The island of New Guinea, in northern Australia, is the second largest island in the world. Spread between Indonesia the western side called Irian Jaya and Papua New Guinea the eastern side, an independent state since 1975.
I travel to Wamena, the capital of the Baliem Valley where the Dani live, the ethnic group with whom I wanted to live. Once there you are faced with an extraordinary mix of culture and customs. Wamena’s main attraction is its market where I meet the first clash of cultures: the Dani, with the Indonesians. The former, naked, walk miles to come to the market daily where they display their scarce merchandise in an orderly fashion: 10 bananas, 4 oranges, 8 potatoes, 6 carrots; and the latter, dressed, have small shops around the market.
Market of Wamena
Apart from subsistence products, food is expensive as it must be flown in from Jayapura, the capital.
START TREKKING
After a “casting” I got caught by two locals: a guide, Elmus, and a porter / cook, Monky, who will guide me through these paths of the Baliem River Valley.
We took a public transport called bemo to the last town where the road ends and from there the 9-day walk through these remote villages and roads began.
The first stop was Bulakme where the market was. The first sensation was a bit of anguish and fear, first because I was the only Westerner running through the Valley and second, because of the strange way they looked at me, I wanted to take photos but their fixed stares scared me.
I bought many packets of cigarettes as they are heavy smokers starting with the guide. I also took them for the people I was meeting on the trail.
The Dani live in traditional villages called kampung within an enclosed area made up of several tents, one for cooking, one for livestock, mainly pigs, one for men and one for women. Each enclosure can accommodate four families.
Tagime village
DRESS
The Danis, most of them, are friendly in appearance. When the men greet you, they say: Nayak and they give you long handshakes so that you have time to feel their contact. The only clothing that men wear is on their penis: it is a gourd sheath of various shapes, attached to their waist by thick threads. The name given by the locals is horim, but for the Indonesians koteka. Many wear a crown of bird of paradise feathers on their heads, bracelets or necklaces made of bark fiber or cowrie shells, and on their noses, bones or pig teeth.
Dani
Danis, Yokosimo
On the other hand, women pass by you discreetly, lowering their eyes, always carrying a bag hanging from their head where they carry pigs, vegetables or their own children. They wear two types of skirts: if they are married, they hang from below the abdomen always covering the buttocks and are made of fiber rolls and, if they are single, a herb skirt. This is all. Both men and women have feet as strong as oak as they always go barefoot.
Most of them cross their arms in front of their chests to protect themselves from the cold and many put pork fat in their hair and on their bodies to protect themselves from illness.
DEATH
We will go deeper into a thick tropical forest, until we reach Nunkalme where a member of a family had been burned and I find myself in the pathetic moment that the children of the deceased were crying in front of the ashes. When a person dies, they are burned or sometimes mummified and kept. This occurs in towns like Jiwika where you can see a mummified ancestor and today it is a tourist attraction. Women too, for every family member who dies a finger is amputated, so it is easy to see older women with few fingers. The Dani’s average lifespan is 60 years.
Dani Family
WORKS OF THE DANI
The Dani are farmers, very good at working the land and digging irrigation canals. The men’s job is to clear and cultivate the land for the first harvest and the women’s job to plant and collect the seed. They have a subsistence agriculture consisting of sweet potatoes, legumes and bananas.
The Danis smoking
The sweet potato or erom is the main food. The Danis identify 70 different ones. Some varieties can only be eaten by pregnant women and old men; On the other hand, the spirits of the ancestors are the ones that eat the first potatoes of each harvest.
TRADITIONS
Men are polygamous and if they want to marry they must give 4 to 5 pigs to the bride’s family. Their social stratus is given by the number of women. And their heritage is valued by the number of pigs they have.
The men sleep in one cabin and the women and children in another. After birth, sex is taboo for the mother between the ages of 2 and 5 and thus the child has exclusive milk. This taboo contributes to many divorces and favors polygamy.
MY DAY TO DAY
My life with them was very simple. I walked an average of 5 hours a day. I arrived in a village where I spent the rest of the day. And at night they delighted me with songs. But food was quite scarce. And I had such a need to communicate that in the end I ended up speaking Catalan to them.
Waving to a dani on the way
Sharing their life was a tough experience. Although they gave me bread, I had to ask them for more food, because their rations of rice and vegetables were insufficient to support the four or five hour walks we did every day. Meat and fish, we didn’t even taste them.
And one day I found myself with the surprise that my guide, Elmus said that he didn’t want to continue with me. The reason? He had used up the money I had given him for the hiking days which he had spent on cigarettes. By refusing to give him more, he left me in the middle of the road and I had to continue alone to the next town. Luckily, a few hours later a Swedish traveler appeared with his guide and offered me to accompany them.
The idea of going to a country of virgin forests where I could find the man son of Nature still uncontaminated, the wild man in his primitive state, was one of those dreams fixed in my mind that excited my fantasy. And in this great dream, the land of virgin forests always appeared, of the bird of paradise, the land of the Dani of Irian Jaya.