Ok-Bon Valley, Nimdol / Pepera; 10 July 1987: HERE I WANT TO LAY OUT THE AIRSTRIP (Kaiang Tapior) — Oksibil, 1958: OVER AN AREA OF 60 BY 30 YARDS OF THE SURFACE LAYER OF PEAT WAS DUG OUT (Brongersma & Venema; layout of the expedition airstrip) (919 / 53) — Miyanmin area, 1965: AMUSEP BEGAN HACKING DOWN HUNDREDS OF BIG JUNGLE TREES TO BUILD AN AIRSTRIP. THE RUNWAY WAS DISCOVERED BY ACCIDENT (Morren)

THE HARD ROAR […] FILLED THE SKY WITH A STRANGE NEW SOUND (McCarthy) — […] CROWDS OF PEOPLE GATHERED […] PEOPLE FROM ALL OVER THE PLACE. AND THERE IT WAS, WAITING FOR EVERYONE TO HAVE A LOOK […] IT WAS A PRETTY THING AND SHINING (N dika Rumint in Connolly & Anderson) — THEY ALL LOOKED AT IT. THEY HAD SEEN NOTHING LIKE IT BEFORE (Blackburn)

Village of Kandanganan: THE ELDERS ASKED THAT THE FILM BE BROUGHT BACK & PROJECTED, PROMISING TO ERECT ANOTHER SACRED ENCLOSURE FOR THE SCREENING — THERE WAS ABSOLUTE SILENCE AS THEY WATCHED THEMSELVES (Carpenter) — Tabubil 1979: EVERYBODY SCRAMBLED FOR A NIGHT’S VIEWING OF JULIE ANDREWS STARRING IN THE SOUND OF MUSIC (Jackson)

Goodenough Island, prior to World War II: AN OLD MAN [KUYAUNA] IS SAID TO HAVE SUMMONED ALL KWAIAUDILI PEOPLE TO GALUWATA. HE PROPHESIED THE COMING OF […] AIRPLANES AND GUNS (Young) — Yabob village, Madang 1942: SO VERY SOON, TAGARAB TAUGHT, KILILOB WAS RETURNING TO DRIVE OUT THE WHITES (Trompf / Lawrence) — WE ARE VERY NEAR. WE MAY COME TOMORROW. WE ARE COMING WITH TRUCKS & SHOTGUNS & BOMBS (Kulua’ibu in Stow) — Biak 1938–1943: JAN RONSUMBRE BUILT […] AN ENORMOUS LARGE HOUSE IN THE SHAPE OF AN AIRPLANE (Kamma) — Tanna: [NELOIAG] PLANNED THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN AERODROME (Steinbauer) — Madang district: DATES WERE ANNOUNCED, AIRSTRIPS WERE LAID OUT (Lawrence) — PEOPLE LIVED IN DAILY ANTICIPATION OF THE ARRIVAL OF THE CARGO (Worsley) — HE MISTOOK THE GROUNDLIGHTS FOR STARS AND ASKED WHY THE AIRPLANE WAS FLYING UPSIDE DOWN (Chatwin)

Sambia-Valley, 1979: WHERE HAVE YOU COME FROM? WHERE HAVE YOU COME FROM? HOW HAS HE COME HERE? … I SAW THE HELICOPTER FROM DOWN THERE (Sakulambei in Herdt & Stoller) — THE ANCESTORS FLED (Yamsep Filim; Ok Tedi, June 1985)

Hollandia; Pacific War, August 1944: BULLDOZERS, REFRIGERA- TORS, 400,000 TROOPS, MILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF CARGO & 200 OPEN AIR CINEMAS DESCENDED FROM THE SKY (Wors- ley) — Biak: WHEN THE [...] AIRPLANES CAME GLIDING ALONG LIKE BLACK CLOUDS, NO ONE COULD TAKE IT IN [...] IT BEGAN AT NIGHT, WHEN THE AIRPLANES DROPPED FLARES. THE BRIGHT COLOURS FOLLOWED BY HEAVY EXPLOSIONS [...] THE WHOLE ISLAND BECAME ONE BIG WAREHOUSE AND THE BIAK PEOPLE IN THEIR FIRST AS- TONISHMENT, SHOUTED THEMSELVES HOARSE (Kamma) [...] IT IS OUR ANCESTORS, IT IS CARGO; THEN THEIR CARGO WENT BANG INTO THEIR FACES (OSANA IN STOW).

MY HOUSE IS ECHOING WITH THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE VISITOR (Osana in Stow).

Shortly after the Dutch expedition left, the Indonesian Army an- nexed the area (1962–65). The village of Nimdol was renamed Pepera, ironically the acronym for “the Determination of the People’s Opinion”. President Kennedy feared the communist leanings of Sukarno, Indonesia’s President. Preventing this, he convinced the UN to consign the territory of Western New Guinea under protection of Indonesia. West-Papua was never consulted and represented in the UN. A secessionist guerrilla war has been going on, hidden away from the outside world.

Based on research in the village of Pepera, Irian Jaya, Indonesia 1986–87. Certain names of the persons and places have been changed to protect the privacy of those concerned.