Rumu

Rumu, also recorded as Rumuwa, Kairi or Dumu, is a Papuan language of the Papuan Gulf lowlands, spoken in the Kikori district around the lower courses of the Kikori, Sirebi and Tiviri rivers, where mangrove forest and freshwater swamp meet the rainforest. It belongs to the Turama–Kikorian family, yet stands apart as a divergent branch, its pronoun forms pointing toward a link with the Trans–New Guinea stock.

The Rumu-speaking villages lie on a river network that carried trade and marriage ties between the gulf and the peoples of the interior. The coast beyond the delta was first seen by Europeans when Torres sailed past in 1606, though the Kikori swamps remained unvisited by outsiders until long afterward.