Documentary Screenings And Discussion on Papuan Music & Eastern Indonesian Communities Visiting

Principle Investigator：WU Ting-Kuan, LAN Yu-Chen

Due to the narrow lens of nationalism, public and media discourses in Taiwanese society often portray migrant workers from a given country as a culturally homogeneous group, overlooking the heterogeneity and diasporic nature of these communities. Even among migrants of the same nationality, there exist significant differences in ethnicity, language, religion, and cultural context. Cultural workers and advocacy groups, despite their progressive aims, often fall into this same trap by overemphasizing dominant cultural representations. For example, the public discourse in Taiwan surrounding Indonesian migrant workers tends to focus almost exclusively on Javanese culture, inadvertently reproducing the political and cultural hegemony of Java-centric nationalism within Indonesia itself. As researchers engaged in cultural studies, this compels us to ask how we might incorporate more diverse and critically reflexive perspectives into cultural advocacy for migrants, perspectives that foreground alternative voices and forge connections with broader contemporary issues such as racism, feminism, gender diversity, and Indigenous rights. These perspectives may offer meaningful pathways for reimagining transnational solidarity and addressing shared social challenges across contexts.

Stretching from the eastern Indonesian archipelagos to the provinces of Papua, this vast region is marked by profound differences in language, religion, physical traits, and culture compared to Indonesia’s dominant groups. Within a decade of Indonesia’s independence, these territories were gradually brought under Jakarta’s control, a process fraught with conflict and controversy. Yet, their voices have not been silenced. The Papuan solidarity movement has forged a shared sense of cultural identity among eastern Indonesians. This younger generation, often referred to as Nyong Timur or “eastern kids”, who live, study, and work across major Indonesian cities, openly embrace plural identities and challenge the state's nationalist and ethnic policies. The widespread Papuan solidarity protests in 2019 represented an alternative grassroots movement that not only articulated political dissent but also opposed colonialism, capitalism, militarism, and racial discrimination. Cultural and artistic expressions, especially music rooted in Indigenous traditions, have become a vital medium for their political engagement and resistance.