The Identity of Demmak

The Name & its Embryo's history

The Name Demmak stands for Dewan Musyawarah Masyarakat Koteka or some call it Dewan Musyawarah Masyarakat Adat Koteka. Which literally means The Council of Koteka Peoples' Assembly or the Koteka Customary Council Assembly. It can be referred to as Assembly of Koteka Tribes, but generally known as the Koteka Tribal Assembly.

Previously, Demmak came from the idea to estbalish the Conference of the Lani[1] Tribes, which was originally envisaged as part of the campaigns by the Evangelical Church of Indonesia (henceforth GIDI), The Fellowship of Baptist Churches of Papua (PGBP), and The Evangelical Christian Church of Indonesia in West Papua (GKII) to move towards a unification of churches among the Koteka Tribes as the division of the so-called denominations across the highlands of West Papua was causing more problems than promoting peace and harmony among the Koteka Tribes People. Many disputes among the denominations, even within the same clans and families were destroying the traditional ties and harmony of living together.

When the political map in West Papua drastically changed due to the forced resignation of Indonesian army dictator Soeharto in 1998, it was regarded still valid and useful to follow up the "dream" of uniting the Koteka Tribes into an assembly to help each other in their problems.

The initiator[2] of the dream left West Papua in 1998, as the door for Koteka People to get out of Indonesia was also opened. This time, the dream then developed into a mass organisation not just for religious affairs, but more importantly for the rights of communities of beings in West Papua. The purpose of the visit abroad was to spread the word of what had been happening to the Koteka Tribes in West Papua. Only after a year abroad, that the establishment of Demmak to coordinate activities of all Koteka Tribes was regarded urgent, significant and useful for the future of West Papua.

After several consultations with the leaders of the three church-denominations mentioned above and with the elders of the Koteka Tribes, a meeting was called to formulate the vision. Then Demmak came into being, as a manifestation of the existing Tribal Groups, to help us in this modern world to channel our voice and coordinate our activities. [Read more of this in the Brief History of Demmak]

The work of the current Demmak Secretary-General and Mully Wendanak and others have contributed significantly to the establishment of Demmak.

Principles

  1. Promotion of Customary Laws, traditional ways of lives, principles, values and norms of the traditional customs. It means Demmak speaks against policies of assimilation, human plantation (transmigration), religion-isation (Chirstian-isation, Islam-isation and the likes) as such as these are seen just the same of the Genetically Modified Products of Plants and Animals.

  2. Promotion of Tribal System of Governance under the name of Tribal Democracy that covers most  of the principles of Green and Peace movements around the world.

  3. Justice and Truth for all communities of beings above and should go before Peace, Security and Democracy and Human Rights

  4. All beings (plants, animals, humans, and spiritual beings) have equal rights and should be treated as fellow beings. Demmak views all as one and one in all. In other words, violating the rights of one being equals to violating the rights of all beings.

  5. Demmak promotes coordination of activities rather than direction of activities by a central office or leaders.

  6. Demmak avoids funding organisations that have most of the agenda different from Demmak, and prefers co-operating with organisations that do not expose their rules and regulations on Demmak.

  7. Demmak does not receive funding for "development activities" per se as Demmak is against "human-programmed" types of development activities.

  8. It means Demmak speaks against any operations of the Local, National and Multinational Corporations. Demmak upholds the rights of all communities of beings above the vested interests of capitals and modern politics that devalue or ignore the rights and dignity of the communities of beings.

Founders

Demmak was originally founded by more than seven tribes in the highlands of West Papua, such as the Lani Tribe, Mee Tribe, Yali Tribe, Nggem Tribe, and Walak Tribe. The agreement to establish Demmak was achieved after several meetings to discuss advantages and disadvantages of the organisation. All tribes came independently to listen to the deliberations of the purposes and roles of Demmak. Some rejected the idea and did not join Demmak, but accepted and agreed to form a mass organisation. Today it is called Demmak, which stands for Dewan Musyawarah Masyarakat Koteka.

Membership

  • Demmak's members are not individuals, but Tribes who share the same views and principles, regardless of the goals and targets of the tribes.

  • Demmak's members are not limited to those in Papua or Melanesia communities, but any beings of the world.

  • Any tribe at any time can join and leave Demmak as they wish. There is no contract (social, legal, political or cultural contracts) in order to join or leave Demmak.

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To Avoid Misinterpretation

Some people who are concerned about gender-balance issues may misunderstand that "koteka" is the 'penis gourd', the traditional clothing of the 'men' of the highlands. In addition, this is a tribal organisation. Mostly, people misinterpret negatively anything related to 'tribalism' They may misunderstand the term 'koteka' as representing male-domination over women in the highlands. 

We admit, yes, there are some parts of life in the highlands where men dominate women. However, particularly in the case of  this name, 'koteka', there is no such an interpretation whatsoever. 

It has become the "logo" or "icon" of West Papua or Papuan people all over the Island of New Guinea.

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Other people may misinterpret Demmak as an organisation potential for anarchism and war in West Papua. May have misinterpreted the word "tribe" as something negative. That is the view of outsiders. We ourselves view this word identify us well, and unit as as a tribe: Papua and also as tribes in West Papua.

At the international level, especially at the UN systems, the word "Tribe" has been replaced by "Indigenous." In this case, we believe that every being on this planet is indigenous to this planet earth, no one or nothing is alien to this planet.

Brief History

 Historically, Demmak was established on 29 January 2000 by some members. However, it was regarded that we needed more people to gather and decide the scope of the tribes in West Papua. Some tribal elders from the Bird's Head and Southern part of West Papua came together and expressed their wish to join Demmak. At that time, some people refused as they regarded Demmak only belonged to the highlanders. After several inputs from the participants of the meeting. it was made clear that "koteka" (penis gourd) is not only the symbol of the highlanders but it is more of the the whole Papua (East Papua and West Papua). "Once the world sees a "koteka", it will directly refer to Papua, without any explanation," one of them remarked. The other added, "We were all naked, native, primitive, uncivilised, savages, etc., and all of us were naked, without modern clothes. Koteka symbolises this reality."

In conclusion, all tribal elders agreed to use "koteka" to identify all Papuans.

Further discussions and developments in political activities in West Papua brought to the reality that Demmak is a mass organisation, rooted into the community, and purely speaks for the people, without any personal or group's interests. It then became, as Indonesia calls it, a "radical" organisation. Radical refers to its principle without compromise. For example, if Papuans want full independent, Demmak will say so. We regard Demmak not as a radical, but as a pure organisation of the Papuan people.

The Flag

The flag symbolises Papuan People.

  • Green colour refers to the land and nature;

  • Red colour represents the blood of the people;

  • Black  colour means the people are black, well, in fact it is actually brown.

  • Star is the Lord, Saviour of the World, or the power beyond humanity.

  • Star in Black colour means that when the power above humanity is within the people, and when the Papuans are with the Star, victory will become ours, we will come out as the stars, i.e., victoriously and shine to the world.

This flag is not final. It is a proposal by one of Demmak members. There will be discussions among the tribal elders with proposals of flags from other members.

Our Motto

Our Motto or Slogan is: "BETRAYED but NOT DEFEATED"

Allies & Child-Organisations

Allies/ Partners

The Koteka Tribal Assembly is an affiliate organisation of the Papua Presidium Council (PDP). Demmak is not part of the PDP, but rather work in affiliation with the PDP due to the same goal and strategies for the movement, i.e., the Independence of West Papua via the promotion of the rights, peace and justice in West Papua, based on the principles of truth, loving kindness, and honesty.

Demmak is an ally to almost all political and mass organisations in West Papua, that include the following:

  1. Papua Presidium Council (PDP)

  2. The Koteka Task Force

  3. The Papua Task Force

  4. Papua Customary Council (Dewan Adat Papua)

Child-Organisations

Demmak is the mother of the following organisations:

  1. Aliansi Mahasiswa Papua (AMP) International as a moral force and support from the Papuan students, and as the mouthpiece of Demmak at national and international arenas.

  2. Ndugu Ndugu Research and Publishing Institute or Watch Papua Institute

  3. Papua Press Agency that organises activities of communicating news and information from and about West Papua to the world, mainly through websites: 

  4. The Diary of Online Papua Mouthpiece (Do-OPM)

  5. Tribal Networks (Tribal Peoples' Effort to Establishing hi-tech and reliable communication networks for communicating with the world and with each other)

  6. Friends of People Close to Nature (FPNC) Intercultural

  7. West Papua Rainforests Trust to protect the forests of West Papua from being destroyed by logging, mining and development companies.

It is important to note that Demmak has no official, social, or political connection with the existing organisations in Indonesia. It does not affiliate with purely political organisations, but only political organisations that also campaign for the promotion of customary laws, traditional norms, values and ways of life.

Demmak in Papua Politics

In Papua politics, Demmak speaks for the rights of the Koteka Tribes people to be acknowledged, respected, promoted and protected. 

In the struggle for independence, Demmak speaks out what the elders and tribal people exactly say, without alterations or filtering whatsoever. 

Since its establishment, Demmak has been closely accompanying and monitoring the work of various political organisations in West Papua, giving criticisms and inputs for improvements to those parties and actively involved in various political activities.

Demmak in the World

At the international stage, Demmak normally works with or consult its activities, report and attend meetings organised by the Office of High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) of the United Nations: Working Group on Indigenous Populations and Working Group on Minorities. It is also looking forward to 

The Future of Demmak?

Demmak's long-term vision is to become a Political Party that promote most of the Green and Nationalist Parties values with distinct features that it advocates the rights of all communities of beings, not only the rights of humans, plants and animals. In other words, it advocates the holistic rights of all communities of beings.

Within a free and independent West Papua, Demmak is a political party for all Melanesian People. It is a political party that speaks for the acknowledgement, respect, promotion and protection of the rights of all communities of beings and particularly the values, norms, principles and systems of the "primitive[3] societies.

Demmak now envisages and promotes the immediate need for establishing the Green Party for All Melanesia across Melanesia Archipelago.

What Demmak is NOT

It is always useful to clarify what Demmak is not, as the modern community is used to looking at organisations related to "tribal" peoples as backward, cannibalism, animism, tribal warfare, primitive, naked and the rests that negate the very identity and meaning of the tribal people ourselves.

  • Demmak is not "backward" or an organisation with potential tribal warfare and or conflicts

  • Demmak is not, a the meantime, a political organisation, but rather a mass organisation, therefore

  • Demmak is not in a position to now to determine the future of West Papua.

  • Demmak is not an armed organisation.

  • Demmak does not recognise corporate involvement in any levels of its life. Or Demmak does not speak for other than communities of beings.

 

[1] Lani is the biggest tribe of the Koteka Tribes and also the biggest tribe in New Guinea Island
[2] The initiator was working as the General Treasurer and Assistant Secretary of GIDI and Coordinator of Youth Commission of GIDI Synod
[3] By “Primitive” means the original, the native of all communities of beings.