Dani man show off tail and ears of the sacrificed pig [bc2761e]

An important ritual for the Papuan Dani people in the Baliem Valley (main town Wamena) is the pig festival. In some cases used traditionally in peacemaking, it is now a broader cultural festival. This was my second time in Wamena and my second experience of a Dani festival.

 

We arrived on foot to the Dani village. En route we were treated to ritual battle and hunting demonstrations, and then entered the village itself. Here the village women waited to weclome us and and we caught our first sight of the pig. We had paid for the pig and would share the meat with the village.

 

One of the male hunters killed the pig with an arrow. The animal was butchered in the open area between the huts - a man teaching a young boy the cuts - and a fire pit was dug. The fire pit was filled with hot rocks, herbs, sweet potatoes and the meat and while we waited for the food to cook / bake we enjoyed seeing more of the Dani.

 

On my first visit to the Dani, the pig festival had been a happy event, and the villagers had obviously enjoyed themselves as much as we had. This time some mere more subdued and I learned that a villager (I believe a child) had recently died and that the village was still grieving. Had we known of this before arriving, we might have been able to bring something appropriate in addition to the pig itself. Once we were there, the language gap prevented us from doing anything other than expressing formal condolences.

 

Two years earlier, in another part of Indonesian West Papua, we had come to an Asmat village which was also in mourning and we were requested to return a few days later. Here with the Dani, there was no such request and we were welcomed. Nevertheless, when I look back at some of he photos, I wonder whether some of the villagers would have preferred more time to grieve.

Done