SUNDAY 15 MARCH 2026
1pm Papuan Lunch ($10 donation).
2pm Babuan Mirino, President, West Papua Women’s Office, Acknowledgement of Country
2.10 Ms Amanda Stone, launching Jacob and the Cassowary, the fatidic story from West Papua
2.20 Dr Jacob Rumbiak, Minister of Foreign Affairs, West Papua Government
2.40 Dr Joe’s World Famous Auction for the West Papua Rent Collective.
Acknowledgement of Country
What is Jacob and the Cassowary?
Jacob and the Cassowary is an illustrated short story about a West Papuan politician riding a cassowary from the mountains to celebrate the end of the people’s David-and-Goliath struggle against Indonesia’s colonial occupation. Alongside the cassowary, there’s a feisty crocodile wanting to keen his human kin; a Papuan pastor who blesses the journeymen; Papuan women who fix and feed them after a terrible accident on the Puldama River. Indonesia’s in the story as well, as President Prabowo hiding behind a Mares tree on his Lusitano stallion; and so is Australia, in the form of four men on galloping horses.
Author GIPSON SUU is from Nalca village in the highlands. In Melbourne he is working while waiting, and hoping that Australia grants him asylum. “I was born into the Mek tribe in Yahukimo where my ancestors have lived for thousands of years. In 2021, when I won a scholarship, I had no plans, not even dreams, of staying in Australia. But by 2024, just as I got my Diploma from Brisbane TAFE, my brother Esron Weipsa and three of my friends, Yacob Meklok, Naro Dapla and Tobias Silak, were shot, and my mother begged me not to come home. And so, with a heavy heart I flew to Melbourne and asked the West Papua office to help me lodge a protection visa”.
Gipson Suu reading Jacob and the Cassowary (1-min video) https://youtu.be/75Oobp8p5FE
MICHAEL MOLONY has long used his paintbrush to illuminate local history and stories. In recent years he’s vitalised the history of Fitzroy with the stations of the cross; and the South Melbourne Football Club “to remember the Greek, Italian, Maltese and Croatian mates who welcomed us into their lives and have given so much to Australia.” Of a distinguished Irish heritage, and with a deep love of art and history, Michael teaches at the Academy of Mary Immaculate in Fitzroy, the oldest girls secondary college in Victoria (opened by the Mercy Sisters in 1857!). He exhibits at Strathnairn Arts Homestead Gallery in Canberra, and at Bard’s Apothecary in Melbourne.
The old crocodile found President Prabowo on his Lusitano stallion hiding behind a Mares tree. “Dr Rumbiak, do you want me to eat him?” he asks.
Michael Molony, with Dr Joe Toscano, 3CR Community Radio, 4 March 2026 (60-min audio) https://www.3cr.org.au/radicalaustralia/episode/michael-molony-artist-book-illustrator
Michael Molony and Gipson Suu at the 3CR Community Radio studio, 4 March 2026.
AMANDA STONE, Patron of the West Papua Office in Docklands since 2024, launched Jacob and the Cassowary during the Open Day on 15 March 2026. Amanda, who was a member of the Australian Greens, has long championed social justice and environmental sustainability, and in 2014 was a keynote speaker at the opening of the Papuans five-star energy office. During her sixteen years on the Yarra City Council, the council organised a formal welcome for forty-three West Papuan asylum seekers who had beached their traditional canoe in Mapoon in Far North Queensland in 2006; Legislated for the Morning Star flag to be raised every year on 1 December at the Council’s town halls in Richmond, Collingwood, and Fitzroy; And planted a tree, the Dag Hammarkskjöld-West Papua Living Memorial, in Quarries Park, Clifton Hill in 2020.
This story is a beautiful parable (Bishop Huggins)
Pope Leo XIV on Jacob and the Cassowary
Dr Joe’s world famous auction for the WP Rent Collective
Looking to buy Jacob and the Cassowary?
Jacob and the Cassowary is a good fun deadly political story, suitable for progressive six-to-twelve year olds and adults interested in our region’s geopolitical affairs. Paperback with full colour artwork, 32 pages, 210 x 210mm. Available ($24.95) at the West Papua Office (211, 838 Collins Street, Docklands) or online at https://westpapuawomensoffice.square.site/.
Patrons who funded Jacob and the Cassowary
