Forty Years of Indonesian Occupation 'One Big Tribe'

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday March 24, 2003 14:45 by Brighteyes - Peaceworld brighteyes1 at yahoo dot com Ireland

"One Big Tribe" May 1st 2003 marks forty years of the Indonesian occupation of West Papua.West Papua was handed over in the 60's through a seriously flawed so called de-colonistaion process by the Dutch, Americans, British and the UN. The country has been ravaged, polluted and pillaged by the Indonesian government, multi-national corporations and worldwide inaction ever since.

May 1st 2003 marks forty years of the Indonesian occupation of West Papua.West Papua was handed over in the 60's through a seriously flawed so called de-colonistaion process by the Dutch, Americans, British and the UN. The country has been ravaged, polluted and pillaged by the Indonesian government, multi-national corporations and worldwide inaction ever since.

For forty years, men, women and children have been dispersed, dislocated, murdered, raped and silenced through imperialist agendas and capitalist greed. Harrowing stories have emerged of what can only be described as genocide but the powerbrokers remain inactive, silent, and in many cases collaborate in and perpetrate these crimes.

But the people of West Papua are strong. Their spirits remain free and resistance to oppression grows as within their country and around the world, brave Papuans risk their lives to tell their story.

This spirit of resistance was embodied at the "One Big Tribe" festival in Maynooth 21-22March. People from Papua, Ireland and throughout the world gathered to sing, tell their stories, weave together threads of ideas and make important and lasting links and connections.

The festival was a celebration of culture, Papuan culture, Irish culture, shared cultures and an exploration of means of expressing those cultures as resistance. We could say that culture is a set of stories, through which we remember, envision and adapt. Through our stories we affirm our culures, identities and our life paths.They are a vehicle for the imagination, a way of resisting and a source of strength.

When a people are silenced, their stories wiped out, erased and the means through which they express and share those stories restricted we can clearly see the transformative power of them.

The Indonesian government and other governments and multi-nationals colluding with this genocide also know the power of these stories and have acted accordingly. All oppression seeks to silence and manipulate truth. Acts of cultural genocide seek to erase these stories as a means of erasing the people.

Over the past few days in Maynooth we listened to sometimes harrowing accounts of oppression and destruction, not only of a people but of our earth, our animals, our spiritual connections.But as we listened we made the West Papuan story our story. As the struggle continues, more ways will be found to make this a story of the world and one in which we all have a role to play.
"When we recover our past, the earth will open its secrets" Jaime Huenun (Indigenous Chilean Poet)