Villagers in West Papua

On a September-October Indonesia cruise, we spent two days in small boats visiting villages in the province of West Papua (Irian Jaya). We attended a shield festival, and women of the village greeted us in canoes, accompanying our small boats to the village. There, villagers took the shields out of the longhouse, went up the river in canoes and displayed them in lines on the shore amid lots of chanting and singing. We followed in small boats with our cameras. — DORIS NEILSON, Avoca, MI