CSEAS Fall Lecture Series: Veronika Kusumaryati

Postdoctoral researcher at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service

Georgetown University

Title: "#Papuanlivesmatter: Black Consciousness and Political Movements in West Papua"

Online event. Registration required at https://niu-edu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYpceqrrDwrHtMoFDGLUF1dRDKayFaEkLV3

(After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.)

After the brutal killing of George Floyd sparked antiracism protests worldwide, Black youth organized protests in West Papua, Indonesia’s marginalized and easternmost region. In 2019, Papuans protested against entrenched racism in Indonesian society, when Papuan students in Java were subjected to racist epithets. Since then, Papuans have used the hashtag #Papuanlivesmatter to articulate their connection with broader antiracism protests across the world and bring the Papuan experience to #BlackLivesMatter movements. While global Black political movements have long shaped Papuan identities, the new Papuan Lives Matter movement shows how digital media have played an influential role in the spread of antiracism protests and how Blackness has been understood and articulated, not only in relation to white supremacy but also to postcolonial claims of multiculturalism in Asian societies. This presentation discusses the specific context in which protests under Papuan Lives Matter emerged and its relationship with the global Black Lives Matter movements. This presentation also explores the idea of Blackness in West Papua that stems not only from the influence of and conversation with American Black political movements and African liberation movements but also lived experience as a Black people under Indonesian occupation.

Veronika Kusumaryati is a political and media anthropologist working on the question of contemporary colonialism in West Papua, a self-identifying term referring to Indonesia’s easternmost and marginal provinces of Papua and West Papua. She holds a Ph.D. degree from the department of anthropology at Harvard with a secondary field in film and visual studies. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. In 2023, she will start a new position as an assistant professor in anthropology and international studies at the University Wisconsin Madison.

Co-sponsored by NIU's Department of Anthropology

All lectures free and open to the public