How Long Will This Traditional Boats of Community in South Sorong Survive?

Canoe I found in 2008 still constructed with materials from nature

Jimmy Nelson is one the Man i'm impress with his love in documenting the culture, tradition, way of live and other issues that under threat to be extinct in the current modern live. All documentary movies, picture and stories he has produces with theme "before they pass away" have inspiring me to write this story. Yaaaa.. this is about the canoe house that become a main transportation vehicles for the traditional papuan community in South Sorong. I was felt in love with this small canoe when in 2008 I did my research on Sago in Kais, Metamani and Buuk Sub-District where I found the community brought Sago powder from their village to reach the markets by sailed with this canoe. After almost 8 years I went back to this place for village forests meeting and putted in my agenda to check whether I still able to find this traditional small canoe houses or not.

As a mobile house, this canoe is equipped with all domestic needs particularly for cooking, bathing and sleeping. The small chamber withe long not event reach 4 m x 1 m are occupied by one household consists of 5 - 6 people. The body of the boats are made from hard woods while the wall, floor and roofs are made from Sago, bambo and some people using "nipah" trees. One man always sitting behind to paddle with speed of about 5-10 KM/hour depending on the whether and water stream. In 2008 when I was in Kais District for my Sago research (About 4 hours from the Town of Temibuan by long motor boat) I asked the community how long do you take to gets the town from here with this canoe, they said it usually between 2 - 3 days depending on the whether and plan if they should stop in the relative or harvesting plots or proceed directly to town.

The questioned came to my head in 2008 was "How long will this traditional small boats will survive with the massive changes in infrastructure includes all the modern facilities the government is providing to answer the transportation problem?". Some of the people looked this as a problem in term of safety and time the community should spend on the ways. Some people also counting the energy and logistic the community should expended during the long trip of paddling the canoe. I though it may will only survive in 5 - 10 years and they will move to the modern and fast transportation vehicles like the motor boat I used. In October 2016 I got that chance to assess the question i had 8 years ago. In the morning of 7th October I went down to the harbor and looking for this boats. I found one boats still in the same sizes but has physically different in material they used for wall and roof. The boat I saw has uses plastic roof (terpal) as a roof and wall inside the floor is the combination of woods and synthetic mattress changed from the previous "Pandan" mattress. Physically its has changed. The numbers is also reduced from the previous i counted. I aslo found that paddle is not longers a tools to bring the canoe moves, there are new small scale motor boats they used to sails the boat.

new modified canoe with synthetic materials I found in 2016 Just in about 8 years changed has happen to this boats. How long does it will survive in this modern world changes? How the government is seeing this boats? Do they they look this as a problem or a potency of tourism and local heritage that people can only find here is South Sorong? What action to we needs to make sure this tradition, values and its old beauty of naturals uses products to still survive or at least modified in aesthetic pattern? Will this community consider and take a serious action to protects the knowledge and skill on building this boats? Many question are then coming in the facts that many changed has happening.