 Noken bags | |
| Type | Knotted or wovenbag |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | Western New Guinea, Indonesia |
| Noken multifunctional knotted or woven bag, handcraft of the people of Papua | |
|---|---|
| Country | Indonesia |
| Reference | 00619 |
| Region | Asia and the Pacific |
| Inscription history | |
| Inscription | 2012 (7th session) |
| List | Need of Urgent Safeguarding |
Noken (from Biak inoken) is a traditionalPapuan multifunctional knotted or wovenbag native to theWestern New Guinea region,Indonesia. Its distinctive usage, which involves being hung from the head, is traditionally used to carry various goods, and also children.
In 2012,noken was listed in theUNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists as a cultural heritage ofIndonesia.[1] Women carrying noken are still a common sight inWamena.[2]
On December 4, 2020,Google celebrated noken with aGoogle Doodle.[3]
In several areas ofCentral Papua andHighland Papua,noken – instead of the usual ballot box – is preferred as a way to place ballots, where it is recognized as a ballot tool and system where abig man (primarily chieftains) cast votes for the tribe ornoken gantung, where the tribe members and the chief collectively decide to vote unanimously in the regional leadership elections.[4][5] Opponents to the system has challenged the use ofnoken as fraught with potential for abuse and have challenged it in theConstitutional Court of Indonesia. The court defended the limited use ofnoken for avoidinginter-tribal warfare, but ruled that regencies that have usedone man, one vote system cannot return tonoken system.[6]
For the2024 election, twelve regencies in Central and Highland Papua used thenoken system to some extent, and seven of the twelve regencies used thenoken system in all polling stations.[7]
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| Techniques and motifs | ||
| Items | ||
| Crocheted lace | ||
| Related | ||
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