West Papua: When Gold Shines Brighter Than Lives

By now, we’re used to the silence. West Papua—a land soaked in blood, rich in resources, and suffocating under military occupation—isn’t exactly trending material. 

But surprise: Blast, an independent French media outlet, recently broke ranks and dared to mention what the majority of French (and global) mainstream media won’t—the six-decade-long occupation of West Papua by Indonesia.

It’s a rare act of journalistic honesty in a world where Indonesia is more often portrayed as a promising emerging market, a "moderate" democracy with a booming population and geo-strategic charm. After all, why dwell on genocide when you can talk about economic growth?

And yet, gold—that ever-precious, ever-cursed metal—is the heart of the West Papuan tragedy. It’s not a metaphor. It’s literal. With nearly 3 billion tons of mineral reserves, West Papua has become a paradise for multinational mining giants and Indonesian oligarchs. For Papuans? It’s been a death sentence in slow motion.

The numbers are chilling: over 500,000 Papuan lives lost, native populations now under 40%, entire regions militarized, and entire villages turned into refugee camps. Since 2018 alone, armed conflict has displaced 75,000 people, most of them Indigenous. Along the Papua New Guinea border, 12,000 Papuans live stateless and unrecognized, stripped of even the basic identity of "refugee."

Still, most global media outlets have collectively agreed to look the other way. Why spoil a good trade deal with uncomfortable truths?

Palestine, Ukraine—rightly in the spotlight. But West Papua? Too inconvenient. Too remote. Too resource-rich to challenge the status quo.

And yet, what’s most remarkable is not just the tragedy—it’s the resistance. For 61 years, the people of West Papua have never stopped fighting. They resist with words, with marches, with mourning, with music, with every breath they can take under occupation. One Papuan activist once said:

“Our struggle is not about gold. Before anything else, it’s about survival. It’s about existing as Melanesian people on our ancestral land.

But sure—go ahead. Keep flipping through headlines. The world seems to believe there’s nothing here to see. After all, the gold hasn’t run out yet.