In this episode of Decolonial Dispatch, host Mohammed speaks with Benny Wenda, leader of the ULMWP and the Provisional Government of West Papua, to discuss the West Papuan struggle against Indonesian occupation. The conversation begins by contextualising the recent Indonesian protests against the ruling elite as a parallel decolonial struggle against a "dying empire". Benny recounts his harrowing personal history, from witnessing the 1977 massacres and surviving in the bush as a child to the deep-seated racism he faced in the Indonesian education system. They explore the "Papuan Spring" following Suharto's collapse, the assassination of independence leaders like Theys Eluay, and how the new generation has utilised technology to bypass censorship and lose their fear. The episode concludes with Benny's "Green State Vision," the intersection of slow genocide with corporate ecocide, and a direct call for a global boycott of products fuelling the destruction of West Papuan land.
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