Tag Archives: #Peter O’Neill

Democracy, custom and the Melanesian Way.

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By Susan Merrell This is an article I wrote almost three years ago.  Inspired by a conversation with a learned PNGean, I am republishing – the thesis has not aged although the cast of characters has. Is there a democratic Papua New Guinean nation – or is it merely an arbitrary state built on a shaky, crumbling foundation of disparate traditional customs and the ‘Melanesian Way’? Has the system of government become a hybrid of concepts that fail to work on any level – a bastardization of both democracy and custom? Bernard Narokobi in his book ‘The Melanesian Way’ refused Continue reading Democracy, custom and the Melanesian Way.→

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West Papua: Australia’s backyard ‘genocide’ continues

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By Hilda Wayne In a village in West Papua, a young Benny Wenda watched as Indonesian military forced his Melanesian aunties to wash themselves by the river ‘ to clean themselves up’ before they were raped. One of Benny’s aunts had her baby ripped from her arms and thrown to the ground before she, the mother, was also raped. Both baby and mother sustained fatal injuries. They died. Severe internal injuries were what eventually killed the West Papuan father of Wiwince Pigome, sustained many years before at the hands of the Indonesian military. Wiwince’s family were from Wamena and her Continue reading West Papua: Australia’s backyard ‘genocide’ continues→

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