About

“A plurality of independent and unmerged voices and consciousnesses, a genuine polyphony of fully valid voices…” (Bakhtin, M.)

A huge island in the Pacific: European imperial “explorers” called it New Guinea. Today at the frontier of, perhaps, two human geographies: Indonesia and Melanesia (names also given by Europeans).   How to approach the multiplicity of human stories there, experiences of daily oppressions, dreams of liberation, fears and hopes?  There is a national liberation struggle: while Jakarta denigrates it, comfortable Western “conflict experts” talk about its internal differentiation, urge it to “be realistic”. We hear, read, speak, write words like freedom, independence, autonomy, genocide, human rights, peace, war.  I try to listen and convey.