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| Papua | Jihads |
| Indonesia | Country Codes |
| Ford Foundation | HTML Template |
This is a quick explanation for News media or other interested persons about the status of the English language in West Papua. Like the whole of New Guinea (Papua), West Papua has several hundred traditional Papuan villages each with a few hundred to several thousand people and around three hundred seperate Papuan languages (not dialects) across West Papua and its islands alone.
The first Europeans to be peacefull enough to be acceptable to the local Papuan people where some of the missionaries of the nineteenth century; but it was not until the Dutch Government sent some peaceful trading missions and established towns like Hollandia in 1910 that any non-regional language became usefull in West Papua.
Of course after Independence of 1st Decemeber 1961 and the subsequent Indonesian invasion that month to prevent other nations from formally recognising the new nation; there has been a increasing need to learn Indonesia, an otherwise obscure Malay tongue.
The only English contact was with the eastern half of the mainland Island now known as the nation of Papua New Guinea (PNG); which had been claimed as a English interest and then transfered to Australia. A form of pigeon English has evolved across PNG.
So for any West Papuan the English language would at best be a forth or fifth language; may have been one of the few who risked an Indonesian University education during the past forty years of occupation; or may be from regional West Papua and have learnt some of the PNG pigeon English which could very slowly move across the border into West Papua. In any event, few people would have the oppertunity to practice the English language while Indonesia remains in occupation of the country.
