The eldest son of Badman Uropmabin was born during the laying out of the Atmisibil airstrip and he was named "Kobarweg"
after "the sound of the airplane"


Hylkema, S., To the Mountains of the Stars (New York: Doubleday, 1962)



The highland people on the island of New Guinea were first contacted by whites a few years prior to World War II. Less accessible areas indirectly encountered the outside world only during the Pacific War through low-flying airplanes or when a
B-24 occasionally crashed into the forest. Much later Kaiang Tapior, still a child, watched in awe and wonder as a helicopter dropped supplies for the strange visitors in the village of Pepera, formerly the Nimdol Bivouac of the Dutch Starmountains Expedition of 1959.

WAS IT THE SOUND OF FLOOD WATERS? OR OF AN EARTHQUAKE […] PERHAPS IT WAS ONLY THE SOUND OF A CASSOWARY? BUT THE NOISE CONTINUED … (Berndt) — I THOUGHT I HEARD THE VOICE OF ONE OF THOSE MARSUPIALS THAT GROWL AS THEY GO ALONG AND HAVE TAILS LIKE LIZARDS’ TAILS (KUI KOKLOM), WE CHASED THE NOISE THROUGH THE UNDERGROWTH; IT KEPT MOVING IN FRONT OF US AND WE COULDN’T CATCH IT […] WE ARGUED ABOUT IT. THEN IT WENT AWAY AND WE SAID WE WOULD FIND OUT ABOUT IT

LATER (Ongka) — WE NEVER HEARD THAT NOISE BEFORE — WE DUG IN THE GROUND […] WE DIDN’T REALIZE THE SOUND WAS COMING FROM ABOVE (Kubal Nori in Connolly & Anderson) — SOME SAID IT WAS A HORNBILL (SAU) FLYING IN THE SKY, WHILE OTHERS BELIEVED IT BE THE RURU FROG, FROM THE FOREST FLOOR, WHICH CRIES ONLY DURING RAINY PERIODS (Josephides & Schiltz) — OTHERS REMEMBER THINKING IT WAS SOME KIND OF INSECT […] AND SEARCHED THROUGH THE LONG GRASS BEFORE THE ENORMOUS VOLUME OF THE SOUND SENT THEM RUNNING IN TERROR. […] IT NEVER OCCURRED […] TO LOOK UP IN THE AIR (Connolly & Anderson)

6 July 1987; the village of Pepera: KAIANG TAPIOR PUZZLES ME WITH HIS QUESTION: “WHERE IS YOUR HELICOPTER?” “WHERE DID IT ALL COME FROM?” “OUT OF THE SKY” (Stow)

Pacific War; 2 December 1944; Baliem Valley: I FLEW AS LOW AS SEVENTY-FIVE FEET, AND NATURALLY THE NATIVES WERE TERRORIZED BY THE SIZE OF THE AIRPLANE AND THE NOISE OF THE PROPELLERS AND ENGINES. SOME TRIED TO HIDE, WHILE OTHERS RAN AT TOP SPEED AS IF TO ESCAPE FROM THIS ROARING AIRBORNE BEHEMOTH. IT WAS EVIDENT THAT FEW IF ANY HAD EVER SEEN AN AIRPLANE BEFORE (Rhoades, Flying MacArthur to victory) — [THEY] INDULGED IN BUZZ JOBS. SHELTON REMEMBERS ONE PILOT WHO FLEW A B-24 SO LOW IN NEW GUINEA THAT HE INADVERTENTLY BOUNCED IT OFF A BEACH, RETURNING TO BASE WITH CRUMPLED REAR-BOMBBAY DOORS AND SAND IN THE BACK OF THE AIRCRAFT. ANOTHER PILOT LANDED WITH SHREDS OF PALM FONDS LODGED INSIDE FROM A CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH A COCONUT TREE (Sheenan) THEN WE LOOKED UP AND SAW IT WAS IN THE SKY AND WE SAID “IT’S A KIND OF WITHCHCRAFT (kum)” […] SOME SAID IT WAS A THUNDERCLAP GONE MAD AND COME DOWN

FROM THE SKY (Ongka) — WE JUST DIDN’T KNOW WHAT HAD HAPPENED. SOME PEOPLE SEARCHED THE GROUND WHILE OTHERS LEFT EVERYTHING AND RAN FOR THEIR LIVES (Nopornga Mare in Connolly & Anderson) — STRANGE NOISE CAME FROM THE SKY — THERE WAS A BIG SOMETHING (Berndt) — IN TERROR THEY FELL TO THE GROUND UNTIL IT HAD PASSED, NOT DARING TO LOOK UP AGAIN (Berndt) — SUDDENLY IT CAME FASTER LOUDER! WHEN IT CAME CLOSER, IT LOOKED HUGE, AND WE FELL TO THE GROUND AND HID OUR FACES. WE WETTED AND FOULED OURSELVES IN FEAR AND CONFUSION (Kentiga Anup Kwimbe in Connolly & Anderson) — IT COMES, IT GOES (Blackburn)

THEY [THE WHITE PEOPLE] SMELT SO DIFFERENTLY (Gavey Akamo in Connolly & Anderson) — WE CALLED [THE WHITES] SEBRIB, WHICH MEANS “DIFFERENT SMELL” OR “SMELL OF SOAP” (Amusep in Morren) — […] BUT THEIR SHIT SMELLS JUST LIKE OURS [THEY SAID] (Kirupano in Connolly & Anderson)

WE WERE RETURNING FROM THE FOREST, AFTER COLLECTING AND COOKING PANDANUS NUTS, WHEN WE MET WITH THOSE WHITES (Enjap in Sillitoe) — “WHY DO THEY COME HERE?” (Blackburn) — “WHY DID THEY COME?” PEOPLE ASKED AND THEY WERE AFRAID BECAUSE THEY COULD NOT FIND AN ANSWER (Berndt) — … AND WE WONDERED WHAT THEY WERE GOING TO DO IN OUR PLACE (Mokei Wanip Wan) — THEY COME, THEY GO […] THEY BRING THEIR SOMETHINGS (Dipapa in the Visitants)

OUR ANCESTORS AND THEIR ANCESTORS CAME HERE TOGETHER IN TWO FLYING MACHINES. THEY CRASHED AT ODAKINA (Stow)

THEY WERE VISITORS (Worsley) — ”FIRST THE DUTCH CAME, THEN THE JAPANESE, THEN THE AMERICANS, THEN THE DUTCH RETURNED AND NOW THE INDONESIANS HAVE COME” (Elder from Dosal)


Nimdol; June 1959: GEOLOGISTS, BIOLOGISTS & ANTHROPOLOGISTS “DROPPED” FROM THE SKY […] [PEOPLE FROM THE REGION] HAD HEARD THE NOISE, AND, STANDING AT A SAFE DISTANCE OBSERVED THE STRANGE PROCEEDINGS WITH GREAT INTEREST (Brongersma & Venema, Starmountains Expedition) — 18 June 1959: WE HAD SEEN NOTHING LIKE IT BEFORE — ALL THE WOMEN PISSED IN FEAR WHEN THE HELICOPTER CIRCLED FROM THE SKY (Kaiang Tapior; 1987, village of Pepera, formerly Nimdol Bivouac)

ON 14 JUNE [THE MEMBERS OF THE EXPEDITION] KEPT AN ANXIOUS LOOK-OUT, BUT NO HELICOPTER CAME, NOR ON THE 15th — 17 JUNE: LOOKING WESTWARD TO SEE THE LONG-AWAITED HELICOPTER (Brongersma & Venema)

[THEY ARE] MAKING HOUSES AND TAKING THEM DOWN AGAIN AS THEY COME […] COME TO SEE US AND GO (Makwes & Waeb in Sillitoe)

WE NEVER TELL EVERYTHING, WE ALWAYS KEEP SOMETHING FOR THE NEXT ANTHROPOLOGIST (Informant to Margaret Mead)

Nimdol; 12 February 1958: RUMOURS HAD FLOATED IN ABOUT THE COMING OF KAKAWOKI [THE WHITE MEN] […] MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN RAN OUT TO SEE (Dragt)

MEMBERS OF ANOTHER VILLAGE WERE ANGRILY PROTESTING THAT SULULIB ALREADY HAD TWO ANTHROPOLOGISTS (Feld)

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, REFRIGERATORS, 400,000 TROOPS, MILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF CARGO & 200 OPEN AIR CINEMAS DESCENDED FROM THE SKY (Worsley) — 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 ASTONISHMENT, SHOUTED THEMSELVES HOARSE (Kamma)

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

Shortly after the Dutch expedition left, the Indonesian Army annexed 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.