General Number Language Historiy/Relationships Housing Village Formation
The term Korowai (after the Indonesian pronunciation of the word Kolufo) refers to a commonness in language, rather than to a tribal unit, with the patriclan being the relevant unit for self-identification. These Papuan people of the subdistrict Kouh in het southern Merauke district of the Indonesian province Papua (formerly Irian Jaya) live between the Eilanden and Upper Becking rivers, east of the Becking headwaters.
Their living world consists for a major part of swampy mixed rain forests that contain transitional hill ranges tot the central New Guinea mountains. The mountains are visible from the higher spots (fium) and from the Eilanden banks. The Korowai world does not feature wide water surfaces.
The climate shows a transition between that of the southern coast and that of the Trans-Eilanden area without including a clear monsoon shift.
Based on helicopter surveys from 1986 through 1990, one can tentatively estimate the number of native Korowai speakers at an approximately four thousand people.
Over 70 percent of the population still live on their original ancestral territorities, with less than 30 percent having moved to a more or less regular village life in eight settlements. About fifty clan territories are listed by name, and another fifty are thought to exist in thusfar untouched areas.
The language of the Korowai (Kolufo-mahüon/Koluf-aup) belongs to the Awyu(-Ndumut) family of southeastern Papua, part of the Trans-New Guinea phylum.
The Korowai themselves distinguish the dialect of the Lower Becking and Eilanden Banks from the Ilol-kolufo-aup ('Stone-Korowai'), spoken in the upstream regions.
There is no significant linguistic relationship with the neighboring Kombai and Citak languages.
HISTORY AND CULTURAL RELATIONSHIPS
Few is known about Korowai history before 1978. According to neighboring CItak witnesses, the Korowai experienced headhunting raids by the CItak until the 1960s.
A missionary in the Upper Digul reported incidental contacts with Korowai clans near Waliburu and Firiwagé in the period 1959-1973.
The first regular contacts with Korowai clans began in 1978. After several helicopter surveys, Dutch Reformed missionaries entered Korowai territories by river from the Citak area, i.e. along the Becking rivier (Nailop = Ndeiram Kabur).
The first real encounter between Korowai people and the missionary Johannes Veldhuizen took place on October 4, 1978, through the mediation of a Citak-Kombai man who had an avuncular relationship with Lower Becking Korowai groups.
Between 1978 and 1990 the majority of downriver Korowai clans encountered the outside world when several expeditions were made by missionaries of the ZGK (= Zending Gereformeerde Kerken: Mission of the Reformed Churches) to their territories.
After that time dozens of younger people moved into Yaniruma village and, after 1987, into the villages of Manggél, Yafufla en Mabül. Influenced by their kin who remain in the forests, they stayed in the village only temporarily. Mainly because of the relatively long distance between the village and the Sago Gardens, the absentee rate is often more than 90 percent.
Despite community development programs by the Indonesian government since 1985, the development of regular Korowai village life has not been very successful. In 1992 Yaniruma and Manggél received the status of desa, an administrative unit below the subdistrict level.
Tourist groups, several film crews and documentary writers have visited the Korowai territories near the villages since the early 1990s.
Originally, Korowai clans (yano-gun) lived quite isolated in their own territory (bolüp), sometimes with friendly relations with their neighbours. Clan territories include one to five clustered tree houses (khaim) with, having an average heighth of 26 to 39 feet (8 to 12 meteres). Exceptionally tall (as high as 148 feet [45 metres] are some houses in upriver territories.
To build a tree house, first a solid tree is selected as central pole. Operating from scaffolds, the builder removes the top of the tree and constructs the floor, which is supported by four to ten poles (fénop). The floor (bülan) is constructed of spars and covered with bark from the Oncosperma filamentosum tree. The walls (damon) are made of the wooden shafts of sago leaves. The roof (lél-baul) is covered with sago leaves.
As is said before to the Korowai living in villages or settlements is relatively new. Village houses known as khaü ('bivouac') are built by following the customary construction pattern in New Guinea's southern coast. As in the tree houses, their rectangular interiors are divided in two or three rooms, at least one for males, and one for females, with every room having a fire place (meli-bol).
Yaniruma, the first settlement near the Korowai, was established in March 1979 at a spot near the Sokom (Lalop) mouth, in the downriver Becking (Nailop) region. An elementary school and a clinic were opened in the early 1980's as a result of an NGO development project, set up by DVN (De Verre Naasten). During the first years of the mission station at Yaniruma, various contacts were initiated by Johannes Veldhuizen and Henk Venema with Korowai from the Lower Becking River banks. In the late 1980s Kombai-Korowai villages were opened 5 and 8 miles (8 and 13 kilometers) upriver from Yaniruma, respectively, at Manggél and Yafufla.
In 1990 the village Mabül was opened at the Eilanden banks. At that time some small, more inland settlements were formed, such as Fumbaum-Nakhilop and Férman. However, those settlements soon were abandoned, primarily because of witchcraft and sorcery related conflicts. More viable were the villages with a mixed Citak-Korowai population in Mu, Jaim, and Mbasman, and the Kombai-Korowai settlement of Khaiflambolüp.
