Monthly Archives: December 2022

An Epidemic of Gender-Based Violence in Papua New Guinea

Written by Bianca Curtin

There is an epidemic sweeping the nation of Papua New Guinea (PNG) — and it’s not COVID-19. Gender-based violence (GBV) has rapidly been on the rise in PNG across the past few decades, now reaching proportions wherein the nation is among the world’s most dangerous places to exist as a woman or girl.

The statistics speak for themselves: in Papua New Guinea…

• A woman is beaten every thirty seconds
• Over 1.5 million experience GBV annually
• Forty-one percent of men admit to having committed rape
• More than two-thirds of women and girls between ages fifteen and forty-nine suffer physical and/or sexual violence at some point in their lifetime — nearly twice that of the global average

Whatsmore, data analysts suggest that GBV is likely under-reported in the region, given that the overwhelming majority of survivors who seek assistance do so through informal channels, predominantly in familial and village networks.

This past May, a three-day parliamentary inquiry was conducted to investigate the status of gender-based violence in PNG, which was said to have become more rampant following the COVID-19 pandemic. It found that the nation was severely lacking in terms of resources and policy coordination combative of GBV, especially once compared to the staggering quantity of such cases. In 2020 alone, about 15,500 domestic violence cases were reported — yet merely 250 individuals were prosecuted, less than half of whom were ever convicted.

The inquiry’s committee members thus compiled and issued a seventy-one item list of recommendations to the parliament of Papua New Guinea, including suggestions to increase funding for counseling services, implement widespread reproductive health services, and follow through with the federal action plan to counter alleged sorcery-related violence. They also convened with international development partners so as to establish partnerships against GBV.

(Source: United Nations)

In September, the prime minister of Papua New Guinea, James Marape, claimed that his administration was moving towards implementation of the reports recommendations — however, any federal records or plans pertaining to this has yet to be revealed.

As of now, one of the most pressing issues in Guam is lack of affordable housing. An increasing number of people are finding themselves unable to afford houses on the island due to rapidly rising prices over the past couple of years. The prices continue to rise due to a number of things, but they’re all related to low supply and increasing demand. First of all, building houses on Guam is expensive. The island is quite small, and there isn’t very much developed land. When a house is built, materials have to be imported from overseas, which can be very expensive. Additionally, construction workers are oftentimes hired from off of Guam. However, construction projects for the military bases on Guam pay more than building houses, so there are less construction workers available for housing projects. Another contributor to rising prices is that the housing market on Guam caters to military members. The US military has a large presence on Guam, and military members can often afford to pay more than Guamanians for housing on Guam. Between their board and housing stipend and their access to VA loans, Guamanians can’t compete for housing. This is leading to many people from Guam leaving the island so they can afford to live.

“A Slow Genocide” of the West Papuan People

Written by Bianca Curtin

In 1969, the United Nations made the ultra controversial decision to sanction Indonesian annexation of New Guinea’s western half, West Guinea, following a mandated plebiscite conducted by Indonesian forces, which has been widely recognized for its intentionally undemocratic nature. Six years prior, Indonesia invaded West Papua — merely two years after the nation was officially declared independent. In the decades since, separatists of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) have maintained insurgent operations at a relatively subtle level, due to Indonesia’s criminalization of independence advocacy and legal classification of separatists as terrorists. For an individual to so much as fly the West Papuan Morning Star flag can incur them a prison sentence of up to fifteen years. The chief demand of OPM activists: a fair referendum, in which all West Papuans would be granted to freedom to vote for or against their independence as a nation.

Since the annexation in 1969, upwards of 100,000 indigenous peoples have been killed, by means of homicide, violence, starvation, and disease — though estimates place the true number much closer to half a million. The West Papuan population has thus experienced almost zero population growth since the early seventies, as compared to Papua New Guinea, that has grown over five-fold in the same duration. This violent oppression has coincided with Indonesia’s efforts to replicate the euro-colonial structures of previous occupations in the territory. Via copious financial incentives, authorities have drawn hundreds of thousands of Indonesian migrants to West Papua, diluting the already diminished Native population in such a way that places them as minorities in their own nation. Today, about 50% of the region’s population is composed of non-indigenous peoples, most of whom are Indonesian. This has been coupled with vehement efforts to replace Christianity with Islam as the dominant religion of the land, yet another means of advancing the erosion of West Papuan culture. Forced migration of tribal peoples from their highland settlements to coastal areas has also furthered Indonesia’s imperialist regime, wherein authorities are more able to control Native populations, through both rampant policing and malaria outbreaks. These aspects have collectively served as a “slow genocide” of West Papuan peoples.

Eurocentrist Colonialism in Papua New Guinea

Written by Bianca Curtin

The history of colonization in Papua New Guinea is one ripe with eurocentrism and western-based ethnocentrism, as has typically been true of colonial efforts in foreign nations. This history substantially took root in the nineteenth century, as Dutch colonists conducted trade throughout the Pacific archipelago. Slave trade was particularly prominent during this time, with over 20,000 indigenous peoples forcibly transported to locations such as Fiji and Australia’s Queensland through the year 1884. In 1889, Germany and Great Britain settled to annex the region between them, the former acquiring New Guinea as a colony and the latter declaring Papua a British Protectorate. Britain would go on to transfer rule of the territory to the newly federated nation of Australia in 1906, who would later invade German New Guinea amidst the events of World War I. It was not until 1945 that the nation assumed total control of both regions, and another four years before they united, thus becoming what we now know as Papua New Guinea. Australia’s administrative activity in the territories was, however, impaired by their systemic eurocentrism. Their ignorance in terms of the distinct cultural, natural, and socio-structural fortitude of both New Guinea and Papua produced little to no economic development.

Papuans began to demand independence in the wake of World War II, though the might of this movement was weakened by the PNGs century-long political and economic stagnation under euro-colonial rule. With a population wherein the majority was illiterate and most citizens engaged in low income occupations, nominally subsistence farming, Papuans from all over experienced little to no interaction with public officials, or government in general. Thus, feelings of nationhood and ethnocentrism were scarcely prominent, thereby mitigating the strength of pro-independence advocacy. Nonetheless, such efforts gained significant traction in the early 1970s following a sharp rise in unemployment and subsequent mass riots, self governance finally being accomplished in 1973. Papua New Guinea’s first prime minister, Sir Michael Somare, would establish the nation’s first independent government shortly thereafter in 1975 — this enormous shift fostering the beginnings of ethnocentrism among Papuans for years to come.