Ambushed: Escaping the Cannibals of West Papua, Indonesia

Photo: Hadi Zaher/Flickr

“The people are angry. They are very angry,” said Harun, my 50-year-old Asmat guide as we were frogmarched off the rickety pontoon and seated next to the chief and deputy chief of Otsjanep, the most feared and dangerous Asmat village in West Papua, Indonesia.

The chief had a skull and crossbones and the word “Death” emblazoned on the front of his baseball cap. On his right side, he had a safety pin through his ear and a heavy scar that stretched from his cheek to his jaw. He looked like a zombie with heavily dilated pupils and bloodshot eyes.

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Moments earlier, our small, fiberglass boat, carrying the guide, the driver, and myself, had been ambushed. Out of nowhere, a tribesman with a thick piece of wood jutting out through his lower lip jumped from the riverbank and raised his heavily tattooed forearms to signal ahead where the remaining villagers waited.

The chief (Photo: R.L. Norton)

Everything happened so fast that it was difficult to understand what was normal for this pre-Stone Age tribe with a long history of reciprocal violence, revenge killing, and cannibalism. What was clear was that Harun, my veteran guide, who had taken reporters, travelers, and anthropologists around this region for decades, was getting increasingly worried.

The lack of children and women present, the aggressive way we were pushed into the hut, and the double-sized machete inching its way forward through the crowd were all reasons for concern.

“Woooooooooooooo. Waaaaaaaaaaoooo,” cried out the 40 to 50 men, crouched in a semicircle around us, as the makeshift tribal court hearing kicked off. The atmosphere was knife-edged and switched between long eerie silences and explosive shouting. I was asked just one question: Why was I here?

Asmat woodcarvings (Photo: R.L. Norton)

I spoke slowly and was keen to appear as diminutive as possible, making sure my head was lower than the chief’s, and I kept my hands close to my chest. I said I had come to experience the wonderful nature, to see the extraordinary Asmat woodcarvings, and to bring gifts to the people of Otsjanep. I told Harun that we had to get our supplies and start giving them to the chief right away in front of everyone. I wanted to get up and help Harun with the supplies, but three men held me back by my knees and shoulders.

Minutes later, Harun returned and began unwrapping brown paper packets of rice, coffee, sugar, salt crackers, tobacco, and fishing hooks. Everything was emptied out into a pile at the feet of the chief, and it grew taller with bottles of water, cans of pilchard fish, and pieces of tarpaulin taken from the boat. I emptied out my pockets and placed $180 on top of the lot.

I reached over the deputy chief to see if the chief would shake my hand, knowing how important it was for this to be seen by the others to be accepted.

He held it briefly without acknowledging me in the eye, but it was enough for us to be allowed to go. Another crashing “Waaaaaaaoooooo” followed, and we began to make our way back to the boat over the raised wooden planks. I managed to take two pictures of the chief before being hurried along by another village elder.

West Papua (Photo: R.L. Norton)

As our 19-year-old boat driver started the engine, we jumped onboard and sped off as fast as possible, sticking to the middle of the river and swerving in and out of floating logs and clusters of reeds. Locals carried on running after us for miles, and Harun said it was not safe to spend the night on this stretch of water. We headed for Atsji, a small river town further up the coast back toward the main port of Agats, where there was a small hotel with some security.

As we exited the Ewer River into the choppy Arafura Sea, I was reminded of the unfortunate fate of Michael Rockefeller, scion to one of the world’s richest families, who disappeared in these same waters after his boat capsized in 1961. According to Carl Hoffman, the author of Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller’s Tragic Quest for Primitive Art, the people of Otsjanep were most likely behind his death. And the upcoming documentary The Search for Michael Rockefeller claims to confirm this. One reason the villagers may have been so angry about our upriver excursion is the rumor that Rockefeller’s skull remains buried in the trunk of a tree close to where we were.

A tribesman from Asmat district during the Asmat festival in Indonesia (Photo: Stringe/Indonesia/Reuters/Corbis)

Young Rockefeller would have experienced a very different Asmat culture than what I saw. He would have seen thousands of villagers decked out in cuscus fur headbands with cockatoo feathers and broad, curved shells in the shape of tusks through their noses. While you can still pick up souvenirs such as cassowary bone daggers in rattan armbands, necklaces made from coix seeds, and dogs’ teeth and many types of carvings, most the traditional dress has been replaced, as in other parts of the world, by Western hand-me-downs.

The elephant in the room remains whether or not cannibalism is alive or dead. While the Asmat are acknowledged as the last surviving cannibal tribe, they’ll be the first to admit that they no longer eat people.

But in this lawless and unpredictable land, I was left with no doubt that the elders of Otsjanep had eaten human flesh, perhaps even that of Rockefeller, and I was only too happy to have left unscathed.

Robert Norton is a writer, photographer, and former Reuters correspondent. He has written for The Sunday Times, South China Morning Post, Wired, and The Times Literary Supplement.

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If you’re brave enough to go, here are some tips on getting to West Papua, Indonesia and Otsjanep.

There are no direct international flights into West Papua. Fly from Denpasar or Jakarta to Timika (approximately four hours and $200 each way) on a carrier like Garuda Airlines. Then take a ferry or plane from Timika to Agats. Hire a private boat to take you from Agats to Otsjanep and other river villages. Permits (Surat Jalan) are required for visits to the Asmat tribal territories and should be arranged in advance. A sample itinerary might include Uwus, Atsji, Pirien, Otsjanep, Kaima, and Warse.

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