Selective Outrage and Unacknowledged Fantasies: Re-thinking Papua, Indonesia and Australia

This article discusses the public controversy that occurred in Australia after the arrival of 43 asylum seekers from the Indonesian province of Papua in early 2006. Noting that human rights abuses elicit greater public attention in Australia when they occur in Papua than in any other Indonesian province, the article examines several explanations for the relatively great Australian interest in the Papua issue. Among these are a tendency to romanticise independence movements, a propensity to be most interested in human rights issues when they occur in such contexts, the prevalence of several popular myths about Indonesia in Australian society, as well as the influence of resurgent fantasies about Australia's role in the region. The article suggests that one narrative framework for understanding the Papua issue has become dominant in Australia (the framework promoted by independence supporters), and that its dominance impedes rounded appreciation of the dynamics of the conflict.