Protecting Indigenous People of Papua from COVID-19
It is undeniable that indigenous Papuans (Masayarakat Adat) are one of the susceptible groups to the spread of the COVID-19. Their cultures and customs are a significant part of their daily life. Solidarity, visiting each other, and personal interaction among indigenous Papuans are, in the end, prone to the spread of COVID-19.
Papuans also have an ancestral custom by living in a group in a big house. Hence, physical or social distancing may become challenging to be implemented in their daily life.
Besides, the West Papua region (Papua and West Papua provinces) still experiences the condition of limited health facilities and infrastructure, including the lack of hospitals, medical personnel, and medical checkup facilities. The difficulty of the terrain also may increase public health-related risks, including COVID-19.
As of 18 May, 2020, around 17 thousand people have been confirmed to be infected by COVID-19 in Indonesia and around a thousand people died because of this novel virus.
The death rate due to COVID-19 in Indonesia has reached around 9 percent. Among all other provinces in Indonesia affected by COVID-19, Papua, and West Papua Provinces, a few of the regions with many indigenous peoples, rank 9th and 24th respectively. In Papua, 383 infected and six dead, and in West Papua 105 infected and one dead. Five recovered in West Papua, and 48 in Papua. All these data are per 18 May 2020.
After all, of course, one cannot underestimate this number because there are more than 300 indigenous tribes who live in Papua potential to be infected by COVID-19.
As written by MaCe Papua in Kumparan.com, Papuan Governor Lukas Enembe, alongside the Regional Leadership Coordination Forum (Forkompinda) and the local Papuan regents, have decided to close public transportation access. At the same time, goods and food expeditions remain open.
In the beginning, airports and ports in 29 regencies and cities were closed from 26 March to 23 April 2020. This action has been extended three times until the latest deadline on 6 June 2020. They also agreed to limit community activities from 06.00 to 14.00 WIT (Eastern Indonesia Time). Besides, the Papua mama-mama market is open only from 16.00 to 20.00 WIT.
“The meeting results with Forkompinda clearly stated that we should conduct social restrictions. It means that we contain the movement of local Papuans, especially from and to the customary areas of La Pago, Mee Pago, Animha, and Mamta,” Lukas said.
West Papuan Governor, Dominggus Mandacan, though, chose a different approach but has still been concerned with the spread of COVID-19. Dominggus does not impose restrictions on transportation access. He said that the West Papuan Regional Government policy must be in the same direction as the central government. According to Dominggus, closing access will disrupt the entry of goods from outside West Papua.
“We in West Papua Province both by sea and air are not in lockdown. As we can see that areas who have all their needs fulfilled do not lock themselves down,” said Dominggus.
In Indonesia, this policy difference is certainly a common thing because, indeed, each region has its own autonomy. The efforts of West Papua Province for not strictly implementing the handling of COVID-19 are certainly with reasons. One of them is they deem themselves ready and relatively have low mobility of goods and people.
However, of course, the limitation efforts undertaken by the Papua Provincial Government need to be appreciated in protecting indigenous peoples alongside their customs and cultures. If the closure of road access and other anticipatory measures are not executed, it is estimated that around 20 percent or 800 thousand indigenous people could be infected by COVID-19.
MaCe Papua also wrote that based on the information from Spokesman for COVID-19 handling in the Papua Region, Silwanus Sumule, the West Papua region certainly still lacks the resources to deal with COVID-19.
There are only seven lung specialist doctors in Papua with the facility of 60 ventilators, 200 isolation rooms in all hospitals, but only two isolation rooms that meet World Health Organization (WHO) standards.
Also, the safety of the indigenous Papuans who have a cultural habit living in groups with very close social cohesion becomes a concern to the local governments there, considering that COVID-19 can spread very fast. Thus, contact with outsiders is temporarily limited, and people are advised to be careful in all actions.
We can see that the habit of being isolated from outsiders is common to indigenous Papuans who live dependently on nature. Forests, rivers, lakes, seas, beaches, and open fields are supermarkets to fulfill their needs and support their food security.
Papua and West Papua have tried and mobilized their energy and resources totally in handling COVID-19. As written by the media, various formal and informal social elements of Papua and West Papua have struggled and worked hard to overcome the pandemic. (*)
