Biography: PM Edison Waromi, WP Transitional Government

Biography: PM Edison Waromi, WP Transitional Government

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Prayers for West Papua at MSG : Mon 2 Feb 2015

DAY OF ABSTINENCE AND PRAYER
Monday 2 February 2015 : 10am-6pm
Suite 211, 838 Collins St, Docklands

The new West Papua Womens Office is hosting a DAY OF ABSTINENCE AND PRAYER to support West Papua’s application to join the Melanesian Spearhead Group. All activists—holy, unholy, secular, socialist, capitalist—welcome to drop in for a few minutes, or a couple of hours.

CELEBRANTS
Ms Faye Gregson (11am)
Bishop Hilton Deakin (12pm)
Rev. Robert Stringer (1pm)
Dr Robert Wolfgramm (2pm)
Mesak Karubaba (3pm)
Lupe Wolfgramm (4pm)
Riccard Rumbiak (6pm)

Prayers for West Papua at MSG : Mon 6 April 2015

Peter Woods, Arfak Women

Supporting West Papua’s application to join Melanesian Spearhead Group in June 2015.

Since the Vanuatu Government’s Reconciliation and Unity Summit for West Papuan leaders in December 2014, the (elected) committee of West Papuans has drawn up and presented a comprehensive application for full membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG).

The Summit in Port Vila was moderated by the Malvatumauri National Council of Chiefs, the Pacific Conference of Churches, and the Vanuatu Council of Christian Churches.  On 5 February 2015, these powerful institutions accredited the lodging of the application with the MSG Secretariat.

West Papua’s application for membership is currently being considered by the governments of Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands.  The results of their deliberations, including the votes of Vanuatu and the Kanaky Liberation Front, will be announced during the MSG Summit in Honiara (Solomon Islands) in June 2015.

Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand believe that West Papuans, as a member of the MSG, will air their concerns and ambitions in the larger Pacific Islands Forum and, ultimately, the United Nations.  Consequently, the three nations are pressing and enciting the small Melanesian states to reject West Papua’s application for membership, or downgrade it to observer status (the same status controversily accorded the Indonesian Republic in 2011).

For the Melanesian peoples, Prayer and Meditation complements the political pressure they are exerting on their politicians and governments to provide an appropriate and supportive space for their West Papuan kin to air and negotiate their solution to the Indonesian occupation.

The Prayer Days on the first Monday of each month, hosted by the FRWP Women’s Office in Docklands, are attracting an increasing number of petitions from democracy seekers and human rights workers wishing to advocate their support of West Papua’s application to join the Melanesian Speaarhead group in June 2015.

Painting: Peter Woods 2001 Arfak Women, Bird’s Head, West Papua

2019 campaign: Decolonize West Papua

This kit is designed to make supporting West Papua’s petition to be registered on the UN Decolonization List easy. It includes background information, flyers, stickers, and documents.

1. Download the hard-copy petition and ask friends, family, neighbours, co-workers to sign and to support the campaign.

2. You can wear our campaign badge when collecting signatures. Download it here.

3. Print campaign cards to distribute. Download at here. You can print them at Officeworks for 10 cents each – two cards will fit on one 6×4″ print. Use the ‘with border’ facility, and get Officeworks to guillotine them in half.

4. Write to your local MP or Senator to make them aware of the issue’s importance to you. To make things easy, we have drafted a letter you can download (click ‘save as’ to save a copy) and print to send to your MP’s office. Alternatively, you can copy the text into an email.

5. Meet with your MP. You can request meetings with your local MP or any candidates in your electorate to discuss issues that are important to you.

6. Print and take one of these postcards to give more information to your MP or candidate. You can print these at Officeworks as a 6×4″ photo print for 10 cents each. To add further information, you can print these sticky labels to add to the back of the postcards.

7. Petitions need to be returned to the West Papua Office by 31 July 2019, @ Federal Republic of West Papua, Attn: Nadine Rutter, Suite 211, 838 Collins Street, Docklands VIC 3008.

8. Know what you are talking about. Read or print Summary of West Papua as a Non-Self-Governing Territory (1950-1962) by Jacob Rumbiak. Jacob is the Co-ordinator of the West Papua Office that drafted the motion and authorised the petition.

Reflecting on 1st December 1961, West Papua’s self-determination as a Non-Self-Governing Territory

https://www.facebook.com/decolonizewestpapua

Voice of West Papua, 3CR Radio

 

Voice of West Papua Radio Show, 3CR Community Radio, Tuesday 6:30pm to 7:30pm
News, songs, interviews, music, stories, and the ongoing struggle for freedom, self-determination, and independence.

Voice of West Papua has been on air for 11 years and is presented by West Papuan activists and community members who voice the aspirations of West Papua’s struggle, share songs, interviews, music and stories.

Current Presenters  Joe Wally, Erwin Bleskadit, Debra Wally, Terra Mambor, Ian Okoka,
Previous presenters  Emilia Wainggai, Jefry Yikwa, Alfonse Adakikam, Ivone Bukorpioper, Sixta Mambor, Ronny Kareni.

Since the annexation of West Papua by Indonesia on 1 May 1963, more than half a million West Papuans have died and countless have gone missing as a result of a brutal military occupation. Today West Papuans are still experiencing injustice, marginalisation and human rights abuses just because they stand up for themselves. Through our stories, interviews, and music, we hope to raise awareness about the plight of West Papua. Papua Merdeka! Free West Papua!

https://www.3cr.org.au/voiceofwestpapua
instagram.com/thevoiceofwestpapua/

Voice of West Papua, 3CR Community Radio, 2025

Voice of West Papua Team, 3CR Community Radio, 2015

Voice of West Papua Team, 3CR Community Radio, 2015

Voice of West Papua Team, 3CR Radio, 9 Jan 2017: Erwin Bleskadit, Jacob Rumbiak, Alfonse Adadikam

Voice of West Papua Team, 3CR Radio, 9 Jan 2017: Joe Wally, Erwin Bleskadit, Jacob Rumbiak, Alfonse Adadikam.

Political artist and Papuan nurse, Reports from the war-zone, 7 Sept 2014

West Papua Open Day, Sunday, 7 September 2014: 2–4pm
West Papua Office, 838 Collins St, Docklands, Victoria

Australian political artist Peter Woods and West Papuan nurse Marike Tebay report on their recent visits to villages on the north and south coasts of West Papua

Join us for Natalie’s Perfect Pancakes & Adolf’s Cheery Coffee ($6.00)

Inquiries:  Amos Wainggai  tel 0431 284 731
wainggaial@dfait.federalrepublicofwestpapua.org

Tafanduhi : ukuleles for West Papua, August 2014

TAFANDUHI : UKULELES FOR WEST PAPUA (Melbourne)

THURS 11 August 2014, Bar 303, High Street, Northcote (Melbourne)
SAT 13 August 2014, B1 Ballarat Art Space
SUN 14 August 2014, Lot 19, Castlemaine

Relentless ukuleles for West Papua! featuring the Black Orchid Stringband (West Papua), Joe Geia, the Melbourne Ukulele Kollective, Rose Turtle Ertler, Helen Begley, the Ukulele Ladies, Cathouse and more…

All money raised goes towards the ongoing campaign for West Papuan political prisoners.Five were recently released, but there’s still over 70 imprisoned.

Tafanduhi means “come together” in the Ambai (West Papuan language)

WP Open Day, Sun 19 Oct 2014 : FRWP’s 3rd birthday

West Papua Open Day : Sunday 19 Oct 2014 : 2-4pm

Celebrating the 3rd birthday of the Federal Republic of West Papua

Guest Speaker: Rev. Robert Stringer, Retired Clergy Uniting Church

West Papua Office, 838 Collins St, Docklands 3008, Victoria

Federal Republic of West Papua
On 19 October 2011, five-thousand academics, politicians, church leaders, and senior tribal leaders established the FRWP during the 3rd Papua Congress. The Indonesian government immediately charged newly elected President Forkorus Yaboisembut and Prime Minister Edison Waromi, as well as three organizers of the Congress, with subversion, and they were incarcerated for three years. In August 2014, they were released from prison and are currently building a political house for the carriage of the nation’s tribal, traditional, and modern ways of thinking and being.

 

Children of the Revolution : Peter Woods Exhibition, Nov 2014

Peter Woods Painting

You are warmly invited to my exhibition Children of the Revolution between 22 November and 7 December 2014 . The paintings and prints mainly from my June visit to West Papua this year. I wanted to celebrate the fire of hope for freedom which burns in the hearts of the girls and boys of that land.

22 November – 7 December 2014
Artist’s Studio, 14 Leak St, Bittern 3918, Victoria

Open 2pm – 6pm weekends
Other times by Appointment

Opening event Saturday 22 November : 3pm
RSVP Jeanette, 0400589206; jeanette.woods2@gmail.com

 

Christmas with the WP Rent Collective, 21 Dec 2014

In recognition of your invaluable support during 2014, the Foreign Affairs Department of the Federal Republic of West Papua invites you and your family and friends for a Christmas Meet-and-Lunch. Without the financial support of the WP Rent Collective the great strides made by the office in its first year of existence would not have been possible.

Christmas Meet-and-Lunch + The Black Orchid String Band
Sunday 21st December 2014 : 12:30 – 4:00pm
Lifestyle Building, 838 Collins St. Docklands 3008 (VIC)

Guest Speakers
Jacob Rumbiak, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Federal Republic of West Papua
Dr Joseph Toscano, Convenor West Papua Rent Collective

Inquiries (03) 9049 9590; (03) 9049 9591

Inquiries about WP Rent Collective
Dr. Joseph Toscano
Level 1/21 Smith Street, Fitzroy 3065 VIC 
PO Box 5035, Alphington 3078 VIC
Tel: 0439 395 489; anarchistage@yahoo.com

First birthday of WP Office in Docklands : Sun 3 May 2015

West Papua Open Day : Sunday 3 May 2015, 2pm (1pm for delicious Papuan lunch)

Friends of the Federal Republic of West Papua (FRWP) will gather at the DFAIT Office in Docklands on Sunday 3 May to celebrate twelve months of hard work and significant achievement. Two events mark this special day.

Catholic Bishop Hilton Deakin, widely recognised for his support of East Timor’s liberation, will review Dr Greg Poulgrain’s ground-breaking research The Incubus of Intervention: conflicting Indonesian strategies of JF Kennedy and Allen Dulles. Dr Poulgrain is also the author of The Genesis of Konfrontasi: Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia 1945 -1965, and lectures in Indonesian history at the University of the Sunshine Coast. His Incubus of Intervention, published in Malaysia in January 2015, casts even more shadows over America’s acquisition of the biggest mountain of gold in the world (Freeport) pursuant to Indonesia’s notorious acquisition of West Papua in 1962.

Richard Muggleton was the photographer for two teams of Australian scientists studying the retreat of the glacier (above the Freeport mine) in 1971 and 1973.  Mr Muggleton is showing his photographs and talking about his experience for the first time.

Friends and supporters are urged to come and bear witness to the significant shifts in West Papua’s political milieu since the office opened twelve months ago. (The office will be happy to accept birthday presents in the form of new members of the Rent Collective!).

Interviews and reviews of The Incubus of Intervention at
https://dfait.federalrepublicofwestpapua.net/document/reviewing-the-incubus-of-intervention-conflicting-indonesia-strategies-of-john-f-kennedy-and-allen-dulles-by-greg-poulgrain/

Australian trade unions sign deal with Federal Republic of West Papua: Trades Hall, 15 May 2015

MOU Poster 6x4

FRUIT OF THE VINE: a comprehensive deal between the Australian trade union movement and the Federal Republic of West Papua.

On Friday 15 May 2015, the Australian Trade Union movement signs a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Federal Republic of West Papua, which includes supporting West Papua’s application for full membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group in June 2015.

Free West Papua supporters are warmly invited to join union secretaries and members at the Memorandum Signing Ceremony at Trades Hall (54 Victoria St, Carlton, Victoria) on Friday 15 May 2015 between 5.30 and 8.30pm.

Luke Halakari, Secretary of the Victoria Trades Hall Council, is hosting the ceremony, and Ms Ged Kearney, President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, is the key note speaker.

During the ceremony, Australian Catholic Bishop Hilton Deakin, is launching Dr Greg Poulgrain’s recently published ground-breaking claims that in 1961 CIA Director Allan Dulles organised for the assassination of UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskold (The Incubus of Intervention: conflicting Indonesia strategies of John F. Kennedy and Allen Dulles). Hammarskold’s assassination precluded his schedueled presentation to the UN General Assembly of his plan for West Papua’s imminent independence and self-determination.

The MOU affirms Australian union support for the right of West Papua to Self-determination, a plethora of internationally recognised rights over-ridden by the United Nations and Indonesian government between 1962 and 1969, and brutally repressed by President Suharto’s New Order regime and Indonesia’s so-called reformasi governments, including the current administration led by President Widodo.

The FRWP believes the Australian trade union movement is seeking to influence a change of Labour Party policy, from supporting Special Autonomy to a policy of Self-determination-and, consequently, Government Opposition support for West Papua’s application to join the Melanesian Spearhead Group in June 2015.

Photo: Peter Woods 2013

Praying for the Melanesian Spearhead Group, St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne : Mon 15 June 2015

stainglassRAYING FOR THE MELANESIAN SPEARHEAD GROUP (MSG)

ST PAUL’S CATHEDRAL, MELBOURNE

MONDAY 15 JUNE 2015:5pm

Three days before the Melanesian Spearhead Group Summit in Honiara (Solomon Islands), the Revd Heather Patacca is leading prayers at St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne.  Calling on a motion passed by the Anglican Synod for West Papua’s self-determination, the prayers are to encourage the Melanesian Leadership to accept West Papua’s application for full membership of the MSG in 2015.

The Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), comprised of Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and the Kanaky independence movement, was recognised by the United Nations in 2008 as an international organisation.  This status renders the MSG the most appropriate forum for political dialogue and conclusive negotiations between West Papua and the Indonesian Government.  Indeed, by gracing their Melanesian kin with full membership, MSG politicians will demonstrate their leadership, their dignity, and their sovereignty, as well as enhance their organisations’ status as a UN-accredited International Organization.

Earlier this year, the MSG leaders were tasked by their peoples to embrace West Papua’s application, and provide their long-suffering kin with a seat from which to negotiate peace and justice with Indonesia. The application was prepared by an inclusive, united, representative committee (United Liberation Movement for West Papua) that was elected during the Reconciliation and Unity Summit for West Papuan Leaders in Port Vila in December 2014.  The Summit itself was a broad-based initiative to institute negotiations.  It was initiated by the 2013 World Council of Churches Assembly in Busan, South Korea; propelled by the Protestant Church in West Papua (Gereja Kristen Injili) and Lutheran Church in PNG; sponsored by the Vanuatu Government; and moderated by the Malvatumauri National Council of Chiefs, Vanuatu Christian Council, and Pacific Conference of Churches.

In the meantime, the Indonesian Government has been attempting, via an array of measures, to derail the process, and most recently presented five of its governors, two of which are West Papuan, as an Associate Member of the MSG.  (The two Papuan governors are not freely elected, but are pre-selected as candidates for election by LEMHANAS, a powerful Indonesian institution directly answerable to the President that is tasked to maintain and protect Indonesian ‘territorial integrity’).

On 14 May 2015, PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill bowed to President Widodo’s demand for his support, and a week later Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama followed suite.  This is despite their obligations to the MSG Founding Principles ‘to defend and promote independence as the inalienable right of the indigenous peoples of Melanesia’, and ‘to contribute to a peaceful, secure, and stable democratic environment throughout Melanesia’.

Minister O’Neill further diminished himself with incorrect claims that there are eleven million Melanesians in Indonesia, and that the aggregate number of Melanesians exceeds Australia’s population of twenty-three million.  Irrespective of this crude opportunism, the issue for the leader of the largest Melanesian state should not have been how many Melanesians live in Indonesia, but how many are dead and dying in West Papua.  In 1962, Melanesians constituted 99% of the population in West Papua. By 2010, they’d dropped to 48.7% (1.7 of 3.6 million) with an annual growth rate of 1.8% (in contrast to the non-Papuan rate of 10.8%).  According to Jim Elmslie from Sydney University, the Melanesian population of West Papua in 2020 will be ‘a small and rapidly dwindling minority of just 28%’ (West Papuan demographic transition and the 2010 Census: Slow Motion Genocide or not?)

Prime Minister O’Neill said his arrangement with President Widodo would “ensure peace, stability, and development for Melanesians in Papua and West Papua”.  Yet just nine days after his meeting with Widodo on 11 May 2015, Indonesian police arrested 70 West Papuans in Manokwari for supporting the ULMWP application; their use of tear gas hospitalizing dozens of kindergarten children. On 28 May, another 46 Papuans were arrested in Jayapura.  In March, ULMWP Spokesperson Benny Wenda, who was seriously assaulted in Port Moresby last July, was refused entry into PNG. Markus Haluk, another Papuan leader, was also seriously assaulted in Port Moresby in March, and robbed of the funds collected in West Papua for Cyclone Pam victims in Vanuatu.

Photo: stain glass window in St Paul’s Cathedral (http://www.stpaulscathedral.org.au/)

Open Day : West Papua and International Law, Sun 26 July 2015

FRWP Open Day, 26 July 2015

WEST PAPUA AND THE INTERNATIONAL LAW: WHERE TO NOW WE’RE A MEMBER OF THE MELANESIAN SPEARHEAD GROUP?

Open Day, West Papua Rent Collective
SUNDAY 26 JULY 2015: 2-4pm

DFAIT (Federal Republic of West Papua)
Suite 211, 838 Collins St, Docklands (Victoria)

 

SPEAKERS
EMMA KING The New York Agreement (1962-1969)
ANDREW JOHNSON Is West Papua still a UN Trust Territory?
ANNETTE CULLEY Indonesia and Territorial Integrity
SAVANNAH THATCHER Photo-journal report from the Melanesian Spearhead Group Summit in Honiara (Solomon Islands)
JACOB RUMBIAK Directions for West Papua now we are a member of an international organisation
MASTER OF CEREMONIES Ricky Rumbiak

 

EMMA KING has a legal-studies background and has been a social-justice/human rights activist for twenty-five years, primarily in Darwin, but lately from Castlemaine.

ANDREW JOHNSON has been studying legal issues pertaining to West Papua for two decades, blogs his research findings, and runs a huge online information library at http://colonywestpapua.info/

ANNETTE CULLEY has been a librarian since she was seventeen, working at the Aeronatauical Research Laboratory in Fishmerman’s Bend, the State Electricity Commission’s Herman Research Laboratory, and Caritas Christie Hospice. Her interest in West Papua was sparked by her reading of The People of the Valley by Wyn Sargent forty years ago.

SAVANNAH THATCHER recently graduated from Monash University with a Bachelor of Journalism, and works in media production. She has just returned from Honiara where she covered the Melanesian Spearhead Group Summit.

JACOB RUMBIAK is the Minister for Foreign Affairs (FRWP). He has just returned from the Melanesia Spearhead Group Summit in the Solomon Islands, where as an Executive of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua he oversaw West Papua accorded diplomatic status in the international arena.

RICKY RUMBIAK was one of six young West Papuans brought to study in Victoria in 2003 by the Australia West Papua Association (Victoria) and the Religious Sisters of Mercy in Ballarat. He has just returned from Darwin where he spoke at the Freedom Forum on West Papua’s story as an Indonesian colony

 

4pm AFTERNOON TEA Dapur Sampari (FRWP Women’s Office)
Sweet/Savoury Pikelets, East Timor Coffee, Darjeeling Tea (small gold coin donation)

 

Oceania Interrupted, 2, Sangeeta Singh 1Photo: Sangeeta Singh

From Oceania Interrupted’s ‘Empowering Collective Action’ series.

(Oceania Interrupted is an Auckland-based collective of Maori and Pacific women committed to undertaking public interventions to raise awareness about issues that affect Pacific Islanders, including West Papua’s struggle for independence).

West Papua Women: Activism & Resistance, Sun 23 Aug 2015

Women's ActivismWEST PAPUA WOMEN: ACTIVISM & RESISTANCE, SUNDAY 23 AUGUST 2015: 2-4pm

West Papuan women are the silent backbone of West Papua’s historic struggle for freedom and self-determination, and this seminar is an effort to match some of their faces with an array of political activism and resistance. The afternoon of camaraderie and sharing stories, in the Federal Republic of West Papua office in Docklands, culminates, as our open days usually do, with freshly cooked afternoon tea.

 

Speakers

MARJORIE THORPE is from the Gunnai and Maar Nations of Southern Victoria, and is currently studying law at the Koori Institute of Education at Deakin University.  She is an experienced Aboriginal activist, committed to self-determination and Aboriginal sovereignty, particularly in areas of health, child welfare, women’s issues, and community development.

BABUAN MIRINO is a West Papuan woman living in Australia, and will bring to her talk about the women’s organisation that she formed in West Papua after the Biak Massacre in 1998, the extra perspective of living in exile as a political refugee.  Babuan is Co-founder of the FRWP Women’s Office in Docklands, and is an accomplished diplomat, singer, designer, chef, racconteur, and great-grandmother of ten little Papuans.

IZZY BROWN coordinated the Freedom Flotilla of Australian and Papuan Elders in 2013. The flotilla carried a small bottle of sacred water from the Australian heartland to the coast of West Papua, re-establishing relations disrupted by rising seas at the end of the last Ice Age six thousand years ago.  Izzy is talking about women activists she met in West Papua, and is showing her interview with one of the nation’s heroic freedom fighters.

LOUISE BYRNE is an activist-academic who worked for East Timor’s liberation, and since 1999 for West Papua’s freedom and self-determination, while her PhD West Papua-tensions and contradictions in the transition to independence moves inexorably towards completion.  She introduces West Papuan activists in Manokwari (on the north coast), and in Merauke (south coast); as well as Leonie Tanggahma, the only woman in the United Liberation Movement for West Papua committee that won the nation Observer Status in the Melanesian Spearhead Group in June 2015.

photo: AK Rockefeller, leader & founder of the ITS Arts Collective, an international community of multi-media artists and activists. (http://akrockefeller.com/news/resist-state-and-corporate-aggression-in-papua/attachment/papua_women_cartoon/)

St Luke’s Uniting Church, Mt Waverley: Giving thanks for West Papua’s success at the Melanesian Spearhead Group and Pacific Islands Forum

St Luke'sAt the 9.30am service on Sunday 20 September 2015, the Congregation of St Luke’s Uniting Church, led by Rev. James Douglas, is prayerfully reflecting on West Papua’s recent success with the Melanesian Spearhead Group in Honiara (Solomon Islands) and the Pacific Islands Forum in Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea).

A special feature of the service will be the church choir singing Jou Manfun, a classic West Papua praise song, with Melbourne based West Papuans.

The congregation’s reflections will be informed by a powerpoint report by the Federal Republic of West Papua. Louise Byrne, from the FRWP Women’s Office, was in Honiara for the MSG Summit in June 2015, and is sharing stories about West Papua’s historic achievement of winning Diplomatic standing and Observer status within the UN-recognised international organisation.

Louise is also reporting on West Papua’s subsequent victory at the Pacific Islands Forum in September 2015, which voted to obtain the co-operation of the Indonesian Government for a PIF fact-finding mission, and agreed to admit West Papua as an Observer in 2016.  An invitation from Indonesia to a PIF (inter-governmental) fact-finding mission will require negotiations around the terms of reference, and Mathew Wale (Solomon Islands Special Envoy on West Papua) hopes PIF Chair, Peter O’Neill, is able to persuade Indonesia to come to the table and begin the necessary dialogue.  Indonesia is one of PIF’s seventeen Post Forum Dialogue Partners, which are considered to be ‘strategic allies’ and participate in a regular reporting process. (The other PFD Partners are Canada, China, Cuba, European Union, France, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States),

Louise’ other report on the extraordinary ‘West Papuan Leaders Summit on Reconciliation and Unification’ in Port Vila in December 2014 will be of special interest to the St Luke congregation, which openly supports West Papua’s political self-determination endeavours.  The Vanuatu Summit paved the way for West Papua’s successes firstly with the MSG in Honiara and then with PIF in Port Moresby.  Louise was able to observe the ni-Vanuatu, over a period of ten days, helping their Melanesian kin, through a paradigm of culture, faith and intellectualism, to overcome historic differences and forge a united representative committee to carry their independence program.

Photo: Savanna Thatcher, Honiara, 19 June 2015. United Liberation Movement for West Papua (the representative committee charged with prosecuting West Papua’s independence agenda) at the start of the WESTPAPUA4MSG Rally in Honiara two days before the Melanesian Spearhead Group Summit.

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