Honai
Honai are very important to us,
the people of Wamena, especially in the Wamena valley.
Because whenever we want to talk about anything, according to the
culture of Wamena, it has to be discussed in a honai.
There are many types of honai.
There's a honai for tribal celebrations and for war preparation, then there's
also Hakonaila, Ebeaila, Oma, Oo, Siraila, Sawula.
There is a variety of Honai.
Outsiders consider them all the same, but that's incorrect.
Two different kinds of honai
are the adat honai to prepare for battle
and a honai for all celebrations of the tribe.
It is said that it is sacred
because we didn't eat anything else a long time ago.
We didn't eat tapioca.
We ate humans.
It was said that the honai was sacred because we ate humans.
And because it's sacred, women lived in the Ewe Oma
(the honai where women live)
and men lived in the honai.
If our plants are less fertile and produce a low yield
we need to go to the honai and talk about how to fix it.
(conversation)
All the economic progress and development has made us
less and less aware of our honai tradition.
In the old days, our system of working together in this Baliem Valley
was very strong.
But now they give money instead of working together.
That wasn't the case in the past, but people are too ready to give money now.
I don't want to stay in a modern house.
If we had an authentic honai with a grass roof, that'd be better.
It's much better living in a honai than these modern houses.
These modern houses, they are just like children’s toys for me.
If the honai was damaged, I would rather build a new honai because
I don’t like modern houses.
Even if there was no wood or grass, I would ask my husband to tell his friends
to build a honai together.
It’s not good if there are no honai and only modern houses.
If we have honai, it’s good. I don’t like modern houses because they
look like toys to me.
Honai are important to me.
As the son of the chieftain, and as a practitioner of adat (indigenous ceremony)
even though I live in a modern house, or I'm a local official
I will still return to live in the village.
From 1970 to 1990, the government implemented the "Healthy Houses" program
which had limited uptake as it did not fit with the communal way of living
and the new design wasn't suitable for the cold climate of Papua.
Recently, the government has adopted traditional and modern building methods
for “Healthy Honai”
allowing communities to maintain their way of living in addition to providing
appropriate weather protection.