A Road to Nowhere

A Road to Nowhere  kaft (1 van 1)    Engelse vlag  vlag nl      photobook A ROAD TO NOWHERE

The Trans Irian Road (Trans-Papua Highway) intends to open up the whole jungle-covered interior of Papua, Indonesia. In 1992 we followed the rough course of the road as plotted out on some maps, to see the present and the possible future of the Papuans.

workers plantation in truck                 woman in transmigrant shed                 transmigrants in front of house                 woman with trees in potatoe field                 woman with 2 children in garden                 woman washing sago                 transmigants alongside plantation                 two man and plane                 woman and child in garden_1                 wamena market place                 street next to market wamena                  selling bundles of firewood                 ronde hut (1)                 palm oil plantation with distant village                palm oil factory               Palm oil              landscape left_1             military control post            man with bibit sago palm trees           burned tree                    mashing sago           man with smoke           man with shovel           man with digging stick           man digging with hands           man and children in potatoe field           group with pig           father and son in potatoe field           chopping the jungle           Children at airstrip wamena           child in river           a village in Pass Valley                   a transmigrant family with deers                   woman with trees in potatoe field                    woman with 2 children in garden                    woman in transmigrant shed                    woman and man and pig                    woman and child in garden_1                    woman 2x children corr                   wamena market place                 two man and plane                 transmigrants in front of house                transmigants alongside plantation              street next to market wamena              selling firewood in Wamena            selling bundles of firewood           Sago palm tree          ronde hut (1)       palm oil plantation with distant village      Palm oil      military control post      man with bibit sago palm trees      mother washing child      mashing sago      man with smoke      man with shovel      man with digging stick      man digging with hands      man and children in potatoe field     landscape left_1    group with pig    father and son in potatoe field    chopping the jungle    Children at airstrip wamena    child in river    burned tree    a village in Pass Valley    a transmigrant family with deers   Arso kebun  Arso kebun (1)  35  34  2 palm oil plantation labourers  workers plantation in truck           woman with 2 children in garden           woman washing sago           woman in transmigrant shed           woman and child in garden_1           wamena market place           two man and plane           transmigrants in front of house           transmigants alongside plantation           selling firewood in Wamena           selling bundles of firewood           Sago palm tree           ronde hut           palm oil plantation with distant village           palm oil factory

 

The book consists of three parts. The first part deals with the relatively unchanged traditional  food system that is based upon  the cultivation of the sweet potatoe in the Central Highlands.  The second part shows the surroundings of Waris close to the PNG border. The staple diet of these lowland tribes  is primarily  based upon the wild sago in the jungle, on hunting and food gathering.

The last part shows the situation between the recently finished part of the Trans Irian Road and the border of PNG, where the Workwane tribe lives around the town of Arso. The Workwane suddenly found themselves surrounded by a huge palm oil plantation.  For their livelihood they have become solely dependent on selling palm nuts to a factory, to obtain money for food.

Papua is a province of the Indonesian archipelago, that stretches almost 6000 kilometres from Sabang in the north of Sumatra to Merauke in the south  of  Papua, close to the border of Papua New Guinea. Until 1962  Papua was a colony of The Netherlands, until that time named Dutch New Guinea. The Indonesians changed its name into Irian Jaya, and in the year 2000 rebaptised it into it’s current name:  ‘Papua’.  Papua is the western part of the second largest island in the world. Together with its independent neighbour Papua New Guina  it almost forms an entire and unique continent: New Guinea.

This photo-documentary explores some recent changes in Papua while it was still named Irian Jaya.  During our stay, in the year 1991, we documented some recent influences that modern development schemes  meant for the traditional way of life of the Papuan tribes. We compared the more or less untouched food system of Central Highland tribes, such as the Dani and the Jali, with the changed food security of the Workwane tribe, a northern lowland tribe living close to the border of Papua new Guinea.

In 1991 these different locations shared a relation to a road- in-construction: The Trans Irian Road (Trans-Papua Highway). On some maps the future track of this road was plotted out to connect the three areas.

While the Central Highlands still remained unconnected in 1991, still in:  ’the Middle of Nowhere’ , the rainforest of the Workwane tribe around Arso changed drastically after the arrival of that road into a huge palm oil plantation. By means of the Trans Irian Road, the Workwane are now said to be connected to the 21 th century,.

At that time the little village of Waris was still just outside the far end of the plantation, a few miles from the point where the troublesome construction of the  Trans Irian Road came to a stand still…

 

Geef een antwoord