West Papua Support Network
Solidarity
Gallery
Galeri
Solidaritas
MAKING THE CHANGE
BY TELLING THE TRUTH
MELAKUKAN PERUBAHAN
DENGAN MENGATAKAN KEBENARAN
A five-part series by Tarantula
Seri lima bagian oleh Tarantula
PART ONE
BAGIAN SATU
Symbolic animals display the abusive
and exploitative relationship
Hewan simbolis menampilkan hubungan yang kasar dan eksploitatif
Tarantula, 2020
United Kingdom, Europe
Inggris Raya, Eropa
Description / Keterangan
The Komodo Dragon is the well-armed ‘Goliath’ symbolising Indonesia in this relationship, and David, the unarmed victim, is symbolised by the Bird of Paradise which is being consumed in total. The Paradise island has now been subsumed into a living hell by heavily militarised Indonesian Security armies of differing uniform, all bent on reducing the indigenous Melanesian West Papuan population with impunity! Disingenuously covered up, this brutal marginalising occupation of a bio-diverse tribal people with unique customary culture and genes, whose lives are now terrorised, never gets seriously challenged by the legal process! Greedy nations who benefit from this inhumane administration, by selling Indonesia more Arms, and those whose big corporations continue to extract and mine out all those rich resources which attracted this military occupation from the start, have their own profits to keep them culpable but quiet! This is an abusive relationship that West Papua wishes to leave with dignity peacefully before they are wiped out for ever.
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Medium / Media
Watercolour pencil drawing
Menggambar
PART TWO
BAGIAN DUA
Contented villagers displaced -
becoming hunted refugees
Penduduk desa yang puas mengungsi -
menjadi pengungsi yang diburu
Tarantula, 2020
United Kingdom, Europe
Inggris Raya, Eropa
2/1
Village life in a bio-diverse contented subsistence farmer existence in the mountainous rain forests of West Papua
Kehidupan desa dalam keberadaan petani subsisten yang puas dengan keanekaragaman hayati di hutan hujan pegunungan Papua Barat
Description / Keterangan
Village life in a bio-diverse contentedly sustainable subsistence farmer existence in the mountainous rain forests of West Papua. Paradise turns to Nightmare through colonialism, first with the Dutch who at least retain Human Rights, education and health care, for those they administered in Trust. Then for the resources Indonesia, backed by the Soviet Union, was keen to capture/own West Papua from its own independence inception onwards. So, with their focus on the taxes from the Multi-National Companies mining and extracting out West Papua’s future resources of Gold Copper, Gas, Oil and Timber Logging to destroy rainforest and grow palm oil, intensive cattle farming through Mifee, all take Indonesia’s reaction to Climate Change backwards in contrast to West Papuan tribal positive bio-diverse nature loving ‘stewarding’ for millennia.
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Medium / Media
Digital painting
Lukisan digital
2/2
Sweep raids torching West Papuan homes - making them refugees
Penggerebekan menyapu rumah-rumah orang Papua Barat -
menjadikan mereka pengungsi
Description / Keterangan
Indonesia’s Security Forces know their untouchable status for violent impunity, as far as Sweeping Raids, torching village homes, stealing or despoiling growing foodstuffs and scattering or killing the animals. Killing and dispersing the West Papuan villagers to become refugees in their own lands.
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Medium / Media
Digital painting collage
Kolase digital
2/3
Refugees try and fail to survive living in the swamps and die from exposure hunger and being shot by snipers
Pengungsi mencoba dan gagal untuk bertahan hidup di rawa-rawa dan mati karena kelaparan dan ditembak oleh penembak jitu
Description / Keterangan
Refugees walk for days to avoid the TNI and snipers, to reach swampland that deters all but the desperate - because it teems with insects that sting, and leaves young and old far too exposed to the elements; food is scarce and clean water has been poisoned by irresponsible mining companies. They try hard, but eventually they fail to survive living in the swamps, and die from exposure, hunger and being shot by snipers.
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Medium / Media
Digital painting
Lukisan digital
2/4
Snipers hide around the boundaries of the villages ready to ‘pick off’ any villager who tries to return
Penembak jitu bersembunyi di sekitar batas desa siap untuk 'menjemput' setiap penduduk desa yang mencoba untuk kembali
Description / Keterangan
Snipers hide around the boundaries of the villages, ready to ‘pick off’ by shooting any villager who tries to return. This happened for years and even now during Covid-19 Lockdown - because these orders come from the top, so impunity against any legal redress follows extra judicial execution, and trophy photos by ill-disciplined TNI arrive on the Internet as evidence!!
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Medium / Media
Digital painting
Lukisan digital
2/5
Families are hunted down and dismissively murdered or jailed
Keluarga diburu dan dibunuh atau dipenjarakan
Description / Keterangan
Families are hunted down and dismissively murdered or jailed for Makar - a charge of treason which is levelled at anyone who seeks to survive by escaping this barbaric murder of the population. This Indonesian Administration, and its eventual use of governance by Autonomy, has not allowed anyone to flourish with good education and health services. Instead it has thrown out the Red Cross, Amnesty International until recently - and allowed with collusion from outside its shores, this blatant disregard for the lives of the Melanesian indigenous population whose leaders were murdered first, reducing their number by rape, violence, imprisonment and murders.
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Medium / Media
Digital painting
Lukisan digital
2/6
Impunity not punishment - instead congratulations and medal giving
Impunitas bukan hukuman - malah ucapan selamat dan pemberian medali
Description / Keterangan
Surprisingly, Impunity from Internationally recognised Human Rights and Indigenous Rights Law follows these Genocidal Acts, proving that this is a behaviour guided from the Military Top Brass - instead of punishment, congratulations and medal giving follows! Opposition to it by West Papuans is rewarded by barbaric brutality first and arrest, and long-term imprisonment on trumped up charges of ‘Makar’ Treason!
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Medium / Media
Digital painting kollage
Lukisan kolase digital
PART THREE
BAGIAN TIGA
A Cycle of Human Rights Abuse -
Violence and Exploitation continues in managed Secrecy
Siklus Pelanggaran Hak Asasi Manusia - Kekerasan dan Eksploitasi Berlanjut dalam Kerahasiaan yang Terkelola
Tarantula, 2020
United Kingdom, Europe
Inggris Raya, Eropa
Description / Keterangan
A Cycle of Human Rights Abuse, Violence and Exploitation continues with a mendacious show of Indonesian democratic civilisation presented to the world’s stage by keeping West Papua and Papua provinces’ slow genocide hidden - isolated from the press, and ultimately public knowledge!
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Medium / Media
Black and white caricature
Karikatur hitam putih
PART FOUR
BAGIAN EMPAT
Indigenous lives devalued -
trashed for Stolen Resources
Kehidupan masyarakat adat direndahkan -
dibuang untuk Sumber Daya yang Dicuri
Tarantula, 2020
United Kingdom, Europe
Inggris Raya, Eropa
4/1
Do YOU see what is happening to West Papuans
Apakah ANDA melihat apa yang terjadi pada orang Papua Barat
Description / Keterangan
We don’t need Spectacles to see that there is a disproportional lack of value given to the indigenous population, who in the fullness of time would have claimed their own future Independence from Colonialism, readied as they were by the Dutch for this in 1950’s. This was swept aside by Indonesia’s greed for West Papua’s resources in 1962, whilst threatening war to get at them! This dismissal in 1962 was accompanied by a written undertaking that before 1969, West Papuans would have undergone a full voting Plebiscite as promised to them by the United Nations in 1962.
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Medium / Media
Digital painting collage
Lukisan kolase digital
4/2
Weighing up West Papuan Human Life
Menimbang Kehidupan Manusia Papua Barat
Description / Keterangan
Weighing up the value to the Indonesian Administration of indigenous West Papuans for their preservation of their own Human Life - against Indonesia’s value of the extraction profit from the stolen West Papuan rich resources of Gold, Copper, Oil, Gas and Timber
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Medium / Media
Digital image
Gambar digital
4/3
What is the future for these people whose ancestry
has sustained in this place for millennia
Apa masa depan orang-orang ini yang nenek moyangnya telah bertahan di tempat ini selama ribuan tahun
Description / Keterangan
What is the future for these people, whose History is unique and whose lives have sustained through an accord with nature in this place for millennia? West Papuans did not ask to be taken over by successive outsiders, some of whom are so ignorant that West Papuan uniqueness evokes racial prejudice against them from the start. West Papuans deserve to be at the table where decisions are taken.
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Medium / Media
Digital painting collage
Lukisan kolase digital
4/4
Promised a Plebiscite Vote by the UN and agreed development
by the Indonesian Government
Dijanjikan Voting Plebisit oleh PBB dan pembangunan yang disepakati oleh Pemerintah Indonesia
Description / Keterangan
Promised a Plebiscite Vote by the UN and their choice of any development by the Indonesian Government, West Papuans have neither - yet marginalised brutally and robbed of all they knew from the beginning, they still have been refused a voice.
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Medium / Media
Digital painting collage
Lukisan kolase digital
4/5
Binning the life chances of the indigenous West Papuan people for good - GENOCIDE
Menghancurkan peluang hidup orang asli Papua Barat untuk selamanya
- GENOSIDA
Description / Keterangan
Promised a Plebiscite Vote by the UN and their choice of any development by the Indonesian Government, West Papuans have neither - yet marginalised brutally and robbed of all they knew from the beginning, they still have been refused a voice.
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Medium / Media
Digital painting collage
Lukisan kolase digital
4/6
UN, INDONESIA and OF COURSE the WEST PAPUA MORNING STAR – a plea letter to the United Nations
PBB, INDONESIA dan TENTU SAJA BINTANG PAGI PAPUA BARAT – surat permohonan kepada PBB
Description / Keterangan
For West Papuans, the raising of their own Morning Star affects the very weather that blows about it when it is raised - it raises their spirits and evokes their ancestors. Many West Papuans have been jailed for years just for waving one of these Morning Stars, yet many do so in hopes for a better future.
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Medium / Media
Digital painting collage
Lukisan kolase digital
PART FIVE
BAGIAN LIMA
ESCAPE TO FREEDOM
LARI KE KEBEBASAN
Tarantula, 2020
United Kingdom, Europe
Inggris Raya, Eropa
Description / Keterangan
ESCAPE TO FREEDOM For West Papuans, pleas for a UN run Administration whilst undergoing a New Plebiscite Act of Self-Determination, which is their right, is set up and run by the UN as the only way to go; a choice for Life over Death, clearly. Is this a pipe dream for a disappearing unique Melanesian nation that the world has forgotten and left to suffer a slow motion Genocide? Or will the rest of the world take a moment to stand up for truth-sharing and demand West Papuans get a chance at truth, reconciliation and a peaceful self-governed future?
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Medium / Media
Crayon
Krayon
MAKING THE CHANGE
BY TELLING THE TRUTH
MELAKUKAN PERUBAHAN
DENGAN MENGATAKAN KEBENARAN
A five-part series by Tarantula
Seri lima bagian oleh Tarantula
Artist profile / Profil artis
"My experience in the Arts has been a Book Illustrator since 1970, with a degree in Art & Design, and ten years leading the Flagship Foundation Course in an Art School. I have been a Human Rights Activist since my teenage, and have been actively aware of the West Papuan position since 2004 - since when I have illustrated two e-books for raising awareness of the true facts internationally, in an attempt to cause other people to support West Papuan needs for demanding peaceful change."
"Pengalaman saya di bidang seni adalah sebagai ilustrator buku sejak tahun 1970, dengan gelar di bidang seni & desain, dan sepuluh tahun memimpin Flagship Foundation Course di sekolah seni. Saya telah menjadi aktivis hak asasi manusia sejak remaja, dan telah aktif menyadari posisi West Papu sejak tahun 2004 – sejak itu saya telah mengilustrasikan dua e-book untuk meningkatkan kesadaran secara internasional, dalam upaya untuk membuat orang lain mendukung kebutuhan West Papua untuk menuntut perubahan damai."
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Support / Mendukung
United Kingdom, Europe
Inggris Raya, Eropa
Location / Lokasi
Tarantula
Artist / Artis