Uncle Kevin Buzzacott and the West Papua Freedom Flotilla will be participating in the West Papua Freedom Forum in Darwin in July on the anniversary of the Biak Massacre with a focus on Indigenous networking between Australia and West Papua.

Larrakia and Arabunna Aboriginal Elders June Mills and Uncle Kevin Buzzacott, along with Australian West Papua organizations, Indigenous groups and non-indigenous supporters will converge at the forum from the 4th to the 6th of July to participate in workshops, talk, storytelling and musical performance.

Exiled West Papuan leader, former political prisoner and member of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, Jacob Rumbiak, will also attend the Freedom Forum after returning from the Solomon Islands where he has been facilitating West Papua’s submission for membership into powerful regional body, the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

“We work for world peace and justice, we start from our region, the Pacific.” Mr Rumbiak said.

Uncle Kevin Buzzacott has confirmed that the West Papua Freedom Forum will result in a public statement and action plan to commemorate the Biak Massacre atrocities in which more than 150 people were brutally tortured, killed and their bodies dumped at sea, after a pro-independence protest on the northern West Papuan island of Biak in July, 1998.

“We can’t have this murder on our doorstep. We must contest the Indonesian authority. We must free West Papua at all cost.” Mr Buzzacott said.

Flotilla Media Contact for Freedom Forum:
Uncle Kevin Buzzacott, Arabunna Elder 0431157747

Flotilla Media Contact for West Papua:
Ronny Kareni, West Papuan Media Spokesperson 0401222177