West Papua Morning Star flag raised at Aotea Square

Indonesia Human Rights Committee led the flag raising of the Morning Star at Aotea Square in commemoration of West Papua’s “independence day”. It’s the 50th anniversary of their struggle against the Indonesian colonisers.

West Papua's Morning Star proudly flying

Tangata Whenua lowering the Morning Star after the celebration

Raising the Morning Star

Lush shines a light on the Free West Papua campaign

Lush shines a light on the Free West Papua campaign at the Regent St. shop on the launch day of International Lawyers for West Papua which is seeking to free political prisoners in West Papua and bring about a free and fair referendum on self determination for the people of West Papua

Strange Birds In Paradise Screening

West Papua and Pacific Islands Forum

17 June 2011

Dear Prime Minister,

The Indonesia Human Rights Committee draws to your attention the ongoing
human rights abuses suffered by the indigenous Melanesian people of West
Papua.

You will be aware that West Papua has now been controlled by Indonesia for
48 years since Indonesia took control from the United Nations Temporary
Executive Authority (UNTEA) in 1963. Since that time tens of thousands of
lives have been lost in the ensuing conflict.

Currently West Papuan leaders are committed to non-violent means to achieve
their aspirations and to resolve problems and grievances. There have been
repeated calls to the Government in Jakarta for a process of peaceful
dialogue.

In recent weeks, perhaps inspired by the democracy uprisings in the Middle
East, there have been thousands-strong peaceful demonstrations in West
Papua when the people have rallied to call for a new self-determination
referendum and also to a call for the release of all political prisoners.

Click here for the full article: Letter to NZ Prime Minister from the IHRC

Free West Papua Prisoners Now

www.freewestpapuanprisonersnow.blogspot.com

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Strange Birds of Paradise out now on DVD

For details on purchasing a copy of this award-winning film, please click on the poster:

Strange Birds Of Paradise

Words: Angelique Kasmara

Imagine a secret war conducted on your doorstep. And not just any war, but one which pits stone-age farmers with bows and arrows against M-16s, tanks and fighter jets. In which over 100,000 men, women and children are ruthlessly murdered, and the natural resources of their land carved up between multinational corporations and the Indonesian government. For those of us in the Pacific and South-East Asia, the doorstep is ours.

When Charlie Hill-Smith first travelled to West Papua in 1999 as a carefree tourist (he documents in his blog that “masculine, sexy and practical, I decided right then and there, that penis gourds are the future and the future is gonna be mine!”), he was deeply disturbed to find out that the neolithic cultural paradise was an undeclared war zone. Neither in his native Australia or in the Indonesian islands he’d travelled in for over 15 years, had he heard a word of what was really going on in West Papua.

So in 2006, the filmmaker embarked on another journey. This time, it was to confront a basic question: how could these two vibrant cultures be at war and how can the rest of the world seemingly not care?

Describing the film as, “a creative reaction to international silence and a cross-cultural response to neo-colonial tyranny,” Hill-Smith revisits his own innocent tourist footage, and returns to Java to discover a local political resistance.  He collaborates with artists in Java to recreate Indonesian history and mythology as shadow theatre, and animators in Melbourne to reconstruct scenes of bloodshed.

Gaining further insight from a community of West Papuan musicians in Melbourne, such as Donny Roem, a recent exile who fled in a homemade canoe, and Jacob Rumbiak, a child soldier in the resistance movement, they introduce him to the beautiful songs of murdered musician and independence hero Arnold Ap. A soul-stirring concert at Melbourne’s Hamer Hall shows us how integral musical celebration is to West Papuan culture, and to their healing process.

The filmmakers return to West Papua to visit the places that their exiled friends call home. The scenes of the battered resistance and refugee camps along the Papua New Guinea border reveal the brutal reality of their situation and the ruthlessness of the government that is slowly massacring them. However, Hill-Smith is careful to convey throughout that he’s motivated by love for the whole of Indonesia, a country he first visited as a teenage exchange student.

The visually imaginative use of animation, shadowplay, music and story punches through a powerful message, of how artistic expression can transcend tyranny. And its gentle profundity made me ponder on how ignorance may be bliss but opening your eyes and heart brings the world to your door.

AFI Awards 2011 4 nominations

IF Awards 2010 Best Documentary

Colorado Film Festival 2010 Best Documentary Feature

New Zealand could help a colonised people solve their problems with Jakarta

By Maire Leadbeater, Pacific Media Centre

28 January, 2011

My introduction to West Papua was flying for many kilometres over the vast grey tailings deposition area created by the infamous Freeport McMoran gold and copper mine.

The flight from Bali to the capital, Jayapura, stopped briefly at Freeport’s  Mozes Kilangin Airport, in  Timika.  The mine has brought immense wealth for its multinational owner and the Jakarta government, but for the local tribal people only pollution, displacement, poverty and militarisation.  It has been the same story for the exploitation of territory’s other rich resources, especially its virgin forests.

In Jayapura the economic and social marginalisation of the indigenous Melanesian Papuans is immediately obvious. Papuans are now close to becoming a minority in their own land as a consequence of decades of high migration from other parts of Indonesia.

To read the full article, click here: West Papuan Struggle For Peace and Justice Continues

Message from Filep Karma, jailed in Indonesia

“Don’t Buy Kwila” demo in front of Country Road

18 December 2010

West Papua, search for justice: an eyewitness perspective

7 December 2010
Article: Maire Leadbeater

One of the great things about my November visit to West Papua was the chance to reconnect with some of the special people who have been here to New Zealand on speaking tours over the last few years.

I called on Rev Socratez Yoman, the leader of the Baptist Churches in West Papua, and one of the most outspoken advocates for peace and justice. Socratez’ name was at the head of a list of Papuan leaders targeted in a leaked Kopassus document exposed in November by US journalist Alan Nairn.

Socratez told me he was not concerned about being labelled as an ‘enemy of the state’ because his job is about protecting ‘God’s people’.

When he visited here four years ago Socratez brought power point images to illustrate the problem of unrestrained migration of people from other parts of Indonesia. The reality hit me as I moved about the capital Jayapura and later the southern city of Merauke.

Indigenous Papuans, their religious life and their cultural icons are devalued and marginalised. In the business and trading sector migrants dominate while the Papuan women sell their beautiful craft work and their fresh produce on the pavement outside the glossy western style supermarkets or at the night market which functions as a carpark during the day.

To read the full article, click here: Scoop: West Papua, search for justice