The Sepik ()Standard English sources list the pronunciation as However within Papua New Guinea the river is pronounced "(/ˈsiːpɪk/)ː" as in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40qdo3Evjy0 is the longest river on the island of New Guinea, and the third largest in Oceania by discharge volume after the Fly and Mamberamo.Fragmentation and Flow Regulation of the World’s Large River Systems The majority of the river flows through the Papua New Guinea (PNG) provinces of Sandaun (formerly West Sepik) and East Sepik, with a small section flowing through the Indonesian province of Papua.
The Sepik has a large catchment area, and landforms that include swamplands and mountains. Biologically, the river system is often said to be possibly the largest uncontaminated freshwater wetland system in the Asia-Pacific region. Numerous fish and plant species have been introduced into the Sepik since the mid-20th century.
Name In 1884, Germany asserted control over the northeast quadrant of the island of New Guinea, which became part of the German colonial empire. The colony was initially managed by the Deutsche Neuguinea-Kompagnie or German New Guinea Company, a commercial enterprise that christened the territory Kaiser-Wilhelmsland. The first European ship to enter the Sepik estuary was the Samoa in May 1885. But the river, in fact, did not yet have a European name. It was thus termed Kaiserin Augustafluß by the explorer and scientist Otto Finsch, after the German Empress Augusta.
The word Sipik was first reported by A. FullFull, A. 1909. "Eine Fahrt auf dem Kaiserin Augustafluß". Deutsches Kolonialblatt: Amtsblatt für die Schutzgebiete in Afrika und in der Südsee 20 (15) 739-41; 744–745. as one of two names for the watercourse—the other being Abschima—used by the natives living at the mouth of the river. A few years later, Leonhard Schultze applied the term Sepik to the entire watercourse, and it took, although Schultze also noted another name for the river, Azimar.Schultz, Leonhard. 1914. Forschungen im Innern der Insel Neuginea: Bericht des Führers über die wissenschaftlichen Ergebnisse der deutschen Grenzexpedition in das westliche Kaiser-Wilhelmsland 1910. Berlin: E. S. Mittler. William Churchill, writing in the Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, said "These are not names of the river, they are but names for small stretches of the river as known to the folk of this or that hamlet. We cannot reckon how many such names there may be in the course of more than of the system." Since "there is no indigenous name for the whole stream", Churchill concluded that "This is clearly a case where a European designation may properly be applied." He advocated for Kaiserin-Augusta, but that name faded with the German loss of colonial control over the territory after World War I. The word Sepik henceforth became the official name of the river.
Of course, each language group had one or more names of its own for the river. For example, the Iatmul people call the river Avusett, a compound of "bone" (ava) and "lake" (tset).Silverman, Eric K. 2018. "The Sepik River, Papua New Guinea: Nourishing Tradition and Modern Catastrophe", in John R. Wagner and Jerry K. Jacka, eds., Island Rivers: Fresh Water and Place in Oceania, pp. 187–221, Canberra: ANU Press.
Description The river originates in the Victor Emanuel Range in the central highlands of Papua New Guinea. From its mountain headwaters near Telefomin, it travels north-west and leaves the mountains abruptly near Yapsei. From there it flows into Indonesian Papua, before turning back north-east, for the majority of its journey following the great Central Depression. Along its course it receives numerous tributaries from the Bewani and Torricelli Mountains to the north and the Central Range to the south, including the Yuat River formed by the Lai and the Jimmi.
For most of the Sepik's length, the river winds in serpentine fashion, like the Amazon, to the Bismarck Sea off northern Papua New Guinea. Unlike many other large rivers, the Sepik has no delta whatsoever, but flows straight into the sea, about east of the town of Wewak. It is navigable for most of its length.
Hydrology The river has a total length of over and has a drainage basin of over . Its meandering bed is wide and averages deep. There is a belt of active meanders along most of its course, that has created a floodplain up to wide, with extensive backwater swamps. There are around 1,500 oxbow and other lakes in the floodplain, the largest of which are the Chambri Lakes. Its annual sediment load is estimated at 115 million tonnes.
The Sepik basin is largely an undisturbed environment, with no major urban settlements, or mining and forestry activities, in the river catchment. April Salome Forest Management Area is located in Sepik River basin.
Its catchment is classified as type Af (tropical rainforest) according to Köppen climate classification, with a rainfall of 3,390 mm.
Discharge +Sepik River at gauged stations Year, period Min (m3/s) Mean (m3/s) Max (m3/s) Ref.Estuary1979—20154,5651979/19807,0001972/19734,3637,66310,9634,800Angoram1968—19805,000Ambunti1980—19842,836.754,2084,598.751978—19873,099.71970—1992934.73,643.58,938.81966—19972,6003,6644,7301966—19941,7023,6155,448*1963/19643,3985,3167,038Kubkain1994—1999, 2008—20151,274.33,338.76,022Iniok1994—1999, 2008—2015707.12,367.94,524.1May River1994—1999, 2008—2015514.71,559.43,047.8Green River1971—20001,119.41970—19934361,2973,5731969—19968411,1911,5501963/19642,1172,5053,144Telefomin1975—19944054.466.81970—199315511,5761963/19642356361,538 *1969/1970 water year 8,964 m3/s.
+Sepik River discharge (m3/s) at Ambunti station (period from 1963—1994): Water year Min Mean Max Water year Min Mean Max 1963/64 3,398 5,316 7,038 1979/80 2,009 4,080 5,509 1964/65 1980/81 1,632 3,850 5,602 1965/66 1981/82 1,142 3,310 5,465 1966/67 2,429 3,390 4,331 1982/83 1,509 4,060 5,999 1967/68 1,242 3,080 4,883 1983/84 1,828 3,360 4,703 1968/69 1,821 3,740 5,606 1984/85 2,111 3,680 5,232 1969/70 2,696 4,950 8,964 1985/86 999 3,190 4,808 1970/71 1,822 3,040 4,240 1986/87 932 3,080 5,502 1971/72 1,074 3,320 4,757 1987/88 2,736 3,880 5,008 1972/73 2,326 4,540 7,081 1988/89 1,448 3,790 6,203 1973/74 1,082 3,010 4,893 1989/90 1,907 3,870 5,809 1974/75 1,452 3,730 5,989 1990/91 1,482 3,210 4,926 1975/76 1,183 3,220 5,164 1991/92 1,747 3,350 4,938 1976/77 2,205 4,030 5,622 1992/93 1,320 3,180 5,017 1977/78 1,538 3,830 5,636 1993/94 2,825 4,020 5,061 1978/79 1,153 3,450 5,606 Source:
Tributaries
+The main tributaries from the mouth: Left tributary Right tributary Length (km) Basin size (km2) Average discharge (m3/s) Sepik 1,126 80,386.2 5,000 Lower Sepik Bien 103 1,344.8 67.7 Middle SepikKeram 335 5,598.7 306.9 Nagam 195 1,757.2 41.9 Yuat 373.4 11,952.5 625.4 Pasik 655.1 15.1 Karawari 209 7,565.9 376.3 Hambili 132 1,036.7 31.1 Atilem84 954.6 23.1 Kwatit (Parchee)112 611.3 15 Upper Sepik Screw 191 3,204.3 87.8 Black River—Huastein 94 917 64.4 Sanchi 105 1,468.3 77.4 Namblo 122 663.4 36.5 Wagasu 1,068.8 59.4 April 152 2,552.2 226.8 Wagamush 74 964.7 81.6 Wario 1,893.6 279.9 Nopan 992.5 60.1 Frieda 120 1,466 271.9 Seniap 42 538.9 57.7 May 180 3,301.4 405.5 Wanibe Creek 1,618.4 98 Yula 479.5 31.4 Yellow 131 1,769.8 111.2 North 115 1,995.8 123.7 Horden 165 2,103.1 124.1 Fanngi (Green River) 61 750.8 41.4 Idam 65 440.4 35.2 Hauser 60 1,149.3 74.1 August (Yapsiei) 109 1,838 208.5 October 129 604.3 44.5 West 529.4 46.8 Raadsel 269 39.7 Hollander 269.4 40.4 Oklip 54 1,042 193.4 Brucken 465.8 76.4 Iugum (Casuarina) 201.4 32 Hak (East) 43 464.3 54.7 Elip (Donner) 227.6 26.6 Iram 388.7 64.9 Nong 176.6 23.8Source:
Peoples and languages From the headwaters to the mouth, the river basin flows through the territories of spoken of dozens of Sepik languages,Laycock, Donald C. (1965). The Ndu language family (Sepik District, New Guinea). Canberra: Australian National University. OCLC 810186. each corresponding to one or more culture regions of related villages that exhibit similar social characteristics. The largest language and culture group along the river is the Iatmul people.
The Sepik-Ramu basin is home to the Torricelli, Sepik, Lower Sepik-Ramu, Kwomtari, Leonhard Schultze, Upper Yuat, Yuat, Left May, and Amto-Musan language families, while local language isolates are Busa, Taiap, and Yadë. Torricelli, Sepik, and Lower Sepik-Ramu are by far the three most internally diverse language families of the region.
History Local villagers have lived along the river for many millennia and the river has formed the basis for food, transport and culture. There are at least 100 distinct villages and hamlets along the river, and most likely more.Still the best, most detailed map the river and region is Wewak: The Gateway to the Sepik: Maps of Wewak, West and East Sepik Provinces, published by Wirui Press, Wewak, Papua New Guinea, in the 1980s.
Early exploration European contact with the river started in 1885, shortly after Germany established colonial control over German New Guinea or Kaiser Wilhelmsland. The river was named by Otto Finsch, Kaiserin Augusta, after the German Empress Augusta. The colony was initially managed by the German New Guinea Company (Neuguinea-Kompagnie). Finsch, in the ship Samoa, entered only the estuary. He returned a year later, and the Samoa launched a smaller vessel that navigated about upstream from its mouth. For the most part, German interest in the river was mainly to explore its economic potential, to collect artifacts, and to recruit native laborers to work on coastal and island copra plantations.See, e.g., Buschmann, Rainer F. 2009. Anthropology's Global Histories: The Ethnographic Frontier in German New Guinea, 1870-1935. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
In 1886 and 1887, further expeditions by steam boat were conducted by the Germans and over were explored. In 1887, the Samoa returned with another scientific expedition as well as a dozen Malays, eight men from the island of New Britain, and two members of the Rhenish Missionary Society.For a diary of the voyage, see Claas, Ulrike and Paul Rosco. 2009. Manuscript XXI: A Journey Up The Sepik River in 1887. The Journal of Pacific History 44 (3) 333-43. In the 1890s, missionaries from the Society of the Divine Word or SVD begin to proselytize along the river.Huber, Mary Taylor. 1988. The Bishops’ Progress: A Historical Ethnography of Catholic Missionary Experience on the Sepik Frontier. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Europeans now increased their travels and presence along the river.Bragge, Lawrence, Ulrike Claas, and Paul Roscoe. 2006. On the edge of empire: Military brokers in the Sepik “tribal zone.” American Anthropologist 33 (1) 100-113. In the early twentieth century, several major expeditions to the river include the Südsee-Expedition sponsored by the Hamburg Academic of Science, the German-Dutch Border Expedition and the Kaiserin-Augusta-Fluss-ExpeditionSee Reche 1913, Schultz 1914, Behrmann 1922, Schindlbeck 1997. These expeditions, mainly German, collected flora and fauna, studied local tribes, and produced the first maps. The station town of Angoram was established in 1913 as a base on the lower Sepik for explorations, but with the beginning of World War I, the explorations ceased.
After the first World War the Australian government took trusteeship of the German colony, creating the Territory of New Guinea, and the Sepik region came under their jurisdiction. During this period the Australians established a station on the middle Sepik at Ambunti to conduct further explorations.