Journal Articles and Book Chapters by Camellia Webb-Gannon
This is a proof of the article published in The Contemporary Pacific in 2016. Please see the jour... more This is a proof of the article published in The Contemporary Pacific in 2016. Please see the journal article for citation details.
The International Journal of Human Rights, Mar 29, 2022
The ongoing conflict in West Papua has at various times been attributed to a contestation of Indo... more The ongoing conflict in West Papua has at various times been attributed to a contestation of Indonesian versus West Papuan nationalisms, Indonesia's economic exploitation of West Papua, and Indonesia's geopolitical interest in colonising West Papua. Recently, a new framing has been brought to bear on the occupation that highlights the role of Indonesian racism in West Papuans' ongoing pursuit of independence from its coloniser. While West Papuans have long been aware that they are victims of racist denigration, since 2019, a narrative of racism in the analysis of their ongoing colonisation-one with global reverberations-has acquired a potency that has re-energised West Papuans' independence movement. In this article I argue that a concatenation of events has propelled the issue of racism to ascendency within the West Papuan activist agenda prompting the emergence of the Papuan Lives Matter movement. I analyse this powerful discursive shift from viewing the occupation as one perpetuated by Indonesian state politics-driven exploitation to one predominantly motivated by a potentially more insidious and pervasive enemy-cultural racism-and unpack its implications for West Papuan politics.
Asia-Pasific Journal: Japan Focus, 2021
Abstract: West Papua, Australia’s near northern neighbour, has for nearly six decades experienced... more Abstract: West Papua, Australia’s near northern neighbour, has for nearly six decades experienced widespread human rights abuses by the Indonesian state and military. In this article we argue that Australia has the responsibility and the expertise to do more to ensure that West Papuans’ human rights are being upheld. First, in a situation as serious as that of West Papua, Australia, as a member of the United Nations, we contend, has a political duty to intervene under the United Nation’s ‘responsibility to protect’ doctrine. Second, we put forward that Australia also has a historic and moral obligation to the territory: West Papuans provided vital assistance to Australian troops in 1944 during World War 2. In the 1960s, however, Canberra betrayed its neighbour’s preparations for self-determination but we argue Australia now has a chance to right this historical wrong by intervening in West Papua’s struggle against Indonesian oppression. Third, we argue that because Australia has set a precedent of intervention when it led the humanitarian intervention in East Timor in 1999-2000, we know that intervention is possible and that the necessary political will can be mustered. Whereas Australia’s involvement in the East Timor crisis led to long term diplomatic tension between Australia and Indonesia, however, we propose that in this case, Australia’s contribution to addressing human rights in West Papua could ultimately strengthen ties between the two countries.
The Fibreculture Journal, 2016
Public access to data collected by remote sensing Earth Observation Satellites has, until recentl... more Public access to data collected by remote sensing Earth Observation Satellites has, until recently, been very limited. Now, citizens and rights advocacy groups are increasingly utilising satellite-collected images to interrogate justice issues; to document, prevent and verify rights abuses; and to imagine and propose social change. Yet while other communication technologies have received substantial critical analysis regarding their value as tools of social justice, activism and resistance, satellites have received comparatively scant attention. This article examines the uses of satellite-collected images in human rights contexts including the opportunities, challenges and risks they pose. We conclude this examination by arguing that if satellites are to be used effectively to collect evidence from above by rights advocates, greater attention to and capacity for ensuring accountability from below is required.
Journal of the Polynesian Society, 2018
In the 19th century Melanesians were pejoratively labelled black by European maritime explorers (... more In the 19th century Melanesians were pejoratively labelled black by European maritime explorers (mela = black; nesia = islands). 1 Emerging scholarship on the Black Pacific (Shilliam 2015; Solis 2015a, 2015b; Swan [as interviewed by Blain 2016]), a parallel to Paul Gilroy's The Black Atlantic (1993), focuses on historical and contemporary identifications and articulations ("affinities, affiliations and collaborations" [Solis 2015b: 358]) between Oceanian and African diasporic peoples, cultures and politics based upon shared Otherness to colonial occupiers. 2 The essay that follows contributes to this work by presenting a perspective from Melanesia. It attempts to demonstrate that over time, encounters with Atlantic-based notions of Black Power and négritude, that is, the identity politics associated with Black consciousness, as well as global discourses of Indigenousness, contributed to the production of popular forms of counter-colonial expression, one of the most significantalthough underexplored-of which is music. Encounters with such ideas and expressions occurred person-to-person, sometimes through an intermediary, and also through various kinds of text, often in the form of recorded music, for example. The impact of each type and specific instance is of course unique, and context dependent. "Come Independence Come", by the late New Ireland singer-songwriter Phillip Lamasisi Yayii, is probably Papua New Guinea's (PNG) earliest decolonisation song, and was released commercially in 1975, the year in which PNG became independent. Lyrically, the song asks: Can't you leave us alone? Why must you pester us? We have our values that we all are proud of So pack yourself and leave us alone. (Webb 1993: 44-45) Besides expressing a strong desire to shake free of European colonial influence, the lyrics mention pride in local "values". Yayii appears to have
The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 2017
This article reflects upon the disciplinary and ethical challenges I have navigated as an ethnogr... more This article reflects upon the disciplinary and ethical challenges I have navigated as an ethnographer in the academic 'no-man's land' of West Papua-related research. I contend that the peace and conflict studies concept of conflict transformation articulates productively with a critical ethnographic methodology, assisting me in charting a research path. Using examples from my own research relating to West Papua's independence movement I argue that the ethnographer's role is powerful and carries attendant responsibilities to research participants and to the world of knowledge for increasing peace with justice. This article provides a case study example of how researching the ways the vulnerable interpret the world can be an act of justice, arguing that emergent critical interpretations are essential to preparing the world for long-lasting, positive change.
Contemporary Southeast Asia, 2020
© 2020 ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. The indigenous people of West Papua have contested their co... more © 2020 ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. The indigenous people of West Papua have contested their controversial annexation by Indonesia since 1969. In response, the Indonesian military (TNI) has launched a series of counterinsurgency operations to defeat the National Liberation Army of West Papua (TPN-PB) while simultaneously trying to inculcate a sense of Indonesian nationalism among West Papuan civilians. To obtain legitimacy and achieve success, counterinsurgency operations must gain the support of civil society. This article examines the TNI’s on-going counterinsurgency campaign in the West Papuan highlands regency of Nduga. Since late 2018, the TNI has been unsuccessful in winning over civil society to its objectives in Nduga. Instead of cultivating good relationships with Nduga civil society by respecting property and local culture, the military has used indiscriminate violence against Nduga citizens and added to their history of collective trauma. In this article, we argue that through acts of non-cooperation such as internal migration/ displacement, disobedience and resistance, the people of Nduga have defied the TNI and undermined its counterinsurgency efforts. We conclude that the counterinsurgency operation has created more harm than good in Nduga. And, counter to its aims, it has not only failed to win local support, it has also re-energized the West Papuan movement for independence in Nduga
This article argues that the democratic ideals espoused by Australia and Indonesia fall short in ... more This article argues that the democratic ideals espoused by Australia and Indonesia fall short in application to West Papua and West Papuans, and notes that such shortcomings are legitimated by mainstream media’s exoticist portrayals of West Papuans, particularly in Australia. The antidemocratic policies and processes of each government with regard to West Papua actually enable the (by and large) “good” bilateral relations at the state level to remain intact. However, this article contends that democracy, as practiced by civil society actors at the grassroots and digital network level in Australia and West Papua, creates cracks in the official Australia-Indonesia state relationship. Australian concerns over Indonesian human rights abuses in West Papua have traditionally been overlooked at the state level in favor of pursuing an amicable bilateral relationship.
Science, Technology, and Art in International Relations, 2019
In Oceanic cultures, art is a fundamental medium through which people inhabit and perform their w... more In Oceanic cultures, art is a fundamental medium through which people inhabit and perform their worlds (Thomas, 1995), including, as I will demonstrate here, the international relations aspects of those worlds. The phenomenon of international relations, in this chapter, is interpreted as the collision, conf lict, and elision of Oceanic nations, states, and civil societies with those of former and current colonial powers. This chapter is underpinned by the precept that the study and conduct of international relations can contribute to peacemaking within and between the world's cultures (Richmond, 2008), and that peace is not possible without the presence of justice (Galtung, 1996), including cultural and artistic justice (Lemkin, 1946). To operationalize this principle, I propose here the addition of an "artscape" to Arjun Appadurai's (1990) five "scapes" for analyzing globalization and, by extension, international relations. The arts, in Oceania, act both as a conduit through which to carry out international relations, and a medium through which to examine colonial and neocolonial injustices that have dominated Oceanic international relations. The coproduc tion of art and international relations analysis yield artscapes which, I contend, act as engaging texts for reading those injustices and sites for resisting them. "Artscapes", Justice, and Oceanic International Relations Arjun Appadurai (1990) proposes five frames, or "scapes", through which globalization (and, I argue here, international relations) can be analyzed: "ethnoscapes", following peoples' movements across inter and intranational borders; "financescapes", examining the unpredictable movements of economies; "technoscapes", focusing on the power of technology for mediating borders; "mediascapes", looking at the international media management of news and
Australian South Sea Islanders, the descendants of the Melanesians from (primarily) Vanuatu and S... more Australian South Sea Islanders, the descendants of the Melanesians from (primarily) Vanuatu and Solomon Islands who were 'blackbirded' to Queensland and New South Wales (1847-1904) for their labour, have, through music and dance practices, come to identify as part of a global black 'transnation'. Studies of the 'Black Atlantic' point both to the transnational character of slavery and the importance of music as a medium of resistance. This article proposes that Australian South Sea Islanders' musical cultures might usefully be understood in terms of a parallel concept, the 'Black Pacific', in relation to which the Pacific's colonised and decolonised peoples have developed their own expressions of black pride and performed resistance. It argues that a more nuanced appreciation of Australian South Sea Islander performance culture as part of the Black Pacific will allow all Australians to better understand some of the vitally important yet obfusca...
In early 2016, the two editors of this issue met together to discuss our common research interest... more In early 2016, the two editors of this issue met together to discuss our common research interests. At that time, one of us ( Jioji Ravulo) was a Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences and Psychology at Western Sydney University (WSU), and the other of us (Camellia Webb-Gannon) was a Research Fellow in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts at the same institution. Camellia, whose research focuses on decolonisation in Melanesia, had recently returned from the 2016 Australian Association for Pacific Studies (AAPS) conference in Cairns at which she had hoped she would meet other researchers of the Pacific from WSU; due to the multi-campus structure of WSU, it is often difficult to know if there are others at the university working in similar research areas, and conferences are a chance to find out. But there were no other WSU attendees at AAPS that year. Back at WSU, Camellia sought out Jioji whom, she knew, had established and managed PATHE, the Pasifika Achievemen...
Taking a historical ethnomusicological approach, this article argues that shipboard and plantatio... more Taking a historical ethnomusicological approach, this article argues that shipboard and plantation music and dance practices cast new light on the ways South Sea Islanders (SSI) acted out agency and asserted new identities as they became tangled up in the dynamics of colonial encounters. Trading ships started to operate in Melanesia in the 1840s and island men were quickly attracted to the nautical life. Contact with the West brought opportunity but also exploitation when in 1863 the recruitment of Islanders for farm and plantation work in Queensland began. As they ventured into the unknown on recruiting ships, Islanders engaged in performance in order to establish cross-societal bonds with villagers from islands other than their own, and also with European sailors and settlers. Experimenting with any and all modes of sound making, SSI looked to music as a source of enjoyment and a means of individual and collective self-advancement. They took instruments, repertoire items, and gram...
Melanesians were pejoratively labelled the dark-skinned islanders by European explorers in the 18... more Melanesians were pejoratively labelled the dark-skinned islanders by European explorers in the 1830s, an act that has shaped understandings of the region and its peoples down to the present day. In this brief essay, we attempt to demonstrate that since the new millennium, aided by digital tools and the Internet, young Melanesians have localized Black Atlantic music forms in order to assert agency, no matter how limited, in relation to their experiences of rejection and marginalization within the global system. The musical creation of new identity spaces is briefly considered through three condensed case studies that exemplify core contemporary Melanesian social concerns: (1) Pacific climate change, (2) Melanesian cultural identity in relation to pressures of modernity and globalization and (3) independence for West Papua. Increasingly, we propose, such expressions are becoming a significant factor in the ongoing reshaping in Melanesia of what it means to belong in the world while re...
Book by Camellia Webb-Gannon
The Conversation
Bambang Soesatyo, chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly to the Indonesian military (TNI)... more Bambang Soesatyo, chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly to the Indonesian military (TNI), last month. He was talking about the Indigenous people of the contested territory of West Papua, who are seeking independence from Indonesia. This has sparked concerns West Papua may again be on the brink of a violent crackdown-or worse-executed by Indonesia's elite security forces, including the notorious Kopassus. These have occurred before, for example, the well-documented massacres in the Baliem Valley in 1977-78 and on Biak Island in 1998.
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Journal Articles and Book Chapters by Camellia Webb-Gannon
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