Papua Adventures always tries to find new and interesting places within Papua.
And on this last exploratory expedition we found one of the best tribes we've
ever seen in Papua. The Tause tribe. And we made good friends with their
Chief, and we are welcome to come back again.

In October 2009, we guided a group from Mexico and America. All the group
members were well traveled. 5 of them had never been to Papua before,
but they wanted to see something different than the average tourist.
I informed them that I've received information about a tribe in the Mamberamo/Waropen area, but I personally had never visited them.
For well over a year we supplied a few local men who are Gaharu wood collectors
with tobacco and salt to give the Tause when they came across them in the forest.

The Tause are still a nomadic tribe and they move around in the forest looking
for food. They don't have any permanent settlements. This makes contacting
them very difficult. So, it was important to get regular reports from our
Gaharu collection friends on the whereabouts of the Tause tribe.



The Tause tribe have a range from the Mamberamo River and into the Waropen
district in northern Papua. As most tribes along the Mamberamo River,
the Mamberamo River Tause have also converted to modern ways.
Became Christian by the missionaries, wear clothes and use money to buy staple goods. But, there are still nomadic groups of Tause living along the border of the Mamberamo River/Waropen district. The Tause we met on this expedition were
a mix of still nomadic Tause and some that have recently moved into small villages
in the area. The Chief has been trying to get the Tause to move from the forest and live in the small villages like other Papuans. He told us that a few small groups,
consisting of a few families in each group still have not given in and still continue
to live in the forest. The Chief told us that he gave these people their first metal axes just 7 years ago. But, they still have stone axes that they use and must save because this is part of the bride price if they want to marry.

Like traditional Mamberamo River tribes the men don't wear a koteka.
But, instead wear tree bark stripped and beaten into a soft fabric like material.
The women also wear this tree bark skirt. It is held up by a few woven strings
also made from tree bark. The men wore a beautiful headdress of Cassowary feathers. The men had holes through the septum of their noses and also two holes above the nostrils that they inserted with sticks and bones of the large fruit bat that is indigenous to the area. Some of the women also had a hole in through their septum.

Their bows and especially their arrows are
much longer than in other parts of Papua.
They have an assortment of arrows depending
on what kind of prey they are hunting.
The women catch fish using a large oval shaped rattan hoop, with string made of tree bark as
the net. This style of fishing is very much
like the Asmat in southern Papua.
Their noken bags (carrying bags) are made
of tree bark string, like almost all other tribes
in Papua. But their decoration of these bags
is pure Mamberamo River tribe. They decorate
the noken bags with pig tails, crown pigeon feathers and the feet of the crown pigeon.


Like all lowland tribes in Papua,
the Tause's staple diet consists of Sagu.
This is a tree in the palm family and the inside
is high in starch. Depending on how many people live in one group, a single tree can feed
a few families for several days. Their process of cutting down the Sagu tree and extracting the fibrous insides is very much like the Korowai, Kombai and Asmat tribes. They mash the fibrous Sagu fiber in a process with water and squeezing the nutrients out of the Sagu and the sediments from the Sagu slowly sink to the bottom of their receptor, which is also from the Sagu tree. Then they skim off the water and press the Sagu,
which has a mud like consistency at this point into balls around 30cm in size.
This mud like Sagu will be broken up into smaller bits and cooked in a variety of ways. One is to just put a small ball next to the fire and peel the baked outside off and eat it. The other is to wrap it in leaves and cook it over hot stones. This creates a almost bread like Sagu which is still a bit glutinous.

Papua Adventures is very sensitive to the feelings of the indigenous people in Papua. That's why we always make good relationships with the Chiefs. The people who live in the forest have a sense for sincerity and honesty. And the Tause Chief was very happy to have us visit and looks forward to us coming back. A generous gift is given to the Chief and in return he helps the people of his tribe with our gift.

Access to the Tause tribe doesn't involve chartering an expensive airplane,
like it does to get to the Korowai or Kombai tribes. It involves boat travel
and trekking into the forest to get to their location.

Papua Adventures thinks this is one of the best places we've come across in years.
And we are really excited about it. Other companies don't yet know about this tribe. We've opened up this area in Papua, like many areas in the Kombai that only we are granted access. If you are looking for something really new, that others haven't experienced. Then this is the adventure for you.

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