2) Protested, blocking related websites West Papua situation
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1) New Guinea’s indigenous tribes are alive and well (just don’t call them ‘ancient’)
Emma Gilberthorpe Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, University of East Anglia
In Down the Mighty River with Steve Backshall, the adventurer and naturalist took a journey through New Guinea, the world’s second largest island. As he travelled along the Baliem River, through some of the densest jungle on the planet, Backshall visited the Dani people, which the BBC described as an “ancient tribe”.
I spent two years living with groups not far from the Dani, and was disappointed to hear this sort of language still being used. This distorted perspective perpetuates the myth of the “living fossil” or the “backwards tribe”.
After all, what exactly is an “ancient tribe”? Surely, by definition, an ancient tribe is either really, really old, or really, really dead. The Dani are neither. Nor are they “backward”. The 25,000 or so Dani people scattered across the Baliem Valley are very much alive and well, prospering in a challenging region despite being faced with land dispossession from mining, military control from Indonesia, and the occasional film crew from “the West”.
Just north of Australia, New Guinea is divided between Indonesia (west) and Papua New Guinea (east). Rainer Lesniewski / shutterstock
Indeed, the Dani have featured in several TV and film documentaries over the years. The first of these, Dead Birds, made in the early 1960s by anthropologist-filmmaker Robert Gardner, followed two males as they went about their everyday business. Back then, the Dani were a model of “tribal culture” representing what was fast becoming an elusive example of “stone-age man”. They used stone tools, practised gift exchange and fought over territory.
Such practices were typical across the island of New Guinea, particularly in the vast central highlands. Over 50,000 years of habitation, this almost impenetrable rainforest proved the ideal environment for developing permanent agriculture, complete with drainage canals.
The Dani themselves were only first “discovered” in 1938 when, completely by chance, a pilot flying overhead spotted their cultivated fields. But they had long been part of a complex social network of exchange and interaction that reached across the island. Even the government patrols and prospectors that once infested New Guinea were restricted to more accessible coastal regions, so the island’s rural inhabitants continued farming, trading and intermarrying across huge distances.
By the time of “discovery”, the indigenous population had, politically, already been divided in two. In 1828, European colonisers separated New Guinea in half, right down the 141st meridian. By 1963 the western half was formally annexed to Indonesia, while the east became formally detached from Australia in 1975 to form the independent state of Papua New Guinea.
The Dani people are therefore governed ultimately from the Indonesian capital Jakarta, some 3,500km away, while an international border separates them from their kin in Papua New Guinea. These culturally and historically-linked groups have been fighting ever since to release West Papua from Indonesia.
Stone axes, grass skirts, missing fingers
The region’s cultural complexity has made it an ideal location for anthropologists, and my own work has taken me to the Kutubu and Ok Tedi regions in Papua New Guinea. In Ok Tedi, which lies just the other side of the 141st meridian, my friends and hosts were very similar to the Dani people that Backshall met. Like the Dani, they value the sal kambun (penis gourd) and bul bul (grass skirts) as symbols of identity, and they value the stone axe for its practical ability to outlive and outperform the modern alternatives sent to replace it – steel axes and knives.
The ritual amputation of digits is common across the island. As anthropologist Karl Heider recalls in his ethnographic examination of the Dani, close female relatives of males killed in warfare (not those who die from “natural” causes) “have their fingers chopped off”. This is not unique to the Dani; in fact digit/hand amputation was not unusual among men and women across the highland region before missionary intervention.
In one of his most memorable scenes, Backshall was invited to sleep alongside the smoke-dried remains of a legendary village elder. Such mummification is actually quite rare across the highlands, even among the Dani, who according to Heider cremate the dead in a detailed and lengthy series of funerary rites. The practice is typically associated with the Anga language group in Papua New Guinea and likely spread eastwards to the Dani.
In recent years, the Dani have been affected by mining, tourism and ongoing attempts to “Indonesianise” their highland culture. But perhaps the biggest threat of all comes from the military presence representing Indonesian interests in a resource-rich land with what they see as a “backwards” culture. Like the colonialists who described the vast area of internal New Guinea as “uninhabited”, government bodies and multinationals still view rural landscapes as Terra nullius, “no-one’s land”.
The illusion of “no-one’s land” and “the ancient tribe” is not helpful to the amazing people who live there. My friends in Ok Tedi and Kutubu are artists, school teachers, academics, gardeners, widows, businessmen and businesswomen. And yet, everything they do remains tightly entwined by a rich, resilient and dynamic culture.
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2) Protested, blocking related websites West Papua situation
A google translate. Be-aware google translate can be a bit erratic.
original bahasa link at
Protested, blocking related websites West Papua situation
Jubi | News Portal Papua No. 1,
The press conference to protest the blocking of four organizations related websites West Papua in LBH Pers, Kalibata, Jakarta, Tuesday (04/18/2017) - supplied
Jakarta, Jubi - Legal Aid Institute (LBH) Press, Jubi Association, Foundation One Justice (YSK), and community Papua That We protest against the alleged blocking of some websites containing news, attitude and analysis related to West Papua.
"In early April 2017, the official site www.ampnews.org Papua Students Alliance / AMP alleged to have internet access terminated arbitrarily without any prior notice. Termination of this access in unison with other websites that also raised human rights violations in Papua, "according to a release received by the editors Jubi, Tuesday (04/18/2017).
Sites that allegedly cut off his Internet access is infopapua.org, tabloid-wani.com, papuapost.com, and freepapua.com. Termination of such access was not only on sites managed in Papua, but also sites that are managed outside of Papua as bennywenda.org, freewestpapua.org and ulmwp.org.
Their protest addressed to Kominfo allegedly blocked by not using a strong legal basis because it is contrary to Article 28J of the 1945 Constitution "Although the government has been given the authority by Article 40 paragraph 2 of Law ITE, but the implementation of the article must be set forth in Government Regulation and to date these provisions have not been there, "said Asep Komarudin of LBH Pers in the statement.
Although the alleged reason for termination access because these sites contain elements of "separatist", but only in a permanent blocking can not be done without based on the human rights standards.
It was emphasized Bernard Agapa, a community movers Papua It Kita in Jakarta. According to him, every person has the right to communicate and obtain information to develop personal and social environment, and the right to seek, obtain, possess, store, process and convey information by using all available channels.
"That is the mandate of the 1945 constitution, you know, so that the people of Papua, also have the right to communicate information according to kepentinngan them, sekalpiun the political demands, as long as do not by force and meet the principles of human rights," said Bernard when confirmed Jubi, Tuesday (18 / 4).
Right of citizens to know
Mid-February, Pacific Freedom Forum (PFF) hard criticized Jakarta for allegedly kept silent on violations of press freedom in Papua, including human rights violations was allowed to happen in the profit-taking in Papua rich.
"They keep silent on violations against the press and other human rights, try to compare with the billions of profits gained from Papua by outside interests. It's a shame, "said Monica Miller, Chairman of the PFF.
They also protested the blocking of the portal suarapapua.com, while appreciating the Press Legal Aid Institute and non-press solidarity initiative in Jakarta who do advocate for Papuan Voices exempt access.
"Blocking is allegedly one form of press freedom and the silencing of one form of termination of the right to information society, especially the people of Papua," said Asep Komarudin of LBH Pers mid-December.
Separately, Syamsul Alam Agus from The Justice Foundation (YSK) specifically highlighted the role of such sites for information obejktif and what for the people of Papua.
"We know that the content of web sites are blocked in Papua is a provider of information for the people of Papua and the public objectively. Imagine if there is no content and the web? Public-infomrasi information presented only development that seems to good but the endless corruption and human rights violations, "said Syamsul Alam.
The blocking for him by the government violates the right of citizens to know.
Fourth and community organizations urged the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (Communications) to open and normalize these sites. They also urged Kominfo create transparent mechanisms related to blocking the website to be more respect for the principles of human rights.
For information Reporters Without Borders (RSF) sat Indonesia in World Press Freedom Index rankings to 130th out of 180 countries. Indonesia is considered the country further away from qualification that supports freedom of the press. RSF also condemned the ban and restrictions on access, imprisonment and even deportation of foreign journalists in Papua.
"Indonesia is scheduled to host the celebration of World Press Freedom Day on 3rd May, but repeatedly refused to issue visas to the press, even the number of journalists who entered 'hitam'nya list is increasing," it said Benjamin Ismaïl, head of RSF Asia Pacific.(*)
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