Jenny Munro

Rebel girls? Unplanned pregnancy and colonialism in highlands Papua Indonesia.

In highlands Papua, Indonesia, rapid social change under a colonial system of governance has created novel sexual opportunities for young indigenous women. Recent scholarship has viewed similar youthful sexual practices that challenge the status quo as expressions of personal agency. By looking at how young women and their families cope with unplanned pregnancies, we suggest that a more viable analytic approach would be to view sexuality, pregnancy and childbirth as a single unit of analysis. From this perspective, young womens experiences are primarily ones of constraint. Case studies offer insights into the ways a political context of colonial domination limits options and choices for young women who have children born out of wedlock. In particular, this paper describes how the ‘settler gaze’ — omnipresent colonial norms and judgments — creates regulatory effects in the realm of reproduction.

A diploma and a descendant! Premarital sexuality, education and politics among Dani university students in North Sulawesi, Indonesia

In Indonesia, the notion of ‘study first’ (kuliah dulu) pressures young adults to refrain from sex and delay marriage until they finish tertiary education. Recent scholarship has viewed choices to abstain from sex as evidence of the potency of values of modernisation, Islamic culture and the contemporary importance of moral and social order. By looking at how Dani university students from Papua, the countrys easternmost province, view premarital sex and pregnancy while studying in North Sulawesi, this article shows that the moral regulation of reproductive and educational aspirations invokes defensive reactions among indigenous men and women experiencing stigma and discrimination from local Indonesians. Qualitative interview results and case studies of pregnancy offer insights into the ways that indigenous men and women respond to racial stigma with a political interpretation of sexuality and pregnancy by arguing that education and reproductive achievements make vital contributions to indigenous agendas. In particular, practices of unofficial ‘marriage’ supported mens and womens need to defend themselves against stigmatisation, and enabled some women to feel positive about premarital pregnancies.

Compelling Evidence: Research Methods, HIV/AIDS, and Politics in Papua, Indonesia

Increasing calls for an evidence-based public health (EBPH) rely on forms of quantitative evidence to decide HIV/AIDS interventions. A major criticism of this method is it downplays the significance of experiential, cultural or political facets of HIV/AIDS. We apply the concept of ‘rendering technical’ to explore the relationship between methods used in HIV/AIDS research in Papua, Indonesia and current socioeconomic conditions. We analysed research methods used in sixty-two HIV/AIDS studies, assessed presentations at an international AIDS conference, and conducted ethnographic research in Papua. Nation-wide EBPH initiatives are implemented in Papua, yet there remains a critical mass of qualitative ethnographic studies carried out by indigenous scholars emphasising experiences of persons and culture, often within a colonial or post-colonial framework. We argue these studies partially counter approaches which render technical complex realities. In political conditions where indigenous minorities suffer inequities, qualitative ethnographic research may yield critical kinds of evidence, potentially contributing to more nuanced decision-making around HIV.

(Not) getting political: indigenous women and preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV in West Papua

Abstract This paper builds on critiques that call for a more nuanced and contextualised understanding of conditions that affect HIV prevention by looking at West Papuan women’s experiences of prevention of mother-to-child transmission services. Drawing on qualitative, ethnographic research with indigenous women and health workers, the paper demonstrates that women experience poor-quality HIV education and counselling, and that indigenous practices and concerns are largely not addressed by HIV services. We attribute this to a combination of national anti-indigenous and anti-separatist political concerns with donor-led interventions that result in limited localisation and reduced effectiveness of HIV prevention measures. In West Papua, services are needed that enhance cooperation and shared commitment, and that acknowledge and work to overcome existing inequalities, ethnic tensions and discrimination in the health system. Beyond Indonesia, donor-led HIV programmes and interventions need to balance avoidance of politically sensitive issues with complicity in perpetuating health inequalities. Translating global health interventions and donor priorities into locally compelling HIV prevention activities involves more than navigating local cultural and religious beliefs. Programme development and implementation strategies that entail confronting structural questions as well as social hierarchies, cleavages and silences are needed to render more effective services; strategies that are inherently political.