Facing deforestation on their lands and marginalisation by foreigners, the Asmat people of West Papua, Indonesia, often suffer a crisis of identity. Joshua Irwandi’s photography project, Not A Blank Canvas, documents the tribe and its struggles
Joshua Irwandi
Main image: The Pokman feast is a three‑part Asmat feast symbolising resurrection. Photograph: Joshua Irwandi
Fri 3 Feb 2017 05.02 EST Last modified on Wed 14 Feb 2018 13.05 EST
Molestina Werem takes care of her child in the village of Bayun. Asmat women are responsible for childcare and gathering food and firewood. Ever since headhunting, once an important element of Asmat culture, was suppressed, men have been left with little to do. Domestic violence is common, as is male sexual promiscuity, polygamy and incest, further repressing women.
Forests are central to the Asmat tribe’s hunter‑gatherer way of life, but the amount of wood on their lands has diminished due to excessive logging. The subsistence lifestyle in the 21st century is often a struggle.
Many logging posts in the Asmat capital of Agats are owned by foreigners, who employ the tribal people to log the forest. In the 1980s, illegal logging by the military and traders was rampant. Asmat people were abused, unpaid for their work, and discouraged from celebrating their rituals. The then Catholic Bishop, Alphonse Sowada, opposed such activities and the perpetrators were removed.
Women from the village of Bayun return from the forest after collecting firewood at sundown. Excessive logging, by the Asmat and traders alike, results in large numbers of logs floating along the River Pomatsj and other river channels elsewhere in the region.
A boy uses the base of a sago tree as a makeshift canoe. The Asmat’s traditional canoeing way of life is slowly being replaced by motorboats and speedboats, with the help of local government subsidies.
Women and men playfully attack one another in the game of tug-of-war. Here, men pulling the canoe are blinded by lime hurled from a bamboo. In the last stage of the feast, villagers give their offering to the jeu (traditional house). Each clan wears spirit masks made from the bark of mulberry trees, dances and pounds drums.
Pigs are a prized commodity in Asmat. Wild pigs roam the forest and are hunted for food. If they are captured alive, pigs are kept as pets, raised and fed properly. Stealing or killing a pig usually leads to neighbourhood disputes.
Telkomsel is the only Indonesian telecommunications provider in Asmat and three phone towers serve a 60,000 population: one in the capital of Agats and the others in the villages of Atsj and Pos. Construction takes a long time, causing communication and logistical chaos. The tower in Pos, for example, took three years to turn on, but is one of the reasons the Asmats’ land is being opened up to foreigners.
Albertus Kasei lives in the Yasiuw compound of the village of Atsj. While albinism is treated with less harshness in Asmat than in some parts of the world, albinos are not permitted to marry as it is considered taboo.
Sofia Tomamnak reacts angrily when she does not get a share of government subsidy money, Dana Respek. Administered by the Indonesian government, the money was used for development projects in the province of Papua. But abuse of the funds by distributors means many villagers do not receive their fair share, causing frequent outbursts. The distributors, sometimes Asmat people themselves, tend to give larger sums to their families.
To mark the beginning of Lent, Er villagers pound the tifa (drums) all night. The Asmats are predominantly Catholic, having been converted by missionaries, but there is religious tension with immigrants to the area who mostly practise Islam.
Ever since the Indonesian government annexed West Papua from Netherlands New Guinea, the Indonesian transmigration programme has brought an influx of pendatang (foreigners from other islands of Indonesia). There is only one mosque in the village of Atsj, where Indonesian Muslims celebrate Ramadan by lighting fireworks.
