4) Again, civilian injured and residents displaced following drone strikes on Balamai Village, Intan Jaya Regency
Marred by lawsuits, deepfakes, kidnapping, and state raids of screenings, Pesta Babi, or ‘Pig Feast’, has been a contentious film with a dramatic reception.
Pesta Babi is a documentary that follows five Papuan elders and their communities facing the devastating impacts of Indonesia’s food estate program — the largest deforestation project in the world, spanning over 2.5 million hectares of West Papuan land. The land being cleared is making way for Indonesian palm oil and sugarcane plantations to support the expansion of biofuel. The film was recently screened across Australia by multiple groups, including Aliansi Gusar, The Australia West Papua Association South Australia, the Australian National University Indonesia Institute, and the Pacific Climate Warriors.
The film opens with two dozen Papuan men carrying a 17-metre-long piece of wood being prepared for the ‘red cross ceremony’. This ceremony has been completed 1800 times, wherein a red cross, often several metres long, is placed at a significant site on West Papuan land alongside a red painted sign asserting the Papuan tribe’s opposition to the Indonesian government and foreign companies from entering. This symbolic act bears close resemblance to Jesus Christ carrying the cross through Jerusalem in the procession before his crucifixion, tying the strong Christian presence in West Papua with their political resistance.
The documentary’s filmography shines through as a key highlight. Videographers powerfully capture the harrowing extent of deforestation in West Papua through wide shots of cleared forests and swamps, often only occupied by dozens of excavators, and small remnants of what used to be. As these shots accumulate, they force a sickening confrontation with the sheer scale of ecocide being carried out.
Interestingly, the documentary revealed that the Australian taxpayer-funded institution, Sugar Research Australia, develops sugarcane seeds for both private and public plantations in West Papua, thereby implicating foreign public funds into Indonesia’s violent extraction and occupation.
A limitation of the documentary is its inability to balance information and storytelling. In many parts of the film, the intimate documentary turns into more of a YouTube-style exposé, which makes for a jarring shift. This is particularly evident in a 15-minute section towards the end of the film using graphs and maps looked to have been made on PowerPoint. While the information revealed in these parts was indeed interesting, the change in tone was too dramatic and awkward a disruption. Friendlyjordies/Jordan Shank’s documentary on the occupation of West Papua much better accomplishes this balance and on a much lower budget, no less.
Interestingly, the film offered no explicit representation of Papuan nationalism. We only ever see red crosses, not the Bintang Kejora, and hear mild messages of ecological concern rather than that of independence, let alone the definitive freedom call, Papua Merdeka. President of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) Benny Wenda said in a statement, it is a “moderate film, which does not show the real truth — that all West Papuans want freedom and independence instead of colonial ‘development’.” This seems to be a strategy by the filmmakers to appeal to a broader Indonesian apolitical society, amid anti-West Papuan sentiment. As a West Papuan activist Koteka Wenda articulated, the film is “building collective consciousness…among ordinary Indonesians.” Such a strategy appears successful, as evidenced by the documentary having screened in over 1000 locations in the country. Even amid this sanitisation, over 30 of these screenings have been shut down by Indonesian police or military, including at the University of Mataram. Another attempt to quell this film involved the publication of a video featuring Koteka Wenda’s likeness, disparaging Pesta Babi in an AI-generated deepfake.
Since its release, one of the Papuan elders featured in the film, Mama Yasinta Moiwend, has been kidnapped and brought to Jakarta, and has been out of contact with her family for several days. Despite opposing the deforestation project in the documentary, she has since pursued a litigation against the directors of the film and spoke in support of Indonesia’s food estate project.
Between the several controversies associated with the documentary, Pesta Babiultimately offers insight to a mainstream audience of the struggles of West Papuan life under occupation. Whilst the magnitude of extraction, oligarchy, and expansion seem infinite, tenuous survival persists. The documentary ends with a group of Papuans sitting by a river, playing handmade drums and guitar, singing, “I love my land, I love my people. Day and night, I guard my land Papua.”
| June 23, 2026 | |
|---|---|
| topic: | Human Rights |
| tags: | #West Papua, #Indonesia, #women's football, #gender equality, #Female coaches, #FIFA |
| located: | Indonesia |
| by: | Robert Bociaga |
The first time Erma Karafir learned to run, she was not on a football field. She was growing up in a crowded household in Jayapura, Indonesia, where alcohol often dictated family life. Her father drank heavily, arguments erupted without warning, and violence sometimes followed. With seven siblings packed into the same fragile world, there was little room to escape. But Erma found one. Whenever tensions rose, she left the house and joined neighbourhood kids playing football.
'When I played football, I felt happy,' she recalled. 'I felt joy. I felt like myself.'
That simple act of running after a ball would eventually carry her far beyond West Papua. It would bring scholarships, national championships, a chance to study in the United States and enough prize money to buy her mother the house she had always dreamed of owning.
Yet football could not entirely protect her from the forces she was trying to escape.
A GAME OF ESCAPE
Her story offers a glimpse into a reality often overlooked by global conversations about women in sport.
Located on the western half of New Guinea — the world's second-largest island, split between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea — West Papua remains one of Indonesia's most resource-rich yet economically marginalized regions. Long shaped by conflict, militarisation and uneven development, the region sits atop immense reserves of natural wealth, yet many Indigenous Papuans continue to face poverty, limited educational opportunities, and weak public services.
For some communities, the chasm between vast natural wealth and grinding poverty has bred deep frustration and despair, with alcohol becoming both an escape and a symptom of this broader distress. Research from the Australian National University links binge drinking to poverty, political exclusion, and cultural trauma. Yet Indigenous women bear the heaviest cost—facing domestic
violence, economic insecurity, and alcoholism inside the home, all worsened by displacement and political stress.
Against that backdrop, football has become an important outlet for some girls. Women's football in West Papua remains small compared to the men's game, but community-based development programs such as SSB Mutiara Timur, a football school in Jayapura, have helped produce national-team players and provincial champions. Participation remains limited, however, by inadequate facilities, scarce funding, safety concerns, and family expectations.
As FIFA pushes for greater female representation in football leadership—including new regulations requiring female coaches and technical staff at women's international competitions from 2026 onward—the obstacles facing many young women in Indonesia's easternmost region remain far more fundamental.
'For many girls, football is only the entry point,' Heidi Scheunemann, a German coach who since 2009 helped establish girls' football programs in West Papua, Indonesia, told FairPlanet. 'What they really need is a safe place, people who believe in them, and some distance from the problems they face at home.'
'Most of the kids in Papua have talent,' Erma said. 'But there is nobody to show them they can do more.'
A CHANCE TO DREAM
When Scheunemann first encountered Erma, she was a small, determined player competing against boys. Talent was immediately apparent. What interested Scheunemann just as much, however, was what happened beyond the field.
'Many girls arriving at training came from homes marked by poverty, violence or family breakdown,' Scheunemann said, quickly realising football alone would not be enough. Alongside coaching, she built a support network focused on mentoring, leadership and entrepreneurship, helping players imagine futures beyond the pitch.
Through the sport, Erma began winning scholarships and representing teams in regional tournaments. By her early teens, she was helping her teams win championships, eventually earning a scholarship opportunity to study in the United States—an unlikely path for a girl from a troubled household in West Papua. But academic struggles, isolation during the pandemic and a spiral into alcohol, drugs and depression led to visa problems and a return home that felt like failure.
Yet football still had one more gift to offer. Soon after returning, she joined Papua's team at Indonesia's National Sports Week, one of the country's most prestigious sporting competitions.
The team's success brought prize money that enabled Erma to buy a house for her family, fulfilling a dream her mother, a kindergarten teacher, had spoken about for years. 'I wanted to make my mother happy,' Erma said, regretting till today that her achievement was short-lived. Only months after the family moved in, her mother fell seriously ill and died.
'I didn't know what to do anymore,' Erma recalled. 'I felt like the reason I was fighting so hard had disappeared.'
The loss pushed her back toward alcohol and left her struggling to find direction. Yet football remained a constant. Today, Erma is studying English at university, playing in local tournaments and hoping to one day mentor younger girls facing challenges similar to her own.
For Scheunemann, that uncertainty highlights the limits of what sport alone can achieve. 'Football can open doors,' she said. 'But young women need support long after the football part is over.'
THE LONG ROAD TO LEADERSHIP
FIFA's efforts to increase the number of women coaches and leaders are intended to create more opportunities for women within the game. Indonesia has also seen more former female players move into coaching and development roles. Yet the experiences of Scheunemann and Erma suggest that leadership pathways begin long before coaching licenses and technical appointments. After decades of mentoring girls, helping them secure scholarships and teaching leadership and entrepreneurship alongside football, Scheunemann remains largely outside the formal structures of the sport.
In West Papua, many girls first have to overcome poverty, family instability, limited educational opportunities and social expectations that discourage their participation in sport. Keeping talented players in the game can be as challenging as developing them.
Erma said she hoped one day to mentor younger girls, though self-doubt remains a challenge. 'I want to help kids,' she said. 'But sometimes I ask myself, how can I help others if I still struggle with my own mistakes, with drinking alcohol occasionally?' If her university schedule allows, she may soon begin assisting with coaching at SSB Mutiara Timur, the football school where she first found the support that helped change her life.
For Scheunemann, that would represent a success greater than any tournament victory. The aim was never simply to produce football players, but to help young women discover possibilities they might never have imagined.
Central Papua Governor Meki Nawipa said the programme reflects the regional government's commitment to improving access for education while reducing school dropout rates caused by economic constraints.
"This year, we are funding 58,920 junior high school, senior high school, vocational high school, special school students, and school dormitories in Central Papua with a budget of Rp77.8 billion," Nawipa said while opening the 2026 Student Cultural Creativity Light Festival in Nabire on Wednesday.
Nawipa said Central Papua has become the first province in Papua region to allocate a large-scale free education budget to reach students across the province.
With the programme in place, he added, there should no longer be any reason for children to be unable to attend school due to education costs.
Related news: West Papua targets opening special school in South Manokwari in 2025
In addition to financing free education, the Central Papua Provincial Government is also seeking to improve the quality of education through strengthening teachers' capacity and welfare.
Nawipa explained that in 2025, the provincial government facilitated certification for 801 teachers. Then, in 2026, the government is again targeting 1,000 teachers to obtain certification with the same number to be funded in 2027.
"Within three years, we are financing certification for nearly 3,000 teachers. We are also providing additional incentives for teachers," he remarked.
He expressed hope that all programmes prepared by the government would be utilised optimally by students, teachers, and beneficiary schools.
"We want all children in Central Papua to be not only intelligent, but also to possess honesty, integrity, and the spirit to keep moving forward," Nawipa noted.
Related news: Papuan students thank Prabowo for school upgrades, free meal program
Related news: Indonesian govt revitalized 89 schools in West Papua in 2025
Translator: Ali, Kenzu
Editor: Fransiska Ninditya
4) Again, civilian injured and residents displaced following drone strikes on Balamai Village, Intan Jaya Regency
Human rights law and humanitarian law analysis
The explosions reportedly damaged residential property and killed a dog, 22 June 2026
Photo of a drone dropping an explosive. It was allegedly taken during the drone strike on Balamai on 22 June 2026
Document ID: HRM-CAS-087-2026
Region: Indonesia > Central Papua > Intan Jaya > Hitadipa
Total number of victims: 1
| # | Number of Victims | Name, Details | Gender | Age | Group Affiliation | Violations |
| 1. | 1 | Makelon MAjau | male | 19 | Indigenous Peoples | ill-treatment |
Perpetrator: Republic Indonesia > Indonesian Security Forces > Indonesian Military (TNI)
Issues: drones and clusterammunition, indigenous peoples, security force violence
Sources:
Suara Papua
Related Cases:
Jayapura, Jubi – The Central Papua Provincial Government is planning to build a weighbridge in Nabire, the capital of Central Papua Province.
Head of Land Transportation at the Central Papua Provincial Transportation Agency, Yunius Tabuni, said the weighbridge project is expected to be completed during the 2026 fiscal year.
“The budget for the construction of this weighbridge is already available. However, the main challenge is determining a suitable location,” Tabuni said in a written statement on Wednesday (June 24, 2026).
According to him, selecting the site requires careful consideration. Several locations have already been surveyed, but issues related to land ownership remain unresolved. Most of the potential sites are privately owned by local residents, requiring land acquisition processes and compensation costs.
Tabuni said his office continues to conduct surveys and assess several locations considered suitable for the project.
Potential sites include areas near the Samabusa entrance road, the boundary of Nabire City, and the Topo area on the outskirts of the city. However, no final decision has been made because the location must meet technical requirements and land status considerations.
“The team is still conducting feasibility studies and coordinating with relevant parties. The contractor is currently assessing field conditions before construction can begin,” he said.
He explained that the planned weighbridge is intended to monitor and ensure that freight vehicles comply with legal weight limits.
“Vehicles using the roads must operate within their designated capacity and must not carry loads beyond the permitted limits. This is important to ensure that the roads we build remain durable and can be used for a long time,” he said.
Tabuni acknowledged that the project is still facing challenges related to site selection, but he expressed confidence that construction would be completed this year as targeted.
He said funding for the project has already been allocated and planning has been carried out extensively. The provincial government is now waiting for the results of the feasibility study and the completion of land-related matters so that construction can begin in the near future. (*)
