Asmat

Asmat is a cluster of Papuan languages of the Trans–New Guinea family, spoken along New Guinea's southwestern coast on the Arafura Sea. Its principal varieties are distinct enough to count as separate languages, spoken by peoples including the Asmat, Buruwai and Citak; the neighbouring Kamoro and Sempan speak languages of the same family but are ethnically distinct.

Life in the tidal swamps is built around the sago palm, whose starch is the staple, together with fish and forest game; villages stand on wooden posts above the floods, and inland groups build tall tree houses.

The Asmat are famed for bisj poles erected to honour dead ancestors and warrior forebears, and raiding and headhunting long formed part of the rites that bound their clans. The coast was first sighted by Europeans when Torres passed in 1606, though the swamps remained beyond outside reach until the colonial era.