Last Friday, for the hopes of the Indigenous West Papuan people, its flag, with the Morning Star, was raised at Leichhardt Town Hall, and flew all the weekend.

In West Papua this is a dangerous activity, unlike raising the Australian flag or even the Aboriginal one, here in Australia. More than 300 West Papuans were arrested and taken on their National Day.

The Australia West Papua Association thanks the Inner West Papua Council in Sydney for supporting the raising of the West Papuan National  Flag on its Leichhardt Town Hall  today, 30 November at 9am to commemorate the first  official flying of the Morning Star flag on the 1st December in 1961.

The Dutch were finally about to give the West Papuan people their freedom. However it is one of the great tragedies that at their moment of freedom it was cruelly crushed and WestPapua was basically handed over to Indonesia in 1963.

Fifty-seven years later, the West Papuan people are still struggling for their right to self-determination.

Joe Collins of AWPA said “West Papuans continue to face arrest and torture simply for holding peaceful rallies to bring attention to the world the injustices they suffer under Indonesian rule. Recent arrests of activists are to intimidate them into not talking part in activities to celebrate their national day”.