Arief Budiman, Harun Rumbarar & Max Binur
(Indonesia-Yogyakarta/Jayapura/Sorong)
Arief Budiman is an artist born in Depok who is currently working in Yogyakarta. Graduated from the Faculty of Film and Television from ISI Yogyakarta, he utilizes moving images as one of the main mediums in his work. Several themes often encountered in his works are lifestyle or people’s behavior, the influence of the internet, and also politics. In recent years, he used archived footage as a source of information and speculated on past events in an artistic way. Currently, he is a member of two collectives active in both fine art and film scenes, namely MES 56, and Piring Tirbing.
Harun Rumbarar (born in Keerom, Papua New Guinea border) is an activist and filmmaker working in Papuan Voices community. He works with audio visual to advocate various problems in Papua. Harun has produces a few film: “Truck Monce” (2017), “Justice For Murdered Children” (2018), “Cerita Sukses Perjuangan Masyarakat Adat Suku MOI”, “Rasisme dan Internet Down” di acara SAFEnet (2020) and “Perempuan Penjaga Dusun” (2021).
Max Binur (born in Biak, West Papua) is a cultural practitioner, with an education background on Anthropology. He is the founder of various art and culture community based in Papua: musical group Black Paradise, Belantara Papua, Bengkel Budaya, Sanggar Araima, Kumeser, Faduru, Papuan Voices and more. Max had worked as Region Executive WALHI Papua, working in ELSHAM Papua, part of Yayasan Lingkungan Hidup Papua dan the chief of Papuan Voices.
“Di Tanah Orang Papua” (2021)
Installation, video, audio | variable size
For more than half a century, West Papua has been a part of Indonesia through annexation, a condition that continues to spark controversies to date. West Papua’s natural resources are the magnet for Indonesia and other countries, resulting in heated competition to occupy the region. Through the Law No. 1 of 1967 concerning Foreign Investment and the contract executed by Soeharto in the same year, the land that constituted ‘Motherland’ for Papuans slowly began to be controlled by the country. Investors instigated conflicts, committed violence, induced terror and fear, and forced people to evacuate, until they could control the land and transform it into a ‘fertile land’ for them. These patterns were common among investors when they found a region with abundant natural resources.
This artwork presents fragments of stories that Arief got told about during his residency in Papua. The stories are about the lives of native Papuans not covered by the media as well as their heart-wrenching experiences of falling victim to the power of the country and its instruments whose existence has been attempted to be kept hidden. In making this artwork, Arief collaborated with the artists cum activists, Max Binur and Harun Rumbarar, who are keen to voice the problems in West Papua through the medium of music and film. The awareness to defend the culture and lives of Papuans inspired them to use these two media as part of the arsenal to archive memories of the turmoil occurring in West Papua.
