Papuan Culture & Community

Why Now? A West Papua Backgrounder
By: Jim Elmslie
Source: New Matilda

NM has kept a close eye on West Papua as pressure in the breakaway Indonesian province builds. Long-time Papua watcher Jim Elmslie explains why the situation has escalated - and may get worse in coming months

Two seminal events have shattered the uneasy status quo in West Papua: a labour strike at the Freeport mine, and the declaration of an independent West Papua at a landmark mass meeting of Papuan nationalists, the Third Papuan Congress.

Papuan aspirations alive on social media

Radio New Zealand International - February 25, 2011

A West Papuan student activist says the dialogue over self-determination aspirations is still very much alive among young West Papuans through social media like Facebook.

The comment echoed a common theme at this week's Comprehending West Papua conference in Sydney where the prospects in Indonesia's Papua region for a popular uprising like the ones seen in North Africa and the Middle East were discussed.

West Papuans recently announced a foundational consensus on their legal defence and right to declare national sovereignty, thereby asserting their fundamental human rights and ancestral ownership of land. (The consensus has global significance in that West Papua remains on a scale similar to the Amazon in terms of what is being lost - diversity of local species and tribal societies, and the amount of oxygen produced by the "lungs of Asia".)

A series of powerful earthquakes struck Manokwari, West Papua, on Sunday, January 4th, killing four people and injuring dozens more. Hundreds of buildings were damaged, leaving countless people homeless. The runway of Manokwari's Rendai Airport was split in two while two prominent three-story hotels in the town centre, the Mutiara and Kalidingin, collapsed.

PRESS RELEASE

West Papua National Coalition For Liberation

Port Moresby, 29 April 2008 — The leaders representing 29 West Papuan political and civil society organisations have formalized the establishment of the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation [WPNCL]. This coalition represents the 1.5 million West Papuan people from over 600 tribal communities on the western half of the island of New Guinea. (The landmass of West Papua is an area of 430,000 square kilometers, which is about the same size as France.)

THE UNTOLD STORY: FOOTAGE FROM THE PAPUAN RAINFOREST

EIA Press Release: 28 November 2007

Unique films are launched today showing the impact of forest exploitation upon the people of Papua, Indonesia.

Written by a West Papuan citizen

Political freedom is not enough. The struggle of the West Papuan will only reach its success if all the Papuan people unite. And they will only unite if they share a common burden and fate. They must have a common interest and perspective about the goal of their struggle.

My appeal - that the leaders and intellectual figures of West Papua learn from Mahatma Gandhi about the basic principles of Non-Violent Resistance. Then they have to pass them on to the grassroots level. Nelson Mandela (fighting against apartheid in South Africa) and Martin Luther King Jr. (fighting against racial discrimination in the USA), both learned a lot from Gandhi.

oleh a West Papuan citizen

Kemerdekaan politik saja tidak cukup. Perjuangan Papua hanya akan sukses kalau seluruh rakyat Papua bersatu padu. Hal yang bisa menyatukan rakyat adalah kalau mereka memiliki perasaan senasib dan sepenanggungan, memiliki kepentingan yang sama, dan perspektif yang sama terhadap tujuan dari perjuangan.

Himbauan saya, kiranya para pemimpin dan tokoh intelektual Papua mau belajar dari Mahatma Gandhi tentang Prinsip-prinsip Utama Perlawanan Tanpa Kekerasan. Setelah itu meneruskannya ke tingkat akar rumput (grass root). Nelson Mandela (melawan politik apartheid di Afrika Selatan) dan Martin Luther King Junior (melawan diskriminasi rasial di USA), mereka belajar banyak tentang Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi memulai SWADESHI dengan SUMPAH. Ia membakar seluruh baju importnya dan mengenakan pakaian yang dibuat atau ditenun oleh wanita-wanita India. Dari baju, lalu ke garam, selanjutnya ke hal-hal kecil lainnya. Semua ini nampak “sepele� tapi karena dilaksanakan dengan sungguh-sungguh oleh India maka Inggris akhirnya kalah.

oleh a West Papuan citizen

Masyarakat Papua dan Maluku telah mengkonsumsi sagu dan ubi-ubian seperti betatas, kasbi, keladi serta embal selama berabad-abad. Saat ini makanan tradisional tersebut sedang digantikan oleh nasi lewat kebijakan RASKIN dari Pemerintah Indonesia yang lebih berpihak pada “berasnisasi�.

Sagu, betatas, keladi dan kasbi sudah menjadi bagian dari identitas budaya rakyat Papua dan Maluku. Ada banyak tarian tradisional, istilah bahasa daerah, peralatan masak dan bertani, tari-tarian dan ritual adat serta lagu-lagu rakyat yang berhubungan dengan makanan pokok tradisional tersebut. Bila beras berubah menjadi makanan pokok di Papua dan Maluku maka identitas budaya bangsa-bangsa yang termasuk dalam rumpun Melanesia ini akan ditinggalkan dan dilupakan untuk selamanya.

Media Release 30/12/06

Today (30th December 2006) members of Gereja Kingmi (the Indigenous Church in West Papua) organised demonstrations in front of the Church Synod office in Jayapura, West Papua after Indonesian Police yesterday stormed and occupied the Synod Office, injuring two Pastors in the process.

“Police accuse us of being the religious arm of the OPM (also known as the Free Papua Movement) but all we want to do is run our own affairs free of government interference and intimidation� said Pastor Benny Giay, Chair of the Kingmi Church’s Bureau of Justice and Peace. “This attack by the Police is not just against church activists working to defend human rights� said Pastor Giay, “it is an attack on the institution of the Church itself.�