Join us for #BlackLivesMatter in the Asia Pacific – a free, live-streamed event

Live on YouTube from 3pm WIB, 5 pm WIT, 6pm AEST today (Thursday, July 9). Use this link to watch.

For West Papuans in Indonesia and Indigenous Australians who live within systemic racism and oppression, #BlackLivesMatter resonated deeply.

Join Elvira Rumkabu, lecturer of international relations at Cenderawasih University, and Eddie Synot, a Wamba Wamba First Nations person and the Centre Manager of the Indigenous Law Centre at UNSW, to learn how racism and discrimination continues in Indonesia and Australia and how this global movement should force us all to confront past and current injustices.

Chaired by Prodita Sabarini, Editor at The Conversation Indonesia.

Elvira Rumkabu is a lecturer of international relations at Cenderawasih University based in Jayapura, Papua. She completed her Master’s Degree at the Australian National University. Her areas of expertise are conflict resolution, peace studies, and Papuan politics.

Elvira is a member of the Academics Forum for Papua Peace (FAPD), a forum established by Indonesian lecturers to initiate conflict resolution and peacebuilding in Papua.

She is actively involved in the Peaceful Papua Lobbying Team, initiated by the Democratic Alliance for Papua (ALDP).

Elvira has written about issues relating to the conflict in Papua in a number of publications. She has also spoken about conflict resolution in Papua, racism and marginalisation, and women, peace and security in national and international forums.

Eddie Synot is a Wamba Wamba First Nations person who writes about Indigenous experience at the intersections of law, culture and society, exploring how these different fields impact upon and affect different representations of Indigenous peoples. He is an Indigenous academic lawyer and researcher and the Centre Manager of the Indigenous Law Centre at UNSW.

Eddie has worked in Indigenous higher education providing support to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students studying at Griffith University through the GUMURRII Student Support Unit. Eddie is also currently completing his PhD with the Griffith Law School focusing on a critique of Indigenous recognition and the liberal rights discourse of Indigenous recognition.

Eddie has also taught Indigenous Studies and Law at Griffith University, teaching Reconstructing the Aboriginal Australian, Aboriginal Political Histories, Contemporary Aboriginal Issues and Property Law 1. Join us tonight for #BlackLivesMatters in the Asia Pacific – a free, live-streamed event from The Conversation