Carving toward perpetuity

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sun, 10/15/2006 10:23 AM  |  Life

Woodcarving and dancing were the featured activities of the Asmat Cultural Festival, held from Oct. 6-11 at Yos Sudarso field in Agats, capital of Asmat regency.

At least 202 woodcarvers, or wow pit, demonstrated their craft, while the dancing exhibition involved 122 dancers from six districts in the regency.

The festival opened with a parade that traversed Asmat city on foot over the long bridges that connect its houses -- the city has no roads -- with participants dancing and carrying their carvings along.

Another unique aspect of the festival is the special pick-up service the festival extends to guests and visitors. Hundreds of Asmat tribespeople row out to meet the guests' motorboat at a halfway point on the river, and the motorboat is escorted the rest of the way to the pier, flanked by the rowboats.

Prior to this reception, the Asmat welcoming committee don their traditional dress and ornaments. Just before setting out in their boats, they gather at a jeu (house of an unmarried man) to apply face and body paint, so they arrive mid-stream in full traditional dress.

The Asmat Cultural Festival was initiated in 1981 by Bishop Alfons A. Sowada, O.S.C., who was then bishop of Agats, with only 36 woodcarvers participating in the inaugural festival.

Sowada, an American national, said that when he first stepped foot in Asmat, he observed that the tribe's cultural heritage had almost disappeared. None of the younger men were carving the wooden statues, totems and other indigenous woodcraft for which the Asmat are known internationally.

In order to revive and maintain the Asmat heritage the Agats diocese launched a woodcarving contest, which continues to this day. The best pieces to emerge from these contests become part of the permanent display of the Museum of Asmat Culture and Advancement.

-- Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post

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