Upcoming Events
Gary Cunningham Memorial
Special screening of Balibo in Auckland
Human Rights leader in NZ: Paula Makabory
Trades Hall Supper Room, 147 Great North Rd , Auckland
7-30 Monday 10 August, 2009
(sponsored by Global Peace and Justice, Indonesia Human Rights Committee and Pax Christi Auckland)
GPJA/ Pax Christi and IHRC Meeting 7-30
Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn, Auckland Supper Room
Also Lunchtime forum, 10 August at OXFAM offices, Level 1, 14 West St, Newton, Wellington12 noon hosted by Michael Riach ( contact 355-6500)
Tue 11 August 1-30-2-30 CID Forum, 2nd Floor James Smith Building, Cnr Cuba and Manners Sts
Thursday 13 August Christian World Service
7-30 WEA 59 Gloucester St, Christchurch (contact Gillian Southey 03-366 9274)
Paula Makabory is a young West Papuan woman, a fiesty and resolute campaigner for women’s rights and human rights. Since her graduation from Cendrawasih University, Jayapura, she has been involved in documenting human rights violations – first as worker for the respected Papuan NGO Elsham and more recently in Australia as member of the Institute for Papuan Advocacy and Human Rights. In 2006 she was named as one of the “1000 women for peace” nominated jointly to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. However, accolades for her work have not protected her from controversy, and she is currently lives in exile in Melbourne.
Paula has close knowledge of the issues of Papuan marginalisation, as she has lived and worked in Timika – the mining town for the giant Freeport McMoran mining company, responsible for shocking environmental and social degradation. Paula is also at the heart of the West Papuan lobby for peaceful dialogue with Indonesia as a step towards resolving longstanding grievances.
for more information: Maire Leadbeater maire@clear.net.nz
Balibo
(Australia, 105 mins)
Balibo will be on general release in New Zealand in January 2010
When Indonesian forces invaded East Timor, newly independent of Portugal, in 1975, the world turned a blind eye. Well, not quite. Two Australian television channels had reporters on the ground. Five of them – zealous young journos in their 20s, one of them, Gary Cunningham, a New Zealander – ignored every warning and kept their cameras rolling as the Indonesians made their advance on the Fretilin base at Balibo. It was not until 2007 that a NSW coroner’s enquiry confirmed that the Balibo Five, as they have become known, were not killed in crossfire, but trapped and coldly executed by the invaders.