On December 11^th, directors Mahardika Yudha and Yonri Revolt will join us for a Q&A session and a screening of their movie Muman Minggil (The Road to Ancestor Land-Jayapura, Papua, 2023). This unique documentary focuses on the work of anthropologist Arnold Ap, the museum where he worked and the music group Mambesak in Papua.

For approximately six years (1978-1984), Mambesak Group tried to find contextual methods for the Papuan people in carrying out works of cultural preservation, rediscovering ancestral values and knowledge which were increasingly lost amid colonialism and modernization. However, their work stopped after the death of Arnold Ap in 1984. Mambesak eventually disbanded and followed by a decline in cultural preservation activities in Papua. The film Muman Minggil attempts to collect and assemble fragments of information about the cultural working methods of Mambesak during their triumph. It interrogates how they contextualize ancestral values and knowledge into a contemporary artistic work which emplaces all stratum of Papuan society as part of their collective work.

Muman Minggil shows how art was used as a medium for education and activism in Papua in the 1970s and how relevant this is to the current state of society. A collaboration between the Yoikatra Collective in Timika and the Cenderawasih University Cultural Museum in Jayapura, the film is the inaugural feature in their broader series dedicated to documenting Papuan epistemologies and ancestral knowledge.