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Emma Roberts documents an eye-opening week in the Baliem Valley of Papua, Indonesia. What she encountered was a place where Melanesian culture is strong but the lives of the locals are also dominated by mosques and Indomie; a place where people live in regions impenetrable by transportation but continue to travel long distances on foot with big smiles on their faces; a place where life is tough but resilience is tougher.
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- “To be honest, I feel ridiculous. It happens almost every day now – the village chief will get a text message saying that some tourists are coming and we’ve all got to quickly change out of our clothes and put our ‘koteka’ (penis sheaths) on. The older guys and the kids don’t mind it but for me it’s just a bit embarrassing. Tourism brings in more money than plantation work though, so I suppose it’s worth it.”
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- “According to Indonesian legislation, the Papuan parliament is supposed to be at least 80% local people. However the education levels here are so low – how can any of us be qualified enough to work for the government? Right now the vast majority of our parliamentarians are Javanese.”
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- “Of course the streets are empty, it’s Sunday! You can’t even drive your car in the morning while everyone is at church – the police will make you pay a fine if they catch you.”
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- “Of course I smoke. Why are you surprised? It tastes a lot better than betel nut so I’d rather this than that.”
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- “Mum works in the plantations all day so he’s my responsibility.”
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- “We aren’t sure how old we are; our mother passed away when we were still little.”
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- “I walk up that hill every day. There’s a salt water stream at the top of it.” “You still use that salt?” “No, of course not. I take tourists up to see it. It’s much easier to just buy salt from the shop, along with chili sauce and MSG.”
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- “My mum sells cucumber at the market.”
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- “Every day I come to the airport wearing a ‘koteka’ (penis sheath) and hope that some foreigners will want to take a picture with me. I can charge them 5000 rupiah so it’s a quick and easy way to make money.”
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- “I studied at a good university in Java – I got a scholarship and everything! But then I came back here, and what use is an International Relations degree in a place where almost everybody works in the sweet potato plantations? I didn’t want to go back to that, so now I just drive people around on my motorbike to make a living.”
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Wonderful documentation.. Great work Emma…