‘Anthropology is not for whimpers!’ was the opening line of Ad Borsboom's heart-warming laudation at my PhD ceremony. With these words Ad transmitted his final teachings to me and referred to my anthropological fieldwork in the interior of the Bird's Head of West Papua. For 13 months, I lived in the village of Ayawasi to conduct research on healing knowledge and rituals in the context of religious change. It was Ad who taught me the love for the Pacific region through his vivid lectures and made me want to conduct my field research in a Pacific culture. Back at the university again, it was Ad who created the possibility for me to turn my data into a doctoral thesis: his confidence in me and my research made him persistent in finding funds for a PhD position. With commitment and enthusiasm he guided me towards the completion of my thesis.

In Papua, I found a teacher in the person of Maria Baru, one of the most renowned healers in the region of Ayawasi. With wisdom and guidance, she took me under her wing as her student and initiated me into healing knowledge and secrets. She was dedicated to her task of giving me a ‘full understanding’ of former and contemporary healing performances and knowledge, in the realm of both indigenous and Christian healing. My journey through the world of healing exposed a rich variety of healing rituals and knowledge. I was taught that the transmission of healing knowledge occurred through initiation, dreaming, and a state equal to meditation, by which ancestors reveal messages and ways to heal by transmitting healing methods and secret formulas. Through initiation, dreaming and meditation the essence of their culture is revealed and transferred. These teach ings behold healing in such a way that it brings and restores balances in peoples lives, both physical as well as spiritual. Within the process of religious change, local people searched for ways to restore and maintain balances in their lives, in which the teachings evolved from knowledge to consciousness.

Transmitting Indigenous Healing Knowledge

Let me take you on a short voyage through the teachings of Maria Baru in relation to some elementary parts of the process I referred to above.