Awyu

Awyu, taken in its broad sense, covers the Awyu–Ok cluster, a group of Trans–New Guinea families spread around the Digul River and across the mountain border into Papua New Guinea. It unites the Digul River or Greater Awyu family with the Ok family of the border ranges.

In broader classifications the Ok family includes Aekyom, also called Awin. The two families share much vocabulary through long contact, but whether this resemblance implies a genetic link remains debated; the Ok languages also have dyadic kinship terms naming the relation between pairs of people.

Kombai and other Awyu-speaking peoples live in rainforest clan territories, farming sago and sweet potatoes and raising high tree houses as lookouts and sacred centres. The Torres expedition reached these southern shores in 1606, but the Digul swamps stayed closed to outsiders until long afterward.