Word: Ayu Arman
Through the strokes of rock paintings, the silent stone walls convey the traditions, cultures, and myths of specific communities and times. They are signals of life and wisdom from a distant past for us today.
As the speedboat entered the waters of Bisari Bay at the mouth of a small bay, Maimai, which perhaps stretches 300 meters to the north and 10 to 15 kilometers to the south, various motifs of rock art paintings adorned the cliff walls.
I observed the scene in silence.
The sea eroded the cliffs, forming a gallery up to 1.5 meters above sea level. There, various motifs of rock paintings were spread out.
At first glance, the various rock art paintings were not very clear when seen with our naked eyes from the speedboat. However, with shots from a Canon EOS R5 camera and an RF 70-200mm lens, the motifs of paintings on the rocky cliffs were clearly visible. There were images like crescent moons, handprints, lizards, lizards carrying axes, suns, lunar eclipses, lizards with human hands, and other abstract images with brick red, yellow, and black colors.
I wondered to myself, and tried to imagine, how past generations painted on the nearly inaccessible cliffs that were almost out of reach for human hands?
I then interviewed some elderly residents of Maimai Village about these ancient paintings. However, they were almost unaware of the origins of the rock paintings that adorned the cliffs.
Some of them believe that the rock paintings were designed by their ancestral spirits, while others say they do not know their origins. However, they are aware that the colors of the rock paintings change. If the summer monsoon comes, the red color appears vividly. Conversely, when the winter monsoon arrives and big waves come, the red color of the rock paintings will fade.
Ethnologists believe rock art is the oldest form of art. Rock carvings, commonly known as reliefs in archaeology, are not considered random pictures. Every carved or painted image has a purpose, rules, and certain calculations. Rock art is usually made to express specific feelings, revered and respected being.
According to researches conducted by the National Archaeological Center, Indonesia is rich in rock paintings representing the development of paintings from various societies. One of them is rock art in Papua.
Rock art in Papua was first studied by J. Röder in 1938[1]. The study explained that rock art in Papua and West Papua is dominated by animal motifs, such as lizard motifs, fish, turtles, snakes, birds, and some other marine animals.
In the book Rock Art in West Papua written by Karina Arifin and Philippe Delanghe, it is revealed that the rock art site in Kaimana is the longest rock art site in West Papua.
There are approximately forty-six rock art sites. They are located around Bisari Bay, Triton Bay, Lake Kamaka, and Lake Esrotnamba.
In the areas of Kaimana and Bisari Bay, there are twenty-four rock art sites featuring animal motifs. Nearly all sites have fish and lizard motifs. Meanwhile, in some sites, there are motifs of birds, snakes, and sea cucumbers.
In Triton Bay, there are ten sites found, and nearly all of them are animal motifs, mostly in the form of lizards. There are also fish, shrimps, and turtles motifs.
In the area of Lake Kamaka, there are six rock art sites, but only three sites feature animal motifs in the form of lizards. These sites are located on the hillside in the area of Lake Kamaka. This location can be reached by walking, then by rowing boat with a distance of approximately 4 km from Lumira Village.
In Lake Esrotnamba, there are six rock art sites, but only one site featuring fish, bats, and turtles motifs is found. To reach the Esrotnamba site, you can traverse the north side of Lake Kamaka and then walk through the forest for approximately 2.5 km.
In West Papua, including Kaimana, lizards are the most dominant animals depicted in rock paintings on cliffs. There are lizard images combined with anthropomorphic features, creating images of lizard-human hybrids known as “matutuo” in the surrounding areas.
Lizards generally have four legs and three cross-shaped toes. The front legs face forward while the hind legs spread backward on both sides of the long tail. In some locations in Kaimana, it is not easy to distinguish lizards from crocodiles.
Lizards are indeed a very common theme in the rock art of the Indonesian and Pacific islands. Lizard paintings are not only found on rocks but also on wood carvings, textiles, and paintings on bark cloth. These paintings have connotations of strength and wisdom.
According to George Chaloupka[2], an Australian researcher on rock art, in prehistoric times, sacred stories were not always synonymous with gods and spirits. In some societies, certain animals, such as lizards (and crocodiles), were considered sacred or powerful; symbolizing wisdom and strength in the beliefs of many Indian tribes in the Southwest.
Both animals are often interpreted as having spiritual power. Once someone is spiritually connected to the spirits of crocodiles, they become immune to their attacks. This belief was then expressed in paintings, both symbolically and realistically, as seen in the representations of rock art sites worldwide.
In the waters of Kaimana, in addition to lizards, motifs of sea mammals resembling dolphins are also commonly found on cliff surfaces.
Lizards and sea mammals seem to occupy a special place in the daily lives of fishermen living along the southern coast of West Papua. We ourselves encountered large groups of dolphins more than once during our journey in the waters of Kaimana.
Therefore, the depiction of animals in rock art in the waters of Kaimana can be interpreted as a tribute and worship by the indigenous people in ancient times to animals with sacred or spiritual power, as well as a form of concern and ongoing tradition of the local community at that time.
Meanwhile, the colors in these rock paintings, according to J. Röder[3], are produced by pigments containing charcoal, earth pigments, and iron-rich minerals such as burnt orange hematite that color these white-faced rocks. Black color is obtained from charcoal, tar, soot, and sap from particular plants. Red color is made from human blood, iron-rich soil, and extracts of particular plants. White color is made from semen, sago, and fresh skulls mixed with lime juice, water, and particular plant-based binders.
So, who were the painters of these rock paintings? There are only a few literatures explaining the people who made the paintings on the cliffs of the waters of Kaimana, unless they have ensured that the past painters painted with locally sourced pigments to depict their intimacy with the water.
The indigenous Papuans on the coast of Kaimana today cannot explain with certainty the origin of the rock paintings around their homes. They only believe that it was their ancestral spirits who drew the paintings on the towering and difficult-to-reach cliffs. However, what is certain is that the age of the rock paintings on the coastal cliffs of Bitsyara Bay and in other bays in the waters of Kaimana is estimated to be between 3000-5000 years old.
During those years, New Guinea Island was still isolated from the outside world, so the only inhabitants of this island were the local Papuan themselves. About 7,000 years ago, the journey from the Torres Strait in Australia to New Guinea could still be made by crossing the shallow and muddy Arafura Sea. Therefore, it is possible that the rock paintings were also influenced by the wandering tribes of Aboriginal Australians who left their traces on the cliffs as their galleries and then colored the culture of the local people of New Guinea before they moved elsewhere. The Aborigines are also known as the keen creators of rock paintings through their observations of what they see and explore over thousands of years.
The Head of Curatorial of Indigenous Knowledge at the National Museum of Australia, Margo Neale, says that Aboriginal tribes have had relationships with indigenous Papuans and Makassar fishermen since the 1700s. It is not surprising that we can still see similarities in some cultures and arts between indigenous Papuans and Aboriginal Australians today. One of these similarities lies in the culture of rock art painting on these cliffs.
Rock art on the beaches of West Papua, including in Kaimana, was first discovered in the early 1880s and was generally documented in the Tijdschrift Bataviaasch Genootschap journals from 1880 to 1884 (Tichelman, 1939b, p. 88). In 1937, rock art in the MacCluer Gulf region was scientifically studied when J. Röder, a member of the Frobenius expedition, provided detailed descriptions along with studies of the local culture.
Another report was made by D. F. van Braam Morris, who reported stencil hand paintings and small boat paintings, about 1 meter or less in size, on small islands off the east coast of Arguni Island. In his report, he explained that the cliffs with rock art markings served as markers for disposing of Papuan people’s bodies.
Hand stencils and other paintings were also reported by De Clercq, the clerk of the Resident during the same period, who saw them on six small islands in the MacCluer Gulf. He noted that the hand stencils were mostly from left hands and were red in color. The paintings were on cliffs that were not easily accessible to humans.
Although Islamic influence had entered the waters of Kaimana several hundred years ago, such burials were still practiced in the 1880s. Dutch sources also tell that until the 1880s, locals wrapped bodies in mats and placed them in shallow caves inside wooden coffins resembling boats placed on wooden platforms. Formerly, they used pottery, shell ornaments, talismans, polished stone axes, and tools to make boats.
The bones of the deceased were then placed in crevices in the cliffs, and the cliffs were marked with specific painting motifs such as hand stencil paintings and other motifs. Thus, those silent rock walls then became traces of the traditions and beliefs of the people thousands of years ago through their rock art scribbles.
Today, some rock paintings in the waters of Kaimana have been lost. This is because most of these rock paintings are located in open sea areas and are very vulnerable to natural erosion. It is also because the rock paintings are in remote areas, so they are easily destroyed, weathered, and vandalized unless protected.
Although over time, the beliefs and ways of life of the local people in Kaimana have naturally changed, and modern influences have also affected them, rock art still needs to be protected and studied in depth. The rock art of Kaimana needs to be recognized as ancient art, a rich cultural heritage from the past that is valuable to all humanity now and in the future. Above all, the rock art on those cliffs is a signal of life and wisdom from a very distant past for our lives today. *