Kamoro festival strives to help locals enjoy diverse culture
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.