Transacting Creations: The Kamoro Arts Festival (1998-2006) in Papua.

The Kamoro Arts Festival was organised annually between 1998 and 2006 by the Freeport mining company, which exploits the Amungme and Kamoro region on the southwest coast of Papua. The festival aimed to revive Kamoro culture and provide a market to purchase Kamoro carvings for invited VIP guests. By analysing the Kamoro Arts Festival as a social interaction, this paper investigates the role of the festival format on the production of carvings. These carvings are testimonies of historical and political changes while expressing enduring Kamoro values. Even though the festival is no longer organised, its study reveals some core issues of Kamoro reciprocity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]