A world before now

Korowai, West-Papua, Indonesia

After thousands of years living in isolation, the Korowai’s first contact with the outside world occurred in the 1970s when a group of Dutch missionaries came upon a Korowai settlement along the banks of the Pulau River in the South Papua province of Indonesia. Until then, the entire tribe was unaware of the existence of an outside world. But after living in harmony with nature for thousands of years, only a few decades of imperialism and human greed were enough to destroy their homes forever.

Today, both legal and illegal logging threatens their existence, as well as habitat loss due to the mining of gold. For decades Christian missionaries have been determined to destroy their culture, and the Indonesian government feels their primitive nature doesn’t belong to the country’s modern-day agenda. As a result, their indigenous rights are being heavily vIolated in every possible way and their future looks very bleak.

This is tribute to them, the Korowai. A tribute to a world before now.