Puwul is nine years old and lives in a country called West Papua. The country is situated on a large island called New Guinea.
Puwul belongs to a tribe called the Yali people. Puwul’s village is located high up in wild and inaccessible mountains in the middle of the island.
There’s about 60 people who live in the village. No one in Puwul’s village have ever seen a city and no one knows anything about televisions or refrigerators, factories and skyscrapers, roads and cars, or noise and pollution.
Puwul’s dad is chief and named Pite. He’s in charge. He is the richest man in the village. Pite has two wives and five children, three pigs and one boar. Pite is the one in the middle of the picture with his bow and arrow.
The two wives are called Tebora and Lolo. Tebora is Pite’s youngest wife and Puwul’s mother. She is standing next to Pite with the other wife. She has a small stick through her nose, and long pearl necklaces around her neck.
To the left of the wives are Puwul’s two sisters, Tene and Tala aged 13 and 14 years old. Furthest to the right is Puwul with his older brother Malo, who is 11 years old.
Puwul’s family. From left to right: Tala, Tene, Lolo, Tebora, Pite, Kuron, Malo and Puwul.
The young man next to Puwul’s father is named Kuron and is 19 years old. Puwul’s father adopted Kuron, when he was a little boy, just six years old. That was because Kuron’s biological parents died.
The Yali people live hard lives. The stone axe is still used when they have to cut down a tree. People don’t have any machines to help them. They have to do everything themselves. In Puwul’s village there’s always work to be done. Otherwise people die of hunger. They eat sweet potatoes and other edible roots and plants every day, which are grown in small gardens.
Boys chop with stone axe.
When Puwul’s father plows the soil, he uses a thick digging stick and his bare hands. It’s a job so tough that the women can’t do it.
The women have to walk far in order to get out and work in the gardens to dig up sweet potatoes, so the family has something to eat.
When the women are going to work they bring their children. Those who cannot walk themselves are carried on the back.