Gulik, Ladislaw, & Jindrich Martis. 1999. Mysterious Mamberamo. Partizánske: DRAP, Ltd. (Publisher’s website: http://www.ikarcom.sk/drap) Reviewed by S. Eben Kirksey, University of Oxford

This text is remarkable in that it is the first book to be published in English that is dedicated to the exploration of the Mamberamo, which is the largest river system in West Papua (a.k.a. Irian Jaya) and is virtually unknown to anthropologists.  In academic environments where the cutting-edge ethnographic frontiers are in investigating distinctively modern phenomena such as corporations, tourists, and globalization Mysterious Mamberamo seems a throwback to a primitivist mentality.  Nonetheless, the book remains a treasure-trove of information about a poorly documented region of the world.

Mysterious Mamberamo features over 300 glossy color photographs and illustrations of indigenous people, animals, and landscapes in West Papua.  Despite the title of the book, which implies that it is exclusively concerned with the Mamberamo region, readers familiar with the regional material cultures of West Papua will quickly recognize images of cultural groups such as the Nlani, Yali, Asmat, and Korowai who live outside of the Mamberamo region.  A section of the book titled The Tree People” is particularly misleading.  Here pictures of the Korowai people from the southern interior lowlands of West Papua frame a section of the narrative that briefly mentions the sighting of a “treehouse” along the banks of the Mamberamo River.

The most interesting feature of the book for ethnographers of traditional cultures in eastern Indonesia is a series of photographs which are the first published record of the material culture of the Sikaritai people.  The Sikaritai, who number about 800, live along the banks of the Mamberamo River and in the van Rees mountains (See:  Silzer, Peter J., and Helj” Heikkinen Clouse:  Index of Irian Jaya Languages, 2^nd ed.; Jayapura: Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1991).  Like all but one of the approximately 35 cultural groups in the Mamberamo region, they have never been intensively studied by a professional anthropologist.

The photographs in Mysterious Mamberamo have been carefully selected to portray traditional Papuan material culture (i.e. people in t-shirts and shorts have largely been left out).  In contrast, the accompanying narrative provides an interesting window into the logistical and political problems encountered during an expedition in contemporary West Papua.  For example, the difficulties faced by Gulik and Martis in traveling to the Mamberamo speak to the draconian restrictions placed by the Indonesian police on all foreigners in West Papua.  The POLDA (Regional Police) in West Papua’s capital of Jayapura prohibit all foreigners from entering the Mamberamo except for those to whom they issue a special surat jalan (traveling permit).  Gulik and Martis initially attempted to travel by motorboat up the mouth of the Mamberamo carrying a surat jalan from the lower ranking POLRES (District Police) in Biak, which authorized them to travel to a village on the banks of the Mamberamo River that is near the coast.  But at the first village with a police station that they came to along the Mamberamo they were ordered to turn back.  Not giving up easily, Gulik and Martis flew to the highland town of Wamena with the idea of trekking for several weeks through the rainforest down to the Mamberamo.  At the Wamena POLRES they managed to obtain hand-written approval on the back of their original Surat Jalan to travel to the original coastal village from which they were initially turned away. 

A $10 billion hydroelectric dam, which would potentially submerge many of the areas visited by Gulik and Martis, is being planned on the Mamberamo.  In addition to containing material of interest to anthropologists, Mysterious Mamberamo should serve as a useful tool for anyone who is interested in promoting conservation in the Mamberamo watershed.