About the People Group
Flowing 700 miles on its way to the sea, the Sepik River drains 30,000 square miles of Papua New Guinea’s northwestern frontier and is home to some 240,000 people who speak more than 300 languages. Many areas are very remote area, accessible only by plane or days of river travel in a dugout canoe. The Sepik territory has none of the advances of modern life and is surrounded by swamps, jungle and small mountains. The climate is very tropical, with high temperatures and humidity and approximately 20 feet of rain a year.
The people are semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers who rely on the natural resources from the rivers, swamps and jungles around them for almost everything they need to survive. They obtain their staple food, sac-sac, from sago palms by cutting them open, scraping out the center and pouring water through the pulp. Then they collect the milky white runoff, allow the starch to settle out, dry it and later reconstitute it into a thick sticky paste that they flavor with jungle meat or fish.
Due to the lack of nutritional value in sac-sac and their other food sources, the Ama people are often malnourished. The Ama also suffer from many devastating diseases and medical conditions such as malaria, pneumonia, dysentery, diarrhea, skin fungi, tropical ulcers, injuries from accidents and birth complications.
The people are animists who live in fear and bondage to demons who masquerade as departed ancestors and nature spirits. Every aspect of their life experiences, beliefs and culture are dominated by fear of these spirits.
About the Project
Adventist Frontier Missions sends missionaries to some of the remotest places on earth to share the Gospel with people who are hearing it for the very first time. So how just how remote are the Sepik people? The nearest hotel is located some 300+ kilometers away.
People-Group Facts
- People Groups: There are several villages and local language groups along the Sepik River area.
- Trade Language: Tok Pisin
- Religion: The majority of the population is animist.
