Paper short abstract:

This contribution examines how indigenous Marind communities in West Papua become-with the forest by attuning to its human and other-than-human songs, stories, and sounds. I then analyze the challenges faced by Marind in storying monocrop oil palm landscapes and their deadly sounds and silence.

Paper long abstract:

This contribution examines how indigenous Marind communities in West Papua story the forest by attuning to its human and other-than-human songs, movements, and sounds. In particular, I examine how Marind incorporate the sounds of the forest in their participatory mapping practices, which are guided by the songs and sound of birds and other sentient forest beings. I then examine the challenges faced by Marind in storying monocrop oil palm plantations, that are expanding rapidly across indigenous territories in West Papua. In particular, I analyze the frictions that arise among Marind over how to interpret and relate to the deadly bioacoustics of monocrop landscapes, where sounds of life are replaced by sounds of destruction. The provocation seeks to highlight the importance of non-ocular mediums for sensing ecological change and degradation, the meaningful dissonances that arise in the colliding ecologies of forest and plantation, and the creative ways in which indigenous Marind themselves torque sounds of life and destruction in their spatial representational practices.