Department of Foreign Affairs Immigration and Trade
WP Open Day, 11 Dec 2022, Paul Stewart’s ‘All the Rage’
Photos, slides, videos, speeches and documents associated with the launch of Paul Stewart's book 'All the Rage' (Melbourne Books, 2022) at the West Papua Open Day in Docklands (Victoria) on 11 December 2022. Includes Paul's interview with publisher David Tenenbaum, and Jacob Rumbiak talking about Australia and America's unprecedented criticisms of Indonesia in West Papua on 9 November 2022 in the United Nations. And links to historical media articles and other relevant documents.
Debate: Is Australia doing enough to help West Papua?
IS AUSTRALIA DOING ENOUGH TO SUPPORT WEST PAPUA? A public debate sponsored by the Melbourne City Council in its glorious Yarra Room on 30 October 2022; convened by Fiji-Australian author Bernie Goulding, and summarised by Monash University’s China specialist Dr Jonathan Benney. West Papua is Australia's nearest neighbour, yet we have maintained a national silence on the atrocities endured by the Indigenous Melanesians of West Papua since 1962 when the United Nations illegally passed on the administration of its Non-Self-Governing Territory to Indonesia. Despite the republic's systematic racist policies and crimes-against-humanity, the West Papuan people have maintained extraordinary and inspiring resistance-and-nation-making, which was recognised in 2019 by the Pacific Islands Forum (including Australia and New Zealand), the Africa Caribbean Pacific Group and the parliaments of the United Kingdom, Poland, the Netherlands, Spain, the European Union.
Letter Writing for West Papua
Join the WP Womens Office Letter-writing Competition to Australian politicians, especially members of the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, urging them to (i) Persuade Indonesia to allow the UN fact-finding mission to West Papua which it agreed to in 2017, and ii) Shift Australia's policy from supporting Special Autonomy to voting 'yes' for a motion in the United Nations registering West Papua on the Decolonisation List.
One Small Step for Australia; One Big Leap for West Papua
This report outlines Dr Joe Toscano's policies (with costings) as an independent candidate for the Victorian Senate in Australia's 2020 Federal elections. Dr Toscano has been a political activist for as long as he has been practicing medicine, and is also a well known public broadcaster. He developed his suite of freshingly progressive policies during years of thinking about the world and being politically active within it. His policies include a commitment to pursuing an Independent Foreign Policy so that the Australian Government can support West Papua's self-determination and independence.
Two West Papuans awarded 2021 Eureka Australia Medal
Two West Papuans from the WP Transitional Government, Prime Minister Edison Waromi and Parliamentary Chair Buchtar Tabuni, were awarded 2021 Eureka Australia Medals during a moving ceremony on 3 December 2021 at the historic site of Bakery Hill in Ballarat (Victoria, Australia) where the Eureka Oath was sworn and a flag modelled on the Southern Cross-the best known constellation in the Southern Hemisphere-was raised on 3 December 1854.
West Papua’s Green State
Record of the presentations about West Papuans' Green State at the FRWP Open Day in Docklands (Victoria, AUS) on the 5 December 2021. Includes videos of the speeches by Raki Ap (the ULMWP Representative for Europe) and by Jacob Rumbiak (Minister for Foreign Affairs, West Papua Transitional Government). The entry also has the link to the video-recording of the launch of West Papua's Green State Vision on 4 November 2021 during the UN Climate Summit in Glasgow.
Poulgrain’s ‘JFK vs Allen Dulles, Battleground Indonesia’ changes our historical perspective
It took Greg Poulgrain decades of research and interviews to unravel CIA Director Allen Dulles' horrendous ‘Indonesia strategy’ of the Cold War. The most monstrous of Dulles' machinations were the murders of UN Sec-General Hammarskjöld and Congo Prime Minister Lumumba (in 1961) and US President Kennedy (in 1963); Indonesia’s usurpation of West Papua (in 1962); the replacement of Indonesian President Sukarno with the CIA-approved General Suharto (1965-66); the subsequent massacre of a million Indonesian ‘communist’ rice-farmers and consequent split of the Communist rivals China and the USSR. Students of West Papua need to ask (i) How the murder of UN Sec-General Dag Hammarskjöld was pivotal to Indonesia’s takeover of West Papua; and (ii) How a secret coup in Jakarta in 1965 and the subsequent massacre of a million Indonesian rice-farmers was pivotal to Freeport getting a licence to mine the gold in West Papua.
City of Moreland joins Yarra and Ballarat Councils on West Papua’s self-determination
On 14 August 2021, the City of Moreland joined the Yarra Council and the Ballarat Council in recognising the principle of self-determination for West Papua. Mayor Mark Riley plants a Hammarskjöld Memorial Tree for West Papua in Balfe Park in Brunswick East (Victoria, Australia). In September 2021 a video-recording of the ceremony will be presented to UN Sec-General Guterres along with the videos of the sixty other Hammarskjöld-WestPapua memorial plantings in 2020-21.
Land of the Morning Star, a documentary by Mark Worth
This entry has a lot of information, with references, about the film, Land of the Morning Star, its director Mark Worth, and the political and cultural aspects of the Morning Star on the West Papuans' independence flag.
Jessie’s House of Needles, and West Papua’s Green State
FRWP Open Day on 14 March 2021 featured John Algate on writing 'Jessie's House of Needles' and Jacob Rumbiak introducing 'West Papua as an independent Green State'. Technical glitches marred the zoom-recordings of the day, so this post includes a 1000-word review of John Algate's fascinating account of the life and work of Jessie Williamson, the Australian missionary nurse who worked in West Papua from 1966 to 2001; and Jacob Rumbiak's powerpoint essay. It also the address by Fiji-Australian author Bernie Goldstein talking on her book (Children of the 12 Tribes) who has started a campaign for one of the book's authors, West Papuan student Roland Levy, to be released from prison in Jakarta.
Deakin University academic on palm oil in West Papua
A presentation by American anthropologist Dr Eben Kirksey to FRWP Office in Docklands on 8 April 2018, which included drone-footage of the huge area of the Marind tribes' land that is being deforested for palm oil plantation. Eben explained its devastating effect on the fragile environment, and demonstrated how palm-oil based products is mostly consumed by populations in non-palm-oil producing countries.
