Tag: Morning Star
1 December 1969 Event in Images
Flag Raising Ceremony and Speech by New Guinea Council Leader, 1 December 1961 in Holandia (Port Numbay, the capital of West Papua) Pursuing freedom for West Papua
John Gratton Wilson has taken his message about the plight of the West Papuan people to the world. KATRINA LOVELL reports about his connection to a country he says few people know about.
Every day Warrnambool’s John Gratton Wilson will put on one of the 10 T-shirts in his drawer that contain slogans calling for freedom for West Papua.
Even if it is hidden under his jumper in winter, you can be sure he is probably wearing one.
The message emblazoned on the T-shirt sits right across his chest in a symbolic gesture towards a topic that he holds close to his heart. John is passionate about the issue and he is not afraid to tell anyone who will listen. “Some people call it an obsession,” he said. “I’m a 71-year-old activist.
“Most of the world wouldn’t have a clue where West Papua is.”
John will wear one of those T-Shirts, no matter where in the world he might be.
“I’ll go to other parts of the world to let the Indonesians know that we’re not happy,” he said. “I’ve been to Vanuatu, I’ve been to New Zealand, I’ve been to Washington, been to Prague.
“I go to the Indonesian embassies in those countries, fly the flag and wear the T-shirt.”
He said the T-shirts had attracted many positive reactions from the strangers he will pass by while on his travels, whether that be in Spain or Cuba. “I will often get the thumbs up,” he said.
Just three months ago when he was in Prague, he went to the Indonesian Embassy and stood on the footpath outside with his flag and was very vocal about calling for freedom for West Papua. John said he was just wrapping up his flag and getting ready to leave when the police turned up, followed by an intelligence officer a few minutes later.
“They speak Czech and I speak English. There was a bit of argy-bargy that went on – I was supposed to get a permit to demonstrate. Nothing came of it and I walked back home,” he said. John said somebody had to make the world aware of what was going on in West Papua.
In June, while he was visiting his daughter in Canada he took his flag down to the harbour where the cruise ships arrive, and for an hour or so for four days he raised the Morning Star flag on a stick and talked to anyone who would listen.
On his last day, after being told by security to move on, he stopped an elderly couple in their 90s and discovered the man had been a marine stationed in West Papua during World War II. “He said: ‘Bloody glad someone’s working to help the poor buggers we left behind,” John said.
“I mean damn it, these people helped our troops in the Second World War. They were also helping the Americans and the Dutch and the English stave off the Japanese invasion of Australia. They made a significant contribution,”
he said.
This year for the first time the south-west branch of the Australian West Papua Association marched in Warrnambool’s Anzac Day parade in honour of their efforts, and also participated in Rememberance Day.
John, who moved to Warrnambool about two years ago after living in Mortlake for 36 years, has the Morning Star flag permanently flying above his house. “I did the same in Mortlake, and it gets a bit tattered,” he said.
A new flag arrived in the mail late last month just in time to fly on December 1, the anniversary of the day the Dutch declared the country’s independence and its Morning Star Flag was first raised. John said people in West Papua were now not allowed to fly the Morning Star flag in their own country. “If they can’t do it, I’ll do it for them,” he said.
A gathering on the Civic Green on December 1 included a flag-raising ceremony and a choir sang the West Papua national anthem. He said the flag-raising ceremony had been taking place in Warrnambool for about two decades, and the south-west branch of the the Australian West Papua Association has about a dozen members who raise awareness of the plight of the people in West Papua.
John said he had written many letters and emails to Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop, but had never received a reply. He said both major parties had ignored the issue.
Most of the world wouldn’t have a clue where West Papau is.
John Gratton Wilson
The group also raises money from selling T-shirts, badges and book stalls to send to West Papuan refugees who are in camps on the border in Papua New Guinea. The money goes towards helping the refugees with their health and education needs.
John said he only learned about the situation in West Papua after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami which killed 250,000 people, mainly in Sumatra and Aceh.“We put our hand in our pocket, we didn’t have a lot of money. I think we gave $400 to the tsunami relief,” he said.
John said an Amnesty International report from about five years ago found that at least 100,000 people had been killed in West Papua since the 1960s. “That’s 40 people a week for 50 years,” he said, although he believes locals put that figure as high as 200 a week and consider it a genocide.
In 2011, John visited West Papua on a bird-watching trip to the Arfak Mountains.
“It was like Kokoda, it was very tough. On the first day of the trip the bird guide went into the bush, grabbed a stick and whittled this stuff on it with his machette, great big bush knife, and then came over to me and put it in front of me. And while he had his hand on it, I grabbed the stick and I said ‘Papua merdeka stick’ and his face lit up. Somebody else knew what was going on in his country,” he said.
Merdeka means Papua freedom, and the stick forms part of John’s collection of West Papuan items which also includes a whole shelf in his book case filled with books, DVDs and CDs.
John is also passionate about conservation and sustainabilty, and while he has an electric car it is also a chance to drive home his message about West Papua. The number plate reads: “WPAPUA”.
He has only been to West Papua once. “I don’t imagine they would let me in again,” he said, admitting that he didn’t expect to get a visa when he went in 2011 after he’d written so many letters to the embassy.
His passion for the West Papuan people increased after his visit, and fighting stage four prostate cancer that has metastisised and spread to the lymph sytem and bones hasn’t dampened his enthusiam.
John Gratton Wilson flies the Morning Star flag out the front of his Warrnambool home. Picture: Rob Gunstone
“Sooner or later it’s going to catch up with me. I just keep on. You can’t give up on these people.”
He said the United Nations was the only one who could fix the situation in West Papua after it gave the approval for Indonesia to take over the region in 1963 .
“For the locals it’s all been going down hill ever since,” he said. “It’s right on our door step. West Papua is closer to Queensland than we are to Melbourne. Apart from Papua New Guinea it’s our nearest neighbour and we look the other way.”
He said the country was rich in both copper and gold and was home to the world’s largest gold mine and third largest copper mine.John said he has been heartened by the growing support for self-determination for the indigenous rightful owners of the land. He said while he was also concerned about the injustices towards other indigenous populations around the world, his focus was on West Papua because it is Australia’s closest neighbour.
Source: http://www.standard.net.au/
Aboriginal elder determined to keep advocating for West Papua
RadioNZ– An Aboriginal artist says she will continue advocating for West Papua’s independence despite a mural she created being destroyed without explanation.
Larrakia elder June Mills painted the mural onto a large wall in Darwin in 2015 and says it represented the solidarity between indigenous Australians and West Papuan people.
However the mural, which depicted both the Aboriginal and West Papuan flags and two hands reaching out, was painted over on Sunday.
June Mills says it’s not clear who is responsible and she’s upset and surprised by what she describes as skulduggery and a clandestine approach.
However she told Amelia Langford that she’s determined to continue advocating for indigenous West Papuans and their battle for independence from Indonesia.
An Aboriginal artist says she will continue advocating for West Papua’s independence despite a mural she created being destroyed without explanation.
Larrakia elder June Mills painted the mural onto a large wall in Darwin in 2015 and says it represented the solidarity between indigenous Australians and West Papuan people.
However the mural, which depicted both the Aboriginal and West Papuan flags and two hands reaching out, was painted over on Sunday.
June Mills says it’s not clear who is responsible and she’s upset and surprised by what she describes as skulduggery and a clandestine approach.
However she told Amelia Langford that she’s determined to continue advocating for indigenous West Papuans and their battle for independence from Indonesia.
June Mills surrounded by supporters in front of her mural that was later painted over. Photo: June Mills Transcript
JUNE MILLS: We want to help in whatever way we can. To me it’s just a simple friendship mural, but the way that it’s created such controversy within the community was not expected, put it that way.
AMELIA LANGFORD: How did it feel to see the mural painted over like that?
JM: Oh very upsetting. It was a beautiful, beautiful mural. it took a lot of hard work. People actually loved the mural. I don’t know if you had an image of it, but people would come specifically to take a photo. Id joke about it with my mates, I’d say ‘listen we really have to get a really good photo of this and turn it into a postcard saying ‘greetings from Darwin’,’ you know. And that didn’t actually eventuate, but this was a well-loved mural, but there was an element in Darwin that hated it and wanted it gone. And that’s been going from the first day really, and they got their way.
AL: What would you like to see happen from here in this situation?
JM: Put up another mural! Repaint it.
AL: So you’d like to get the opportunity to repaint it?
JM: I don’t believe that’s going to happen, however, we certainly have plans to paint other murals. But the amazing thing is the incredible skulduggery that’s come to the fore throughout this. i must admit I was caught by surprise a bit to the extent of it. But, you know, I suppose if we really pulled it to pieces the thing is that our community and myself are very concerned about the plight of the West Papuan people – that will never go away until something happens and they get their referendum and the call for independence or the violence stops in West Papua. There is incredible violence as we speak. Until that’s resolved we are not going to stop bringing to the attention to the world community about the plight of the West Papuan people. And whether that’s posters, whether that’s murals, whether it’s talks, whether it’s forums we are going to continue.
That’s Aboriginal elder and artist, June Mills, from Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory.
Disappearance of controversial West Papua friendship mural creates a stir in Darwin
RadioNZ – Updated
A wall in Darwin that was adorned with a controversial street art mural promoting solidarity with the Free West Papua movement is now blank after it was painted over by contractors.
There’s been no official confirmation yet of who made the decision to blot out the work of Larrakia aboriginal elder June Mills, which showed hands from the Morning Star and the Aboriginal flags reaching out to one another.
The mural has drawn criticism from the Indonesian consulate in Darwin, and its loss has members of the Free West Papua movement and the Indigenous community asking plenty of questions on social media.
But the artist herself says she certainly wasn’t consulted about the mural’s removal.
Indonesia criticises Australia for not arresting trespassers at its Melbourne Consulate-General
Indonesia has questioned why Australia is yet to arrest people who “trespassed” on the Indonesian Consulate-General in Melbourne and waved a West Papuan separatist flag when their faces were clearly visible in video footage of the event.
Tensions remain inflamed between the two countries after a defence fracas earlier this month following the discovery of “offensive material” – including an assignment related to West Papuan independence – at a Perth army base.
Within days of the furore a Caucasian man was filmed provocatively holding up the separatist West Papuan “Morning Star” flag, which is banned in Indonesia, on the roof of the Indonesian Consulate-General in Melbourne. Another person filmed the event.
Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi described the alleged trespass on January 6 as a “criminal act that is completely intolerable”.
Source: http://www.smh.com.au/
Banned Papua flag raised near Indonesian ship in NZ
A group demonstrating in front of an Indonesian naval ship in Auckland raised the Morning Star flag in support of West Papuans.
Indonesia’s KRI Banda Aceh is one of numerous warships from other countries currently in New Zealand participating in the New Zealand Navy’s 75th birthday celebration.
Demonstrators in Auckland hold up Morning Star flag to Indonesian sailors Photo: supplied The demonstration against Indonesian military involvement in West Papua was held by the solidarity groups Oceania Interrupted and West Papua Action Auckland.
Oceania Interrupted spokesperson Leilani Salesa says the demonstrators made sure their presence was felt.
She says they stood next to the naval ship holding the Papuan Morning Star flag which is banned in Indonesia.
“And to do an act that we know brothers and sister in West Papua would be punished for was a really powerful for us and it sends a very powerful message that the world is watching and we stand in opposition to the atrocities that they continue to commit.”
Raising the West Papuan flag is a crime in Indonesia punishable with years in prison.
Activists in Auckland concerned about Indonesian military Photo: supplied