Wolka Namek

Hybrid tribesman Leo Mouyuend is walking the talk. After spending years protecting his Marind land and culture through paintings, songs and videos, he is now Bibikem village head. He is now facing MIFEE companies head on. The Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE) is an ambitious plantation and industrialised agriculture project that is planned to cover over a million hectares of land across the southern part of West Papua. MIFEE is the next frontier for Indonesia’s plantation industry. While there is immense pressure from the large number of international and Indonesian companies involved for MIFEE to proceed, there is significant dissent from communities of the Malind tribes. For them, the development represents a new order of exploitation that will irreparably damage the environment and the cultural connections. This video is set in Bibikem, a village in the Ilwayap District of Merauke, West Papua. Although the official population is 375, most people from the village live in the city or on food and energy estate properties. To support the MIFEE program, the Indonesian Ministry of Public Work in 2011 begun a 152 km road project between these towns and villages: Merauke, Okaba, Buraka, Wanam, Bian and Wogikel. The initial project plan was to cut through some of Bibikem’s sacred grounds. Led by Leo Moyuwend, the Bibikem villagers have managed to fend off bulldozers and forced the Ministry to reroute the roads … for now.

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