Konde.co’s special women’s edition this time presents the issues of Papuan women, as well as forests and traditional foods that are threatened with extinction.
Traditional Papuan food was about to disappear due to the abundance of cheap non-local food coming to Papua. Until Ulin opened SundShine Cafe & Library in 2017 in Jayapura, Papua. In the front yard of his house, Ulin then opened this cafe with a menu based on his grandmother’s recipes. One of which is food from sago which is typical of Papua.
In Jayapura for example, people switch to non-local food, because the price is far below the price of local food. For example, nasi lalapan ayam[1] is sold for IDR 25,000 per portion, nasi padang rendang is IDR 35,000. Nasi padang ikan[2] is IDR 20,000, nasi ayam kuning[3] is IDR 10,000. And the price of KFC-style fried chicken is IDR 10,000. This food is very easy to find along the streets throughout the city such as Jayapura. As a result, local food is increasingly distant from indigenous Papuan families. When local food is no longer available on the family’s dinner table, then the longing for local food is also gone.
“Desire or craving or the urge to eat that food arises because that’s what I eat at home. Craving it is inherited from parents. Craving to eating local food becomes ordinary and even disappears when local food is not on the dining table,” said Ulin.
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Since her college days, Ulin or Usilina Epa (38) has dreamed of having a restaurant serving authentic Papuan food. The dream arose from his desire to revive traditional Papuan recipes that are increasingly lost. Along with the scarcity of authentic Papuan food in various stalls to five-star hotel restaurants in the area. Meanwhile, food from various regions of the archipelago and abroad continues to flood the Papuan culinary market.
“The food landscape in Jayapura is dominated by non-Papuan food. So, when people come to Papua, they are confused, is this Papua? Or Sulawesi? Or Java? Yes, because the foods are all grilled fish. And all kinds of things that are not Papuan,” said Usilina when met at Isasai Restaurant and Venue, her restaurant that has been selling authentic Papuan food in Jayapura City since 2022.
In Abepura City, for example along the Abepura to Waena road which is crowded with various restaurants, none of them serve authentic Papuan food. They are only serve fish with Papuan style but not authentic Papuan food.
The situation is also happening in Sentani City. In Sentani Market, Jayapura Regency, in 10 to 15 years ago, we can find wrapped papeda and fish, smoked snakehead fish. But now, we cannot find any. Smoked snakehead fish has disappeared from the market, along with the decreasing population of snakehead fish in Lake Sentani. Replaced by new fish such as tilapia, catfish, nile tilapia and red devil fish.
Nowadays, snakehead fish or Kha ebhe hele in Sentani language, ones of three endemic fish of Lake Sentani, increasingly difficult to find in the market. In fact, this fish is the main ingredient of Sentani tribe’s food recipe, who inhabit Lake Sentani, located from city to Jayapura Regency.
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Authentic Papuan food was lost, until Ulin opened SundShine Cafe & Library in 2017, in the front yard of her house, with a menu based on his grandmother’s recipes.
It was only in 2022 that Isasai Restaurant and Venue was opened on the shores of Lake Sentani. Along the way, Ulin began to learn more about the recipes and others authentic ingredients of Sentani tribes, the tribe she came from.
The traditional or authentic Sentani menu served at Isasai is gabus kuah hitam, smoked snakehead fish with coconut milk. Isasai also sells typical Papuan food such as gabus kuah kuning, sago worm satay, genemo vegetables (melinjo leaves) candles (sugar cane egg vegetables) with coconut milk, boiled bananas, mashed taro, avela (sinole/sago omelet), and various herbal teas native to Papua such as akway ginger tea, bay leaf tea (a typical Papuan greeting), and masohi wood tea or cinnamon Papua.
“As time went by, I discovered that we [the Sentani tribe] have many types of bananas in Sentani, and I have never eaten most of them,” she said.
The 23 types of Sentani’s native banana are no longer in demand and difficult to find in the market, but they still grow well in the gardens of the villagers. It is also happened to Sentani tubers such as yara, syafu or fam.
“So, we can’t serve it directly. I want people to come here to Isasai, not eat one type of banana, but several types.”
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Apart from Sago, bananas and tubers are the staple foods of the Sentani people, as well as Papua. According to her, now the people in Jayapura City and Regency are no longer sovereign over their food. They depend on food from outside. As a result, community gardens are getting smaller, because the indigenous people do not see gardens as the main source of food.
“In addition to land conversion, Papuans no longer see their gardens as their main source of food, no longer depend on their gardens to live. Because they can always buy. They will buy chicken noodles or chicken, ice and all sorts,” she said.
Unfortunately, the issue of food sovereignty in Papua has not become an important topic of discussion among officials, or candidates for regent, mayor and governor in Papua.
“Well, that’s why the government doesn’t encourage these seeds to be cultivated and sell it to markets. So, this is one of the problems,” she said.
The unavailability of native Papuan food ingredients in the market, such as fish, sources of carbohydrates such as bananas and syafu, has resulted in food prices Isasai became more expensive compared to other restaurants. Isasai sold a package for 4 people for Rp450,000. That made Ulin quite sad.
“In other places, people eat local food for Rp10,000-Rp20,000. So if we have to sell local food at a high price, it’s sad,” he said.
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Lecturer of Gender Studies at the University of Indonesia, Hariati Sinaga stated that the price of culinary from outside Papua which is relatively cheaper than typical Papuan culinary is inseparable from structural issues. The presence of non-native Papuan causes the demand for culinary from outside Papua to increase. The situation makes the demand of non-Papuan food is increasing.
This supply can also come from large agricultural products, such as rice or be produced from massive projects involving monoculture plantations such as oil palm. Large-scale food industries have different way of management and social relations of Papuans in processing food.
Papuans mostly still use traditional methods or rely on their closeness to nature in processing food which is an inseparable part of the daily process. Meanwhile, industrial food is produced by other people and in large quantities.
“When we talk about food, there is a social relationship. For example, culinary is sold, which means we are no longer the ones cooking. While most Papuans, they will process their food from they own farm for their own needs,” Hariati told Konde.co, Tuesday (10/22/24).
“Well, that’s what causes a disconnection between Papuans and their own culinary or food. So, when it is sold, it becomes more expensive than non-native Papuan food,” she explained.
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On the other hand, large-scale projects run by the government in Papua have damaged forests, so that Papuans’ food sources have disappeared. Deforestation has damaged Papuans’ food sources. This situation has uprooted Papuans from their own landscape. In addition, it caused by the transmigration program.
Hariati sees the situation in Papua similar with others industrial areas, such as Morowali. It has two coins effect; one is many workers from outside Morowali come and live in the area and the other side is the Morowali landscape has been affected by nickel corporations that mine there.
With the polluted environment, it is impossible to fulfill food demand all people who comes to Morowali. As a result, food must be imported from outside and it relies on large-scale social relations. Such as large-scale chicken farms because chickens are probably consumed more than other types of food.
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Mothers in Papua who usually get food from the forest, nowadays face the challenge because the forest has been changed. Research conducted by Rasella Malinda with the Pusaka Bentala Rakyat Foundation in 2020 revealed that the forests in Papua was no longer provide food for mothers and women. Even, the research revealed that the industrialization made mothers and women stay away from the forests.
The company who brought government permits confiscated the forest from Papuan mothers and women who protect it for decades. They said they only “borrowed” for a while, but the land was never returned. This excerpt from the statement is part of the launch of the research results “Mama to the Forest: Papuan Women in the Clash of Natural Resources” which was held People’s Heritage Foundation on April 12, 2021
Papuan women stated, “In fact, forests should not be cut down, forests should not be used up, then we won’t be able to eat sago.”
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The forests in Papua have changed rights of ownerships and function, Tigor Hutapea, one of the researchers said, there is a lot of logging going on there, not even an inch of Papuan land is empty, the government has issued policies and permits for corporations and it is feared that there will be a disaster when there are no natural resources in Papua. In fact, corporations and the state made women scarifying.
“In fact, all this time, women have lived by these natural resources to get their daily food and medicine,” said Tigor Hutapea.
This research is a process of empirical reporting of Papuan women conducted by Rasella Malinda with a research team from the Pusaka Bentala Rakyat Foundation. So far, there have been 1.5 million hectares of land in 20 years that have changed management, one of it is massive palm oil. Another problem is the omnibus law for the acceleration of industry, renewable energy and special autonomy of Papua which also threatens women. The recognition for indigenous peoples exists, but half-heartedly.
“There are indigenous women who do not get recognition for their land rights, because the land is believed to belong to men. Women are not involved in decisions on forest agreements because they only have management rights, but not ownership rights,” said Rasella Malinda
Research conducted in 2020 also revealed the undemocratic nature of land acquisition, threats and violence against women and human rights defenders.
“They said, we borrowed this land for 30 years, even though if there was a Right to Cultivate or HGU from the state, it would be returned, but in fact it was not.”
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Maintaining land is certainly not an easy matter in Papua. Women human rights defenders experience death threats, verbal and physical threats, unfair mechanisms and discriminatory treatment against women.
In fact, for women, the forest is a living space for women because they can get medicines and plants to eat. At the same time, forest is also gives them a productive and reproductive work sites. The forest is also a place healing best for women
The history of forests and women has changed when women can no longer manage the forest. The situation leads women to shift their work from gatherers to wage laborers. The changed automatically pushes women aside. They are thrown out as wage laborers, vulnerable to the threat of sexual violence.
Tieneke Rieke Atmo, a Papuan academic stated that recognition should be given to women, as indigenous feminist, who have had the wisdom and knowledge to maintain forests as part of their struggle, namely maintaining and then utilizing it.
“Historically, in society, women were positioned as experts and produced knowledge in the forest because they were considered the ones who knew best, if converted, how hard women had worked all this time.”
Eroded by Policy
Cultural award recipient Chef Charles Toto said the disappearance of local food in Papua has been going on for quite some time. It’s started from the dining tables of indigenous Papuan families to restaurants.
“Almost all local foods have been eroded by the self-sufficiency program. rice comes from the government. The program has been going on for quite a long time and it has been very massive because it has been going on for more than 20 years, so it has influenced local wisdom throughout Indonesia, including Papua,” he said.
Starting from the rice ration for State Civil Apparatus/ASN employees which replaces the staple food of all ASN in Papua, rice aids for the poor in villages, to various rice programs during the era of President Jokowi’s administration.
As local people’s food sovereignty continues to decline, the government is increasingly aggressive in making Papua a place for product development for national food security, which will continue during President Prabowo’s administration.
Local food is displaced by the development of new agricultural models, which include new food products from outside Papua. This condition then changes the mindset of Papuans towards local food which also accelerates the processes of changing family eating patterns.
“Ultimately, this distrust has had an impact on authentic Papuan recipes, and has had an impact on family eating patterns, and now the shift has been very far,” he said.
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A similar opinion was expressed by Hariati Sinaga, a Lecturer in Gender Studies at the University of Indonesia. According to her, the rise of culinary from outside Papua is influenced by at least two things. First, the history of transmigration in Papua and second, racism.
The influx of people from outside Papua has been going on since the 1970s through the transmigration program that took place during the New Order era. However, according to Hariati, the program was a replica program from the Dutch colonial government. The program entered people from outside Papua to Papua. At the same time, they brought their culture including culinary.
Hariati said the program created based on presumption that Papua was an empty land. Papuans were considered sub-human, meaning they were different from transmigrant who more modern. The images of Papuans as inferior is also make people considered Papuan cuisine as second place or only belongs to Papuans.
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“(There is an assumption) that better cuisine is cuisine brought by people who come from outside Papua. Meanwhile, Papuan cuisine is seen as only for Papuans, not for other people. There is also a kind of racism that influences that,” Hariati explained to Konde.co, on Tuesday (22/10/24).
From his experience in the world of traditional Papuan culinary since 1998, Chef Chato, Charles Toto’s nickname, Papua is very rich in recipes and spices produced by the forest.
However, the recipe does not appear as a featured dish in restaurants and eateries due to the lack of confidence of Papuans. For example, the original food of Tobati Village, Jayapura City, namely Noor Hsoori and black soup snakehead fish from Sentani, Jayapura Regency.
Noor Hsoori is a food made from kepah shellfish. Tobati Village women usually separate the shellfish meat, then mix it with sago, coconut. Then dip it in salt water then wrap it back in the shell, and put it in bamboo, grill it.
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The other menu is black soup snakehead fish or Kha ebhe hele, is cooked using the traditional pressure cooker method with salt seasoning. This food is usually served by Sentani Women at traditional ceremonies. Such as the inauguration of hose, ondofolo and religious celebrations.
“Papua is not like other Indonesia. Papua does not have multi-spices like others part of Indonesia,” said Chato, Charles Toto’s nickname.
Another problem arises when the taste of Papuan cuisine can be said to be delicious when it is comes from outside Papua.
“They force their taste on us. They combine it with several spices from outside and introduce it to Papuans. Yet, it made Papuan who usually accustomed to natural ingredients started to change to new practices” said Chato
Papuans then become accustomed to and forget the original tastes of Papuan food, as well as original recipes. For example, instant noodle products that are easy to cook and get.
Serving authentic Papuan cuisine with simple flavors become a challenge to Isasai.
“To buyers, I always explain that typical Papuan food generally tastes very simple, not too sharp, not too spicy. The taste is simple, digested by the body simply, healthier,” said Ulin.
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When serving, she invites consumers to add salt or chili if they want a sharper taste. However, Ulin does not change the original recipe.
“That’s part of our education to customers too. For example, just last week, someone came from Surabaya who wanted to try Sentani black fish soup. There are only two spices, taro leaves with salt. So, when I gave them a taste, it tasted like this. They enjoyed the experience because they don’t have same experience in their place,” she explained.
For Ulin, Isasai Restaurant and Venue has an important mission for the sustainability of local Papuan food.
“The first we want to reintroduce our food. It is not only the introduction but also, we want people to be proud of what they have. So, they will start planting, managing, and serving these foods in their families,” he said.
Ulin also dreams of many eating places like Isasai developing in Jayapura City and other cities throughout Papua by recruiting Papuan children from various traditional areas in Papua.
“Because Isasai’s dream is theirs. If these children leave [Isasai] they will be willing to share Isasai’s vision and mission. They can start their own version of Isasai from their respective regions,”
The hope is that when people go to Wamena or Biak or Dogiyai, they will not find food stalls that sell food made from chicken or ice which has death age longer than their lifespan.
“I went all the way to Mamberamo and got there to eat meatballs and chicken salad. Wow, I’m so disappointed!” she said.
Food Colonization
Over the past decade, large-scale food projects from government run in Papua. These massive projects involve monoculture farming, plantations and livestock farming.
Greenpeace Indonesia Forest Campaigner, Rusmadya Maharuddin in a podcast titled “Papua Forest, the Last Fortress of the Indonesian Nation Becomes the New Target of the Oligarchy” said that in the last two decades, Papua’s forests have experienced deforestation of around 666 thousand hectares. In 2001 to 2010, deforestation occurred around 29 percent and it was increasing to 71% in 2011 to 2019.
“This means that if we look at the deforestation that occurs in Papua, the average is around 34 thousand hectares every year. Well, the peak of deforestation occurred in 2015, it was around 89 thousand hectares,” said Rusmadya.
Several studies have shown that these projects have failed and have had negative impacts on Papuans. Walhi’s Position Paper entitled “Food Estate in Papua: Space Grabbing Under the Guise of Food Security?” (2021) states that the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE) project initiated by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and continued by President Jokowi has failed.
Indigenous Papuans actually have difficulty meeting their food needs. Such as sago and deer meat after their forests were converted to build MIFEE. One of the communities affected by this program is the Malind indigenous community. They are customary rights owners whose land was converted into MIFEE land.
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The food and energy security projects actually erode local food. Hariati explained that this happened because the projects did not start from the perspective or way of thinking of Papuans in managing their land and food.
“The way Papuans manage food is on a smaller scale and primarily to meet their own needs. If there is any leftover, then it can be sold,” said Hariati.
Meanwhile, the food estate project is being run on a large scale with foreign commodities that are not known to Papuans. According to Hariati, palm oil is one of them. It can be said that even though it is not a food estate, palm oil is a raw material for cooking oil production to meet national needs.
Palm oil itself is a commodity that is ecologically foreign to Papuans. In addition, in its socio-ecological relations, it also does not have a positive effect on the food needs of Papuans. Palm oil industry makes Papuan’s culture is uprooted and their living space is taken away.
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“It will not be surprising if in 10 or 20 years there will be fewer and fewer native Papuan food commodities. Sago will eventually become even less. Because all the land is used to cultivate food commodities that are foreign to them. So, the perspective is not a Papuan perspective,” Hariati explained.
The existence of these large-scale food projects then changed the production and consumption patterns of the Papuan people. They cannot longer rely on the forest to grow commodities as part of their culture. In addition, their living space is getting narrower. It makes they need to rely on other ways to survive.
“Most of them end up having their land seized or forced to join workforce. In the past, they could eat from what they grew but now they need to earn money and buy,” Hariati explained.
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Meanwhile, in market, they only can get cosmopolitan food, such as instant noodle that’s is simple to cook. This is different from sago, for example, which must be processed first before it can be consumed. So, sago is more time consuming than noodle.
“When they work on the plantation or others to get a salary, they don’t have much time to cooked. In the end, they rely on fast foods and instant foods,” she explained.
When food practices changes, which they are no longer produce their own food, automatically their consumption patterns will change.
“Don’t be surprised if they prefer to get Indomie -instant noodle- rather than bananas. Because bananas may no longer be enough to fulfill their diet,” he said.
Previously, people who working on their own land would have enough food and enough to meet their daily needs. Yet, nowadays, eating bananas or sago is not enough to fulfill their necessity while they are working on plantations or industries with certain working hours.
“So, the food practice affects their diet and consumption. Nowadays they started to know instant noodles, sugar, and sweet drinks. Those becomes their main consumption to stay strong all day long. Eventually, their own culture or cuisine is left behind,” Hariati explained.
Changing living spaces shift their jobs and diets. In addition, their tastes also change. Consuming sugar or instant noodles that contain quite high sodium can cause addiction. Also making people want to consume them continuously.
Hariati emphasized that discussions on food should not only focus on commodities. For example rice, instant noodles, sago, sugar cane, palm oil, etc. It is also important to understand the social relations, both in the context of production and consumption.
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“There is movement in anti-palm oil, anti-instant noodles or anti-rice but the problem is not the commodity. The problem is social connection within the commodity. Is it bringing justice? is it produced for the benefit of society or certain elite community or class?” Hariati explained.
It’s also similar with consumption. If all people consume same commodity, such as rice, its means local food considered as secondary.
The case of instant noodle provides the reality. The problem is not the noodles but how this specific noodle needs to produce in mass and fast process. The workforce where they need to spend long working hours make, they don’t have time to cook for themselves or process their own food. In the end, they tend to rely more on everything that is instant, including instant noodles.
Promoting Food Sovereignty
There are needs of shifting paradigm in food management to respond the large-scale food projects run by the government which actually harm the Papuan people and erode their local food.
According to Hariati, the government needs to shift their paradigm to food sovereignty than the discourse of food security. The food security program carried out by the government usually ignore the food and cultural needs of each community.
“Food security is often used by the state to legitimize state projects that actually damage local cuisine. This situation occurs because there are elite interests in the project,” Hariati explained.
So, food security must be changed to food sovereignty. This shifting of point of view will affect the agricultural process. The using of food sovereignty approach means the local communities will capable to control their food commodities and management. In other words, there will be minimum control from the state.
In addition, it is important to eliminate racism against Papuans. The discriminatory way of thinking is the view of Papuan cuisine as second place than non-Papuan food and the presumption of indigenous Papuans are second class than immigrants.
“So, racism is the first thing that must be overcome. Our way of thinking should not belittle our fellow Papuans. How they manage their land should be on the same level as us,” she said.
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This racism issue is also intertwined with large-scale projects. We should respect the land of Papua where people live with their social ecological relation and different ways to respect the connections.
Every coming project needs to ask permission and approval from Papuans before they start the project. If they do not allow it, the project cannot proceed.
“The project repeatedly come straight to start the project because their presumption that Papua is empty land. They suddenly creating a food project that has nothing to do with local food,” she said.
It can be said that such actions are based on the view that Papuans are not important. It is even considered that Papuans do not exist and that the land of Papua is all empty land. This racism also causes food colonization or gastro colonialism.
“Food colonization also emerged because of racism. When one land considered worthy of being colonized, it means there is a racist perspective on it,”she concluded.
Editor: Luviana Ariyanti
[1] Chicken rice with sambal and raw vegetables
[2] Mixed rice with padang style and fish
[3] Rice with chicken with turmeric seasoning
