Freedom in Entangled Worlds: West Papua and the Architecture of Global Power

by Eben Kirksey

Eben Kirksey first went to West Papua, the Indonesian-controlled half of New Guinea, as an exchange student in 1998. His later study of West Papua's resistance to the Indonesian occupiers and the forces of globalization morphed as he discovered that collaboration, rather than resistance, was the primary strategy of this dynamic social movement. Accompanying indigenous activists to Washington, London, and the offices of the oil giant BP, Kirksey saw the revolutionaries' knack for getting inside institutions of power and building coalitions with unlikely allies, including many Indonesians. He discovered that the West Papuans' pragmatic activism was based on visions of dramatic transformations on coming horizons, of a future in which they would give away their natural resources in grand humanitarian gestures, rather than watch their homeland be drained of timber, gold, copper, and natural gas. During a lengthy, brutal occupation, West Papuans have harbored a messianic spirit and channeled it in surprising directions. Kirksey studied West Papua's movement for freedom while a broad-based popular uprising gained traction from 1998 until 2008. Blending ethnographic research with indigenous parables, historical accounts, and narratives of his own experiences, he argues that seeking freedom in entangled worlds requires negotiating complex interdependencies.

Genres: Nonfiction, Anthropology, Politics, History

314 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

EBEN KIRKSEY is an American anthropologist and Member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He has been published in Wired, The Atlantic, The Guardian and The Sunday Times. He is sought out as an expert on science in society by the Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Democracy Now, Time and the BBC, among other media outlets. He speaks widely at the world’s leading academic institutions including Oxford, Yale, Columbia, UCLA, and the International Summit of Human Genome Editing, plus music festivals, art exhibits, and community events. Professor Kirksey holds a long-term position at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia.

Reviews

[Thomas Lang · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author was present at quite a few interesting events related to West Papuan Independence makes for an interesting and exciting read at times. However, this book often reads like the author adapted his PhD thesis into a book with many long sections related to the theory of independence or popular movements which I personally thought took away from the narrative. Still an interesting read and there aren't many books on the subject.

[Lukas Van Veen · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Yesus' in the Biak language means 'my breast'.

In general the lack of climax is characteristic for Balinese music, drama, and other art forms.

The banyan is a dominant forest tree with a chaotic network of roots and branches. Golkar, the government party of Indonesia, uses it as its symbol. Banyans start out life as strangler figs. They grow up and around dominant host trees, often choking and killing them.

[Alexandra Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone wanting a background of the complexity of Papuan politics should read this. Great ethnography and amazing stories.