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A Meakambut man holds handmade spears and arrows specially crafted for birds and wild pigs.
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The Meakambut cook pancakes over an open fire using a regional staple: sago, a palm that produces a powder similar to cornstarch, and whose calories offer little protein and few vitamins.
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Gripping a kindling-packed stick with his feet and using a strip of bamboo for friction, a Meakambut man coaxes a cooking fire from soggy terrain. This "fire saw" method is widely practiced throughout Papua New Guinea.
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For generations people in the region have marked cave walls with stenciled handprints. These prints were made with clay-based paint, but in other caves, crimson stains tell the story of a bloody initiation ritual for young men.
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Taking a break from cutting a sago palm, Mark Aiyo smokes a cigarette. He visits a nearby village a few times a year to trade things he has made or gathered—like arrows—in exchange for fish and sago.
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The Meakambut move through their environment with constant vigilance, always seeking sources of food. The nearby rivers offer small fish that the men catch with wooden spears.
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A Meakambut boy dabbles in body paint made from a mixture of crushed rocks, water, and other natural materials.
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Lidia's Story
Pasu Aiyo carries his pneumonia-stricken wife, Lidia, 15, on the two-day trek to the nearest health clinic. "The life of a nomad is hard," the group's leader, John Aiyo, tells a translator. "Traveling across the mountains is very tiring." -
Lidia's Story
Pasu Aiyo carries his pneumonia-stricken wife, Lidia, 15, on the two-day trek to the nearest health clinic. "The life of a nomad is hard," the group's leader, John Aiyo, tells a translator. "Traveling across the mountains is very tiring." -
Lidia's Story
Pasu Aiyo carries his pneumonia-stricken wife, Lidia, 15, on the two-day trek to the nearest health clinic. "The life of a nomad is hard," the group's leader, John Aiyo, tells a translator. "Traveling across the mountains is very tiring." -
Lidia's Story
Pasu Aiyo carries his pneumonia-stricken wife, Lidia, 15, on the two-day trek to the nearest health clinic. "The life of a nomad is hard," the group's leader, John Aiyo, tells a translator. "Traveling across the mountains is very tiring." -
Rinsing and straining the pounded pith of a sago palm through a coconut-husk filter releases edible starch, which is collected and dried inside the felled palm. Sago is a staple of the Meakambut diet.
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Mark Aiyo (left) and his family (wife Jelin Papiyaram and son Yukun) set out toward a felled sago palm to begin the arduous process of extracting edible material from its trunk.
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Pasu Aiyo is proud of his people's traditions, as his flower-bedecked beard proclaims. But nomadic life takes a toll, and illness often proves fatal. Many Meakambut wonder if settling in a village would offer a brighter future.
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A dugout canoe is the fastest form of transport in the mostly roadless upper reaches of Papua New Guinea's Sepik region, where anthropological researcher Nancy Sullivan (center) and ethnographer Sebastian Haraha (front right) study indigenous cultures.
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