Alphonsus Augustus Sowada

Alphonsus Augustus Sowada (June 23, 1933 – January 11, 2014) was an American Roman Catholic bishop, cultural anthropologist, and first Bishop of Agats in Indonesia. A longtime collector and preserver of Asmat cultural artifacts, he helped found both the Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress in Agats, and the American Museum of Asmat Art in his home state of Minnesota.

Bishop Alphonsus Augustus Sowada
Bishop of Agats
Church	Roman Catholic Church
Diocese	Agats
In office	May 29, 1969 – May 9, 2001
Predecessor	None
Successor	Aloysius Murwito, O.F.M.
Orders
Ordination	May 31, 1958 by Leo Aloysius Pursley
Consecration	November 23, 1969 by Joseph Mees
Personal details
Born	June 23, 1933 Avon, Minnesota, United States
Died	January 11, 2014 (aged 80) Onamia, Minnesota

Early life

Born in Avon, Minnesota, United States, Sowada was raised on a farm near St. Cloud, and was the eldest of eight children.[1] He was ordained to the priesthood for the Canons Regular of the Order of the Holy Cross (commonly known as the Crosiers) on May 31, 1958 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In 1961, he earned a master's degree in cultural anthropology from Catholic University of America.[2]

Career

The following year, he became a missionary serving the Asmat people of the Agats region of southwestern Papua, Indonesia on the island of New Guinea, where he taught himself the Asmat language, and worked to eliminate the practice of headhunting and to preserve Asmat culture and art. He founded a church in the town of Sawa Erma on the Unir River.[1] On May 29, 1969, he was appointed bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Agats, Indonesia and was ordained on November 29, 1969. He opposed the exploitation and cultural suppression of the Asmat by foreign logging companies and the military.[3]

Sowada wrote books on Asmat art and culture and collected hundreds of artifacts. Common interest in the Asmat culture led to friendships with other collectors and archivists of Asmat art including Michael Rockefeller and the artist Tobias Schneebaum, who described Sowada as having a "round, cherubic face" and said that "I liked him immediately."[4] Sowada was instrumental in founding the Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress[2] in Agats in 1973, described by the artist Tobias Schneebaum as "a museum designed for the local people, not the nonexistent tourist."[5] After Sowada's retirement and return to the United States, his collection of Asmat artifacts formed the core of the American Museum of Asmat Art, located since 2012 at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.[6] He also co-edited a 2002 book about the Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress's collections, Asmat: Perception of Life in Art.[7][8]

Retirement

In 2000, the Bishop Sowada Chair in Cultural Anthropology was established in his honor at the School of Theology Fajar Timur in Abepura, Indonesia, to further the continuing study and preservation of native Papuan culture.[9] Health problems, including a quadruple heart bypass in 1999, led to his retirement.[1] He resigned on May 9, 2001.[10] He was succeeded as Bishop of Agats in 2002 by Aloysius Murwito.

Death

Sowada died in 2014 in Onamia, Minnesota.

References

1. Zavoral, Nolan (2000-12-09). "The Bishop's Move". Star Tribune. Minneapolis. p. 5B.
2. "Bishop remembered for ministry in Indonesia". The Catholic Spirit. Minneapolis: Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. 2014-01-30. Retrieved 2017-05-01.
3. Irwandi, Joshua (2017-02-03). "Between two worlds: struggles of the Asmat people – in pictures". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2019-09-25.
4. Schneebaum, Tobias (2003). Wild Man. University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 213–. ISBN 978-0-299-19343-0.
5. Schneebaum, Tobias (2000). Secret Places: My Life in New York and New Guinea. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 9780299169909.
6. "Art@UST". University of St. Thomas. Retrieved 2015-04-14.
7. "Our Diocesan Connection with Papua, Indonesia". Diocese of Saint Cloud. Retrieved 2020-03-20.
8. "Resources". American Museum of Asmat Art. University of St. Thomas. Retrieved 2020-03-20.
9. Kostick, David (2000-05-24). "Bishop Sowada Chair in Cultural Anthropology Established in Indonesia". Catholic Online PR Wire. Retrieved 2019-09-28.
10. The Hierarchy of the Catholic Church: Alphonsus Augustus Sowada

Episcopal succession

Further reading

• Hennen Huber, Molly; Sowada, Bishop Alphonse; Braun, Mary; Daniels, Jim (2009). Hennen Huber, Molly (ed.). Time and Tide: The Changing Art of the Asmat of New Guinea. Minneapolis Institute of Arts. ISBN 978-0-9800484-2-1.
• Sowada, Alphonse (2017). Missionary and Anthropologist: Bishop Alphonse A. Sowada's Life Among the Asmat People. Crosier Fathers & Brothers. ISBN 978-0-9886741-1-0.
• Sowada, Alphonse (1961). Socio-economic Survey of the Asmat Peoples of Southwestern New Guinea. Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.

External links

• Rev. Alphonse August Sowada at Find a Grave