Big win for West Papuan refugees

IT’S nearly four years since 43 refugees made world headlines after paddling an outrigger canoe from their West Papuan homelands to Australia.

Now living in public housing estates in North Melbourne, Collingwood and Richmond, the group reunited last week to celebrate West Papuan Independence Day by thrashing local police officers in a soccer match.

One of the boat people, 26-year-old Adolf Mora, said they also marked the occasion by raising the West Papuan flag and singing their national anthem.

“If we did that in West Papua then we get killed straight away because the (Indonesian) army will go looking for us,” Mr Mora said.

As well as earning the group political asylum in Australia, their courageous five-day sea voyage sparked a diplomatic row between the governments of their adopted nation and Indonesia, which annexed West Papua in 1969.

While Indonesia officially granted West Papua autonomy in 2001, there have been numerous reports of the Indonesian army murdering indigenous residents since then.

“That’s why we left because there is no justice or freedom and no standing for your rights. That’s why we climb into a boat to Australia where it is free for us,” Mr Mora said.

What they thought would be a one-day journey soon turned into a nightmare for the group, aged between three and 48, when the motor on their canoe stopped just off the coast of West Papua.

With no food or even a compass for navigation, they spent the next five days relying on rainwater for energy as they paddled and sailed the 25m boat for 300km through stormy seas until they reached the tip of Cape York on January 18, 2006.

“Everyone thought we would disappear and we would all die, but it looks like the gods had made the rain to give us energy and wind to give us direction,” Mr Mora said. Soon after their arrival, the group was sent to Melbourne and in January this year they were granted permanent residency.

Mr Mora lives at the Collingwood high-rise flats and has found a job working to help other refugees and migrants for Fitzroy-based charity Brotherhood of St Laurence.

Leading Sen-Constable Danash Schneider from the Victoria Police multicultural liaison unit watched on last week as Victoria Police’s prized soccer team was beaten 5-2.

“The police team are all pretty good players but these West Papuans were half our size and twice as fast so we were left pretty stunned,” he said.

Resource:
http://melbourne-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/big-win-for-west-papuan-refugees/