Religion and Resistance in West Papua: The Role of Christianity in the Struggle for Peace with Justice

Abstract

Faith has been a central feature of West Papuan resistance to Indonesian colonialism. Missionised in the late nineteenth century, the indigenous peoples of West Papua are now overwhelmingly Christian and their faith is a key marker of their identity and social practices. While most churches take a neutral stance on the controversial issue of political independence, they have taken up roles in human rights monitoring, peacebuilding, international lobbying and many other initiatives for justice. Churches in West Papua are complex and powerful institutions prone to careful engagement; but within them, passionate activists regularly frame their actions in religious terms, deploying the symbols and practices of their faith to achieve their goals. Despite all this, there have been few dedicated studies into how religion affects issues peace and conflict in West Papua, causing conflicted views on it. The differences between Christian institutions and the various ways people interpret Christian meanings has often caused misunderstandings about the role of Christianity in social movements. Faith-based justice movements and religious actors in West Papua have been resistant to being understood by the dominant theories of the sociology of religion. By focusing on the ways religion constrains social action, much of the literature on resistance in West Papua has ignored some of the primary causes for the engagement or disengagement of religious agents in social action - removing possibilities for intervention or reform. Though marginalised in the literature, Christianity remains a pervasive marker of identity in West Papua and a principal driver of social action. This study presents an introduction to the history of religion in West Papua to demonstrate the extent to which religious knowledge has fuelled initiatives for resistance, peacebuilding and justice. Religious understandings of peace and justice preceded colonialism, were altered by the arrival of Christianity, and continue today in forms that are both constraining social action as well as inspiring it. If considerations of religious truth are the primary source of moral reasoning for West Papuans, it follows that the type of religious knowledge being taught should be a central concern. It is argued here that the interrelated issues of theology and education are critically overlooked in discourses of peace and conflict in West Papua, and with more attention and resources, the divide between powerful institutional structures and inspiring religious agents might not be so wide.