TRADITIONS, TOURISM AND CONTEMPORARY CULTURE IN PAPUA
Traditional arts and material culture

While Papua is home to a wide variety of art traditions, only several iconic forms are well known outside their local regions. European explorers, administrators and collectors often returned from Papua with extensive collections of material culture. These early visitors, together with more recent arrivals, have profoundly affected the production of art and its place in the lives of many Papuans. While there is a significant collection of Papuan artefacts in the Museum Nasional in Jakarta (www.museumnasional.org), and very modest collections at the Museum Provinsi (Provincial Museum) in Waena/Jayapura (www.kebudayaan.depdiknas.go.id/BudayaOnline/SitusBcb/Museum/n_papua.htm and at the Museum Lokabudaya (the Anthropology Museum at Cenderawasih University in Abepura), the most comprehensive collections of Papuan art and material culture are held by several large museums in the Netherlands and a dispersed group of private collectors. The Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde (RMV, or National Museum of Ethnology) in Leiden, the Wereldmuseum (World Museum at www.wereldmuseum.rotterdam.nl) in Rotterdam and the Tropenmuseum of the Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen (the Museum of the Royal Institute for the Tropics, or KIT) in Amsterdam, hold the most significant institutional collections in Papuan art and material culture anywhere in the world. Unfortunately most of these objects are not on permanent exhibition, although many items in the National Museum of Ethnology collection may now be viewed online (www.rmv.nl). In 2003, the RMV opened an exhibition featuring recent and past material culture collections from the Kamoro region of southern Papua. Although "Papua Leeft" had a web presence in 2003, the only information that remains online about this exhibition appears to be references to the printed catalogue Kamoro Art: Tradition and Innovation in a New Guinea culture and news/reviews of the exhibition (such as www.westpapua.nl/2003_02/kamoro.html). Similarly, although the KIT hosted a small exhibition of photographs from the early Twentieth Century related to the Anglo-Dutch race to the tropical glaciers of Carstensz (Puncak Jaya), the exhibition catalogue Race to the Snow remains the only enduring web presence of this exhibition (purchase from KIT at www.kit.nl). *1 In 2007, the Wereldmuseum in Rotterdam will host a major pan-New Guinea exhibition, titled "The Power of Papua".

The Barbier-Muller Museum, Geneva also holds a significant collection of Papuan art, but the items in its collection are not accessible via the web (www.barbier-mueller.ch/genevefr.html). More modest collections are held in numerous other European museums, including the Castello D'Albertis in Genoa, Italy (IT: www.castellodalbertis.comune.genova.it) and the Museo delle Culture, in Lugano, Switzerland (www.mcl.lugano.ch). In North America, one of the most significant collections of Papuan art was collected for the Museum of Primitive Art in New York, which was consolidated into the holdings of the Metropolitan Museum of Art as The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection in the Department of Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas (www.metmuseum.org). Australian collections of Papuan artefacts can be found through Australian Museums and Galleries On-Line (http://amol.org.au). A significant (if uncertain) number of private collections of Papuan art exists outside Papua in Indonesia and abroad but few of these are well documented or widely publicised.

The best known Papuan art is the woodcarving of the Asmat people and in the past few decades most art development projects, art enthusiasts and dealers collecting in Papua have been drawn to this art form. While the Asmat region may have gained international notoriety in 1962 with the disappearance of Michael Rockefeller, it is the sustained support of the Crosier Catholic Missionaries (www.crosier.org) and the patronage of their former Bishop Alphonse Sowada which has been central to revival of Asmat art. In 1973 the Crosiers established the Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress at Agats and later the American Museum of Asmat Art (www.asmat.org). Asmat art is featured in several private collections which have a web presence, including that of long-term Asmat art collectors Ursula and Gunter Konrad (www.asmat.de) and the Equatorial Art Gallery website (www.asmatart.net or http://home.earthlink.net/~alkeeney). You can read about an art collector’s experience in Asmat (http://home.earthlink.net/~fchiaramonte/travel.htm).

Papua is rich in many artistic traditions other than those of the Asmat. There are many contemporary artists across the province producing fine works in a variety of media. Several of these artists have been featured in exhibitions by Seichi Okawa and their work can be found at the Graha Budaya Indonesia or Indonesian Cultural Plaza in Tokyo (www.harapan.co.jp/Indonesia/GBI/GBI_index.htm - you need an extended Japanese character set to see all of this site). The arts of Lake Sentani, which have been overlooked by so many visitors to nearby Jayapura, have also been gaining recent popularity among domestic and foreign visitors to Papua. Read about the painted barkcloth of the Sentani region in an article by anthropologist Michael Howard (www.artasiapacific.com/articles/maro/maro1.html with hotlinked footnotes). The internet has many other webpages about New Guinea tribal arts and art dealers (such as www.art-pacific.com/artifacts/nuguinea/asmat/asmatmap.htm). Sarinah, the exclusive Indonesian department store on Jalan Thamrin, was one of the first places to commercialise Asmat art in Jakarta (http://bubu.com/sarinah/asmat.htm) as part of their arts and crafts collection from across the archipelago.

Tourism, tours, transportation and travelogues

Papua's traditional arts are not the only attraction for tourists visiting to region. The diverse cultures and landscapes of Papua offer visitors a wide variety of experiences and there are many webpages related to tourism in the province. Here these web resources are simplified into three broad categories: general tourist information; commercial tours, travel agents, accommodation and travel practicalities; personal travelogues and photo essays. PATA or the Pacific Asian Travel Association (www.pata.org) and some other webpages work to promote tourism Papua and the region (www.travelgare.com/explore/IrianJaya). Other sites have pages which promote tourism in Papua, including: the Biak Tourism Office's website (www.infobiaknumfor.com), Petra Christian University in Surabaya (www.petra.ac.id/english/kti/irian/intro/index.htm or www.petra.ac.id/english/kti/tourism/index_irja.htm), the Indonesian Culture and Tourism Centre in Japan (www.indonesia-ctc.co.jp/Indonesia/FrameIrianJaya.htm), Archipela GoPapua (http://goarchi.com/archo/provinces/i-jaya/i-jayahome.html) and the Tourism Indonesia website (www.tourismindonesia.com).

Tour operators and travel agents have conducted group tours in Papua since it was opened to international tourism in the late 1980s. Commercial tourism operators host a range of sites with information about their various package tours to Papua. Examples of these businesses include: Papua Adventures (www.papua-adventures.com), Sawadee (NL: www.sawadee.nl), Hidden Cultures (www.hiddencultures.com), Arcadia Tours (www.arcadia.nl), Immersia Travel (www.immersiatravel.com/ng2.html), Hey Papua (www.hey-papua.de) and Indonesian tour companies like Limbunan (see www.eastindonesia.com/tour/irian or www.baliem.com). Some foreign tour operators with a history of travel in Papua also have detailed websites about Papua with details of tours and Papuan artefacts online (for example see www.irianjaya.de which is the same site as www.harald-melcher.de). You may find more tour operators and travel agents (even ones based in Papua) with a general web search. While tour operators and travel agencies can arrange all travel and accommodation arrangements for a trip to Papua, tourist who desire greater independence will find it useful to visit other sites on the web.

Transportation services are essential to the lives of most people living in the urban centres of Papua and every year better information about these services can be found online. This includes the websites provided by two major Indonesian passenger airlines Garuda (www.garuda-indonesia.com) and Merpati Airlines (www.merpati.co.id) as well as pages on the Departmen Perhubungan or Department of Transportation website with general schedules (www.dephub.go.id/irja/data/frek_pnrb.htm). PELNI (Pelayaran Nasional Indonesia), the National Passenger Ferry Service also has general information (www.pelni.com) and its schedules are online (see www.onklik.com/ontrip/index_kapal.php3). The only airport in Papua capable of landing a Boeing 747 (Jumbo Jet) is the Bandar Udara Frans Kaisiepo in Biak (E: www.angkasapura1.co.id/eng/location/biak.htm) although many of its coastal towns are well equipped for large passenger ferries and cargo ships, including the ports of: Jayapura, Biak, Manokwari, Fak-Fak, Sorong and Merauke (www.portina4.go.id/ports.htm shows a map of these towns linked to pages with data on these docks). Information about some local ferry services in Papua is available online through PT ASDP (Angkutan Sungai Danau dan Penyemberangan or the Inland Waterways and Ferry Transportation Corporation website (www.ferry-asdp.co.id).

Foreign visitors not arriving from other parts of Indonesia may be able to travel on the weekly charter flight operating between Timika and Darwin (Australia) as an alternative route to Papua (www.timikacharters.com.au). There is also a regular bus service (and irregular light aircraft flights) between Jayapura and Vanimo in neighbouring Papua New Guinea. For these international connections travellers must obtain appropriate visas (which can prove difficult). More detailed information for such travel is available from the Papua New Guinea Consul in Jayapura (refer to www.pngembassy.org/mission.htm), the Australian Embassy in Indonesia (www.austembjak.or.id), the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra (www.kbri-canberra.org.au) as well as the Indonesian travel agents listed above, Darwin-based travel agencies like Northern Gateway (www.northerngateway.com.au) or PNG-based tour companies like MTS (www.meltours.com/index.html).

Accommodation in Papua can range widely according to price and exclusivity. Some of the most expensive accommodation in Papua includes the Sheraton Hotel in the mining boom town of Timika (http://www.greathotels.co.id/contents/sheratontmk.html), the Honai Resort (www.baliem.com/html/honai.html) and Baliem Valley Resort (G/E: www.baliem-valley-resort.de) both near the central highlands town of Wamena and a number of high end hotels in bigger towns like Jayapura and Sorong (see sites like www.regit.com/regitel/indonesi/business/rianjaya/jayapura.htm). The more modest hotels and losmen in the coastal towns of Papua do not have much of a web presence. Information about these places and the opportunities to stay in traditional houses with local Papuans can be found in some of the travelogues listed below. Basic medical supplies may be purchased through local chemists in Jayapura which are listed in the Apotheek Jayapura webpage (ID: www.satumed.com/index.html/lain/37).

Travelogues are personal or group accounts of tourist's experiences in their travels which often contain interesting insights and practical advice on places, conditions, cultural difference (and "culture shock"). They may take the form of brief or lengthy trip narratives, photo-essays, web-logs (blogs, see section 1) or even become the inspiration for entire websites or film projects. Travelogues have been written about Papua for more than a century, but there are still few substantial texts (or essays) in this "adventure" or "explorer" genre available online.

Short travelogues about Papua available on the web may be general reviews of visits to Papua, like: Henry Richardson's trip report (www.geocities.com/hr1975/ij-report.htm); Liono Irian Jaya pages (www.emp.pdx.edu/htliono/irja.html), Susan's Trip (www.websurf.net.au/~susan/Irian.htm), Jean-Philippe Soules's story (www.caske2000.org/stories/irianjaya.htm), one of Martijn Maandag's many trips (NL: www.reisverslagen.net) or Herman Vellinga's recent visit and reminiscences (NL: http://home.planet.nl/~velli026). Blogs entries can become daily diaries for visitors to Papua (e.g. http://joergstrail.blogspot.com) while other pages may be very specific (including the detailed account of the villages of Tobati and Engros at www.cs.washington.edu/homes/weld/engros.html). The more familiar tourist destinations like the Baliem Valley, the Asmat and Korowai regions of the southern swamps and the Carstensz glaciers and Puncak Jaya have more webpages.

The Baliem Valley was first discovered in 1938 by Richard Archbold and his team during an expedition for the American Museum of Natural History in New York (www.american-mnh.org or see http://research.american-mnh.org/mammalogy/dla/index.html for information about visiting the Archbold Collection of photographs and documents related to this expedition). It returned to prominence during World War II with the crash of a US army C47 aircraft in the valley and the subsequent rescue of some of its passengers (www.thedropzone.org/pacific/walters.htm). Since then, the Baliem Valley has held a special attraction for "adventure" tourists and trekkers. See some of the online writings of recent visitors to this unique place in Daniel Weld's "Glimpse into the Stone Age" (www.cs.washington.edu/homes/weld/stone-age.html), Dave Hunter's Trek (www.ana.ed.ac.uk/anatomy/staff/HunterD/treks/iriantab.html) how Allan Miller spent his summer vacation (www.pedropoint.com/dani.htm) and other short travelogues about the Central Highlands of Papua (such as http://www-ah.wbmt.tudelft.nl/~jerry/jw2/IrianJaya/Baliem.html). For those tourists with a specific interest in climbing, or a desire for serious trekking, Papua has some of the most spectacular mountain ranges in the world.

Carstensz is home to the tropical glaciers which rest on Puncak Jaya, at an elevation of almost 5000 meters above sea level. Although known to local Papuans for millenia, this rare tropical glacier first became known to European geographers when it was seen from the Arafura sea by the Dutch explorer Jan Carstensz in the 17th Century. In the early 20th Century, several European expeditions vied to be the first to reach the summit of this remarkable peak (see www.xtreme.nl/land/beleving/index_lab210600.shtml). In October 2001, the Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, or Tropen Instituut (Royal Tropical Institute at www.kit.nl) presented “Race to the Snow,” an exhibition of photographs from these earliest European expeditions to the summit of Carstensz (www.kit.nl/fotobureau/html/publicaties.asp). The Carstensz massif was studied extensively during the early 1970s by a group of researchers from Australia and their results are now available on PapuaWeb (see www.papuaweb.org/dlib/bk/hope1976/_sampul.html). A few of these researchers also have an article about the glaciers available online through the United States Geological Survey website (http://pubs.usgs.gov/prof/p1386h/indonesia/intoc.html).

Puncak Jaya (the current name for the Carstensz Massif) and its glaciers remains one of the primary tourist attractions in Papua. Puncak is the highest mountain on the island of New Guinea, the highest peak between between the Himalayas and the Andes and one of the "7 summits" of the world (see http://7summits.com). Climbing here requires a special permit from the Departmen Kebudayaan dan Pariwisata or the Department of Culture and Tourism in Jakarta (www.budpar.go.id). In recent years this trip has been offered as a commercial package tour for climbers lasting anything from 6-20 days (see www.alpineascents.com/carstensz.asp), and growing numbers of foreign climbers have used it to complete their "7 summits" (www.adventurestats.com/tables/7sum.htm). Other webpages about climbers' experiences on Puncak Jaya include: a flash animated website which features Carstensz (www.econ.nl), an article in Everestnews (www.everestnews.com/carstensz.htm), a photo essay at the Mountain Madness website (www.mountainmadness.com/gallery/carstenz/carstenz01.htm), a helicopter- assisted ascent (NL: www.demis.nl/poul/x11.htm). Other regions in the highlands are also spectacular and physically demanding to traverse. An extremely challenging expedition (unlikely to ever become a group tour) was proposed for the year 2000 by a team which planned to walk the entire length of the islands of New Guinea - 2400km over the central cordillera (mountain range) of New Guinea from Milne Bay, in the far east of Papua New Guinea, to the west coast of the Bird's Head of Papua (http://members.aol.com/prwiles).

Scuba diving tours and other coastal attractions remain a small but significant part of the Papuan tourism industry. Max Ammer runs a commercial scuba diving business in Sorong (www.iriandiving.com) which features the natural marine life of Papua and underwater exploration of old World War II wrecks (see www.iriandiving.com/Wreck-Diving.html and www.pacificwrecks.com/provinces/irian_biak.html). Many of these wrecks can be found in and around the island of Biak where tourism was being heavily promoted during the 1990s and featured the brand new Marauw (Biak Beach) Hotel (for example see www.jipi.com/inatourism/irian_jaya/index.php3?topik=resort). This hotel is featured in Kal Muller's article on diving in Biak (Muller has written one of the most popular foreign guidebooks to Papua) although it is no longer operational (see www.asiandiver.com/themagazine/indonesia/biak.html). Some other pages provide limited information about Biak and its adjacent islands (http://members.tripod.com/biak-island/welcome.htm). The attractions of Papua's natural environment are also featured in other accounts of diving (www.photocean.com/irianjaya.html) or you can explore the coastal areas of Papua and other parts of Indonesia aboard a chartered tour boat operated by companies like Divex Indonesia (www.divex-indonesia.de/start.htm).

Bird watching should be an extremely popular tourist activity in Papua given the wealth of its endemic species. While groups of ornithologists occasionally visit Papua, only a few operators such as Papua Expeditions (www.papuaexpeditions.com and ID: www.ekonexion.com) and Kris Tindige (www.earthfoot.org/places/id002.htm) run tours specifically for bird watching. If you are fortunate enough to visit Papua, there is a bird sanctuary on Biak Island close to Biak Town (on the main road to Bosnik) and also the new Biak Falcon and Raptors Conservation Center (http://users.belgacom.net/gc559907/intro.htm). The BFRCC is dedicated to the conservation of Papuan and Indonesian birdlife, including the rare Javan Hawk Eagle (which is the bird on the national emblem of the Republic of Indonesia).

Photographic essays are travelogues (like www.whereisevan.com/indonesia00-3.html) but they generally rely more on images than text in their representations. Online photo essays which feature Papua include Chris Ranier's "Where Masks Still Dance" (from his book www.time.com/time/reports/newguinea/home.html), Rob Huibers website (www.photo.nl), Kaj Maurins Papua slideshow (www.indonesiapromo.com/slidesho/irian/ss01.html), Ken Ratihn's photo gallery (www.pcweb.net/kss/irianjaya/index.htm), Jez O'Hare's site (www.jezohare.com), the Eric de Noorman website (http://users.pandora.be/e.rasker/Irian.html). Extensive photoessays can be found at Abentuer Indonesien (www.abenteuer-indonesien.de/iriangal1.html) and at www.photocean.com/irianjaya.html and the "crazy-man" plans to make a documentary film in Papua (www.crazy-man.org). Harald Melcher has already made a film in Papua which is available for purchase online (www.harald-melcher.de/index_dt.htm).

Contemporary Papuan culture

While domestic and foreign tourism in Papua flourishes on the perception of “primitive people” living in “remote” places, rapid urbanisation is creating new social, economic and political communities and activities in many towns across the province. Though some of these trends have been distinctly Papuan, others are formed by pan-Indonesian or global influences like Christianity (see the remarkable examples of syncretic Christian art in Papua at http://constellarti.nl/Papua/album/Papuachristianart/index.html). One of the earliest examples of this new fusion emerged in the early 1970s with the creation of Papuan String Band music by groups like Black List, Black Papas and the Black Brothers, who were hugely popular throughout Indonesia and the region (see www.chmsupersound.com/cds/cd_006.htm). The success of Papuan musicians and cultural groups continued in the 1980s with the regular performances of groups like Mambesak at the Museum Loka Budaya at the campus of Universitas Cenderawasih in Abepura until the group was forced to disband in 1984 following the murder of Arnold Ap and Edie Mofu, two of Mambesak's founding members. Much of the inspiration for these groups came from the rich oral traditions of many Papuan communities, especially accounts of their history and origins (read about the cultural hero Gurabesi at http://evergreentropicalstories.blogspot.com/2009/06/14-legendary-war-hero-from-biak.html).

Although there are a range of contemporary cultural forms in Papua they still have a limited presence on the World Wide Web. The 2003 Free West Papua Concert in Melbourne (see below) included the first international appearance of West Papuan group "Spirit of Mambesak" and gave the group an opportunity to record a CD of their music (see www.mana.com.au/blackparadise/the_group.htm). The regular appearance of cyber "mops" (Dutch for "joke") in Papuan newspapers, is another example of how residents of Papua are bringing their culture to the web (read some mops on the Papuana site Yaswarau (www.yaswarau.com/content/category/1/1/2, Infopapua www.infopapua.com and and the Indonesian humour website Ketawa.com http://ketawa.com/humor-lucu/cat/17/cerita_mop_dan_mob_papua.html). These also increasingly circulate among communities in Papua and abroad via other internet technologies (such as emails, newsgroups and weblogs).

Sport and youth groups. The importance of sport to many young people in Papua is reflected in the success of Papuan soccer teams in the Indonesian national league. Divisi Mandiri (www.sepak-bola.tv/teams/e_standing.sps), Divisi 1 (http://home.hetnet.nl/~persipura/persipura/pers_div1.htm) and Bola (www.bolanews.com) give information about the game in Indonesia and rankings across the archipelago. More information about the premier local soccer league Persatuan Sepakbola Indonesia Jayapura or Persipura can be found online (www.go.to/persipura). In other sports, Papuans have also achieved remarkable successes, despite often limited training facilities. Representatives from Papua have consistently performed well in competitions of the Southeast Asian regional martial art Pencak Silat (for more information about this sport see http://talio.homestead.com/History.html) and in the 2000 Olympic games Raema Lisa Rumbewas was awarded a silver medal in the 48kg class of women’s weightlifting (check her current ranking according to the "International Weightlifting Database" at www.iat.uni-leipzig.de/scripts/dbweight.exe?site=5&SpID=21000043). Such achievements strengthen local pride and team sports like soccer can provide important activities for Papuan youth groups (such as Yapikbi, or the Foundation for Biak Youth at http://rumsom.tripod.com) and local chapters of pramuka (scouting movement) while helping to bridge ethnic difference in many of Papua's cosmopolitan towns (for example www.wpu-fc.faithweb.com/main.html). Sport also features along with cultural activities in the lives of Papuans living abroad (see Olah Raga Papua (http://httpd.chello.nl/~r.kirihio for news on sport among the Papuan community in Holland).

Contemporary Papuan culture abroad. Papuan culture is also represented overseas through small and dispersed communities in exile in the Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Australia and elsewhere. The Netherlands has the largest Papuan community abroad and some Dutch (for a variety of reasons) maintain relationships or sentimental attachment towards Papua communities and cultures. This is reflected in the range of Papuan cultural groups in Holland as well as the many Dutch civil society groups that support Papuan communities in Papua. Arnold Ap Stichting, or the Arnold Ap Foundation (www.geocities.com/arnoldapfoundation) is an example of a Papuan cultural organisation based in the Netherlands and is hosted on the Sandiki Papuan performing group homepage (www.geocities.com/sandiki_groep). Other Dutch-based Papuan cultural performance groups include Sampari Dansgroep (http://home.planet.nl/~papu/Sampari.htm and http://home.wanadoo.nl/sorong), Korwari Dansgroep (http://home.planet.nl/~papu/Korwari.htm) and the music of singer Edo Kondologit (www.home.zonnet.nl/pauldin/music/edo.htm) who also hosts the Pop Papua homepage for Papuan music (http://home.planet.nl/%7Elokho029/Pop_Papua.htm). More traditional music from Papua, such as "Wor" from Biak Island, has been released on the Smithsonian Institute "folkways" recording label (www.folkways.si.edu/40426.htm).

Contemporary Papuan fusions. Today Papuan cultures are influenced by and influence forms of cultural expression beyond the localised boundaries of Papuan towns and villages, or the activities of Papuans outside Papua. This effect is suggested by the relationship between Papuan culture and global tourism evident in some of the websites listed earlier (in the section on tourism). More conspicuous and deliberate cultural fusions are apparent in the works of various non-Papuan writers, visual artists and musicians. Fons Bloemen (http://home.hccnet.nl/f.bloemen/book/in.htm) has a webpage about "first contact" which features illustrations from the artist's book that incorporate text and images from three centuries of exploration along the SW coast of Papua. Roy Villevoye has been working with some intriguing themes among Papuans from the Asmat region (see www.fassbendergallery.com/pvisions/pvisions98d.html, visit the "art project" at the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde www.rmv.nl or read a summary of some of his work at www.jong-holland.nl/1-2001/summary1-2001.htm). Boris and Conny (www.typ.nl/B&C) is a "lifestyle journal" with poetic and philosophical reflections on Papua and Papuans written by Jan Dietvorst, another Dutch artist/ filmmaker who has spent significant time in the Asmat. Another artwork inspired by Papua and its people is Marjolein Kruijt's painting for a West Papua festival held in the Hague in 1999 (www.geocities.com/Marjolein_Kruijt/wallpaintings_project.htm). Ursula and Gunter Konrad, long-time Asmat Art collectors (see earlier section) are collaborating with German sculptor Vaago Weiland and other artists Christiane Behr, Detlev Ilgner and Ingo Wegerl in a "Trans Art Culture" project (www.asmat-art.com/tcp/austellung-04.htm) which juxtaposes traditional Asmat art and imagery with modern themes and materials. Other direct references to Papuan elements (particularly from Asmat) can be found in the work of Frank Herrmann (www.art.uc.edu/FUZZY/fac_herrmann.html) and Suzanne Tornquist (http://tornquist-art.com see the Indonesia page) and in the works of famous Indonesian artists such as Sunaryo (from the strongly nationalistic DECENTA group of the 1970s) to the mixed media work of younger Indonesian artists like H. Hardi. The power of Papuan artistic traditions is also acknowledged by other artists like Ade Agus Tirtayasa even though this influence is not always apparent in such works (www.palette.co.nz/images/gallery/adea/main.html.

More peripheral examples of cultural fusions with Papua include the "Koteka saxaphone" music of Richard Johnson in THE TANK (gourdophone - 1 - 2 - 3) and in the recent "Make it Now" and "NowNow" performances of experimental and spontaneous music (see www.thenownow.net), the use of Asmat motifs for exported commercial batik (www.bigonbatik.com/plus/housewares/tablecloths/oblong.html), jilbabs (http://adeela.industradegroup.com/jilbab_asmat.htm and the pseudo "primitive" style carvings from Bali that are often exported as authentic carvings from Papua (www.magiscraft.8m.com/prod03.htm. Other examples include the playful cartoon for the Dik Voor Mekaar Show record single (www.dedikvoormekaarshow.nl/pa-papoea.htm - visit here if you want to close your browser!), Toshi Kenzo Maidepa's "Papua Midi files" (simple electronic music at www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/bay/3507), and are suggested (but apparently not realised) in the appropriation of the name Irian Jaya by a couple of musicians based out of Glasgow (http://hspun.com/ij.asp). Clear examples of Papuan cultural influence fused with internet technologies can be found at the Papua Nieuwegein homepage (ID: http://home.planet.nl/~papu) with elaborate webpages that include images, video, and even games like "bunu yamuk" (kill the mosquito).
Recent and forthcoming Papuan cultural events
In February 2003, the "Morning Star Concert" was held in Melbourne. The event was organised by Australian Musician David Bridie and the website hosts photos from the concert. The concert was intended to promote greater awareness among Australians of Papua and Papuans and a number of popular Australian musicians and performers volunteered their time for the event (www.morningstarconcert.com). Linked to this concert was the production of "West Papua: Follow the Morning Star", a CD featuring remixes from old and recent recordings from West Papua, interpreted by a range of prominent Australian musicians (http://mana.iconsult.com.au/index.php/item/department/2/item/17.html. The Morning Star Concert also featured performances by Black Paradise and Pacific Groove (including many former members of the Black Brothers - see earlier section). Several other significant Papua related events have been held in Melbourne in the past few years, including Sanap Waintam 2002 and 2005. Learn more about Sanap Wantaim 2005 (stand up together), "an expose and critique of cultural and political life in West Papua" held in July at St Paul's Anglican Cathedral in Melbourne. Increasingly Papuans are travelling within Indonesia and abroad to promote their culture(s) across the nation and the world. In September 2005, Papuan performance groups Tam Tebu and Opako Kakuru from the Amungme and Kamoro regions will appear as part of the Bellingen Festival (a town in Australia between Sydney and Brisbane - see www.globalcarnival.com/html_2005/performersinfo.htm.)