted the old ones she revered and defended. To her, the guru was a stranger and a new inhabitant among them, one who did not know the traditional community ethos. “What does the guru know to tell us about?” she said scornfully. “He is a stranger in our village. He has just come and lived among us. And since then, our young men have no longer  known what the ancestors have taught us. They neglect the old laws: they dishonor everything, what was formerly sacred for them.”

What the old woman said indicate the transition from the old community she represented  to the new one, represented by the guru and his pupils. The guru can be viewed as an agent of social change.

Raja Ampat natives in their traditional attire

In the story, however, the guru was more than what the word generally means. He was both a Christian three-year elementary school teacher and a guru jemaat (a “parish teacher”). As a parish teacher, he preached, kept records of the development and problems of his parish, conducted the children's or church choir and bamboo-flute orchestra, led funeral rituals, baptized children, led the Holy Communion, advised them on matters not closely related to his main jobs (such as informing them about health problems), and some other related duties. Playing such diverse but virtually related roles enabled the guru to win the respect of the community and to guide them to the new Papuan community he and the Dutch Reformed Church Mission that employed him had envisioned.

Another shared fundamental trait of the old community was its belief in the sea spirit. This belief has already been explained.

Still another type of ethos of the traditional community is the habit of what might be called participatory or empathic criticism. This simply means expressing criticism as a participatory or empathic experience, another Biak character also practiced by some other tribes in Dutch New Guinea. In order to criticize members of his congregation who planned to take revenge on another young man in Yenkate to justify the death of Yamuni (this always involved men), the guru who was not involved but wanted to persuade the plotters to abandon their scheme spoke to them as if he had been one of them. Such a type of criticism is considered not only judicious but  also effective in achieving its aim. Participatory or empathic criticism for the Biakkers and other Papuan tribes is a traditional means of persuasion.

As noticed by Dr. F.C. Kamma, the Biak-Numforese people are also known for their communication skills and mastery of the "art of listening". Generally being extroverted, they can easily establish relations with other Papuans; they are also capable of understanding correctly things "said between the lines" and of responding correctly to the real message. Both character traits seem to have been well understood by the guru who tried to persuade them, particularly, the men who wanted to take revenge.

The guru forwarded his traditional persuasion in three ways. First, he imagined  himself to be one of the potential raiders, he put himself in their “shoes”, through his frequent  use  of the inclusive subject pronoun “we”. Addressing his congregation in Makebon, the name of the village where he lived and worked for,  he cautiously used the general word “people” that would not offend the men he wanted to criticize: “People of Makebon.” He then switched to the inclusive “we”: “We have already celebrated Christmas. … the feast of the Child who will bring peace among  peoples. … We have buried a young man. … We gather in the twilight … to draw up a war strategy because … soon after this, we will pull our canoes to the sea and prepare our machetes; we will murder somebody because of our fear for the wrath of our ancestors on the death of one of our young men.” Second, having presented the facts that he knew the men would accept as being true and judicious, he then continued with his rhetoric questions that hit  their belief and revengeful nature and led them to the new "rules” or noble values of Christianity: “Aren’t we Christians? Why don’t we harass … the [sea] spirits; isn’t Lord Jesus on our side?” Third, he continued his persuasion by using negations, suggestive actions, and actions. Having posed his rhetoric questions, he continued by saying, “No, people of Makebon. We will blow off our candles; we will finish the Christmas because tomorrow, we will sail to Yenkate and celebrate another Christmas with the people of Yenkate. This will be our revenge.” When the people of both villagers met and celebrated Christmas together, the Makebon people, who still remembered the old rules, were first hesisant to eat the food prepared by the Yenkate people: the food could be mixed with poison that could kill them. The guru who understood their hesitance set a persuasive example: he and his pupils ate the food offered. The Makebon villagers were convinced by this type of persuasion through action and joined the meal.

Peace

What happened after this Christmas? Since then, both villages have lived in peace. This ideal was one of their deepest desires they and their ancestors had been searching for throughout the ages but had missed. That peace was then discovered in and through the power of the King of Peace. 

Copyright © 2010. All rights reserved. Published with written permission from the author.

19. The God-Like Tigomang

A Retold Myth from the Anggi Lakes, Manokwari, West Papua

By CELLY AKWAN

Anggi Gita Lake

A long, long time ago, a married couple who lived in the Arfak Mountain Range  was turned, for some unknown reason, by the gods into two beautiful lakes. The woman who became one of the lakes was called Lake Anggi Gita, the Anggi female lake. Her husband who became another lake was called Lake Anggi Giji, the Anggi male lake. The gods then made a high mountain that separated the lakes and put both in the Arfak Mountain Range, around 2.000 meters above the sea level. Anggi Gita Lake

They then painted each lake with different, beautiful colors, shaped curvy hills around them, made the place cool with temperatures from 8 to 20 degrees Centigrade, and planted the lower slopes of the hills and mountain with colorful plants. They also made the sky and the sun, moon, and stars; the days, nights, and seasons; the clouds, wind,  and rains. They often made the lakes, hills, and mountains bask abundantly in peaceful quietness. Even white sands were made to cover some edges of both lakes. Colorful butterflies and birds, other insects and animals made  the forest lively.  What a wonderful creation!

Not only did the gods make such out-of-this-world beauty. They also showed their wonderful power and strength by making  a 2.000 –meter-deep cave, probably the deepest in the world, in Lina Mountain Range. All they had made became an unspoiled paradise displaying splendor, wonder, and majesty of the gods. Had humans not been made for living in this paradise and spoiled it later, its power, strength,  glory, and beauty might have been kept for eternity.

 A butterfly from the area

Then Tigomang, the first ancestor of the Sough Arfak tribe, was made by the gods. He had children, but it was not known whether he got a wife or not. To this day, he has left some traces of himself to his kin. Take a walk around the Anggi Lakes and you will sight bare spots; they are the footprints of Tigomang. His children were made from his footprints.

His children and their descendants then came and settled  around the Anggi Lakes. They retold wonderful stories from their ancestors; one of them was that their ancestors possessed the secret of eternal life. That secret, however, was later gone through the folly of their ancestors, their thoughtless behavior that brought the wrath and curses of  the gods on them. For the first time, they and their descendants spoiled that paradise when they  built their houses and families, made their gardens,  fished in the lakes, hunted in the forest – and committed crimes against one another and waged wars against other tribes. 

For untold numbers of years, the Sough Arfakkers  and other tribes living around the lakes grew from a few families into families with hundreds then thousands of members and even more. To sustain their lives, they cultivated the land and hunted more and more until Mother Nature could no longer provide enough for everyone’s needs. The abundant fertile soil of the old days became barren, vegetables and fruits that were just gifts of Mother Nature  in the past were  later scarcely provided, fish and games that old people said they could kill very easily became harder to catch. The scarcity of fertile soil and foods then drove the people into various crimes and tribal wars for their survival. Gone was the original paradise; it later became a heavenly story either of the past or of the future, a story that only lived in the memories and dreams of the people. 

Few sages of the Sough had foreseen impending calamity if no action was taken to prevent this from happening. Hunger and starvation and ensuing crimes and wars could lead to more sufferings. Crops such as cassava, yams, potatoes, and sugar canes that had been abundant in the past were scarce later. Mother Nature who used to spoil her children around the lakes with her lavish love by providing them with very abundant food seemed to be very frugal later. Something had to be done quickly to regain the life of abundance, peace, and eternity. Who had to take the first step to prevent the tragedy from happening?

Tigomang. Not only was he the primeval ancestor of the Sough people. He was also a god-like man, one endowed with some god-like power. 

He had the ability to simply speak and call into existence all different kinds of foods his folks had lacked for a long time and badly needed. To demonstrate his supernatural power, he would stand at a place and call, “Cassava, yams, potatoes, pawpaws, sugar canes,” and, from nowhere, the food would appear instantly at that place. A lot of people who witnessed the demonstration of his power were amazed at the miracles he performed. Sometimes, the fruit he made was so big that his children could not eat it at all.

One day, Tigomang told his children, “I am going to bathe in the Un River. Do not follow me there or watch me bathe.”

His curious children, however, ignored his cryptic forewarning. Just as he was about to bathe in the water, they came.

Tigomang was very upset and said, “Get away from here. I told you not to follow me. Get away now.”

Alas, the presence of his children prevented him from gaining a secret of eternity, a blessing that his children and their descendants would inherit forever.  It was eternal life. Had he not been spotted by his children, he would have followed some strict rules to gain and possess that supernatural power.  First, he would have submerged himself in the water, then he would have come up and changed his skin. Finally, he would not have died.

His children, however, prevented him from gaining that divine secret. So, he was very angry.

“You have made me lose eternal life for all of us and our descendants,” he divulged with a sigh. “Now, you and your children and their descendants must die. If you die, you will not be able to come back to life. Your skin will rot.”

Despite his curse on his children and their descendants, he still had the power of resurrection. After that incident, Nginding, a person, died on the other side of the Un River. Standing on Anan, the name for the other side of the river, Tigomang called, “Nginding! Come to the other side of the river.”

Anggita Gita Lake

The people who heard him, however, kept crying over the dead body of Nginding. They would not listen to him when he called again.

“Do not put the dead person on the water,” they warned Nginding’s family. “Tigomang does not have the power to let him drift off to him on the other side. He will instantly sink to the bottom of the river.”

Sadly, Tigomang heard their lack of faith in him and prepared a specific curse on those unbelievers. He took a piece of dried wood and threw it down.

In a loud voice, he said to them, “Look at that dried wood, folks. It stands for the dead. Because you will not listen to me, you all will die and never come back to life again. If you have listened to me and submerged the body in the water, it will have come to life again. Alas, all of you did not listen to me or did what I had asked you to do. Because of that, you all will die and never come back to life.”

Tigomang then entered a cave deep below a mountain and went to sleep. He has not returned yet or come out of his cave.

Copyright © 2010. All rights reserved. Published with written permission from the author.

18. A Papuan Separatist Leader Returns Home (3)

By CELLY AKWAN

Breaking News: Viktor Kaisiepo (1949-2010), son of the highly influential Papuan separatist leader the late Markus W. Kaisiepo, passed away at his home in Amersfoorts, Holland, on Sunday January 31,  2010. He was an internationally famous fighter for the rights on the self-determination of the Papuans in both Papua and West Papua, a split of the former Dutch New Guinea, the land where he was born in. According to what his wife said on Sunday, her husband had been sick for some time.

Viktor Kaisiepo in Holland

Viktor Kaisiepo was a member of the Papuan Council on Traditional Customs. He served as a representative of the council for international relations and for Eurupe. The council strives for the independence of Papua and West Papua from Indonesia through peaceful means.

Kaisiepo was born in Korido, a village in Biak, in 1949. Before the sovereignty transfer of Dutch New Guinea to Indonesia in 1963, he moved with his parents to Holland where he struggled for the freedom of his country.

****

Attending the Round Table Conference

Together with J.P.K. Van Eechoud, Nilolaas Youwe, Markus Kaisiepo, and Johan Ariks left Hollandia for Holland end October 1949. Van Eechoud would have his first holiday after having worked and lived in Dutch Indies and later in Dutch New Guinea since 1929.  The three Papuan social and political figures would attend the Round Table Conference in the Hague.

Ariks’ role as a political backdrop

Ariks, born in Manokwari in 1898 and died in prison also in Manokwari late 1960s, was a teacher for the Dutch Protestant Mission in Mansinam, a small island near Manokwari, in 1913 and later at the Christian Teacher Training Institute established by Rev. I.S. Kijne (1899-1970), one of the most prominent missionaries of the Dutch Reformed Church,  in Miei, an important village in Wondama, in 1931. He was trained as a teacher at a Christian seminary in Depok, West Java, in 1907. Ariks was prisoned by the Indonesian government because he was accused of having been involved in the Free Papua Organization that was established and started its activity in Manokwari in 1965.

His father, Jonathan Ariks, came from Kebar, west of Manokwari. As a boy, he was sold as a slave and was emancipated in Manokwari in 1872 by a Dutch missionary. Jonathan was then baptized by Rev. Van Hasselt, Sr. and  became his advisor and friend for the rest of his life. He accompanied the Dutch missionary during his journey in New Guinea, the Moluccas, Java, and Sumatra.

In the eyes of the coastal Papuans living in Geelvink Bay, however, slaves or former slaves were not highly looked upon. This lack of respect was shown by Papuans who were not slaves. It disappeared through the influence of Christianity on the Papuans.

Something needs to be said about Johan Ariks, a prominent Papuan leader. Like Nicolaas Youwe and Markus Kaisiepo, Ariks also played an important role in advocating the rights of the Papuans for development toward their independence under Dutch governance. It was he who demanded to Van Eechoud that Papuan representatives attend, just like Indonesian representatives,  the Round Table Conference in the Hague.

The region or the Papuans?

What was the political backdrop in Dutch New Guinea of the Round Table Conference?  The region, not its inhabitants, the Papuans, as digested from the polemics by the Dutch and Indonesian leaders and political figures, was the political setting for the coming conference.

The Eurasians from Dutch Indies, the so-called “Indo-Dutch” or “Indo-Europeans”,  saw Dutch New Guinea as an alternative settlement for them after Indonesia got its independence. In August 1949, J. Thiessen, a managing member of the association of Eurasians in Java, made a plea to Queen Wilhelmina of Holland through the resident agent Van Eechoud in Hollandia. He implored Her Majesty to give the Eurasians in Java New Guinea as a place where “we can rear our children according to western ideas”. Van Eechoud was first shocked at the plea but later wrote to Thiessen on August 13 that he could ask his fellow-members to live in Dutch New Guinea without turning it into a “whiteman’s land” because the Papuans had the strongest rights on the region.

However, the Indonesian delegation at the RTC had a different idea that affected the political attitudes of the Dutch delegation and Van Eechoud concerning Dutch New Guinea. If Holland held firmly to Dutch New Guinea, it would not be given priority in economics in an independent Indonesia. This condition cast doubt on the Dutch delegation and even on the Dutch cabinet of Dress and Van Schaik in Holland. In Dutch New Guinea, Van Eechoud who was informed about the Indonesian position understood what it meant for  his development plans for the disputed region between Holland and Indonesia: they could be doomed to failure. So, he hurriedly wrote a note about the colonization of Dutch New Guinea and sent it to the Dutch cabinet leaders. A Catholic, he appealed in it for the internalization of “western-christian culture” and the substitution of Malay for Dutch to widen the gap between Indonesia and New Guinea. He also envisioned the colonization of the region, partiuclarly, by the Eurasians through land cultivations so that they could soon be made productive.

In the fall of 1949, the Dutch politicians who wanted to keep New Guinea under Dutch control gave various reasons.

1. It was  an “escape country” for the Indo-Europeans who seemed not to be welcomed by the Indonesians. 
2. It would  serve as an investment warranty for Indonesia, insurance against debts.
3. It would serve as  a Dutch military base in Southeast Asia where the military could play a limited role.
4. The Papuans were not Indonesians, more akin to Europeans in their character traits, less developed than the Indonesians and, therefore, needed a protective status.

For a lot of Dutch, the last reason was the most important for them to keep their last colony in Southeast Asia under their leadership. Yet, during crucial decisions made by Dutch politicians and other figures, the territory seemed to be more important than its people.

Like the Dutch, Indonesian political figures also showed the indications that they were more interested in the region than in its native inhabitants. During a preparatory meeting for the independence of Indonesia on July 11, 1945, Muhammad Hatta who would become the first Vice President of Indonesia said he would let the Papua region be ruled by others and would not demand that it had to be a part of an independent Indonesia. However, Sukarno, later the first President of Indonesia, said in 1949 that he was a “New Guinea fanatic”. His resoluteness for annexing the region became a complex to him. For Sukarno, Hatta, and other Indonesian politicians and figures, Dutch New Guinea remained a central issue, their inalienable right which could not be questioned nor debated. It had been a part of Dutch Indies; therefore, it had to be a part of an independent Indonesia. The jurisdictional basis for this claim was never clear, but the region had an emotional meaning for them: it was historically a part of their newly independent country. The main issue behind the dispute between the Indonesians and Dutch was not about the Papuans but about their region.

Johan Ariks, a Papuan spokesman

It was Johan Ariks who had foreseen this neglect and its future consequences for the Papuans. Concerned by both, he became a spokesman for the Papuans.

Defended the Papuan cause

Im May 1949, he traveled to Jakarta to defend the Papuan cause. In a letter he sent to the chairperson of the United Nations Commission for Indonesia (UNCI) on June 15, 1949, he said Indonesia did not have any rights to meddle with the political future of New Guinea. He considered this involvement as an interference in the self-determination of the Papuans. He agreed with the Dutch stance that his people were not ready yet for their independence. He requested the UNCI to allow Papuan representatives to attend the coming negotiations between Holland and Indonesia and other conferences in the future about New Guinea.

Sent a letter to US President Harry Truman

Johan Ariks went even further. On August 28, 1949, he wrote a letter to Harry Truman, President of the United States. In it, he worried that the fate of Western New Guinea would exclusively be decided by Holland and Indonesia without involving the most important party: the Papuans. He emphasized that Indonesians and Papuans were culturally different and the increasing contacts in the past accentuated these differences more than diminishing them. He made a strong defense of the Dutch colonial politics in New Guinea that started at the beginning of the 2oth century. He hoped that the Dutch government, Catholic, and Protestant missionaries could accomplish the process of increasing the intellectual, social, and economic standards of the Papuans.

What the Dutch and Indonesians were less interested in had already been the focus of Ariks’ letters: the Papuans.  His worries about the fate of the Papuans in the future have been self-fulfilling prophecies. Since Dutch New Guinea became a part of Indonesia in 1963, the issue of having less interest in the Papuans and more interest in their region (thinly populated with some fertile soil and rich in natural resources – another “Promised Land” for Indonesians from outside the region) has been a problem not satisfactorily solved yet.

Van Eechoud’s reports about Johan Ariks

Van Eechoud sent reports to the Dutch government in Batavia (now Jakarta) about the political activities of Johan Ariks. The reports revealed a tone of  slight indifference. He criticized Ariks: he considered him a loyal follower of Holland and a former slave who probably did not get enough local supports. Van Eechoud also criticized his plea for a Papuan delegation at the RTC because it would undermine the efforts of the Dutch government to isolate New Guinea. Van Eechoud also saw at the outset a danger in the way the Indo-European lobby tried to to take advantage of Ariks.

A Pyrrhic Victory

However, nothing was mentioned about the role Ariks played at the RTC he also attended, whether it undermined the Dutch efforts or not. What did happen was that the Round Table Conference concerning the New Guinea case ended with a Pyrrhic victory for Holland and for the resident agent of Dutch New Guinea. Both the Netherlands and Indonesia came to an agreement on November 2, 1949 that it appeared to be impossible for both parties to reach a consensus concerning New Guinea – in short, an agreement to disagree. New Guinea would remain an autonomous part of the Dutch kingdom.

Criticism and Defense of Van Eechoud

Van Eechoud who went to Holland for a holiday was very convinced that he would be the first governor of Dutch New Guinea. He would not. The group of old Dutch government officials who had considered this police officer as “incompetent” added another reason for their disapproval: he was a Catholic. The Dutch Protestant politicians in New Guinea held to their (baseless) belief that, as a resident agent, he profited the Roman Catholic Mission in the region. Their prejudice was accentuated by the long-held tradition in the Hague, center of the Dutch government: since the (religious) Reformation in West Europe, the governors’ posts in the “West” had been for the Catholics and those in the “East”had been for the Protestants.

Like Johan Ariks,  Youwe and Kaisiepo  were Papuan Protestants of Calvinistic background. Nevertheless, they had never experienced the religious schism of the 16th-century West Europe in the 2oth-century New Guinea. Even if Youwe and Kaisiepo had been informed about this division in religious denomination, they could not leave behind their indigenous culture of showing sincere, deep, and unforgettable gratitude to an amberi such as Van Eechoud  who had done so much for their goodness and that of other Papuans. The honorary title of “Bapak Papua” endowed to him was  even more binding to the Papuan code of honor both adhered to. Concerning his Catholic background, Youwe pointed to a self-evident spiritual focus that made both identical: both believed in the same Jesus. So, when Youwe and Kaisiepo knew about the disapproving attitude of the Dutch government officials towards their highly respected boss, they came to his rescue. They made a moving plea to appoint Van Eechoud as the first governor of Dutch New Guinea but it was of no avail.

Seldom had a Dutch government official been the target at which so many conflicting emotions were expressed as Van Eechoud. His colleagues in Hollandia, both Dutch and Papuans, held him in high esteem. Old Dutch government officials from Batavia who later worked in Dutch New Guinea and the Calvinisitc Protestant Dutch Mission regarded him, in the words of Rev. Kijne, “defender of Protestantism in the North”, as a “politically wild man and dilettante”. Dr. J. Van Baal, a cultural anthropologist who had been a government official in Dutch Indies and then in Dutch New Guinea before he was appointed as a governor in the region, had a critical but realistic view on Van Eechoud. Any view on him had to be related to the work milieus in which he had to carry out the government policies. He missed the people he needed to carry them out. Though he had a lot of plans, he could not count on Batavia for help. The horrible consequences of the war that involved him as a policeman and explorer tempted him to act too quickly.

Netherlands New Guinea would then be still a part of the Dutch kingdom – without involving the “Father of the Papuans”. He would be substituted for by the first Dutch governor of Netherlands New Guinea.

The  Secession of Dutch New Guinea

On December 27, 1949, the Republic of the United States of Indonesia was officially declared in Yogyakarta, Central Java. The Dutch flag was pulled down and the Indonesian red and white flag was hoisted.

The next morning, the following proclamation was issued in Hollandia:

“Residents of New Guinea!

“In accordance with the decisions made at the Round Table Conference, the sovereignty of Indonesia shall be transferred to the Republic of the United Indonesia today, with the exception of the former territory of New Guinea. Beginning today, all of you are the residents of the Government of New Guinea, where the public administration will be exercised by the Governor on behalf of our honorable Queen. We beseech the Almighty to give  His blessing to this land and we pray that He under the guidance of H.M. Queen Juliana may lead us to prosperity and peace.

“The acting Governor of New Guinea,

“J.P.K. van Eechoud”

Mos Papuans, however,  missed the proclamation. They either did not read it or did not hear about it because they had never seen a Dutch person.

Copyright © 2010. All rights reserved. Published with written permission from the author.