Risky Business: The Grasberg Gold Mine An ... - Free West Papua

THE BEGINNING
“When the earth was first created, it is believed that
the Amungme people occupied land which was still
swamp.The story goes that there was a mother with
four children, two boys and two girls.They lived in the
middle of the swamp where there was dry land.
One day the dry season came.There was famine and
many people died.This also affected the mother and her
four children.They began to suffer from hunger,
when the food they had stored was used up.
The mother said to her children,“Instead of all of us
dying, it is better if just I die.” She ordered her children
to kill her. She asked them to cut off her head and throw
it to the north. She asked for her body to be cut into
two, with the right side being thrown to the east
and the left side to the west. Her feet were to be
thrown towards the river so that they would be
brought south by the current. Her children
carried out this task with heavy hearts.
After they had done what their mother had asked, the
four children fell asleep.When they awoke, they were
surprised to see a mountain in the north, where they had
thrown their mother’s head. In the east and west there
grew a great garden with all kinds of things to eat. In the
south as well, there was a broad expanse of land.
This story tells us that if the mountains and nature are
harmed, our mother is hurt as well.The mountain
we see as our mother is sacred. It is where the souls
of men go when they die.We keep this place holy
and worship it in our traditional ceremonies.
The Amungme live on the land thought to reach from
the mother’s neck to her navel.This is the place
closest to her. It is near her milk, and is where the
people can lean on and be protected by her shoulder.
It is where children can sleep in her lap.
We also consider the area of the mother’s feet,
meaning the coastal plain, a sacred place.We can look
for food here and hunt but we must then return
to our home.This is the feeling of the
Amungme, that the land is our mother.” 1