From Houston to Sydney 2013

The Dani of

West Papua 2015

After yesterday’s arduous climb, it was something of a relief to have a day with less physical exercise today.  I woke to the sound of chirping birds and bright sunlight, which provided a great lift to my spirits after the rain that had continued falling through most of the night.

My destination today was the northern Baliem Valley, which necessitated a drive back through the area I had visited yesterday (Jiwika and Kurulu) before continuing along the road that will apparently join Wamena to Jayapura (the provincial capital city that lies on the northern coast).  The highway has been under construction for decades, and it is due to be completed in about four or five years.  This will reduce the Baliem Valley’s dependence on air freight, but if the pattern found elsewhere in Indonesia is followed, it is likely to lead to massive deforestation as illegal loggers discover a new source of plentiful timber.

Soon after leaving Kurulu, the road started climbing, and it was immediately obvious that the northern part of the Baliem Valley has quite a different pattern of farming to the lower areas beside the river.  The hills, or rather mountains, were mainly limestone, and this has resulted in steeply sided slopes with rich, fertile soil.  The Dani in this area farm these steep slopes  as there is little to no flat land in the valleys, and some of the slopes looked so steep that it was easy to imagine farmers falling off their farm into the deep ravine beneath.  Many of the farming plots were terraced, either using logs or limestone boulders.  In some areas, the farming plots were so extensive that they reached from the foot of the slope almost to the top, spanning a relief of almost 1,000 metres.

Needless to say, these fields are not irrigated like those near the Baliem River in the foot of the valley.  On our drive through an area known as Pass Valley, we saw lots of activity in the gardens, especially burning off fields for new plantings.  Our journey continued to the highest point in the area, about 15 kilometres north of Wadangku, at which point we were well and truly up in the clouds at about 3,000 metres elevation.

On the return journey, we made two stops.  The first was at Kontilola Cave, a huge cavernous limestone cavity that fortunately required only 185 metres of damp, muddy, slippery climbing (but with a handrail!) to reach.  A section of the cave had broken down, encouraging the growth of lush rainforest vegetation.  Many of the stalactites and stalagmites appeared to have a bluish-green tinge that suggested copper deposits.  Despite the remoteness of the cave, we were soon joined by three curious boys who wanted to watch the visitors – and show off by wearing thick layers of moss for headgear.

The second stop was at Iekima, not far from Wamena, where I was told another mummy was able to be seen.  We entered the compound, and it was immediately obvious that this was a more modern Dani family than many others – as shown by the plastic ride-in cars for the children, the Western dress, and the small hut made of concrete that had been donated by the Indonesian military.

Like all Dani mummies, this one was stored upstairs in the men’s hut.  Rather than bringing it outside, I was invited upstairs into the men’s hut to see it by the wife of the family, who interestingly showed little of the usual reluctance to venture into the men’s hut herself.  This mummy was a little older than the one I had seen yesterday, being eight generations old.  It was the first time I had been upstairs in a Dani hut, and it was quite an experience to see a mummy ‘in situ’ – it is an extremely rare experience for someone who is not Dani.

The long drive provided me with a great opportunity to ask Herriman about some more of the changes the Dani are experiencing.  I had noticed that some Dani huts had small solar panels, so I asked about them.  It seems that about ten years ago, the Indonesian Government gave away some of these panels to promote their use, and they became quite popular as Dani people learned the advantages of having lights in their windowless huts.  These days the panels are sold at a heavily subsidised price.

Fewer than 10% of Dani homes have non-solar electricity; it is restricted to those homes that are located beside a major road.  However, an increasing number of Dani homes are now connected to the outside world by television, and even more have access to outside music (such as Western pop, Indonesian pop, reggae and the blues) on CD players or on USB sticks.  Many Dani get their music on USB sticks by taking a blank thumb drive to one of several shops in Wamena, where the music is downloaded to the USB.  Although this brings the cultures of the world into Dani homes, it has resulted in many younger Dani not learning the traditional songs that have helped to bind together Dani culture for centuries.  Furthermore, the USB sticks are often used for pornography, and this has become such a problem in the Baliem Valley that some families are splitting up, and it is blamed for a new trend in widespread sexual promiscuity that has made the Baliem Valley a high-risk region for HIV.

This trend has been exacerbated by the increasing use of mobile phones.  Most Dani people now have a mobile phone, even if they live in an area without mobile phone coverage.  The phones are cheap, and are used to connect with other people’s mobile phones via Bluetooth to copy movies and pornography.

In order to buy mobile phones, CD players, televisions, motor bikes and western clothes, Dani people have had to enter the cash economy, something that very few Dani were involved with when I visited in 1989.  These days, about half the food grown by Dani people is for subsistence consumption, with the other half being for commercial sale.  Indeed, these days, the Dani send their produce to the market in vans - in contrast, in 1989 almost all of the produce was carried by women to the market, often over distances of 20 to 30 kilometres.  Nowadays, some Dani are even exporting their produce to Jayapura by air freight, using agents in Wamena.  Although many of these agents are Javanese, Sumatran or Sulawesi, an increasing number are Dani traders.  As further evidence of the commercialisation of Dani farming, about 30% of the women selling produce in the markets these days are re-sellers (the remaining 70% being the farmers themselves).

The Dani have diversified their farming produce to cater for the commercial market.  For example, some Dani are now raising goats, not so much to eat themselves, but for sale to Muslims (as Muslims do not eat pork).  The Dani diet has also changed from its traditional reliance on sweet potatoes, occasionally supplemented by pork.  These days, for example, Dani people eat chicken curry in Indonesian restaurants in Wamena, and may even cook such dishes in their compound at home.  Consequently, not all cooking is done using hot stones underground these days; it is estimated that 70% of cooking is still done using traditional methods, but 30% is now done inside the kitchen huts.

Despite the commercialisation of Dani economic activities, most Dani people remain very poor.  Very few Dani have bank accounts, and the common practice is to spend money almost as soon as it is received.  It is estimated that about 60% of all Dani income is spent on ceremonies and ceremonial obligations.  The killing of pigs makes up a large proportion of this expenditure, as the pig remains the most esteemed possession that Dani families own.  Currently, the price of a large pig is about 15 million to 20 million rupiah (about $1,500 to $2000), while a small pig might cost between two and five million rupiah ($200 to $500).

Despite the cost, pigs are eaten more frequently these days, and this has improved the quality of the Dani diet, which was traditionally protein-deficient.  Furthermore, the message of the Christian missions that gender inequality is inconsistent with Christianity seems to be taking root, and so women are now getting more than the left-over scraps when a pig is eaten.

I’m looking forward to seeing whether that theory holds true tomorrow, as I have been invited to a pig-kill ceremony – a highlight of the Dani celebratory calendar.  I can’t wait.

Day 4 - Northern Baliem Valley

Monday

13 April 2015