New Guinea

Hugh Brody, a British Anthropologist and a filmmaker writes at Open Democracy about New Guinea, one of the most culturally and ecologically diverse regions in the planet. Tragically, industrial and international politics have devastated life there.

Thursday, December 1, 2011, is the fiftieth anniversary of West Papua’s independence. On this day in 1961 West Papuans were granted their freedom by the Dutch – they raised a new national flag and sang a new national anthem. A year later Indonesia launched a colonial invasion, and managed to annex the fledgling nation. Since then tens of thousands of civilians – almost all of them indigenous tribal people – have been killed.

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December 1, 1961: Fly the flag of independence – West Papua and the Indonesian Empire

Hugh Brody, 30 November 2011

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