Good thing the Abui tribe no longer headhunts. Although on Indonesia’s remote Alor island, a village elder menacingly pointed a rustic bow and arrow at me, his time-etched face stoic and his white hair capped by a candelabra-like ornament of feathers. A sharpened machete protruded from a sheath belted to his one-shouldered ancestral sarong.

Turns out, accompanied by beating drums, clanging gongs, and shrill unnerving shrieks, this was part of an Abui welcoming rite. After that hello, I soon joined traditionally dressed villagers in the emotionally stirring “lego-lego” circle dance, our arms interlocked around other’s waists in a powerful, joyful symbol of unity. The women’s brass ankle bracelets rhythmically jangled with each barefooted stomp (even when I accidentally trampled their toes).

The lego-lego dance, a tradition of the Abui people on Alor island, symbolizes community solidarity and harmony. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Elsewhere, in other far-flung corners of the vast Indonesian archipelago, I’d sip homemade hootch with a different ethnic clan, get frighteningly close to wild, hissing Komodo dragons, and be among honored guests at a water buffalo race in a muddy-wet rice paddy.

An Indonesian fishing boat is a contrast to the Ponant cruise ship in the low-touristed West Papua province. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

I had this remarkable opportunity to visit communities rarely seen by outsiders because, along with 114 fellow passengers, I sailed on a superb Ponant expedition cruise with an enterprising itinerary — and inflatable Zodiacs to ferry us to heritage-brimming distant shores. There are scores of languages (Alor itself has 19), dialects and customs in these diverse, colorful hinterlands that heavily depend on subsistence fishing and agriculture; however, wherever we traveled during Ponant’s 13-day island-hopping “Tropical Indonesian Odyssey,” villagers were extremely friendly and enthused to meet strangers from the sleek Le Jacques Cartier ship. When leaving various places, some local men, women and children formed the heart sign with their curved fingers and warmly projected it at us.

Ponant’s surprise “hydration station” offers up French Champagne to Zodiac passengers exploring Triton Bay, Indonesia. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

In unpopulated realms, we relished the striking, natural beauty of the pristine West Papua region; our 10-person Zodiacs glided through emerald-green bays dominated by jungle-coated limestone pinnacles vaulting from the seas. After our raft navigated a lush bend before noon on a hot day, surprise! We came upon Ponant’s “hydration station,” a floating Zodiac with two employees pouring chilled, brut Henriot Champagne into flutes for us thirsty adventurers. Ponant is a French-based luxury cruise company so we enjoyed many fun ooh la las on our 2,376-mile voyage.

Another early morning, a pair of lengthy, decorative kora kora war canoes — each filled with 30 rowers boisterously chanting in concert —  popped up alongside our ship to theatrically escort it into the submerged volcanic caldera of Banda Neira island. Known as one of the fabled “Spice Islands,”  the colonial, blood-soaked history of Banda Neira would soon unfold.

First, though, we were cheerily entertained by island singers and dancers, all brightly attired in festive clothes, the women’s hijabs adorned with flowers in this predominantly Muslim enclave. Centuries ago, the Banda Islands were the only spot in the world that grew nutmeg and sister spice mace, both from native myristica trees.

“Very expensive. In the middle centuries, nutmeg cost more than gold,” said my local guide named Mr. Man.

Despite its brutal history in the Banda Islands, nutmeg fruit is still grown there. The hard seed inside produces the nutmeg spice; the red wrapping around the seed is the spice called mace. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Eventually, the Dutch wanted a complete monopoly of the lucrative nutmeg trade, so they conquered Banda Neira and ultimately “killed or starved 14,000 inhabitants; the 1,000 left became slaves,” he said, We were standing in the grassy field of crumbled Dutch Fort Nassau, the landmark scene of a massacre. “The Dutch paid Japanese samurai to come over and on May 8, 1621 they killed 44 Bandanese family leaders right here,” adding that victims were grisly quartered and their decapitated heads flaunted on bamboo poles.

Mr. Man next ushered my small group into Fort Belgica, where we entered the pitch-black, dank, bat-occupied former jail cells of Bandanese men and women. Finally, he had us linger in the haunting “executioner’s room” while he dropped to his knees and put his head on a chopping block in a disturbing demonstration.

Mysterious moko drums sit on an Abui tribe altar. The Abui people believe mokos came from the gods, although scholars don’t know why mokos were found buried on the island of Alor. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Every island had a story that inhabitants wanted to share. Alor, where we met the Abui tribe, is called “The Island of a Thousand Mokos” because mokos — bronze hourglass-shaped kettledrums — have been mysteriously dug up from the ground since ancient times. Mokos have roots dating back 2,000 years in Vietnam but no one knows how they arrived at this Indonesian outpost and why they were buried. They’re still being unearthed on Alor.

Local boatmen get a look at Ponant’s Le Jacques Cartier cruise ship, anchored off Alor island in Indonesia. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Littler mokos, say 20 inches tall, now function as musical instruments but more importantly as dowries for a potential groom to pay the bride’s family. (A popular saying in Alor is: “No moko, no marriage.”) Larger mokos “are more ceremonial, especially to call for the rain or to stop the rain,” said Yanti, a docent at a modest museum exhibiting these mystical status symbols.

A lethal Komodo dragon appears quite close to onlookers in Komodo National Park. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

As for revered icons, scaly nightmarish ones eyed us on Komodo island in Komodo National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are only a few places on Earth — mainly Komodo but also some neighboring Indonesian islands —  where Komodo dragons roam in their natural habitat, searching to sink their serrated teeth and poison into their next meal. These bruisers can weigh up to 300 pounds and span up to 10 feet long.

It gets scarier. The primeval lizards also harbor over 50 strains of bacteria in their mouths and their venomous saliva contains an anticoagulant and toxins that induce blood loss, shock, and paralysis in its victim. If bitten, its prey (deer are a favorite) may escape but normally dies within four days. Komodo dragons can sniff out the carcass from 2.5 miles away to feed on it.

These guys may seem thirsty but when it comes to food, Komodo dragons can consume up to 80% of their body weight and not eat again for a month. This is in Komodo National Park. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

“People are usually not on their diet,” assured Alfaruk, my resident Komodo guide. He then told of a villager who was collecting honey from a beehive when a dragon ambushed and gnawed him to shreds.

In addition to Alfaruk, we were chaperoned by park ranger Sahado, who carried a 6-foot-long, two-pronged wooden pole to thwart any attacks on us. Sahado said he could immobilize a dragon by pressing the stick on its thick neck. Hopefully I wouldn’t find out if that questionable defense worked.

Komodo dragons, seen here at Komodo National Park, are the largest, heaviest lizards on the planet. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

We’d been walking on a dusty trail — Alfaruk pointing out fresh icky Komodo scat — when suddenly seven massive dragons appeared out of nowhere around a watering hole. It was like stumbling upon dinosaurs. Fascinating and freaky, the legendary reptiles lumbered unevenly on all four legs and constantly flicked out their creepy forked tongues. The noisy racket of hissing was straight from a monster movie. A couple of them bumped against each other as if to fight. (They’re also cannibals who eat one another.)

Alfaruk drew a line in the dirt and told us to not go past, although a few dragons were already just a couple yards away. “Get back! Get back!” he soon shouted as one inched closer.  Incidentally, those forked tongues can smell out prey.

Interestingly, most islanders believe dragons are spiritual guardians, even ancestors, and honorably refer to them as “oras.” Such awe stems from a feel-good, harmonious Indonesian folktale about twin siblings born to the Dragon Princess — one human and the other a Komodo named Ora,

The Blue Eye is an underwater cocktail lounge aboard Ponant’s Le Jacques Cartier ship and others of its explorer fleet. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

After excursions and reef snorkeling, passengers basked in our 92-cabin buoyant hotel and perhaps more specifically, the spaceship-like underwater bar, the Blue Eye. Cast in bluish neon tones, the lounge is intended to make guests feel like they’re inside a whale —  two large oval portholes are supposed to micmic a cetacean’s eyes from where you can view real marine creatures in the sea. (I’d been in a Blue Eye on another terrific Ponant cruise and like this time I didn’t see anything); also the ceiling’s frame is designed to resemble a whale’s skeleton. I blissfully zoned out on a Blue Eye curved couch one afternoon during an, om, serene meditation session led by a crew dancer and her velvety soothing voice. At night, the Blue Eye featured both Beatle and ABBA events with songs and video backdrops.

The pool deck of Le Jacques Cartier is a great place for al fresco dining or drinks. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Among other onboard highlights: educational talks by our naturalists (separate lectures in English and French), water aerobics in the pool, cha-cha lessons, choux pastry tea time, and a themed White Party. But nearly everyone focused on the upcoming intriguing community we’d call upon. Also, great to know Ponant donates money and supplies to villages we visited. (This itinerary next departs June 17, from $10,650 per person, although other Ponant cruises include some of the same stops; us.ponant.com.)

Shopkeepers in the village of Ngilngof sell wares just across from beautiful Ngurbloat Beach in the Kei Islands. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Our very first people encounter, on the powdery white Ngurbloat Beach of Kei Kecil island, showcased the immense pride and venerated traditions we’d witness with all our hosts. While Ngilngof village matrons sang with outstretched arms, a male elder strolled around to toss blessed coconut water on us.

Local kids play on Ngurbloat Beach, a gorgeous stretch of coconut tree-fringed soft sands in the Kei islands, Indonesia. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

“He sprinkles it for purification of ourselves,” Ichwan, a local, later told me. “It puts out positive vibes of the environment to support the tourists.”

Fearsome, bare-chested young men whooped and jumped with bows and arrows during the cakalele war dance, repeated for centuries especially before or after tribal battles. “This is the spirit of their ancestors,” Ichwan explained.

In the Kei islands, a young man readies to perform the cakalele war dance, a sacred custom once done before and after battles. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

On Flores island, in Sikkanese-speaking Watublapi village, an intense ritual culminated with an agile warrior scampering up a soaring pole and balancing atop it on his back and stomach. Here, the hospitable Sikka indigenous people offered each of us gifts in halved coconut shells, including hand-grown tobacco cigarettes wrapped in corn husks, (a non-smoker, I took a few puffs out of respect) homemade booze concocted from fermented palm tree sap (it was strong!) and betel nut, an addictive stimulant that has been chewed for millennia and permanently turns users’ mouths red and teeth black (no thank you). The latter is actually areca nut enclosed in a betel leaf and taken with slaked lime, a white chemical compound found in plaster.

A member of the Sikka ethnic group wears traditional clothing in the mountainside Watublapi village on Flores island. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

I opted for the delicious dark sticky rice cakes instead. Nearby, tribal girls and their moms sat on thatched mats and spun cotton, dyed threads from plants, and laboriously wove traditional ikat textiles, a method said to date back 5,000 years. In this region, both men and women wore ikat fabrics, often as sarongs and incorporating geometric patterns or birds or flowers.

Handwoven ikat textiles, such as these in Watublapi village, are made and worn by various ethnic groups throughout the Indonesian archipelago. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Another day, on Sumbawa island in Pamulung village, I pounded rice, a hallowed tradition we observed in other settlements with female members in cadence pummeling a giant pestle into a mortar to detach hard hulls from the edible rice. Pamulung women often smear their faces with a paste made from rice flour and turmeric powder; the masks supposedly act as a sunscreen and keep their skin looking young.

A Sumbawa woman wears a face paste of rice flour and turmeric powder as a sunscreen and beauty aid, a popular treatment in her Pamulung village. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

And now the big splash. Pamulung has raced water buffalo for eons to laud the annual planting of rice, and in our honor a raucous contest was held. For each adrenaline-fueled individual attempt, a pair of yoked horned entrants, some festooned with facial decor, madly dashed straight ahead through a flooded rice field, while their teetering jockey tried to balance on a slat of wood and often plunged into knee-high sludgy water. Multiple bovine teams took turns competing; the winning buffalo would be the fastest who knocked into a target stick in the water. A shaman was still tallying results when we left.

A jockey tries to steer his water buffalo team on the flooded rice field racecourse in Pamulung village. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Yes, I was on a five-star cruise, but I experienced true riches on our visits — the villagers’ enormous respect for ancestors and age-old traditions, a profound responsibility and love of community, and a deep-seated kinship with nature. I sensed it all when dancing the bonding lego-lego dance in a circling line with my 30-plus new Abui friends, arms locked around each other’s waists or over shoulders, in the humble hilltop village of Latafui.

In Latafui village, on Alor island, the Abui indigenous people exude a feeling of togetherness while continuing ancestral customs. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

“Lego-lego has a meaning,” a tribal representative said. “It means when a family has something bad happen, others will come and cheer them up or help. And when they have glory, they will all celebrate together.”

Sacred moko drums, a connection to divine spirits, perched on the tribe’s stone altar. A smiling red-lipped woman offered us betel nuts from her fu’ulak, a woven bamboo bag, And at the end, we all were asked to please stay a few minutes longer. Every tribe member wanted to personally thank each one of us and shake our hand.

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(Ben Sargent)

To see more political cartoons from Ben Sargent, visit our Loon Star State section. Find Observer political reporting here.

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Changes to the Gowanus Canal, part of a major cleanup project in the notoriously polluted waterway, are resulting in loss of mussel habitat. But community intervention could increase the Atlantic ribbed mussel population, with promising implications for the Canal’s future.

An estimated more than 300,000 mussels call the Gowanus Canal home, according to the The Gowanus Dredgers Club. (Jaysa Dold)

Gary Francis had spent much of his life fishing, boating and diving in the vast blue waters of the Caribbean. 

When he came to New York City, he was mystified. The city is surrounded by water, but access to it was incredibly limited. Largely closed off and isolated, the city’s water was unwelcoming, much of it bordered by barbed wire or “no trespassing” signs.

Eventually, he found a home paddleboarding in the most unlikely of places: the Gowanus Canal. 

“Everybody loves to hate on the Gowanus Canal,” said Francis, who is now captain of the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club. “Even as abused as it is, it is still incredibly beautiful and full of life.”

One particularly important piece of life in the Canal: the Atlantic ribbed mussel, known for its ability to filter water. Francis has been crafting artificial habitats to encourage the growth of these mussels, whose previous spaces are being threatened by changes to the Canal’s structure. 

The Gowanus Canal is a notoriously polluted body of water. In the 19th century, it boomed as a commercial hub and supported large numbers of factories and chemical plants. This industrialization, coupled with an ongoing sewage overflow issue, led to its designation as a federal Superfund site in 2010. 

A Superfund site is an area that has been identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as especially contaminated and hazardous. The agency oversees the cleanup of these locations.

Before its industrialization, the Gowanus Canal was a thriving salt marsh ecosystem. Now, it has a more inhospitable reputation, known for the “black mayonnaise” tar-like sludge that sits 10 feet thick along the waterway’s bottom. 

A Combined Sewer Overflow point at the Southeast corner of the Carroll Street Bridge over the Gowanus Canal, pictured here in 2020. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

Despite massive amounts of pollution, resilient organisms such as the Atlantic ribbed mussel have learned to survive in the Canal, where a $1.6 billion cleanup effort that broke ground two years ago is underway.

The cleanup looks to dredge the Canal of its contaminated sediment layer, cap off the dredged areas to prevent recontamination and construct two new tanks to capture sewage and stormwater from overflowing into the waterway when it rains.

But structural changes from the Superfund project may put the mussel population at risk, local environmentalists say.

“I would almost argue we’ve seen less biodiversity because oddly, all those shorelines that were not safe and good for anything—those were the biodiversity hot spots,” said Jennifer Kepler, education manager of the Gowanus Canal Conservancy. “There were nooks and crannies and spaces for things to hide and sit and grow.”

Many of the Canal’s mussels lived on the wooden bulkheads that reinforced the banks before the Superfund cleanup began. But the EPA has started to replace those wooden bulkheads with stronger steel ones. 

While steel bulkheads provide the Canal with greater reinforcement, the swap destroys the mussels’ previous habitats, as the smooth surface of steel is uninhabitable compared to the porous texture of wood.

Mussels are 103 times more likely to be found on wood than on steel, according to a report published in 2021 by the Gowanus Canal Conservancy.

Francis noticed this habitat decline as he was paddling on the Canal. An ornamental plasterer by trade, he decided to use his skills to design and create artificial mussel habitats to replace those lost during the cleanup work.

In partnership with the Gowanus Canal Conservancy, Francis and the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club welcome local high school students to come to the Canal, learn about its ecosystem and design mock mussel habitats out of clay, cardboard or tinfoil. Francis then takes the student-made designs and uses them as inspiration for the Canal-bound structures. 

“I’ve made many samples and tests,”said Francis, who’s been workshopping these habitats for six years. “What matters most is placement—where it is in the tidal spectrum—texture, and moisture.”

Francis started installing test models in 2019 and has since been experimenting with a variety of materials and installation methods. The final habitat modules are mostly made of concrete, which offers ideal texture and longevity. The habitats sit on steel shelves hung from the bulkheads. 

Cement artificial habitats sit on steel shelves that hang from the Canal’s new bulkheads. (Photos by Gary Francis)

The Gowanus Dredgers Club estimates the Canal’s current mussel population to be 362,700. If Francis’ project is successful, it could have positive implications for the ecological health of the Canal. A strong mussel population has a number of benefits.

Mussels are powerful freshwater filters that convert raw materials—such as the sewage that overflows into the Canal—into fertilizer, according to Denise Mayer, curator of malacology at the New York State Museum. They also increase biodiversity, reinforce shorelines and are a keystone species of salt marsh environments. 

“Salt marshes are one of the most productive ecosystems on the planet,” said Mayer. “They’re hugely impactful for combating things like climate change.”

Francis started installing his replacement habitats in March of this year. He has yet to see mussels set up shop—but biofilm, barnacles, worms and other signs of life have begun to accumulate in the structures. 

He said mussels will take “a bit longer,” but he’s optimistic. The mussels spawn in late summer, and he believes this spawn will lead to mussel recruitment onto the habitats in the near future.

Kepler finds the mollusks a reason to feel hopeful. 

“A lot of people think the Gowanus Canal is this broken place that’s the end of times,” she said. “Nature figures out how to heal and find its balance. If we could just help it along I think it would find its balance quite well.”

To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org. Want to republish this story? Find City Limits’ reprint policy here.

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By MICHELLE L. PRICE, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has called New York City’s Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani a “100% Communist Lunatic” and a “total nut job.” Mamdani has called Trump’s administration “authoritarian” and described himself as “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare.”

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So their first-ever meeting, scheduled for Friday at 3 p.m. EST at the White House, could be a curious and combustible affair.

Despite months of casting each other as prime adversaries, the Republican president and new Democratic star have also indicated an openness to finding areas of agreement that help the city they’ve both called home.

Mamdani, a democratic socialist who takes office in January, said he sought the meeting with Trump to talk about ways to make New York City more affordable. Trump has said he may want to help him out — although he has also falsely labeled Mamdani as a “communist” and threatened to yank federal funds from his hometown.

But for both men, the meeting offers opportunities beyond any areas of potential bipartisan agreement.

The two men are convenient political foils for each other, and taking the other one on can galvanize their supporters.

Trump loomed large over the mayoral race this year, and on the eve of the election, endorsed independent candidate and former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, predicting the city has “ZERO chance of success, or even survival” if Mamdani won. He also questioned the citizenship of Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and became a naturalized American citizen after graduating from college, and said he’d have him arrested if he followed through on threats not to cooperate with immigration agents in the city.

Mamdani beat back a challenge from Cuomo, painting him as a “puppet” for the president, and said he would be “a mayor who can stand up to Donald Trump and actually deliver.” He declared during one primary debate, “I am Donald Trump’s worst nightmare, as a progressive Muslim immigrant who actually fights for the things that I believe in.”

The president, who has long used political opponents to fire up his backers, predicted Mamdani “will prove to be one of the best things to ever happen to our great Republican Party.” As Mamdani upended the Democratic establishment by defeating Cuomo and his far-left progressive policies provoked infighting, Trump repeatedly has cast Mamdani as the face of Democratic Party.

For Mamdani, a sit-down with the president of the United States offers the state lawmaker who until recently was relatively unknown the chance to go head-to-head with the most powerful person in the world.

The meeting gives Trump a high-profile chance to talk about affordability at a time when he’s under increasing political pressure to show he’s addressing voter concerns about the cost of living.

But that’s if the meeting doesn’t turn rocky.

A chance for some Oval Office drama

It was not immediately clear whether cameras will be allowed into the meeting. Trump’s daily schedule said it will be private, but the president often invites in a small “pool” of reporters at the last minute.

The president has had some dramatic public Oval Office faceoffs this year, including an infamously heated exchange with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in March. In May, Trump dimmed the lights while meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and played a four-minute video making widely rejected claims that South Africa is violently persecuting the country’s white Afrikaner minority farmers.

A senior Trump administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions said Trump had not put a lot of thought into planning the meeting with the incoming mayor — but said Trump’s threats to block federal dollars from flowing to New York remained on the table.

Mamdani said Thursday that he was not concerned about the president potentially trying to use the meeting to publicly embarrass him and said he saw it as a chance to make his case, even while acknowledging “many disagreements with the president.”

If the president does use the meeting as a public confrontation, Mamdani may be uniquely ready for it.

He, like Trump, was a relative political outsider who rose to victory with a populist message that promised a break from the establishment, known for his savvy navigation of the spotlight and a distinctive use of social media.

Mamdani, who lives in Queens — where Trump was raised — also has shown a cutthroat streak. During his campaign, he appeared to borrow from Trump’s playbook when he noted during a televised debate with Cuomo that one of the women who had accused the former governor of sexual harassment was in the audience. Cuomo has denied wrongdoing.

The moment evoked Trump’s tactics before a debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, when he appeared with accusers of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who denied the accusations against him.

Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani in Washington and Anthony Izaguirre in New York contributed to this report.