The Losing Indigienous Food

A man from Kamoro tribe, one of the tribe in coastal area of Timika, Papua, Indonesia, with accessories made from the packages of instant noodle for necklace, head accessories, and tawri. Tawri is skirt made from sago leaves. This man is in grieving time because his relative passes away. Dead certainly makes somebody in grieve, but in Kamoro tradition, dead must be celebrated with a kind of party – the cheerfulness in dancing and singing along the night. This is a form of willingness to release the death. The necklace and other accessories are usually made from sago leaves or banana leaves – the Kamoro’s food resources. This man modified his accessories. The practice of implementing government programs in Papua is more often manifested by distributing cash into the community. This practice is considered more practical and useful for the community although actually, it is a kind of strategy to get an opportunity for corruption – while many programs from central government are mostly with abundant budget. This situation provides most Kamoro people with cash availability which encourages people to shop and consume manufactured goods.Simultaneously, the expansion of factory goods comes in through traders. All the traders in this area are settlers. Nowadays, people in this village area prefer instant noodle than sago and banana from the forest. “You do not need to gather from the forest if you want to eat,” said this man. The distance from Aindua village, the place where I met this man, to Timika is about 8 hours by a 40PK engine-powered boat through the Arafura Sea. It is actually closer and cheaper to access sago and banana in the forest than instant noodles.