Abstract
West Papua faces an HIV/AIDS epidemic that is mainly affecting Papuan youth. Recent scholarship on HIV in Melanesia asks us to consider how HIV prevention and treatment agendas are produced, translated and enacted locally at the interface of international models, national capacities, and cultural and religious values. This seminar considers how these forces are intersecting in West Papua based on recent qualitative research projects conducted since 2011. In doing so it identifies ongoing challenges that relate to ethnic and cultural tensions, disconnections between service providers and clients, marginalization of indigenous voices in policy and program interventions, and the messy terrain of a patchwork HIV response being played out in various ways by donors, community organisations, and government agencies. It will highlight some activities being undertaken by indigenous-led community groups in response to these conditions, and also consider what an analysis of current conditions in West Papua contributes to conversations on HIV in Melanesia more broadly.
| Original language | English |
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| Place of Publication | Canberra, Australia. |
| Publication status | Published - 2014 |