Alphonsus Augustus Sowada (June 23, 1933 – January 11, 2014) was an American
Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
bishop,
cultural anthropologist, and first
Bishop of Agats in
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
. 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
Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...
.
Early life
Born in
Avon, Minnesota,
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, Sowada was raised on a farm near
St. Cloud, and was the eldest of eight children.
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
Fort Wayne is a city in Allen County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 at the 2020 census ...
. In 1961, he earned a master's degree in cultural anthropology from
Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Catholic research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is one of two pontifical universities of the Catholic Church in the United States – the only one that is not primarily a ...
.
Later also worked at a school for 1 month as a student teacher at
Avon Elementary School.
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
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...
, 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.
On May 29, 1969, he was appointed bishop of the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Agats,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
and was ordained on November 29, 1969. He opposed the exploitation and cultural suppression of the Asmat by foreign logging companies and the military.
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."
Sowada was instrumental in founding the
Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress in Agats in 1973, described by the artist
Tobias Schneebaum as "a museum designed for the local people, not the nonexistent tourist."
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
Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...
. He also co-edited a 2002 book about the Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress's collections, ''Asmat: Perception of Life in Art''.
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. Health problems, including a quadruple heart bypass in 1999, led to his retirement.
He resigned on May 9, 2001. He was succeeded as Bishop of Agats in 2002 by
Aloysius Murwito.
Death
Sowada died on January 11, 2014 in
Onamia, Minnesota from respiratory problems,
and was buried at the Crosier Priory at Onamia on January 17.
References
Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sowada, Alphonsus Augustus
1933 births
2014 deaths
Canons Regular of the Order of the Holy Cross
People from Stearns County, Minnesota
American Roman Catholic missionaries
20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Indonesia
Catholics from Minnesota
20th-century American clergy