Teaching performance art is like sharpening the blade of a knife

The music, dance and narrative practice of Arnold Ap, Sam Kapissa and the performance troupe Mambesak may appear to conform to the Indonesian state project of inventorising local cultures in the context of unified national culture. This paper examines the political project of using cultural performance to build an alternative identity. Ap and Kapissa documented and rearranged traditional music and dances, Irianised foreign music and drew on local metaphors and meanings in new compositions. Ap’s evocative music and his status as national martyr provide inspiration to West Papuans in exile and in the homeland Irian Jaya.