No one knows how many gazes appear from underneath the traditional house ?yeu?. Most of them are amazed. Some are curious, some are astonished. There was also a look of a girl who has just received a new Barbie doll.
They all gaze at dozens of dark, muscular figures from one hundred and fifty men of Asmat tribe in an event to commemorate the 62nd anniversary of Indonesia?s independence at a beach of an amusement park in Jakarta.
One whole week they perform their skills in carving statues, singing and dancing to the sounds of tifa, and rowing as they stand on their canoe-like wooden boats. They even participate in a mass betel nut (known as ?pinang?) climbing on August 17.
The art and culture of Asmat is an attraction to those who miss the nature. Such feeling surely experienced by most people who live their lives away from nature. People who have been taken away by the wheel of development.
In the other hand, as human beings, Asmat tribe also wish for improvement, prosperity, and development for a better life, just like other people of the country. And economic factor is a definite support.
Only that the economic development can be dilemmatic if in the end it will shift the cultural motivation of a tribe famous for their unique carvings.
In this part, it is suggested that Government take their role so that the tribe can make their own choice to improve their economic development without having to sacrifice their cultural ?spirit?, threatened by the temptation of commercialization.
The same thing might also be felt by members of other tribes in Papua
Province, officially the 26th province of Indonesia by September 10, 1969.
Photo and text by : Fanny Octavianus