Kamoro festival strives to help locals enjoy diverse culture

By Simon Sinaga

TIMIKA (JP): Kamoro men, followed by their women, were dancing by stamping and moving their backs like birds in rhythm to the Tifa drumming.

They were carrying a Mbitoro carving, which resembled a large totem pole, to be erected near a longhouse at the fourth Kamoro Festival opened on April 26.

The men, decorated with cassowary feathers, lifted and secured the seven-meter-long carving to address a deceased life that a feast was to start and asked for his blessing for the five-day festival, known by locals as Kamoro Kakuru.

Those who saw the spiritual opening ceremony at Pigapu village, Mimika regency, and have been to this area before have noticed that the Kamoro men are taller than others in Irian Jaya. Such a physical feature makes it easier to distinguish this group from other tribes, particularly in the southern part of the most remote province in the archipelago.

While they stand out physically, the Kamoro have not been a tribe with a deep pride for their rich tradition and culture. In fact, concern has been mounting among Kamoro elders and outsiders with an interest in the Kamoro that their culture could swiftly disappear.

Concern has particularly arisen in view of younger men having paid scant attention to the richness of their culture. It became apparent, for example, that up until a few years ago we could hardly find Kamoro carvings even though the Kamoro have been great carvers in the past, and are comparable to the Asmat.

But the Kamoro are in need of more intensive encouragement than the Asmat to revitalize their culture, said Kalman Muller, a writer and specialist on the Kamoro culture who helped the tribe organize the annual event.

Their story dates back to the times when the Dutch administration first came to Mimika in the early 1900s, and were later joined by the Catholic Church. The presence of the two institutions were strongly believed to have put pressure on the culture of the Kamoro, known then as the Mimika.

The Dutch administration imposed a division of villages to make it easy to administer people who live a semi-nomadic life.

The church was reported to have instructed the Kamoro not to do this or that, including not wearing only a penis gourd and to wear more clothes. Consequently, over time the Kamoro lost pride in their traditional way of life, and even worse, were ashamed and lost confidence in themselves. There was a lot of debate though as to whether or not the church had made a negative impact on the Mimika or Kamoro culture.

Carving revival

The Kamoro Festival, locally known as Kamoro Kakuru, has been a clear attempt to revive the Kamoro's confidence and pride in their culture, said Muller.

Over the past three years since the first festival took place, there has been a revival in Kamoro carvings. Prices have also gone up, and while that is not the only motivation for the revival, it is important for the cash-strapped tribe. An indication of this was the total raised during the auctions at each festival. At the first festival in 1998, 88 carvings were auctioned off for a total of Rp 43 million. At the fourth festival, the auction fetched more than Rp 80 million for only 57 carvings.

The prices of Kamoro carvings have also been on an upward trend at several art shops along the main roads of the booming town of Timika in Mimika regency. Kamoro carvers usually try to their best to make better carvings in their respective villages prior to the festival.

But the Kamoro Festival is not just about carving. More fundamental than improving the confidence and pride in the culture is the annual chance for representatives and others of the 22,500 Kamoro tribe members, spread out along the 300- kilometer coast of 40-odd villages in Mimika, to meet and share their life experiences. On average, more than 1,000 Kamoro members come to the festival each year.

"This gives a good chance for the Kamoro culture, in the way of carving or others, to be passed on to the young," said Moses Potarepauw, a Kamoro leader who heads the organizing committee of the festival.

The Mimika region is largely a low-lying swamp intersected by rivers on Irian Jaya's southern coastal area. Dugout canoes have been the main transport for most participants to the festival at Pigapu village, which is next to the Wania river. These days, many canoes have been equipped with a motor for long distance travel.

Canoe race

It is for this reason that canoe races have also been one of the main features at the festival. This year there is a women's event featured at the race, which used to be dominated by men only. In the Kamoro area, canoes are mostly paddled while standing.

Canoes have played a crucial role for the Kamoro to retain their semi-nomadic lifestyle, particularly in collecting sago and catching fish -- their two basic staples of their diet. The Kamoro go by canoe to the marshy zone where sago palms grow and to the coast where most fish can be caught.

Visitors to the festival have the chance to see how the Kamoro prepare the sago to eat. From a felled sago palm, they break up the core of the trunk and separate the pure starch from the fibers. A Kamoro family usually makes enough sago at one time to last for a week.

Visitors also have a chance to taste tambelo, a grub that lives inside the bark of mangroves. The Kamoro, who eat it raw, suggest that tambelo has the same properties as Viagra for them.

But do not expect to see any nose piercing. This ritual was lost after the Catholic Church and Dutch administration said it was forbidden in the early 1900s. Nose piercing was part of an initiation period when boys were allowed admission to the adult male community.

Muller said the presence of Indonesian and foreign visitors to the festival plays a pivotal role in helping the Kamoro regain pride in their culture. "It may seem to be nothing extraordinary but your presence puts a value on the Kamoro and their culture," he told visitors.

The event has, however, attracted a wide range of respectable visitors -- with support from copper mining company PT Freeport Indonesia -- including foreign ambassadors, high-ranking government officials and top Indonesian business leaders.

Yet the Kamoro Festival is not especially meant for tourists, although it is part of the event's long-term objective. "Without the support of outsiders, the Kamoro would not yet be in a position to organize the festival by themselves. They have started to learn and they need to get used to activities such as getting sponsorship," said Muller. He added that he has committed to a ten-year plan with the Kamoro to support the event.

Modern economy

Indeed, the Kamoro Festival needs only to be a continuous event given the rapid socioeconomic changes and direct or indirect impact of the economy from Freeport's operations on the Kamoro's traditional life.

One thing is for certain, and that is Timika and the lure of possible jobs from mining operations have attracted a steady flow of new dwellers from other places in Irian Jaya or migrant workers from other islands in the country.

Social studies by Freeport and the local government show that the urbanization rate has hit an average 16 percent annually over the past 14 years. A study in 1996 and 1997 by Dames and Moore puts the population of Mimika at 60,000. At present, the number is estimated at 110,000, of which about half are Irianese.

These socioeconomic and population changes have certainly brought pressure to the traditional life of the Kamoro. Migrants from other islands working for the mining operation or smaller businesses are people who have been accustomed to working hours. Many Kamoro, on the other hand, still have a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. A lack of knowledge of the local culture on the part of the migrants has led to little appreciation of the Kamoro and the other tribes' way of life.

The increase of new migrants has also from time to time triggered minor ethnic conflicts between the Irianese and other Indonesians. Security officials in Timika suggest that the town could well become a hot spot if socioeconomic changes are not handled well.

Cultural events such as the annual Kamoro Festival could very well be one approach to a reward bigger than cultural survival and appreciation; that is, to help foster mutual cultural understanding between locals and newcomers, which could make this easternmost region of the country a better place to live in for everyone.