A slow-motion genocide: Indonesian rule in West Papua

This paper examines and extends the debate on genocide in West Papua. Referring to the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention, examples of genocidal acts are listed: killings, causing serious bodily and mental harm, the deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to cause the destruction of a group, and the forcible removal of children to another group. Whereas previous examinations of the issue have failed to prove intent on the part of the Indonesian Government - a necessary pre-requisite under the Convention - this article finds that such intent exists. The authors show that West Papua has suffered a military occupation since 1962-63 under which the West Papuan people have been treated as the enemy by the Indonesian armed forces. Explicit and implicit government policy has been consistently directed towards countering and eliminating Papuan attempts to create an independent state for their nation or enjoy political freedom on a par with other Indonesians. In this tightly controlled situation genocidal acts have been undertaken as government policy, effectively thwarting the Papuan nationalists in the era when information emerging from the province(s) could be tightly controlled. In this internet age, however, this is no longer possible, as evidence of both genocidal acts and government \u27intent\u27 is emerging. This augurs poorly for Indonesia and the region as the little known, but deeply entrenched, conflict in West Papua seeps into global consciousness as a \u27slow-motion\u27 Pacific genocide

Violence in West Papua: the vulnerable become Indonesia\u27s latest target

Why has West Papua\u27s non-violent student movement the West Papuan National Committee (KNPB) become the latest target of a campaign of terror in West Papua

Is an Independent West Papuan State Possible?

The very unpredictability of politics is the greatest hope for those seeking an independent West Papuan state. Here, some of the key issues occupying West Papuan nationalists and observers of the region\u27s politics are addressed, including whether West Papuans are entitled to their own state; whether such a state would be politically and economically viable; and what chance Papuans have of forging their national vision into a constitutional reality

Salvaging Democracy for West Papuans in the Face of Australia-Indonesia Obstruction

This article argues that the democratic ideals espoused by Australia and Indonesia fall short in application to West Papua and West Papuans, and notes that such shortcomings are legitimated by mainstream media\u27s exoticist portrayals of West Papuans, particularly in Australia. The antidemocratic policies and processes of each government with regard to West Papua actually enable the (by and large) good bilateral relations at the state level to remain intact. However, this article contends that democracy, as practiced by civil society actors at the grassroots and digital network level in Australia and West Papua, creates cracks in the official Australia-Indonesia state relationship. Australian concerns over Indonesian human rights abuses in West Papua have traditionally been overlooked at the state level in favor of pursuing an amicable bilateral relationship. However by forging digital activist networks locally and internationally-including building West Papuan-indigenous Australian partnerships, West Papuans are participating in a grassroots democratization process with global outreach, refusing to be sacrificed on the altar of regional realpolitik. The article concludes with a cautionary account of an apparent attempt by an opportunistic Australian political movement to hijack West Papuan democratization for its own ends, a threat West Papuan and Australian civil society activists are currently moving to contain

Riots in West Papua: why Indonesia needs to answer for its broken promises

Last weekend, the Indonesian police took 43 West Papuan students into custody for allegedly disrespecting the Indonesian flag during an independence day celebration (an allegation the students deny). Police stormed the students\u27 dorm and used teargas to force them out, while bystanders and officers called them monkeys , a derogatory term for ethnically Melanesian Papuans. West Papuans have long been cast by Indonesians as primitive people from the Stone Age, and this racist treatment continues to this day. West Papuan author Filep Karma described the extent of racism against West Papuans in his 2014 book, As If We Are Half-Animal: Indonesia\u27s Racism in Papua Land, saying he often heard Indonesians call West Papuans monkeys. This latest episode of discrimination builds on more than five decades of racism, torture, summary executions, land dispossession and cultural denigration of West Papuans by Indonesian security forces

Sound tracks of the Black Pacific: Music, identity and resilience in Australian South Sea Islander communities

Australian South Sea Islanders, the descendants of the Melanesians from (primarily) Vanuatu and Solomon Islands who were \u27blackbirded\u27 to Queensland and New South Wales (1847-1904) for their labour, have, through music and dance practices, come to identify as part of a global black \u27transnation\u27. Studies of the \u27Black Atlantic\u27 point both to the transnational character of slavery and the importance of music as a medium of resistance. This article proposes that Australian South Sea Islanders\u27 musical cultures might usefully be understood in terms of a parallel concept, the \u27Black Pacific\u27, in relation to which the Pacific\u27s colonised and decolonised peoples have developed their own expressions of black pride and performed resistance. It argues that a more nuanced appreciation of Australian South Sea Islander performance culture as part of the Black Pacific will allow all Australians to better understand some of the vitally important yet obfuscated consequences of Australia\u27s blackbirding past

Rebel music: the protest songs of New Caledonia\u27s independence referendum

On November 4, New Caledonians will go to the polls to vote for either continued French governance, or independence

Visual Evidence from Above: Assessing the Value of Earth Observation Satellites for Supporting Human Rights

Public access to data collected by remote sensing Earth Observation Satellites has, until recently, been very limited. Now, citizens and rights advocacy groups are increasingly utilising satellite-collected images to interrogate justice issues; to document, prevent and verify rights abuses; and to imagine and propose social change. Yet while other communication technologies have received substantial critical analysis regarding their value as tools of social justice, activism and resistance, satellites have received comparatively scant attention. This article examines the uses of satellite-collected images in human rights contexts including the opportunities, challenges and risks they pose. We conclude this examination by arguing that if satellites are to be used effectively to collect evidence from above by rights advocates, greater attention to and capacity for ensuring accountability from below is required

Effecting Change through Peace Research in a Methodological \u27No-Man\u27s Land\u27: A Case Study of West Papua

This article reflects upon the disciplinary and ethical challenges I have navigated as an ethnographer in the academic \u27no-man\u27s land\u27 of West Papua-related research. I contend that the peace and conflict studies concept of conflict transformation articulates productively with a critical ethnographic methodology, assisting me in charting a research path. Using examples from my own research relating to West Papua\u27s independence movement I argue that the ethnographer\u27s role is powerful and carries attendant responsibilities to research participants and to the world of knowledge for increasing peace with justice. This article provides a case study example of how researching the ways the vulnerable interpret the world can be an act of justice, arguing that emergent critical interpretations are essential to preparing the world for long-lasting, positive change

How do people belong in the Pacific? Introduction to this issue

In early 2016, the two editors of this issue met together to discuss our common research interests. At that time, one of us (Jioji Ravulo) was a Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences and Psychology at Western Sydney University (WSU), and the other of us (Camellia Webb-Gannon) was a Research Fellow in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts at the same institution. Camellia, whose research focuses on decolonisation in Melanesia, had recently returned from the 2016 Australian Association for Pacific Studies (AAPS) conference in Cairns at which she had hoped she would meet other researchers of the Pacific from WSU; due to the multi-campus structure of WSU, it is often difficult to know if there are others at the university working in similar research areas, and conferences are a chance to find out. But there were no other WSU attendees at AAPS that year. Back at WSU, Camellia sought out Jioji whom, she knew, had established and managed PATHE, the Pasifika Achievement To Higher Education program, at the University. PATHE had worked with Pacific communities in Western Sydney since 2012, encouraging Pasifika students in over 80 primary and secondary schools to consider pursuing tertiary education, and providing support for Pasifika students at WSU to boost retention and completion. Since the founding of PATHE, there has been a quadrupling of Pacific people enrolled at WSU: in 2014, 400 people identified as being from a Pacific Islands or Maori background; in 2017, the figure changed to 1,600