Upcoming -West Papua Project (UOW) Presents: 'West Papua and the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific'

West Papua Talks Seminar Series

West Papua and a Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific

                     

Dear friends,

 

Please join the West Papua Project on Zoom on Feb 14, 6:00pm—7:30pm AEDT, as a panel of experts explains recent popular calls across the Pacific for a revival of the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific.

 

Link: https://uow-au.zoom.us/j/87112776619?pwd=VmM2UDlFMUxFWUFlTE43RHhtOW94dz09

 

About: West Papua has had some success with campaigns such as ‘Bring West Papua back to the Pacific family’,  including  formal observer recognition at the Melanesian Spearhead Group.  The issue has been raised at the Pacific Islands Forum since 2000 and in 2019 Forum leaders resolved to ‘strongly encourage’ Indonesia to allow the UN Human Rights Commissioner to visit.

These gains have been accompanied by a groundswell of Pacific grassroots solidarity emphasising ‘wansolwara’ ‘one ocean, one people’. However, hopes for freedom for West Papua and the other Pacific territories still living with colonial rule (Mā’ohi Nui, Kanaky, Guam) are threatened by the geostrategic rivalry of the US and China.

The AUKUS alliance (Australia, Britain and the US) has grave implications for nuclear non-proliferation and Pacific solidarity. The AUKUS partners see the region, which they term the “the Indo-Pacific’  as strategically important for their imperial goals and are seeking new Pacific partners for their militarisation plans.

As in the Cold War past, the Pacific is at risk of becoming a ‘sacrifice’ zone. Across the region, peace and Indigenous movements are considering new strategies and reviving old networks to promote genuine security by addressing injustice, and the twin threats of nuclearisation and climate change.

Experts Marco De Jong, Rex Rumakiek and Nic Maclellan discuss why West Papua should be a key part  of these new networks.

 

Please reach out if you have any questions.

 

Very best,

Cammi

 

Dr Cammi Webb-Gannon

Senior Lecturer, School of Health and Society

Coordinator, West Papua Project

Co-Director, Centre for Settler and Colonial Studies

Faculty of the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities

University of Wollongong

Room 229, Building 29

DHARAWAL COUNTRY, University of Wollongong NSW 2522 Australia

T +61 2 4221 4155

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