At this month's Cinema Resistenza, Papuan journalist, Victor Mambor will introduce two films that highlight conditions and developments in our near neighbour, West Papua, where there is civil and armed conflict, thousands of internally displaced people, and ongoing large-scale environmental destruction from mining and logging industries.
My Name is Pengungsi (Refugee)
Refugee Kogoya and Refugee Wakom, features two of many internally displaced children, who were born in the midst of the jungle of West Papua, namely Nduga, Puncak Jaya and Maybrat, due to parents having fled during the armed conflict between the Indonesian National Army/Police (TNI/POLRI) and the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB).
Pepera 1969, A Democratic Integration?
A film about the highly controversial 1969 United Nations vote for West Papuan inclusion into the Republic of Indonesia. In what was meant to be a country wide vote only 1026 Papuans were included in the Indonesian military-controlled UN referendum. Those that did vote were threatened with violence and torture and death, and yet Australia and the United Nations accepted the so called, 'Act of Free Choice', as a legally binding referendum that sealed West Papua's fate as a part of Indonesia.
Journalist, Victor Mambor
Is a prominent Papuan journalist and co-founder of Jubi Media Papua, West Papua’s leading media outlet, will be joining us on the night.
Mambor has been a journalist since 1996 at Pikiran Rakyat Daily, Bandung. He is currently a senior editor at Jubi (Jubi Newspaper and jubi.id), a media outlet he founded in 2007.
The UN Human Rights Council in September 2021 called him a humanitarian and human rights activist who experienced frequent acts of violence and intimidation.
He also actively contributes articles to several international media such as The Internationalist, Al Jazeera, Radio New Zealand and The Jakarta Post.
He is a regular contributor on indigenous peoples in Papua for the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA).
Since 2015 he is the Indonesia and Pacific contributor for Benar News (Radio Free Asia).
As a journalist, he has won several awards for his journalistic work.
“I believe good journalism is journalism that makes society better,” Victor Mambor