School of History & Politics & Centre for Asia Pacific Social Transformation Studies (CAPSTRANS) University of Wollongong From Paradise Lost to Promised Land Christianity and the Rise of West Papuan Nationalism Susanna Grazia Rizzo A Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (History) of the University of Wollongong 2004 “Religion (…) constitutes the universal horizon and foundation of the nation’s existence. It is in terms of religion that a nation defines what it considers to be true”. G. W. F. Hegel, Lectures on the of Philosophy of World History. Abstract In 1953 Aarne Koskinen’s book, The Missionary Influence as a Political Factor in the Pacific Islands, appeared on the shelves of the academic world, adding further fuel to the longstanding debate in anthropological and historical studies regarding the role and effects of missionary activity in colonial settings. Koskinen’s finding supported the general view amongst anthropologists and historians that missionary activity had a negative impact on non-Western populations, wiping away their cultural templates and disrupting their socio-economic and political systems. This attitude towards mission activity assumes that the contemporary non-Western world is the product of the ‘West’, and that what the ‘Rest’ believes and how it lives, its social, economic and political systems, as well as its values and beliefs, have derived from or have been implanted by the ‘West’. This postulate has led to the denial of the agency of non-Western or colonial people, deeming them as ‘history-less’ and ‘nation-less’: as an entity devoid of identity. But is this postulate true? Have the non-Western populations really been passive recipients of Western commodities, ideas and values? This dissertation examines the role that Christianity, the ideology of the West, the religion whose values underlies the semantics and structures of modernisation, has played in the genesis and rise of West Papuan nationalism. The modernist and primordialist approaches to the study of the relation between nationalism and religion assume either structural-functionalist or intellectualist definitions of religion. This thesis rejects that view in postulating that religion plays a foundational role in the rise of both historical consciousness and nationalism. Positioning itself in antithesis to traditional primitivist approaches to the study of West Papua, which have tended to study the Papuan people as a set of distinct tribes, each endowed with particular identity dynamics, this thesis attempts to provide a comprehensive study of West Papuan nationalism as a single ethnic and geographical entity. Breaking away from modular forms of nationalism, which consider such a phenomenon as a res ‘capable of being transplanted’, it attempts to recover the ‘eventful reconfigurations’ which have allowed for the rise of West Papuan national consciousness and identity. Sahlins’ structure of the conjuncture will be used as the basis for the articulation of a methodology to enable the recovery of the lost history of pre-literate peoples and the discarding of the interrelated myths of ‘history-less-ness’ and ‘nation- less-ness’. This thesis argues that West Papua was a distinct ethnic identity long before the Europeans entered the region. This identity was shaped and defined by processes of adaptation to a particular ecosystem and by the longstanding relations that the Papuans had engaged in with the neighbouring Malay populations in, what can be regarded as, the ‘Maluku-Papuan-Ceramese’ zone. Consequently Papuan pre-colonial ethnic identity, authenticated by a series of myths and stories, acted as the prime mover in determining the relational dynamics and dialectics with the Europeans and Christianity. It will be shown that Christianity did not create the Papuan nation and West Papuan nationalism, although, once Christianity was ‘inculturated’ into the Papuan cultural- religious template, Christian institutions acted as the structure and semantics by which the Papuans were able to communicate and articulate communal sentiments of belonging, coalescing into a unified entity. Papuan hermeneutics, known as cargoism, played an important role in mediating and systemising Christian beliefs and values into Papuan cultural-religious templates, so that the locus of Papuan national identity came to reside in the intersection of Papuan stories and myths with Christian narratives. In the aftermath of World War II, the Dutch nation-building program inculcated into the emerging Papuan intelligentsia an idea of nation and nationalism, which could serve their neo-colonial interests and resist Indonesian incorporation of the territory. This program came to clash with the autochthonous Papuan nationalism, which had manifested itself in the great Koreri movement of 1938-1942. Table of Contents Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………………p. v Introduction………………………………………………………………………...p.1 Chapter I – Nationalism: Exploring the Enigma of the Amoebic……………...p. 12 Theories of Nationalism: A Critical Overview………………………....p. 15 Idealist-Historical and Ethno-National Theories……………………….p. 18 Modernisation Theories…………………………………………………p. 24 Religion, Nationalism and Historical Consciousness……………………p. 37 The Dialectics Between the ‘National’ and the ‘International’………….p. 47 Primordial Sentiments and Civil Politics………………………………...p. 52 Conclusions………………………………………………………………p. 65 Chapter II – The Architecture and Archaeology of Memory and Oblivion Or the Conundrums of Methodology and Hermeneutics…………..p. 67 The Western Archives of West Papua…………………………………p. 74 The Vexata Quaestio of Hermeneutics…………………………………p. 81 Papuan Time- Reckoning Systems……………………………………..p. 95 Identifying an Indigenous Apocalyptic Eschatology…………………...p.108 i Chapter III –Parsing the Papuan in Southeast Asia Before Dutch Colonisation…………………………………………………………..p.114 The Papuans in South-East Asia……………………………………… p. 121 The Arrival of the Europeans…………………………………………..p. 138 Regional Perceptions of Papuan Identity………………………………p.152 Christianity and Colonialism: Exporting the West, Importing the Rest……………………………………………………..p.161 The Maluku Mission and the Papuans………………………………...p.171 Promoting Christianity in the Maluku-Papuan Region………………...p.182 Conclusions…………………………………………………………….p.192 Chapter IV – In Search of the Papuan Clio……………………………………….p.195 Trekking the Papuan Archives…………………………………………..p.196 Gurabesi and Nuku: Prolegomena to a Papuan History…………………p.204 The Story of Gurabesi…………………………………………………...p.206 Nuku and the Maluku- Papuan Connection……………………………..p.215 Conclusions……………………………………………………………...p.229 Chapter V – Colonisation, Conversion and the Construction of Ethnic Identity………………………………………………………………...p.231 The World System and the Dutch Discovery of West Papua………….p.234 The Dilemma of Colonising West Papua……………………………...p.240 ii Mission and State: The Dialectics of a Connubium in Colonial Settings…………………………………………………………………p.242 Christianity and Missiological Heterogeneity in the Papuan Mission Field……………………………………………………………………p.249 From Merkus-Oord to Mansinam: Christianity lands in Papua………..p.256 Conversion, Convergence, Sub-Mission……………………………….p.262 The Politics of Space……………………………………………………p.270 Cargoism: The Political Space of the Papuans………………………….p.273 Cargoes and Missionaries……………………………………………….p.277 Conclusions……………………………………………………………...p.287 Chapter VI – The Tension between the Ethnic and the National in West Papuan Nation-Building……………………………………………………….p.288 From Koreri to Second Coming……………………………………….p.292 Winds of Change………………………………………………………p.295 The Politicisation of Koreri and the Birth of Papuan Nationalist Ideology………………………………………………………………..p.301 Dazzling Images of Freedom and Equality…………………………….p.309 The Return of the Missionaries………………………………………...p.314 Maju against Reconstructie: Conflicting Goals in Post-Colonial West Papua…………………………………………………………………..p.322 Papuan Response to Dutch Neo-Colonialism………………………….p.333 Persisting Trends and the Eternal Return………………………………p.343 Conclusions…………………………………………………………………………..p.352 iii Appendix……………………………………………………………………………..p.357 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………....p.363 Maps…………………………………………………………………………………p.403 iv Acknowledgements Writing a PhD thesis may seem a lonely task but at the end, when you turn back to look at the years spent reading, researching and discussing, you realise that many people were present and contributed, either directly or indirectly, to its accomplishment. In these four years, among the many people whose names because of space limits I cannot list but with whom I will always have an enormous debt of gratitude, there are a few whose help and support have played an outstanding role in the realisation of this work. Words are insufficient to express the magnitude of my everlasting gratitude. I thank my supervisors. Firstly, Associate Professor Adrian Vickers whose extensive and deep knowledge of South-east Asian history, culture and society has provided me with that guidance and support necessary and whose interest, enthusiasm, constant presence and moral support have represented a spur to overcome the obstacles and moments of impasse which inevitably accompany PhD research. Secondly, but not for importance, Professor Peter King of the University of Sydney who first talked me into undertaking PhD studies and whose confidence of my ability and support have constantly encouraged me to continue. The constant and continuous dialogue with both my supervisors has played a key role in channelling and structuring my research.