The land of Asmat is located both within and adjacent to Lorentz National Park, a World Heritage Site, the largest protected area in the Asia-Pacific region.

Due to the daily flooding which occurs in many parts of their land, Asmat dwellings, jew, have typically been built two or more meters above the ground, raised on wooden posts.

The death of an adult, even by disease, was believed to be caused by an enemy, and relatives sought to take a head in an endless cycle of revenge and propitiation of ancestors.

The first apparent sighting of the Asmat people by European explorers was from the deck of a ship led by a Dutch trader, Jan Carstensz in the year 1623.

According to the journals of Captain Cook, a small party from the HM Bark Endeavour encountered a group of Asmat warriors; sensing a threat, the explorers quickly retreated.

From there, several exploratory excursions with the goal of reaching the central mountain range passed through the Asmat area and gathered small numbers of zoological specimens and artifacts.

These artifacts were taken to Europe where they generated much interest, and probably influenced modernist Western artists such as Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall and Pablo Picasso.

Asmat was the launching point for an arduous joint French-Dutch expedition from the south to north coast of New Guinea in 1958 and 1959, which was documented by the team and resulted in a book and documentary film, The Sky Above, The Mud Below, which won an Academy Award in 1962.

Author Carl Hoffman, in his book Savage Harvest, presented evidence that Rockefeller was killed and eaten by people from Otsjanep village.

After a short period under the new Indonesian administration from 1964 to 1968 in which Asmat cultural ceremonies were officially discouraged, Bishop Alphonse Sowada was instrumental in facilitating the revitalization of woodcarving and other festivals, which remain strong today.

The Asmat seek to find ways to incorporate new technology and beneficial services such as health, communications, and education, while preserving their cultural traditions.

LMAA has been working with Indo-Pacific Conservation Alliance since 1999, and has established separate traditional sub-councils, or Forum Adat Rumpun (FAR) to implement joint activities.

In 2004, the Asmat region became a separate governmental administrative unit or Kabupaten, and elected Mr. Yufen Biakai, former director of the AMCP and current Chairman of LMAA, as its Bupati (head of local government).