The Diocese of Agats has suspended the 38th Festival Asmat Pokman (FAP) 2025 after two members of the festival’s selection team were violently attacked in Youw District on August 16.
The incident occurred during the selection process for the carving competition when tensions arose over long-standing rules prohibiting ritual-sacralised Asmat carvings from being entered into the festival.
Several local artists strongly rejected the regulation and demanded that their works be accepted under their own proposed rules.
When the committee denied the request, the artists attacked team members, injuring Mr. John Ohoiwirin, head of the Festival Selection Team, and Father Lukas Lega Sando, head of the diocese’s Justice and Peace Secretariat.
Ohoiwirin sustained head injuries, while Father Lukas suffered a fractured nose.
“Due to their strong ambition and optimism to join the festival, they were suddenly feeling very offended to learn about the rules of the game,” a local priest told LiCAS News.
Both victims required intensive medical treatment in hospitals in Asmat and Timika, which are accessible only by a one-hour flight from Asmat Regency.
Bishop Aloysius Murwito OFM explained that the violence stemmed from miscommunication about long-standing festival rules.
Since the festival’s inception, the diocese has barred carvings and art objects used in ritual ceremonies, citing their spiritual significance.
In his statement, Bishop Murwito emphasized that such carvings have already been “induced” with spirit and must therefore be excluded from public competition.
He condemned the violence, saying, “This is the first time in decades of the cultural festival that violence has occurred, leaving us in deep sadness.”
The bishop declared four key decisions, including the suspension of the 2025 festival until further notice, legal accountability for perpetrators, reconciliation efforts through Asmat tradition and Christian faith, and the possibility of future festivals only after peace is restored.
The prelate expressed hope that all parties “will accept the decision with open hearts and work together for healing.”
The Diocese of Agats is widely regarded within the Indonesian Catholic hierarchy as one of the most remote and challenging regions to reach.
Much of its territory is accessible only by a combination of air and river travel: an hour-long flight aboard an ultralight aircraft from Timika City to Ewer Airport, followed by at least 45 minutes by motorboat to the small riverside town of Asmat.
Reaching villages deeper in the regency is even more difficult, often requiring five to ten hours of travel by two-engine motorboats along vast rivers whose distant banks are barely visible.
During a pastoral journey in 2013, Bishop Aloysius Murwito recalled stretches of travel where there were no houses or communities in sight.
“Fuel storage is strategically essential to bring as well-maintained engine power so that we are not supposed to be stranded in the middle of nowhere due to the absence of mobile signals and people to ask their favour to help,” the bishop told LiCAS News.
