FRWP Womens Office welcomes all art aficionados and West Papua's friends to the 2017 Sampari Art Exhibition in the Australian Catholic University Art Gallery in Melbourne.
The 2017 Sampari Art Exhibition and Sale for West Papua opens at 6pm on Friday 8 December, and closes at 5pm on Sunday 17 December. The rich and complex exhibition features inspiring artworks about West Papua created for the exhibition, as well as vibrant entries from artists in West Papua, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, PNG, and Kanaky (New Caledonia), and a unique information exhibition of words and old photos from West Papua during World War Two.
ACU Art Gallery
26 Brunswick St, Fitzroy (Melbourne)
ACU Gallery Hours
Monday to Friday 11am-6pm; Saturday & Sunday 11am-4pm
Entry
Entry to Sampari Art Exhibition is free. Donations accepted for Sampari Events in the Gallery.
Inquiries
Robin Vote: tel 0413 802 612
FRWP Womens Office: tel 0420 250 389; email < frwpwomensoffice.sampari@gmail.com >
1. SUMMARY, SAMPARI EVENTS IN THE GALLERY
2. DETAILS, SAMPARI EVENTS IN THE GALLERY
WP CHRISTMAS PARTY
Saturday 9 December, 1-4pm.
good food, good fun, good info … new members, old friends welcome.
The Christmas Party is one of three Open Days every year where members of the West Papua Rent Collective meet to catch up on the liberation struggle they work so hard to support.
The Collective is a unique galaxy of Australians investing in West Papua’s future as an independent Melanesian state. Their membership ($30/month or $360/annum) pays for the FRWP’s five-star-energy office on the Yarra River at 838 Collins St, Docklands.
RSVP (for Dapur Sampari catering) tel 0420 250 389; email < frwpwomensoffice@gmail.com >
IMAGE Tom Latupeirissa Torres Islander & Morning Star flag Victorian Arts Centre, 24 Feb 2017
WORLD WAR TWO WEST PAPUA
Sunday 10 Dec 2017 : 1.30-3pm
an exhibition of words and old photographs from Nederlands Nieuw Guinea (West Papua) 1942-1945.
SPEAKERS
JACOB RUMBIAK
Federal Republic of West Papua
ROSS HIMONA (ret.)
New Zealand Army
LANCE COLLINS (ret.)
Australian Defence Force
MARGARET COFFEY (Commère)
ABC journalist (ret.)
This exhibition illustrates the skill and loyalty of armed and unarmed West Papuans despite the devastation heaped upon them and their land during the Japanese and Allied occupations of World War Two. In the central highlands, the Oaktree intelligence team (including two Papuan women) traced the Japanese for eleven months, its reports ending up in the Allied Intelligence Bureau in Melbourne. Further north, the Mandatjan Brothers, working the Arfak tribal lands, were parachuted hundreds of guns by General MacArthur’s taskforce; and in 1944 formed the core of the PVK military force of four hundred West Papuans assigned with ‘mopping up’ operations. US General Eichelberger’s arresting account of the Allies occupation of Hollandia (current-day Jayapura) is but one small measure of the impact of the war and weight of foreign footprints:
Hollandia, converted into an immense military and air base, became one of the great bases of the war. Sides of mountains were carved away, bridges and culverts were thrown across rivers and creeks, gravel and stone were poured into sago swamps to make highways as tall as Mississippi levees. Tremendous docks were constructed; 135 miles of pipeline led over the hills to feed gasoline to the airfields. Where I had seen a few native villages and an expanse of primeval forest, a city of 140,000 men took occupancy (Our Jungle Road to Tokyo, 1950)
CONTACT Freya Clough Good < frwpwomensoffice.sampari@gmail.com > Tel 0424 745 155
IMAGE Gunner Lloyd Moore of Dubbo with a Timor Pony foal, Merauke, April 1944 (‘Scarlett and the Village Maiden Handicap’, Australian War Memorial )
DEBATE
Should Australia support West Papua’s independence?
Wed 13 Dec 2017 : 6-8pm
Melbourne University Debating Society v West Papua Rent Collective
Moderator: Dr Jonathan Benney (Debating Association of Vic.)
In 1962, the United Nations, with Australia’s vote, violated its ‘sacred trust obligations’ and over-rode a well-funded self-determination program in West Papua, a non-self-governing territory administered by the Netherlands. Seeking the richest gold-and-copper field in the world, the United States had forced their WW2 ally and the UN to transfer the administration to Indonesia, thereby assigning the welfare of 770,000 indigenous Melanesians to a militarized unstable Asian state. America and Australia—then and now—ignore their ‘State Responsibility’ obligations to prosecute against Indonesia’s genocidal policies that are reducing the indigenous owners of the land to a ‘small dwindling minority’.
Inquiries Louise Byrne Tel 0424 745 155; Email < frwpwomensoffice@gmail.com >
Image young freedom fighter in west papua, with family permission
Design PSYSKIP Graphic Design (Berlin); Jack Byrne, Australian National University (Canberra)
THE VENUS FORUM
Thursday 14 December 2017 : 6pm
Exploring West Papuan beliefs about the Morning Star, as well as the stories and traditions of the Jewish, Christian, Torres Strait, and Scientific cultures.
SPEAKERS
Yoram Symons
Rabbinical scholar
Chris Rudge
The Melbourne Observatory
Dr Robert Wolfgramm
Biblical scholar from Fiji
Cultural Custodian
Torres Strait Islands
Ronny Kareni from West Papua
Pacific Studies, ANU (Canberra)
Ivone Bukorpioper (Commère)
FRWP Womens Office, Docklands
Venus, as the Morning Star, is a prominent character on the independence flag raised by West Papuans on 1 December 1961. The celebrated celestial being they call Sampari is important in the Biak mytho-historical account because he gave them the key to salvation and eternal life.
Inquiries Jude Kohn 0405 003 977, Louise Byrne 0424 745 155
Reserve a seat frwpwomensoffice.sampari@gmail.com (limited to 80)
Image Skye Williams ‘Morning Star’ 2016
MELANESIAN CULTURE DAY
Saturday 16 December 2017 : 1-4pm
A day for Melanesians living in Australia (from West Papua, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Maluku, Kanaky, Torres Strait) to perform the histories and cultures that make them unique and the ceremonies, music and foods that have bonded them for aeons. The communities, normally separated by sea-water, are in Melbourne subsequent to studying, working, and diplomatic postings, with few opportunities to celebrate their origins and living cultures.
Saluting Melanesia begins with a solemn kava ceremony, followed by young Melanesians talking about their cultural experiences, dancers performing their traditions, singer-songwriters telling tales about the past and the future, and, of course, a dazzling display of food featuring indigenous products and recipes.
Federal Republic of West Papua in Docklands
211/838 Collins St, Docklands, Victoria 3008
TEL 0420 250 389; EMAIL frwpwomensoffice@gmail.com
WEB www.dfait.federalrepublicofwestpapua.org
FACEBOOK Sampari Exhibition
West Papua Rent Collective
Commonwealth Bank of Australia
Account Name Australia West Papua Association (Melbourne); BSB 063162; ACC 10300635
