Life as a Papuan Woman Human Rights Defender

To mark International Women’s Day, Dolly, a Papuan woman human rights defender, tells her story and shares her perspective on the importance of women as human rights and environmental defenders.

By: Lepemawi- Lembaga Peduli Masyarakat Wilayah Mimika Timur Jauh (Far East Mimika Community Care Forum)

My name is Adolfina Kuum, commonly known as Dolly. I am the fifth of seven children. I was born in a small village called Agimuga, one of the sub-districts in the far East Mimika region, which is located on the land of Freeport, a USA owned gold mining company operating in Timika. I am the founder of the Environmental Care Community in Timika. I am also active in several other organisations and communities. 

I see the basic rights of the Amungme, Kamoro and Samopane tribes being ignored by the state and Freeport. With only a few Papuans able to enjoy the fruits of natural resource exploitation by companies like Freeport, I thought I needed to be more active. In 2013, together with five people from the Amungme and Sempan tribes, I established the Far East Mimika Community Care Forum. Initially, the Forum aimed to build awareness, create spaces for discussions and empower communities in villages affected by Freeport's waste. The Amungme tribe, the Sempan and Kamoro tribes and I built the Forum independently, until in 2014, the Forum changed its status to become a legal entity called Lembaga Peduli Masyarakat Wilayah Mimika Tmur Jauh. Together with the women's community affected by waste in the coastal area and the women's community in the mining area, we work with young people, including a network of students in the village, so we are known as a community. 

There is a total of 6,484 residents (Timika Statistical Data in Figures 2019) in Agimuga, Jita and Far East Mimika districts, made up of 23 villages: 

• 8 villages in Agimuga district: Fakafuku, Mafasimamo, Kiliarma, Amungun, Hinar Untung, Emkoma Halama, Emogora, and Aramsolki

• 10 villages in Jita district: Noema, Wenin, Sempan Timur, Kanmafri, Waituku, Sumapro, Bulument, Wapu, Wacakam and Jaitak

• 5 villages in Far East Mimika District Fanamo, (Manasari) Ohotya, Omawita, Ayuka, and Amamapare 

By AK Rockefeller, 2013, available on flickr.

Our work focuses on capacity building for communities. We also work on non-litigation advocacy, research, education and capacity building on the issue of the rights of Indigenous peoples and women. We conduct socialisation, documentation, mediation, campaigning, lobbying and negotiation on the issue of Indigenous peoples' rights, especially for women victims of the destructive power of mining activities, including environmental rehabilitation measures.

As a child I was inspired by stories about my father. All his life he struggled to go to school. At the age of 12 he ran away from his family and secretly followed a mission to the coastal region of Omoga far away from his family. My father had only one goal: to be like them, the missionaries. That way he would become an educated man. My father saw education as a weapon for his life. According to the stories of my parents, it was very difficult to get an education in the past. But my father, as an orphan who only had his mum, was able to fight, to get an education. My father's struggle was not in vain. He became a teacher, community leader and religious catechist, who became a role model for the Agimuga community at that time. My father had the charisma of a leader. The community respected him. Even the people from the government respected my father. Through his customary, spiritual, and intellectual approach as a community leader, he was able to navigate living the insecurities of living in the Military Operations Area (DOM) during the New Order regime in Agimuga. 

By: Lepemawi- Lembaga Peduli Masyarakat Wilayah Mimika Timur Jauh (Far East Mimika Community Care Forum)

Becoming a Human Rights Defender

In my memory, when I was a child, my father had also started to fight against Freeport. At that time, he moved from Agimuga to Timika, where we also have a house, then back to Agimuga again and so on. My father's life story inspired me. How can I as a Papuan woman be like my father, have an education even though I live in a village far from the city with many limitations. In fact, I also wanted to be ‘sakti’ (someone with magical powers) like my father, who was feared and able to paralyse the military. I struggled to achieve that goal. I attended kindergarten, primary school and junior high school in Agimuga. Then, in 1996, when I received a scholarship I moved to Jayapura to continue my studies at the Combined High School. I lived in the dormitory of the Karitas Catholic Mission. I received the scholarship because of my father's services in the development of church and religious missions.

However, in 1999 I returned to Timika. I moved to SMA Negeri 1 Timika. My days in the Karitas Jayapura dormitory were filled with longing for my family, especially my father. I wanted to live near him. As it turned out, that longing was a calling. On 10 October 1999, I lost the inspiration of my life. My father passed away. He died at a time when he and his friends were fighting for justice for the Amungme tribe who had been dispossessed by Freeport. That night, 9 October 1999, Timika was hit by heavy rain and lightning that split the Timika sky. The Indigenous Elders saw flashed of lightning from the Honai (traditional house of people living in central and highland Papua), as if splitting the Tembagapura Gold Mountain, they said: “Ouch, there is lightning splitting the golden mountain. Tomorrow someone will die. Who?”

By Radaksi Asiatoday, October 2021, in:
https://asiatoday.id/read/selain-nikel-indonesia-miliki-cadangan-tembaga-terbesar-di-dunia

That day, 9 October 1999, my father went out alone without his friends. He rode his motorbike to Kuala Kencana, where the Freeport office was located. My father didn't come home until late at night. At dawn, I heard my mother screaming loudly in front of my house, shouting that my father was dead and that his body was on the road. Still in my sleeping clothes, I ran to the big highway to see my father's condition, about 50 metres from the house. So did my mum, brothers and sisters. 

There, people were already gathered around my father. They were crying. The police and army were also there, in uniform. I could only sit and watch from afar. Then I fainted. 

They took my father home. I was taken to my cousin's sister's house, who is a nurse. There, I was treated until I regained consciousness. “Where are you, Father?” I said, as soon as I woke up. My sister changed my nightgown, and she took me back to the funeral home. I didn't find any mourning at home. But the voices of the people were shouting against Freeport. They did not accept my father's death. The police said my father was hit by a Freeport employee's bus. But the motorbike my father was riding was still intact. There was no damage. Meanwhile, both of my father's hands were broken and his head was crushed.

My heart was broken. After my father died, my mother started to get sick. But she continued to support me to continue my studies. She didn't think about my father. She reminded me that if I wanted to be like my father, then I had to go to school. But I fought with her. I wanted to find a job. After graduating from high school, I didn't go to college right away. It wasn't until 2000 that I went to STIBA in Manado, Sulawesi. A year later, my mother followed my father due to illness. That year I moved to Yogyakarta, Java struggling to get an education. At that time, I started to think that I had to continue my father's struggle. I never went home to Timika while I was studying in Yogyakarta. I graduated in 2007. That year I returned to Timika.

In Timika I was active in movement organisations. My brothers asked me to take the Civil Servant test, but I refused. Because if I became a civil servant, it would be difficult for me to fight against the system of injustice in Timika. Seeing the basic rights of the Amungme and Samopane tribes being oppressed and ignored by both the State and Freeport, I thought about becoming more active. In 2013, together with five Amungme and Sempan tribesmen, I established the Far East Mimika Community Care Forum. The Amungme, Sampan and Kamoro tribes and I established the Forum independently. There was no financial support from any party. But we wanted the Forum to live on.

Challenges and obstacles came and went in the struggle. As a human rights defender, I want the Amungme, Sempan and Kamoro tribes to live with dignity, respect and fulfil their basic human rights. They can enjoy the natural resources of Timika, which are their rights. Through the organisation I have set up, I want to make that happen. I must continue my father's struggle: Anton Fr. Kuum. 

The presence of Freeport in the Indigenous territories of the Amungme and Kamoro tribes brought destruction and havoc, which led to the creation of the Women's Movement Against Mining in Timika. Their action of occupying the airport for 3 days, installing waiting fires, was the most heroic protest action against the injustice that has occurred. A response to PT Freeport eliminating the substance of their existence as women of the Amungme tribe.

Challenges as a Woman Human Rights Defender

By: Lepemawi- Lembaga Peduli Masyarakat Wilayah Mimika Timur Jauh (Far East Mimika Community Care Forum)

Me and other human rights defenders protesting against Freeport have experienced intimidation, terror and violence by thugs, company employees and the military.  Between 2013 and 2023 we received direct and mobile phone intimidation, threats, destruction of meeting places and cars, and arrests under various pretexts.  One of my female friends was arrested by the police on 7 April 2020, as well as myself later in August 2020. There has been shrinking of democratic space by security personnel, stopping women's discussions and conducting interrogations at the place of activity on 10 December 2021, UN International Human Rights Day. 

There were also some impacts of a practical nature, like in 2014, when we had a secretariat where our community members gathered for community work, and now we are left without any place to gather. Somebody broke in through the window of the house and stole all the documents, all the secretariat tools for the central processing unit and handycam. This was done by our own friend who had left our community. We know he was used and bribed with money.

Another specific challenge is the patriarchal culture, specifically the stigma of being number two in the context of the Amungme tribe as a female leader or a female human rights defender. Due to the patriarchal culture, we are stigmatised for being female and they say that I am just a woman, nothing will happen. Women are not respected, nor are our rights to freedom of association, the right to political freedom, the right to freedom of speech, or the right to participate in public affairs. Women are not involved in agreements with companies, the government or those who enter operations in our area. Gender equality is not yet achieved. The majority of male groups always think that cooking, washing, and bathing children is women's work. That they as head of the household are obliged to earn money, while they do not consider widowed and orphaned women—are they not the head of the family? Who provides for them?

As a result of this patriarchal culture that is ingrained in Papuan society, we female human rights defenders also have to fight for our rights within our own tribal communities. 

Human rights activists and environmental defenders have been stigmatised by the state as subversives, rebels, leftist groups, OPM (Free Papua Movement), and other stereotypes. Discrimination towards Papuans in particular, has resulted in the shrinking of democratic space and silencing of local media.

By: Lepemawi- Lembaga Peduli Masyarakat Wilayah Mimika Timur Jauh (Far East Mimika Community Care Forum)

The Importance of Women as Defenders

This is a very important question because the philosophy of land for the Amungme tribe and Papua as a whole is a symbol of mother/mama. Mama is the giver of fortune—the land is believed to be Mama, the giver of life and who gives birth, raises and feeds. Women are also believed to be givers of life because women are the source of life itself, because only women can give birth to new life on this earth. 

We give life on earth, only women can take care of life in the universe, for example, women weave and make noken. Material is taken from the forest - from tree bark - and naturally processed to make bags and traditional clothing called “sawat”. The material is also made from reeds, meaning that women have a direct relationship or contact with nature. Most women go to the garden to take care of it, not the men, so only women take care of and preserve nature.  We also inherit and pass on cultural education and customs to the next generation of women.

There is a community of women who protect and care for nature for Timika Papua. In 2021 our community recorded Papuan Mama entrepreneurs who persisted, despite the mass destruction, in preserving their special connection with nature by; making rubbing oil medicine from itchy leaves (it is traditional medicine), picking mangrove fruits and making it into tea leaves and traditional medicine, knitting yarn to embroider noken, our native Papuan bags and traditional clothing, and selling areca nuts.  We recorded 15 women's communities that received assistance from Freeport’s CSR foundations. In 2024, one person received 10 million rupiah (less than 600 EUR) to develop Mama Papua’s business and I felt sorry for them because they should have provided more funds—this is very little compared to Freeport's profits. To me these local women are “warriors” for making a living from nature and an environment damaged by waste.

Mangroves are especially important in our lives as women. Mangroves are part of the living space of women in coastal areas, in addition to maintaining the environmental ecosystem for the Kamoro and Sempan people, mangrove leaves and seeds are processed into traditional medicines, drinks and rubbing oils that maintain our health and life.  The wheels of our economy and culture are inseparable from the existence of mangroves, so when Freeport tailings destroy mangroves, our very lives and culture are threatened. Likewise,  Noken is widely recognised in mainland Papua. Especially for us women, noken is a symbol of life that symbolises the womb of women, noken is the identity of Papuan women, it provides meaning such as caring and maintaining life. Noken holds various values, including economic and cultural. Each tribe in Papua has its own characteristics. Especially for mountain women or women in the interior, noken is used as a bag or basket for children since they were born, besides that noken is also used for daily activities such as going to the garden, market, church, everywhere, that's why we consider noken to preserve life.

Did reading Dolly’s story inspire you to take action? If so, here’s some ways you can support her and other Papuan defenders:

• Read more about Freeport’s activities and the Grasberg mine in our report here.

• Write to your local MP about the protection of Papuan woman human rights defenders & Indigenous communities.

• Share Dolly’s story widely!