Biak

The Biak are an Austronesian people of the Schouten or Biak Islands, chiefly Biak, Supiori and Numfor, guarding the entrance of Cenderawasih Bay on New Guinea's north coast, speaking Biak, or Biak-Numfor, of the South Halmahera-West New Guinea subgroup.

Born navigators, they built a maritime network across the bay, from the early eighteenth century planting settlements along the Bird's Head Peninsula; Manokwari, meaning old village in their language, still marks their routes. Legends of war leader Gurabesi recall ties with Tidore, whose sultan received tribute in slaves and forest produce from Biak traders.

The Portuguese Jorge de Menezes first sighted the island in 1526, and by the early nineteenth century the Numfor Biak were the New Guinea coast's leading middlemen, bartering birds of paradise, massoi bark and slaves with Makassarese, Chinese and European traders.