Noken

Noken (from Biak: inoken) is a traditional Papuan multifunctional knotted or woven bag native to the Western New Guinea region, Indonesia. Its distinctive usage, which involves being hung from the head, is traditionally used to carry various goods, and also children.

Cultural significance
In 2012, noken was listed in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists as a cultural heritage of Indonesia. Women carrying noken are still a common sight in Wamena.

On December 4, 2020, Google celebrated noken with a Google Doodle.

Usage in politics


In several areas of Central Papua and Highland 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 a big man (primarily chieftains) cast votes for the tribe or noken gantung, where the tribe members and the chief collectively decide to vote unanimously in the regional leadership elections. Opponents to the system has challenged the use of noken as fraught with potential for abuse and have challenged it in the Constitutional Court of Indonesia. The court defended the limited use of noken for avoiding inter-tribal warfare, but ruled that regencies that have used one man, one vote system cannot return to noken system.

For the 2024 election, twelve regencies in Central and Highland Papua used the noken system to some extent, and seven of the twelve regencies used the noken system in all polling stations.