Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Title
AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples
Publisher
SAGE
School
School of Arts and Humanities
RAS ID
64644
Funders
Australia Awards Scholarship Program
Abstract
This article explores kapori, an Indigenous form of storytelling to investigate and report experiences, motivations, responses, and challenges of sorcery accusation–related violence (SARV) by the Yuri people, a tribal group from the Papua New Guinea highlands. SARV is attributed to the belief that some people use supernatural powers to cause illness, deaths, or misfortunes to a community and, therefore, become targets of violent accusations. We outline the rationale for incorporating kapori into SARV research and discuss the findings from a storytelling workshop with 14 participants representing 13 clans of Yuri. The findings suggest that key strategies for curbing SARV include building community capacity to respond to the challenges of SARV, addressing the physical and emotional scars of SARV, and valuing collective interventions to prevent SARV. The use of kapori in this research helped to diversify, expand, and circulate Yuri narratives about SARV to support prevention strategies.
DOI
10.1177/11771801231197822
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Comments
Witne, B. D., Thomas, V., Kauli, J., & Spurgeon, C. (2023). Kapori: Researching local responses to sorcery accusation–related violence in Papua New Guinea through Indigenous storytelling. Alternative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 19(4), 814-823. https://doi.org/10.1177/11771801231197822