Black Orchid Stringband’s music is their freedom fight

While the Black Orchid Stringband’s music might not fit neatly into the punk genre, their West Papuan attitude definitely does.

The Black Orchid Stringband.

Plenty of bands claim to be punk, but are they sail to Australia in an outrigger canoe to claim asylum or sneak across the border into West Papua punk? Unlikely.

While the Black Orchid Stringband’s music might not fit neatly into the punk genre, their attitude definitely does. The members proudly call themselves freedom fighters for the West Papuan cause, and they’ve had to stare down numerous threats from Indonesian authorities who’d prefer the band stopped spreading its message.

Many indigenous West Papuans believe that their country has been illegally occupied by Indonesia since the early 1960s, a situation they say has been devastating to the local people and their languages and customs.

“I can’t even speak the languages that my mother and father spoke,” Black Orchid Stringband member Sixta Mambour says from her home in Melbourne.

The Black Orchid Stringband.

The music and the songs, Mambour says, act as history books and language lessons for generations of West Papuans forced to speak Indonesian at school.

“The role of music in West Papua is vital,” she says.

“It brings the community together. Every time you gather for a funeral or a celebration or a traditional event, it always involves music. It’s very important.

“And the music tells the stories of our ancestors for new generations, and it teaches them our mother tongue. This is how we can educate the young generation. It’s the only way we can connect with our own language and our own stories since we’ve been militarily occupied by Indonesia and not allowed to speak our own languages.”

Mambour says she thinks most Australians are aware of the situation in West Papua, but that many “choose to close their ears and eyes to what’s really happening”.

“That’s why we play this music,” she says. “We want to bring these stories out – the stories in these songs, and the stories of what’s happening in Australia’s near neighbour.”

Mambour says that the Black Orchid String Band’s activism regularly drew the ire of Indonesian authorities, although she was still able to visit West Papua provided she maintained a low profile while she was there. For her husband Ronny Kareni, however, things aren’t quite so simple.

“I’m just the great woman behind the great man,” she laughs.

“But yes, it is risky, and we have been threatened and warned about what we’re doing. But no matter what I still think I’m so lucky to live in Australia because compared to my friends who have to face the guns and the intimidation by the military, face-to-face. Here, I can express my views.

“If I want to go back I can because I still have my citizenship, but for my husband Ronny, he has to go through Papua New Guinea because he has a red mark next to his name. We call it the backdoor way.”

The nine-piece band, which features members who famously travelled to Australia in a traditional canoe in 2006 to claim asylum in Australia, uses ukulele, guitar, tifa drum and homemade stand-up bass to bring its message to the people.

“And of course our voices,” Mambour says. “The singing is very important.”

The Black Orchid Stringband

supported by Dhungala Baarka

Nexus Arts

May 3

Tickets: nexusarts.org.au