Awyu Jungle

The Awyu jungle belongs to the lowland landscape of South Papua, where vast wetlands and large rivers dominate the customary region of Anim Ha. This province occupies the southern part of Indonesian Papua and reaches the Arafura Sea. Its interior contains extensive peat swamp, flooded ground, and drainage systems that make overland travel difficult. The Awyu people are recorded among the communities of Mappi, together with the Wiyagar, while the wider province also includes Marind, Yei, Muyu, Wambon, Asmat, and Sawi peoples.

Such diversity developed across a terrain of forests and waterways rather than on an open plain. Sago is the general staple, supplemented in some places by bananas, yams, taro, sweet potato, and breadfruit. Fish, game, and other forest foods add to the diet.

Because few roads existed and much of the ground is swampy, boats are essential for daily transport and trade; dugout canoes are hollowed from single tree trunks and rowed by several people. Local land use also combines hunting, gathering, and cultivation, with ecological knowledge passed through communities. The Awyu jungle is therefore both a physical wetland and a social world organized by rivers, sago, and long-standing local knowledge.