Sincerely hope you join us on 16th November as we toast our 12th year in the business of winning freedom for West Papua. We’re wrapping up 2025 with a great Open Day on Sunday 16 November. Two special guest speakers, one Dutch, one Papuan, flying in from The Netherlands. West Papuan chef Ivone Bukorpioper going all out on a festive lunch. Our shop bustling with new product (so no need to Christmas-shop anywhere else). Celebrated textile artist and designer Lois Munro has gifted a glorious gold-thread work on cotton and silk for Dr Joe’s auction (above), and David McKenzie has given another of his hand-hewn works from old precious wood, this time a ‘spurtle’, a traditional Scottish wooden tool used to stir porridge, soups and stews.
Speakers: Endie van Binsbergen and Sampari Korwa
Endie van Binsbergen is a respected Dutch activist with years of experience in Lombok (Indonesia) and East Timor, and with the peoples of the former Dutch East Indies forced to live in exile in The Netherlands, including Moluccans and West Papuans. She is the co-author of Eddy Korwa’s memoir De Verstekeling, van Sorong naar Rotterdam that was published in 2020 by Stichting Vrij Oost Timor/Free East Timor Foundation in The Netherlands; and instrumental in the English translation The Stowaway, from Sorong to Rotterdam published in 2025 by Stichting Vrij Oost Timor/Free East Timor Foundation (NL) and West Papua Office-Docklands. More on Endie, and The Stowaway, from Sorong to Rotterdam at https://dfait.federalrepublicofwestpapua.net/document/wp-open-day-31-aug-2025-launching-the-stowaway/
Sampari Korwa (46) is a son of Eddy Korwa, born and raised in The Netherlands in a large warm Papuan family where culture and politics were high priorities. From a young age, Sampari’s parents, Eddy and Sien took him to protests and demonstrations (in the pram) and as he grew up he danced and sang in Papuan cultural groups including the Korwari Group. He works at an education institute for adolescents and adults, and at the TIFA Magazine where he is cultural programmer of the Pacific Roots Fest that presents the cultures (tattoo art as well as music) of Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia. Music has always been the key for Sampari to express himself and to present his roots. His wildly popular band, Oceanikz, specialises in Papuan and Moluccan songs [Clip, Sampari, screen left, black shorts and white tee-shirt].
nbsp
Memorial for our Martyrs and Heroes
This Open Day we are honouring the lives of our friend from Fiji, Mr Mesake Koroi, and three West Papuan activists: Daniel Randongkir, Max Binur, and Eddy Korwa.
With the death of anthropologist Daniel Randongkir West Papuans have lost another courageous activist. In 1999 Daniel was the student representative on TEAM 100 that travelled to Jakarta to meet President Habibie and [diplomatically] demanded West Papua’s independence. He then spent years working with the Papua Peace Network, and with EL-SHAM, the Papuan human rights organisation, and has testified before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Daniel also spent much of his adult life helping to develop his nation’s independent political structure, and at the time of his death was Head of the Rights and Justice Department in the ULMWP Government.
Daniel will be especially missed by Enrico Kondologit from Cenderawasih University’s Cultural Museum, who was working with him on the repatriation of 1,000 items of Dani material culture (and 20,000 photos) taken by American anthropologist OW Hampton between 1982 and 1999. Hampton’s widow’s instructions were for the collection to be returned to Papua. In the meantime Enrico and Daniel (as Chair of the Mambesakology Institute) are having to fight Indonesian claims that this unique assemblage of Dani culture should be housed in Jakarta.
Bright-eyed, big spirited Max Binur died in Sorong on 18 September 2025. Max was an artist, musician and environmental activist who alerted Papuan communities in the Raja Ampat archipelago to the ravages of nickel mining. As he travelled from village to village he taught Papuan youth how to apply ancient tribal principles of sustainability to defend and protect their forest and marine environments from the mining barons, especially those claiming to be philanthropists. He didn’t excluding the Indonesian settlers and transmigrants, but rather fostered their empathy for the injustices West Papuans experience.
Back in 2003, after the Black Paradise gig in the Concert Hall organised by David Bridie, Max generously left his bass for West Papuans in Melbourne to use. It is now, in 2025, beginning to crack and creak and need specialist attention, but all praise for Max for the seed he left in Australia, and for his devotion to the Raja Ampat islands since. It is our prayerful hope that the hundreds of eco-warriors he inspired and educated gather within West Papua’s Green State policy Framework and somehow save their nation’s extraordinary cultures, land, and seascapes.
Eddy Korwa was only 24 when he fled from his homeland, just twelve months after the United Nations transferred the administration of West Papua to Indonesia and he found himself on the Indonesian military’s ‘wanted’ list. He built a new life and a large family in the Netherlands, but never gave up on the struggle for a free West Papua. He started as a junior activist, joining initiatives within the West Papuan community, but soon became an inspirational and creative organiser himself. In his Dutch hometown Nieuwegein, Eddy was a co-founder of the PPGN Foundation (Papuan Project Group Nieuwegein) which organised fundraisers, peace walks, trips to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Papuan youths in cultural dance groups, and even the tour of a Papuan soccer team to Vanuatu.
As a political activist and lobbyist, Eddy expanded his network beyond the Papuan community. He actively built ties with the Moluccan community and the regional squatters movement, and also hosted East Timorese campaigning in The Netherlands. Eddy was loved and respected by many, including his work colleagues at the military base, because of his wit and genuine interest in people’s stories. Eddy was often the one to mediate conflicts, but never avoided a conflict when standing on his own point of view.
In 2013, Eddy was persuaded by his son Jofrey to start writing his memoir with the assistance of Endie van Binsbergen. It took six years of writing and sorting his personal archive, but the result, De Verstekeling, van Sorong naar Rotterdam published in 2020 was celebrated widely, and is now also available in English (The Stowaway, from Sorong to Rotterdam.
As a journalist since 1969, Mesake Koroi saw it all: from colonialism to Fiji’s independence in 1970, successful and less successful decolonising endeavours, democratic initiatives, and coup cultures (1987-2023). In 2000 Mesake’s family in Melbourne (Dr Robert and Lupe Wolfgramm) alerted him to the issue of West Papua, and for the next twenty-five years Mesake worked hard to feature the stories of West Papuan activists lobbying in Fiji and to personally introduce them to his state’s politicians and decision-makers. For them, the former Editor of The Fiji Times and Fiji Daily Post was a pillar of integrity and strength integrity, who offered his home as a safe space to rest, organize, and strategize. His compassion and solidarity became a beacon of support, and his empathy and friendship a source of courage and hope.
Tribute to Mesake Koroi from Dr Jacob Rumbiak (Minister for Foreign Affairs, ULMWP Government) MESAKE KOROI, 5 September 2025
The West Papua Rent Collective
The West Papua Rent Collective is a luminous galaxy of Australians who have been investing in West Papua’s future as an independent Melanesian state since 2014. Members donation of $1 a day ($30/month, $360/year) pays the rent on the Federal Republic of West Papua’s five 5-star energy office at 838 Collins Street in Docklands (Melbourne). The Office, co-ordinated by Jacob Rumbiak (Foreign Affairs Minister, West Papua Transitional Government) works within the parameters of Self-determination, Sustainability and Good Governance.
