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Papuan Artists Around Klim en Daal
Yesterday I escorted Mrs. Els Boer visiting some Papuan artists who live near Klim en Daal. This was the name of an elementary school that was located on a hill near the Table Mountain of Manokwari Papua. This name of the school now is SD Negeri 01 Manokwari. During 1950s and 1960s, many Dutch children studied in that school. When the territory of the Netherlands Nieuw Guinea had been handed over to Indonesia by the Dutch, its name was later changed into Irian Jaya and then Papua Barat. The Klim en Daal school children had to leave their school and continued their studies in the Netherlands.
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Mrs. Boer was listening Mr. Lucky Kaikatui's explanation about his painting of birds of paradise. |
Mr. Kaikatui was explaining his painting style to Mrs. Els Boer. |
One of these children was Mrs. Els Boer. She visits Papua twice a year. I met her in my bookstore on 5 February when she and her friend came to my bookstore for buying postcards. I offered them guide service to Papuan artists if they were interested in buying Papuan souvenirs. Her friend said that she did not have enough time because she would fly back the next day. But Mrs. Boer said that she would be in Manokwari for about one month. When she came again yesterday (19 February 2010), I brought her to some Papuan artists who make oil paintings and some woven clothes.
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Mrs. Els Boer with Mrs. Fonataba the woven cloth artist in Manokwari Papua |
We had to climb a slippery slope leading to Mr. Lucky Kaikatui's house, an oil painting artist. It was nearly dark at that time and Mr. Kaikatui was busy working on the second floor of his house. There were some paintings in the living room from birds of paradise, and the Irai river in the Anggi area to the Papuan village scene and traditional Kaki Seribu house. Mr. Kaikatuis looked very happy when he talked to Mrs. Else Boer. He explained why he is interested in painting Papua's nature. Unfortunately, Mr. Kaikatui did not have smaller size paintings, so Mrs. Boer did not buy souvenirs there. We then continued our trip to the house of Mrs. Marice Fonataba a woven cloth artist. She makes the cloth manually. Mrs. Fonataba entered her bedroom and took out some of woven clothes and other Papuan the artworks. Mrs. Boer bought a sheet of woven cloth. She paid Rp. 400,000 (around 40 US dollars) for the traditional Papuan cloth. After I shot some photos of her standing with the artist's family, I and Mrs. Els Boer left Mrs. Fonataba's house. Mrs. Boer gave me her email address saying that I should send her the photos of her which I shot with my digital camera, Sony Cyber-Shot DSC W30. It is a small but very powerful digital camera which I have used for the past four years for shooting very nice photographs about Papua's nature, its indigenous people and everything around me. There are still some other Papuan artists that we had not visited in the Klim en Daal area but Mrs. Boer said that it's enough for that day. by Charles Roring
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