Sepik

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Sepik
Location of the Sepik (red)

Location of the Sepik (red)

Data
location Sandaun , East Sepik ( Papua New Guinea ), Papua ( Indonesia )
River system Sepik
source Victor Emanuel Range
5 ° 13 ′ 0 ″  S , 141 ° 49 ′ 0 ″  E
Source height 2170  m
muzzle Broken Water Bay of the Bismarck Sea (Pacific Ocean) Coordinates: 3 ° 50 ′ 32 "  S , 144 ° 32 ′ 20"  E 3 ° 50 ′ 32 "  S , 144 ° 32 ′ 20"  E
Mouth height 0  m
Height difference 2170 m
Bottom slope 1.9 ‰
length 1126 km
Catchment area 100,243 km²
Left tributaries Yellow River , Green River
Right tributaries August (Yapsie) , Idam , Simaiya , May (Arai) , Keram , Yuat , Karawari , April
Small towns Ambunti , Angoram
Navigable almost the entire length
in the rainy season it joins the Ramu river system
Village on the Sepik

Village on the Sepik

The Sepik (pronounced "sii-pick", formerly German  Empress Augusta River ) is the longest river on the island of New Guinea ( Oceania ) and, with over 1100 km, one of the five longest rivers in Australia / Oceania . Most of the river flows through the provinces of Sandaun and East Sepik in Papua New Guinea . A small part flows through the Indonesian province of Papua .

The Sepik is one of the great river systems in the world. It has a wide catchment area and is surrounded by types of landscape such as swamps, tropical rainforests and mountains. Biologically speaking, the river is likely the largest unpolluted freshwater reservoir in the Asia-Pacific region .

Source, course and mouth

Sediment clouds at the mouth of the Sepik (right) and Ramu (left) rivers

The river has its source on the Victor Emanuel mountain range , part of the Star Mountains (central range) of New Guinea. From its mountainous upper course - near Telefomin - where it forms the border between the West Range ( Maoke Mountains ) and the East Range ( Bismarck Mountains ) , the Sepik flows in a north-westerly direction and leaves the mountains at Yapsie (Yapsiei). From here he makes his way to the Indonesian Papua. Much of its course crosses the Central Depression in a northeasterly direction. Towards the sea, the Sepik receives further tributaries from the Bewani and Torricelli Mountains in the north and the New Guinea highlands in the south.

The Sepik runs strongly meandering and finally flows into the Broken Water Bay of the Bismarcksee about 20 km northwest of the Ramu estuary . In contrast to many other large rivers, the Sepik has no delta , but flows directly into the sea, about 100 km east of Wewak . During the rainy season, the Ramu and the Sepik unite in the flooded plain not far from the estuary. The river is also navigable for much of its length.

The total length of the river is 1,126 km - as the crow flies, the source-estuary is only 400 km - and has a catchment area of ​​more than 100,000 km². After almost 100 kilometers the river reaches an altitude of about 200 m above sea level, where a very slight gradient is evident over almost the entire course (~ 0.2 ‰). Most of the river has meanders 5–10 km wide and flood plains up to 70 km wide, which resulted in the formation of swamps. There are approximately 1,500 lakes in these floodplains, the largest of which are the Chambri Lakes .

Nature and culture

Sawfish mask from the central sepic from the Ethnological Museum, Berlin-Dahlem

The Sepik Basin is an almost untouched natural landscape, as there are no large settlements there and neither mining nor forestry are carried out in the catchment area of ​​the river .

The population of the Sepik Basin is around 430,000. The tribes along the river ( Arapesh , Abelam , Iatmul and others) are known for their special carvings and elaborate masculinity rituals, which include the carving of crocodile-like figures in the river bank and the scarification of the bodies . Many tribes use Garamut drums in their rituals.

The entire upper river basin (Upper Sepik River Basin) was proposed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2006 (tentative list) and is a special focus of the WWF.

history

The indigenous population lived for millennia along the river, which served them as a basis for food, transport and culture.

Discovery and Exploration

Australian anthropologist Ernest Chinnery on Middle Sepik

Europeans first reached the river in 1885 when Germans explored the area as part of an expedition to found the colony of German New Guinea . The river was christened Empress Augusta River by the leader of this expedition, Otto Finsch , in honor of the German Empress Augusta . Finsch first explored the estuary with the steamer Samoa . A year later he went about 50 km upstream in a smaller vehicle. At that time, the main interests of the Germans lay in exploring an economic use of the river, collecting artefacts and transporting indigenous workers for the copra plantations on the coasts and islands.

In 1886 and 1887 further German expeditions were undertaken with steam ships. More than 600 km of river have been explored. In 1887 Samoa also returned to the area with another scientific expedition, and two members of the Rhenish Mission Society were on board. In the 1890s, Steyler missionaries began their Christian missions along the river .

The Europeans now significantly expanded their presence and research along the river. In the 20th century, several other science expeditions were undertaken to explore the river, its banks and tributaries and the surrounding area. The Empress Augusta River Expedition 1912/1913 was financed by the Reich Colonial Office , the Prussian Ministry of Education , to which the Berlin museums were also subordinate, and the German Colonial Society . The expedition participants collected specimens of the local flora and fauna, studied the local tribes and made the first maps of the area. The Angoram settlement was established as a base for further expeditions. With the outbreak of the First World War , the expeditions were stopped.

At the beginning of the war, Australian troops occupied Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land from August 1914. After the end of the war, the Australian government took over the mandate administration over the German colony and founded the territory of New Guinea , under whose jurisdiction the Sepik region fell. During this period the Australians founded Ambunti - as a starting point for further expeditions.

In 1923 the journalist Beatrice Grimshaw was probably the first white woman to take part in a Sepik expedition. In 1935, Sir Walter McNicoll , the new administrator of the New Guinea Territory , traveled up the river to meet the locals and inland.

In 2010 the painter Ingo Kühl , accompanied by the local artist Tom Deko , traveled from Goroka via Madang , Wewak and Maprik to Pagwi and from there on the Sepik upriver to Ambunti and to the villages of Maliwai, Yambon and Yessan. He described his experiences in an illustrated book. In 2012 he repeated this expedition together with his wife and Tom Deko. They reached the settlements of Oum Number 1 and Oum Number 2 and the April River, a tributary of the Sepik.

The second World War

During the Second World War , Japan controlled the Sepik region from early 1942. By the end of the war the Japanese were completely encircled after Hollandia in Dutch New Guinea was captured by the Allies during Operations Reckless and Persecution in 1944 and Aitape during the August campaign 1944 fell. The fighting to the final defeat of the Japanese in the region by the Australian army was tough and protracted because of the terrain.

In July 1945 the Australians pushed the Japanese army back to the village of Timbunke (about mid-way up the Sepik). After a RAAF plane landed 10 km outside Timbunke, the Japanese suspected the villagers of collaborating with the Australians and killed 100 of them. The Japanese finally capitulated at Wewak in September 1945.

literature

Web links

Commons : Sepik  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Ethnography:

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heinrich Schnee (ed.): German Colonial Lexicon. Quelle & Meyer, Leipzig 1920, p. OA
  2. ^ A b Adrian Tappin: Sepik River - Papua Newguinea ( Memento of September 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) , on optusnet.com.au
  3. ↑ iucn.org
  4. ↑ a b Upper Sepik River Basin , whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists
  5. ↑ Sepik River , art-pacific.com
  6. ^ Upper Sepik, Papua New Guinea , wwf.panda.org
  7. ^ Adrian Lipscomb, et al .: Papua New Guinea , 6th Edition, Lonely Planet, February 1998, ISBN 0-86442-402-7 , pp. 249-252.
  8. ^ Rainer F. Buschmann: Anthropology's Global Histories: The Ethnographic Frontier in German New Guinea, 1870-1935. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. 2009.
  9. ↑ Travel journal of the expedition: Ulrike Claas and Paul Rosco: Manuscript XXI, A Journey Up The Sepik River in 1887. Published in: The Journal of Pacific History. 44 (3) 333-43. 2009.
  10. ^ Mary Taylor Huber: The Bishops' Progress: A Historical Ethnography of Catholic Missionary Experience on the Sepik Frontier. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. 1988.
  11. ↑ Lawrence Bragge, Ulrike Claas and Paul Roscoe: On the edge of empire: Military brokers in the Sepik “tribal zone.” Published in: American Anthropologist. 33 (1) 100-113. 2006.
  12. ↑ Thomas Menzel: The Imperial Navy and the Kaiserin Augusta River Expedition 1912/13 ( Memento from January 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Federal Archives (accessed March 30, 2009; web archive accessed December 5, 2018).
  13. ↑ Short biography of Beatrice Grimshaw [1]
  14. ^ JK McCarthy: Patrol into yesterday . FW Cheshire Pty Ltd, Melbourne 1963, ISBN 0701503270 , pp. 139-149.
  15. ^ Ingo Kühl Papua New Guinea
  16. ^ Chapter Seven: Voices from Asia and the Pacific. (No longer available online.) In: War Compensation Forum. Archived from the original on September 28, 2011 ; Retrieved November 7, 2011 . (Web archive accessed December 5, 2018).