Maire Leadbeater and Socrates Yoman
8 December 2010
Maire spent two weeks in West Papua during the month of November 2010.
Words: Angelique Kasmara
On Maire’s flight to Jayapura, her first impression of West Papua was an arresting, if deeply disturbing, sight of the deep excavation that is Freeport McMoran’s gold and copper mine, large enough to be seen clearly through the window of the plane. The route transits through Timika, a private international airport owned by the corporation responsible for gouging into the lush rainforest to make room for one of the world’s largest gold and copper mines.
“The enormous tailings deposition areas are clearly visible below the plane,” she says of the open-cast mine. Of course, long before she saw it in person, Maire has been a fearless campaigner against Freeport-McMoran’s operation in the region, as well as West Papua’s fight for independence. It’s been difficult to raise awareness in good old parochial New Zealand though, with the honourable exception of Radio NZ International.
“Yes, I get upset about the lack of media coverage for the West Papuan issue in New Zealand. When I first arrived I was taken for a drive around the lower part of Cyclops mountain close to Sentani – as I passed through villages and gardens I did a little double take – and felt I could have been in Vanuatu or in Rarotonga: – the vegetation – the taro gardens, the chickens and pigs. West Papua is part of the Pacific! So why don’t we treat it as such!”
To read the full account of Maire’s trip, click here: Maire Leadbeater in West Papua
Wednesday, December 8th, 2010 at 8:41 amand is filed under News, West Papua. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
August 7th, 2011 at 6:46 pm
Got it! Thanks a lot again for hlpeing me out!