In the circle of faces
First contact with a ritually cannibalistic Yali tribe in western New Guinea
“For weeks we have been marching through the central highlands of Irian Jaya in search of first contact with the Yalis, a tribe considered cannibalistic. We struggle 500 km through the rainy jungle and suddenly our dream comes true. We watch nervously as two young warriors armed with axes, beautifully painted and adorned with white feathers, break away from the group and run straight down the hill towards us. We too are now walking towards the whale inhabitants, with a queasy feeling in our stomachs. The fierce-looking warriors are smeared with pig fat and earth colors, large boar’s teeth sticking out of the sides of their noses. There are decorated bamboo tubes in the ears. Almost every one of the figures is adorned with beautiful feathers shimmering in all colors.
In the meantime, the men have gathered on the village square, along with the boys, who may be 10 to 12 years old. Dancing, wildly singing and screaming, they run in circles. Many warriors are armed with axes, bows and arrows, some with dangerous-looking spears. You seem to be in ecstasy…
Experience pure adventure right up to the last second. Let yourself be whisked away into a world that is completely foreign to us by the moving stories. A world that also speaks of how the living space of the indigenous peoples of our earth, the roots of humanity, is being increasingly restricted and their cultural imprinting and extinction is continuing. The fate of the last indigenous peoples is symbolic of the destruction of the tropical rainforest. “If the people die, the rainforest dies too. There are no ecological limits” is one of Tanja & Denis Katzer’s guiding principles.
