Steamboat connections in Netherlands New Guinea (1915)
The blog entries from Andreas Karge obviously show, that field trips can end up with ethnological or religious misunderstandings and xenophobia. Even though the crustahunter were accompanied by officials and scientists from a local university, they were not welcome by natives in West Papua – though no wonder if you enter holy caves by mistake or collect crayfish in fishing grounds of local sellers. I am sorry for the bad experience of the expedition members but perhaps a more sensible approach would have been wise. One should not forget that ‘whites’ brought misery to lot of native people all over the world – and that this experience sticks to collective memory and culture. Besides, political instability, corruption and the regional independence movement bring up even more conflict potential for visitors.
A few pictures and a article in German published by aqua-szene.de
(See also this older article/comment: Who owns the wild shrimp)
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…and the interview with Chris Lukhaup: http://www.crustahunter.com/en/node/388