Concern over the decreasing popularity of the dietary tradition of sago — a starch extracted from palm trees called Metroxylon sagu — in Papua prompted villagers and activists in Jayapura regency to hold the first sago festival in the province on Wednesday.

Taking place in Kwadeware, a village in Waibu district near the Sentani Lake, which has been named a protected sago village by the Jayapura regency, the one-day festival showcased the culture of sago-making and the way villagers produce building materials from sago plants.

Entering the village, a vast plantation of sago palms welcomed visitors on Wednesday. Later on, a five-minute walk along a small river took guests to huts made of sago trunks where locals were busy processing sago for various purposes.

Three young men were seen harvesting fibers from inside a cut-down sago palm by peeling the stems. These fibers, known locally as empulur, are the raw material used to make sago starch.

An elderly woman later took the empulur to begin the process of extracting sago starch. She first sorted out the soft parts of the fibers before soaking them in water to squeeze out the starch, that is then ready to be cooked.

“It [the starch] can be directly cooked into papeda or other types of food,” said Ester Domuna, 48, a villager, referring to a traditional sticky sago porridge.

In another spot in the village, some young men worked hand in hand to build a tree house at the top of a tree using some parts of the sago palm. These men do not live in the village; they came from a tribe called Korowai, which is famous for its tall tree houses, in the southeastern part of Papua to participate in the festival. For generations, the Korowai have been traditionally processing and consuming sago, just like the people of Kwadeware.

While under the tree, a group of young Papuans were seen cooking a rather unusual food involving a mixture of sago starch and sago worms covered in banana leaves. The cooking process was also unique as they used hot stones as a burner.

Yet, this was not the only way to cook sago on display.

In other corners of the village, Papuan women, locally referred to as mama-mama, were seen preparing sago using various methods such as grilling sago starch.

“Everything is free of charge. Everyone is welcome to taste the food,” said the initiator of the festival, Charles Toto.

However, the region has seen the popularity of consuming sago decline while forests that were once a source of traditional staple foods such as sago have been converted into oil palm plantations.

The festival also marked the first time June 21 was celebrated as Sago Day by the people of Jayapura to further preserve sago as a traditional food. The organizers have promised to hold the festival every year.

“We want sago to be officially recognized as a local staple food,” Charles said, calling on local governments in Papua to issue regulations on sago palm forests and special areas that protect sago culture.

The festival also aimed to promote other local food traditions, such as the utilization of ashes from burnt stems of rattan-like trees as a kind of salt for cooking.

Held on the same day as President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s birthday, Charles expressed hope that next year the President, who last year opened the country’s largest sago mill in Kais, West Papua, to boost sago production for both domestic consumption and export, would come to the festival.

“Hopefully sago can be served in the State Palace,” Charles added.

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