Asmat

Along the southwestern coast of New Guinea, Asmat communities inhabit a country of mangroves, tidal swamps and lowland rainforest beside the Arafura Sea. Asmat carvers make tall bisj poles for memorial feasts, with figures representing named people who have died and a carved canoe recalling their journey to the ancestral realm. In 1623 the Dutch trader Jan Carstensz sighted Asmat people from his ship. James Cook's party landed near what is now Pirimapun in 1770, but withdrew after encountering Asmat warriors; another Dutch visitor, Kolff, likewise retreated when warriors approached his vessel in 1826.