White Liberal Visits Tribe In West Papua, Gets Extorted, Threatened With Bow And Arrow

Initially, as Will returned for a last visit to his friends among the Korowai people of West Papua, there was a kind of end-of-term feeling. The bleak village, into which increasing numbers of these hunter-gatherer people were being corralled by the Indonesian government, was empty as everyone had returned to the forest for a massive tribal jamboree.

Amid the dancing and feasting it looked like nothing could go wrong. After the party, though, Will began to detect something worrying about his friend and guide August.

Having earned cash by working for the film crew, August had splurged on the trappings of the new economy. He had handfuls of disposable lighters and a phone he could not call anyone on. Now he wanted Will to buy him a boat.

The demands went from wheedling to insistent, from angry to violent as the price went up in tandem. Will retreated into the forests for a last visit to August's adoptive family, Haup and Halap, who clung to a gentler, older way of being.

They were physically frail and mentally troubled, too, talking of the bad spirits that inhabit the forest floor but unable to climb back into their tree houses.

It seemed as if they might wither away, taking the last bits of Korowai tradition with them. Meanwhile back in the village, Will and his team were essentially shaken down for every last bit of cash before they were permitted to leave.