Sumuri

Sumuri, also called Sumeri, is a Papuan language spoken on the northern coast of the Bomberai Peninsula in western New Guinea, around Tofoi on Bintuni Bay. Its classification is unsettled: some scholars treat it as an independent branch of the Trans–New Guinea family, while others regard it as a language isolate.

Birds of paradise feathers reached Srivijaya in the seventh century, and the fourteenth-century Javanese poem Nagarakretagama names nearby Onin and Sran as tributaries of Majapahit, the earliest written mention of Papuan places. The Spanish expedition of Luís Vaz de Torres sighted the coast in 1606; it later fell within Tidore's sphere, whose hongi fleets raided it for slaves and tribute.

The Dutch built Fort Du Bus in 1828 to formalise their protectorate over Tidore's Papuan dependencies. The post was abandoned in 1835, leaving Sumuri country under loose indirect rule.