Waropen

The Waropen were an Austronesian-speaking coastal people of the eastern shore of Cenderawasih Bay in northern New Guinea, with the Ambumi or Waruri branch extending west into Wondama Bay. Their language was closely related to the Austronesian languages of nearby Yapen Island.

Their tradition derives the name Waropen from a word meaning people of the interior: the ancestors are said to have come down from Mount Tonater at Wamusopedai and spread along the coast in three branches, Ambumi, Kai and Ronari.

Society was built on clans called da, gathered into villages called nu; in wartime and slave-raiding expeditions the clans united under a leader titled Sera, the foremost of whom bore the title Serabawah. The first recorded European encounter came on 30 May 1705, when the Dutch explorer Jacob Weyland reached a settlement he recorded as Erropang.