The Story of West Papua – Uti Possidetis Juris, etc.

The post – colonial conflict in West Papua has been under the radar since the 1960s. Indigenous Papuans who live under the occupation industry run by the Indonesian government officials and its military live mostly in the interior of the region where the presence of the state is found in shuttered schools and empty clinics. Papuans are left to their own devices, to die from easily remedied complications in pregnancy or preventable diarrheal diseases, for example.

The majority of Papuans support independence because the state has no relevance in their lives.It demonstrates not only the human cost of conflict but also the essential role journalism can play in revealing it to the outside world.

My hope is that I can make a small contribution to the conversation through coverage of the investigation into the humanitarian crisis, and where possible access sources from inside West Papua in the coverage in the public interest and therefore further world’s understanding of the post – colonial conflict on Australia’s doorstep.

The ghost in the machine has a rich potential in which the primitive layers can, and may, together, overpower rational logic’s hold. The resources war eclipses border development in the last – frontier regions of Papua New Guinea. Individually we are one drop.

Together we are an ocean that can eclipse and overpower the ghost in the machine.