On 28 November 2014, the Maraki Vanuariki Council of Chiefs, representing the Tongoa-Shepherd Islanders from the SHEFA Province of Vanuatu, renewed its kastom and political relations with the Federal Republic of West Papua in a welcome ceremony organised by the council's women's group. Chief Morris Kaloran initiated the renewal in 2002 on Australian Aboriginal land during the Sanap Wantaim Ceremonial in Melbourne. Relations deepened during the Council's Summit for West Papua in Port Vila in 2007, which concluded with the Unity Day Declaration by the West Papua National Authority, Port Vila Council of Chiefs, and Maraki Vanuariki Council of Chiefs. This ceremony in 2014 opened the West Papua Leaders Summit on Reconciliation & Unification (hosted by Vanuatu’s National Malvatumauri Council of Chiefs, Vanuatu Government, Vanuatu Christian Council of Churches, Pacific Conference of Churches) that oversaw the formation of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP).
Photo-essay of the Procession of Gifts and Solidarity March that opened the Vanuatu Government's 'Reconciliation and Unity Summit for West Papuan Leaders' on 1 December 2014. The ground-breaking Summit concluded with the establishment of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), a representative coordinating body of West Papuans tasked with underwriting their nation's application to join the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG). The Summit was sponsored by the Vanuatu Government and moderated by the Malvatumauri National Council of Chiefs, Vanuatu Christian Council, and Pacific Conference of Churches. On 4 February 2015, the Vanuatu Government, surrounded by these influential institutions, lodged the application with the MSG Secretariat in Port Vila.
This photo-essay (30 slides) is of a two-week summit in Vanuatu that culminated with a ground-breaking ‘Unity Day Port Vila Vanuatu Declaration’ signed by the Maraki Vanuariki Council of Chiefs, the Port Vila Council of Chiefs, and the West Papua National Authority on 29 November 2007. The declaration differed from previous iterations between the two peoples in that it was organised by influential Vanuatu chiefs, not elected politicians, and by the West Papua National Authority with its own history of political struggle (as distinct from human or cultural rights). The declaration set the long-term agenda for foreign support of the West Papuan struggle, because it rendered the Vanuatu Government responsible for sponsoring West Papua onto the UN Decolonisation List, for listing West Papua with the Melanesian Spearhead Group, Pacific Islands Forum and the Africa Caribbean Pacific Group, and for hosting a peace conference between Indonesia and the West Papua National Authority.
VANISHING TRIBES: UNHEARD VOICES FROM WEST PAPUA is an interactive, illustrated, EBook that tells a fictional story based on real events in West Papua. It is a tribute to the Melanesian people of this island nation and their unstoppable determination to be free of a corrupt and brittle state. The main character is Vivi, a Papuan teenager, who wants to join her brother in the fight for survival against the modern Indonesian Republic. The authors, illustrators, and technicians of this EBook are sophisticated political activists, and their production is informative, colourful, logical, artistic, accessible, and FREE. Students (and their teachers) will find the EBook's own WIKI helpful in understanding why Papua's indigenous people are steeped in misery as involuntary Indonesian citizens. Their story is a modern history of realpolitik, militarism, self-determination theory v practice, and even how not to be a good neighbor.
(http://www.vanishingtribes.net/vtribes-web-browser.html)
Captioned photographs by Tommy Latupeirissa and David Waingai of the opening of the FRWP Department of Foreign Affairs, Immigration, and Trade in Docklands (Melbourne) on 23rd June 2014.
