1999/09/01 by Chris Ballard
Social Sciences · #Asian Studies and History #Island Studies and Pacific Affairs #Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies
paper · doi:10.1080/00223349908572899
crossref issued 1999/09/01 · crossref published 1999/09/01 · crossref published-print 1999/09/01 · openalex publication_date 1999/09/01 · crossref created 2008/06/20 · crossref deposited 2025/01/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/25 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
A brief review of the dominant genres of history available for the territory of West New Guinea suggests that the lack of community consultation by successive political rulers has been matched by a broad disregard for indigenous voices in the writing of history. West New Guinea remains a blank on the geopolitical map, a casualty of the boundary between Asia and the Pacific imagined by former colonial powers. The evolution of a cartographic profile for West New Guinea is revealing of first Dutch and then Indonesian strategic interests. A parallel history of contest over the naming of West New Guinea's parts indicates a broad awareness of the relationship between power and knowledge, and suggests that West New Guinea history in the post‐Suharto era might again be open for radical revision.