Natalie Adadikam, St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral, Melbourne (Dean Golja, 2015)
On 5 October 2020, the West Papua Womens Office shared stories about founding member Natalie Adadikam, who died on 28 September 2020 after a long illness. Natalie was a driving force in the office, and worked long and hard to implement principles of self-determination, sustainability, and good governance.
Dean Golja’s beautiful portrait of Natalie during the Women’s Office ‘Prayers for the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG)’ in St Paul’s Cathedral on 15 June 2015. This particular MSG in the Solomon Islands recognised West Papua as an Observer (not a full member as requested) which was nevertheless enough for the Papuans to declare they’d been delivered from ‘darkness to light’; from 55 years of isolation to the global stage where their cries can be adjudicated in terms of international law.
Natalie was the heart and soul of the office; a warm and generous muma who made people feel comfortable. She cared deeply for those who sought her assistance. Her faith and trust in Jesus, and her commitment to the freedom of West Papua moved and influenced everyone who came in contact with her.
[left] Aerial photo of Docklands Wharf in 1984. From this wharf, in 1982, before Docklands was populated with banks, businesses and high-rise apartments, Natalie’s mother Corrie identified and organised Alfonse Adadikam to marry her wild young daughter. Alfons was an apprentice-engineer on an Indonesian ship in the harbour. The Indonesian girl and her West Papuan spouse could not have foreseen that thirty-three years after their meeting on the wharf, the Federal Republic of West Papua would open a five-star-energy office a few metres away (red dot on map).
Docklands was built on a luxurious wetland, which before white settlement had supported the Bunurong Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples for 1600 generations. The Federal Republic of West Papua heralds these tribes of the Kulin Nation Alliance.
When the Foreign Affairs Department of the Federal Republic of West Papua opened in Docklands on 23 June 2014, it was decided that building relationships was key to developing political support, and that the best tool would be food cooked by Natalie and her good friend Babuan Mirino. Paradoxically, when the two of them launched the Womens Office eight months later they called for a Day of Prayer and Abstinence that almost killed off some Australian Christian supporters.
Natalie was an astute business woman as well as a great chef, and formed Dapur Sampari (Morning Star Kitchen) with Alfons, Babuan, and Ivone Bukorpioper. Dapur Sampari earned money for the Womens Office to publish new books and buy international airfares for Papuan diplomats.
With her fastidious attention to detail, Natalie easily won Best Recipe (use of indigenous ingredients, nutritional value, presentation, taste) at the Melanesian Culture Day during the 2016 Sampari Art Exhibition at the Australian Catholic University in Fitzroy.
While committed to ‘Self-determination, Good Governance, Sustainability’, Natalie only jettisoned glad-wrap and plastic plates after St Pat’s Cathedral paid $1,126 for chicken-and-corn soup in hand-hewn coconut bowls. [left] In June 2017 with Lobar Wainggai’s coconut bowls for launch of Bishop Hilton Deakin’s memoir Bonded through tragedy, United in hope: the Catholic Church and East Timor’s Struggle for Independence.
The last time Natalie cooked for the Womens Office was Sunday 8 December 2019. ‘Baby Bacon’ from the tiny town of Denison 160kms east of Melbourne had donated a pig, so Natalie prepared it in different ways to reference, with food, West Papuan tribal cultures as well as the nation’s Dutch and Indonesian colonial stories, all spiced up with a pinch of modern vegetarianism.
There is no evidence that Jesus had any musical talent, but demonstrable evidence that Natalie didn’t either. At Ronny Kareni’s graduation party (Federation University, 2015) at the Sisters of Mercy convent in Ballarat, she felt compelled to air-conduct a hymn composed by Rev. Isaac Kijne in the 1930s and adopted by the New Guinea RAAD in 1961 as the West Papua anthem.
Natalie was born in Jakarta in 1963, and was brought by her mother to Melbourne in 1975. In Jakarta and in Melbourne Natalie suffered the enormous physical and emotional pain and shame of sexual abuse. It was only after discovering that Jesus really loved her that she developed her extraordinary ability to rise and soar above the wretchedness inflicted upon her (Photo: Tommy Latupeirissa).
We remember you Natalie through the words of “Too much Rain” by Jenny Herrera, a member of the West Papua Womens Office, who lives in Tasmania.
JACOB RUMBIAK TO NATALIE’S FAMILY
As the Coordinator of the FRWP Department of Foreign Affairs Office in Docklands (Victoria, Australia), which is under the jurisdiction of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, I wish to express my condolences to Mr Alfons Adadikam after the death on Monday 28 September 2020 of his wife Natalie, the mother of their three children and grandmother of their six grandchildren.
Natalie was a valuable member of the West Papuan community in Melbourne, the ‘guardian’, always ready and willing and able to help and to counsel. She was also the ‘mother’ of the FRWP West Papua Women Office in Docklands, her hard work contributing to the extraordinary success of ULMWP diplomacy on the world stage.
Mrs. Adadikam, we cannot measure the value of your service to the people of West Papua in gold, diamonds, or piles of money as high as the sky. We can only say thank you, and pray through our tears that you will now live in eternal peace with God our Father in Heaven. Lord Jesus, comfort the Adadikam family and the relatives that Natalie has left, and strengthen her colleagues in the Womens Office who will feel lost without her.
(PDF) Jacob Rumbiak’s message of condolence to Natalie Adadikam’s family
West Papua Womens’ Office remember Natalie Adadikam
On 5 October 2020, the West Papua Womens’ Office in Docklands held a (COVID 19-driven) zoom-conference for members to recall the life of Natalie Adadikam. Present were Rev. Dr Robert Stringer (Office Chaplain), Mary Stringer, Lorner Archer (Patron), Louise Byrne, Annette Culley, Faye Gregson, Linda Duckham.
Louise Byrne (12 mins)
https://youtu.be/EnR84QUyO7s
Mary Stringer and Rev. Dr Robert Stringer (14 mins)
https://youtu.be/z-1UNScxA98
Faye Gregson, Ester Anderson, Lorna Archer (4 mins)
https://youtu.be/7o59msAj1EU
Annette Culley, Linda Duckham
https://youtu.be/fOIb-wT38Ao
