Pseudonyms have been used throughout this essay for the safety of persons named.
I conducted eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in the villages of Mirav, Bayau, and Khalaoyam in the capacity of human rights counsellor between 2011 and 2013 and in the capacity of doctoral and postdoctoral researcher between 2015 and 2019. My fieldwork was facilitated by Indonesian and Papuan human rights NGOs and explored how deforestation and agribusiness development reconfigure the more-than-human lifeworld of Marind communities. Central to this research was a close observation of and participation in Marinds’ everyday and ritual food procurement, preparation, and consumption practices across the spaces of village and forest.
All the terms in this sentence are in Marind.
This essay is derived and adapted from the monograph Land of Famished Beings: An Indigenous Theory of Hunger from the West Papuan Plantation Frontier, currently under review with HAU Books.