Two guest speakers at the West Papua Open Day in Docklands on 19 September 2021: Dr Greg Poulgrain talking about his 2020 publication 'JFK vs Allen Dulles: Battleground Indonesia', and Pastor Edison Waromi (Prime Minister, West Papua Transitional Government) updating the current situation in his war-torn nation. The most monstrous of Dulles' machinations were the murders of UN Sec-General Hammarskjöld and Congo Prime Minister Lumumba (in 1961) and US President Kennedy (in 1963); Indonesia’s usurpation of West Papua (in 1962); the replacement of Indonesian President Sukarno with the CIA-approved General Suharto (1965-66); the subsequent massacre of a million Indonesian ‘communist’ rice-farmers and consequent split of the Communist rivals China and the USSR. Students of West Papua need to ask (i) How the murder of UN Sec-General Dag Hammarskjöld was pivotal to Indonesia’s takeover of West Papua; and (ii) How a secret coup in Jakarta in 1965 and the subsequent ma
This entry has a lot of information, with references, about the film, Land of the Morning Star, its director Mark Worth, and the political and cultural aspects of the Morning Star on the West Papuans' independence flag.
The FRWP Open Day on 14 March 2021 featured journalist John Algate talking about writing 'Jessie's House of Needles', Jessie being a missionary-nurse from Melbourne who worked in the highlands of West Papua for thirty-five years, from 1966 to 2001. The event also included Jacob Rumbiak's introduction of West Papua's Green State; Fiji-Australian author Bernie Goldstein's campaign for one of the contributors to her book (Children of the 12 Tribes) to be released from prison in Jakarta; and Dr Joe Toscano explaining how the West Papua Rent Collective is vital for the ongoing work of the office in Docklands.
A presentation by American anthropologist Dr Eben Kirksey to FRWP Office in Docklands on 8 April 2018, which included drone-footage of the huge area of the Marind tribes' land that is being deforested for palm oil plantation. Eben explained its devastating effect on the fragile environment, and demonstrated how palm-oil based products is mostly consumed by populations in non-palm-oil producing countries.
