Skin and Wetness: Stories and Theories of Hunger in West Papua

In her recent book Land of Famished Beings, Sophie Chao asks what we learn by talking about hunger in Indigenous communities inhabiting today’s resource frontiers: the places from which what we eat, wear and build with are extracted. Drawing on a decade of engagement with Indigenous Marind People inhabiting the Indonesian-occupied region of West Papua, first as activist and then as anthropologist, Sophie will speak about physical and metaphysical nourishment and hunger and justice and violence, between and amongst species, communities, and states. She will show how profound, vital theories emerge from ordinary lives lived in close relation with other species, and how ordinary aspects of human experience such as skin and wetness not only connect us with other creatures, but carry complex knowledges and notions of freedom. The talk will also reflect on the ethical and political stakes of conducting anthropological research today, and the significance of reckoning, responsibility, recognition, and the work of repair.

Dr Sophie Chao is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Sydney. Her research investigates ecology, capitalism, health, food, and justice in the Pacific. She is author of several books that have been widely read and critically acclaimed: In the Shadow of the Palms: More-Than-Human Becomings in West Papua (2022) and Land of Famished Beings: West Papuan Theories of Hunger (2025) and co-editor of The Promise of Multispecies Justice (2022) and Beyond Bios: The Life of Matter and the Matter of Life (2026), all published by Duke University Press. Chao is of Sino-French heritage and lives on unceded Gadigal lands in Sydney, Australia.

Photo by Max Tcvetkov on Unsplash.