West New Guinea / Irian Jaya 1989
In the circle of faces
(First contact with a ritually cannibalistic tribe of Yalis)
After the last bend finally opens up the view of the village again, we remain transfixed. Around 70 men from the mountain settlement have gathered and are looking down on us from the hill.
For weeks we have been marching through the central highlands of Irian Jaya in search of first contact with the Yalis, a tribe considered to be 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. The women and children shyly follow us on the way to the village square. All the women and girls are dressed only in raffia skirts. Each wears a broad band around the head that covers the forehead and a wide-meshed, knotless net that hangs down over the back. They transport everything imaginable in these nets: Children, sometimes sleeping, sometimes screaming at the top of their voices, young piglets, bananas and sweet potatoes, and everything edible that can be found along the way.
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…
Depending on how much time I have, I will publish the book I wrote in 1989 under the heading “Diaries of West New Guinea Yali”. It will be an opportunity to accompany me on my early expeditions and learn first-hand about a people who are now threatened with extinction.
West New Guinea 1989
Expedition to the central highlands of Irian Jaya to the Yali tribe.
In search of the ritually cannibalistic Yali tribe, Denis Katzer made his way 500 kilometers on foot through the mountain jungle of western New Guinea. After many weeks, he reached a village that no white man had ever entered before.
