West Papua has been under Indonesian rule for more than fifty years. Vivien Durant talks to Jamie Nicolai, a co-producer of a new West Papuan documentary.
The Morning Star (Source: Pumbaa80 via wikimedia commons)
It is only 1545km from Darwin to Jayapura, the capital of West Papua, a province of Indonesia. Only 1545kms away from us, there are people suffering under brutal oppression. West Papua is one of our closest neighbours, yet despite the murders, rape, torture, disappearances, cultural dominance and fear, we hear very little about it in Australian mainstream media.
That is not to say the information is not out there, it is. It just
hasn’t been given the level of attention that is warranted for the level
of violence that the indigenous people of West Papua have to live
through every day.
West Papua has a bloody and brutal history, a history that continues right up to the present day. According to Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2012,
police violence increased dramatically in 2011. Many West Papuans were
charged with treason as a result of peaceful protests, some arrested for
simply raising the Morning Star, the flag of the resistance movement.
Very few journalists or human rights advocates have been allowed access to the troubled region. Amnesty International has estimated that the death toll for the conflict in West Papua is around 100,000 but many advocates believe it to be as high as 800,000.
It is well documented that the Indonesian security forces that largely control the region,
and are responsible for acts torture and murder, are trained and
supplied by the Australian Federal Police. It does become clear after
research that the security forces operating in West Papua are
fundamentally a law unto themselves and are corrupt and mercenary. The
worst part? We have seen this before, in the struggle for East Timor and
yet we give it very little attention.
Indonesia’s new law on state intelligence has implications for journalists, political activists and human rights
advocates. Freedom of expression in Indonesia is controlled by a vast
array of harsh legislation. This is very true of the situation in West
Papua, where displaying the Morning Star flag is prohibited and many
indigenous songs, especially those of the assassinated folk singer and
musicologist, Arnold Ap, are publicly banned.
One documentary that aims to shed some light on the struggle of the people of West Papua is Strange Birds in Paradise.
This documentary combines several elements to highlight the situation
faced by the people of West Papua. Music is a thread running through
this narrative linking refugees in Australia back to the land they had
to flee. There is an overview of the history of Indonesia and its
involvement in West Papua but it is also personalised by the stories of
individuals.
Jamie Nicolai,
a co-producer of the documentary, made it clear that while the film
engages with the issue of Indonesia’s rule in West Papua, it emphasises
the need to distance ordinary Indonesians from the actions of rogue
elements in their military.
‘The last thing we wanted to do is to create more xenophobia about
Indonesia because there is enough out there already,’ she says.
While the response to the documentary in Australia has been positive,
the film was greeted with greater acclaim in Holland than it has been
here. At a question and answer session at the end of the Dutch
screening, Nicolai admits that for the most part, the questions
demonstrated a much deeper understanding of the issues than their
Australian counterparts.
Granted Dutch history is more intertwined with this region’s past, but
in the present these countries are our neighbours and Australian
business interests are reaping profits with little benefit to the local
inhabitants. As Nicolai points out, that’s one of the worst injustices
for the indigenous inhabitants of West Papua. In one of the richest
provinces of Indonesia, the indigenous people get a rough deal.
When considering the power of music in resistance, one only has to look at struggles from around the world. The struggle in South Africa against Apartheid, the anti-war and youth movement in the West, the civil rights movement in America and struggles in Latin America all demonstrate the ability for music to not only unite within but also increase support from the outside.
The songs of Arnold Ap are banned in West Papua for a reason. In a
culture where music is so deeply ingrained, songs have the power to
unify. The film,Strange Birds in Paradise highlights this and
co-producer, Nicolai says, ‘The [songs] are most definitely a rallying
point. It’s like a flag. It’s a symbol.’
As always, there are multiple layers of complexity regarding conflict
and West Papua is no different. In the hope for freedom of West Papua
along the lines of East Timor, one must take into account the
substantial differences between the two regions. West Papua is the
source of enormous wealth to both the Indonesian government and
international investors (Australia is one), as the Freeport mine is the
largest gold mine in the world. The population of Indonesian-born
residents nearly outnumbers the original indigenous inhabitants.
After signing the Lombok treaty,
Australia will be very reluctant to intervene in another country’s
sovereign affairs, especially without a push from public opinion. As
Nicolai suggests, ‘It was not the government but public opinion and
people who swayed and changed what happened in East Timor.’ However the
situation is not as hopeful as East Timor. ‘I think Indonesia will be
much more reluctant to give up West Papua as easily as they gave up East
Timor.’
The film, Nicolai says, was an entry level film designed, especially
here in Australia, to open people’s eyes. ‘People are living in fear.
Living in fear is wrong.’ There was much of this story that I was not
wholly aware of and I am sure I am not alone. Although this documentary
has been shown in Australia, including on SBS, films like this deserve
greater exposure if the plight of the indigenous people of West Papua is
to be more widely understood.
The question is can and will anything be done about it?
Vivien Durant is a Master Of Global Communications student at La Trobe University and is one of upstart’s staff writers. You can follow her on Twitter: @VivienDurant
*The title of this article comes from the introduction to the
documentary which says: ‘We’re going to tell you a story of a wonderful
musical tradition, an ancient culture and a nightmare in the modern
world.’