Salt Lake residents Steve Chiaramonte and Angela Keeney, known frequent visitors to the swamp-jungles of New Guinea, will have the unusual honor of hosting six Ambassadors from several Asmat Villages at their Midvale home in late April. Among the respected group of visitors will be Yufen Biakai, Director of the Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress, Agats, Irian Jaya. In addition, five accomplished artists will be in attendance including a Cultural Chief from the village of Syuru and several past award recipients in the annual competition among Asmat wood carvers held each October for the past seventeen years. All six visitors are key leaders of the newly formed Lembaga Musawarah Adat Asmat (LMAA). This Asmat-led, philanthropic foundation was formed by the Asmat people with the hope to preserve their vibrant culture and to protect the natural tropical environment of their homeland.
The primary focus of the visit is to provide a continued opportunity for Utahns to learn about the Asmat people and their culture. Previous opportunities included the exhibitions of Asmat Art: Renaissance at the Jungle's Edge; Genesis, Prohibition and Rebirth in the Art and Ritual of the Asmat last spring and The Art of the Asmat which ran for six months during 1994, both curated at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts by Chiaramonte. As for the Asmat visitors themselves, a particular interest noted by all six members of the group is to confer with Native Americans for whom they feel a strong bond of spirituality and kinship. They recognize parallels in the plight of indigenous peoples and hope to gain inspiration and knowledge from Native Americans living on their ancestral lands.
The group will be in Midvale for three days beginning Saturday afternoon, April 24th. On Sunday, April 25th, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts at the University of Utah Campus will host a gallery talk at 2:00 p.m. to share with Museum patrons a deeper understanding of Asmat ritual and the present situation in Asmat. Following the talk, the community is invited to the Equatorial Arts Gallery at the Chiaramonte/Keeney home, where they will host an Asmat Art and Cultural Experience from 7:00 p.m. onwards. The event is free to the public and weather permitting, attendees are encouraged to bring camping gear and join the Asmat in an extended evening of backyard drumming, story-telling and cultural interaction expected to last until dawn.
Those seeking additional information or wishing to assist the Lembaga Musawarah Adat Asmat (LMAA) should call Chiaramonte or Keeney by telephone at (801) 567-9869 or by email.
Yufensius Alphons Biakai (Yufen)
Village of Yamas
Donatus Pombai (Donatus or Don)
Village of Syuru
Abraham Desnam
Village of Syuru
Siprianus Yumko
Village of Yufri
Robertus Acu ( Robert)
Village of Desa Mbis, Agats
Alfons Fembes (Alfons)
Village of Yeni