Urban settler colonialism in West Papua: Hatib A. Kadir, Bustamin Wahid, ‘Frontier sands: settler colonialism, resource extraction, and indigenous dispossession in Sorong, West Papua’, Settler Colonial Studies, 2025 | settler colonial studies blog

Urban settler colonialism in West Papua: Hatib A. Kadir, Bustamin Wahid, ‘Frontier sands: settler colonialism, resource extraction, and indigenous dispossession in Sorong, West Papua’, Settler Colonial Studies, 2025

23May25

Abstract: This article asserts that the development of a West Papuan city’s infrastructure has occurred through an ongoing series of dispossession affecting Indigenous Papuans. These acts of dispossession manifest through various subtle, intimate, and familial channels. Consequently, those engaged in the construction of infrastructure encompass both low-wage settler workers seeking to salvage from a beleaguered capitalist system, and Indigenous Papuans who have suffered land losses. Through ongoing research in Sorong since 2021, we examine the pivotal role of sand quarries by focusing on four aspects. First, land ownership dispossession, specifically the Moi clan in Sorong city, experienced land dispossession. Second, Investigate the material aspects of sand and stone that become the basis for infrastructure establishment. Third, examining how settlers utilize kinship ties among Moi Indigenous Papuans to access land and sand resources. And Fourth depicting the Indigenous Papuans’ efforts to assert claims and control over sand quarries, forming a crucial part of strategies against the encroachment of Indonesian settler communities.

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