Modern, traditional worlds meet at Irian pig feast
Modern, traditional worlds meet at Irian pig feast
By John Owen-Davies
AROANOP, Irian Jaya (Reuter): An arrow pierced the pig's side
but the animal died only after men, watched by families and off-
duty soldiers, smashed its head with sticks.
Earlier, the pig's squeals had echoed across the valley in
Indonesia's remote Irian Jaya province as it was paraded
shoulder-high around Aroanop village.
The carcass was thrown on a fire to singe off the bristles
before being cut in half and given to women to cook in pits lined
with red-hot rocks covered with leaves and vegetables.
As children kicked the pig's bladder, made into a balloon,
men, some naked except for penis gourds and carrying bows and
arrows, discussed matters of local importance.
And there was much to discuss, including the presence of
soldiers in the lonely village after alleged sightings of OPM
(Free Papua Movement) guerrillas and an agricultural project. But
the pig was the day's focus in an area where many tribesmen still
emerging from the Stone Age value the animals as second only to
women in terms of economic prestige.
Before the feast, several hundred people from other valleys
descended on Aroanop across a metal swing-bridge, singing and
carrying wood and vegetables such as sweet potatoes.
"They use pigs and cowrie shells to buy women. A pig is just a
way of gathering resources into one entity," said John Cutts, an
American who has spent most of his 44 years in Irian.
"A pig feast is a chance for individuals to show off. Today we
have only one pig but a feast can include 200," said Cutts, a
community development officer with the Freeport Indonesia mine.
The Indonesian government and a local company, Indocopper
Investama, each have nine percent stakes in Freeport Indonesia.
U.S.-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold has 82 percent.
Showcase
Aroanop is no ordinary village. Only two years old, it is a
showcase of development under a community project helped by
Freeport, near one of the world's richest copper and gold mines.
Underlining problems in the area, a small wooden building for
a platoon of regular soldiers, deployed after separatist rebel
activity last year, looks out over Aroanop.
"There is not a lot we can do about the situation (having the
soldiers) and we will do the best we can," Eliam Dinbau, a local
chief, told Reuters.
With Cutts interpreting and an official in civil-service
uniform interjecting occasionally, Dinabu said separatist rebels
had been seen in the area. But he refused to elaborate.
The platoon's leader, a lieutenant able to converse with the
Moni and Amung tribesmen and dressed for the feast in jeans and a
T-shirt, said his men had not come across any rebels.
Two hours earlier, five soldiers in combat gear and with
assault rifles had met a Freeport helicopter from the mining town
of Tembagapura, 15 km (ten miles) away.
In Jakarta, 3,500 km (2,200 miles) to the west, Indonesia's
Foreign Ministry acknowledged on April 7 that there had been some
clashes between security forces and rebels since June.
But it scoffed at reports by an Australian aid agency that 37
people, 22 civilians and 15 rebels, had been killed by security
forces in areas near the Freeport mines.
The military denied reports it had killed civilians near
Tembagapura but said there had been a clash with separatists in
which one rebel died.
The OPM, called the GPK, or peace disturbing bands, by
Indonesian officials, has staged an intermittent struggle against
Indonesian control of Irian, bordering Papua New Guinea.
Aroanop's pig feast, in a largely Christian area of mainly
Moslem Indonesia, was to mark work by students from Irian's
Cenderawasih University at Manokwari, 500 km (300 miles) away.
"We live together here with the people. I feel we are doing
good for them, helping them to grow beans and other produce,"
Dana, a 22-year-old agricultural student, said.
As he spoke, 100 children dressed identically in clothes with
the red and white Indonesian national colors saluted at a flag-
raising ceremony outside their wooden schoolhouse.
The few other buildings in Aroanop, vastly different from the
normal mud huts in Irian's highlands, include a clinic with two
nurses and basic medicines.
"Two years ago there was no one living here. Then villagers in
the nearby area got together and said they wanted a clinic and a
school. This was the site they chose," Cutts said.
But there were disgruntled elders, including some who had shed
their penis gourds for shorts and shirts with motifs such as
"Michael Jackson", "Jesus", "AC Milan" and the Welsh dragon.
After a Christian prayer service before the feast began, one
chief loudly demanded cash payment for his people for using
village land to grow crops for sale.
The pastor intervened. "No," he said. "We must grow first and
then get the money."
The issue was not resolved and the chief continued to shout.