Vembri Waluyas (Indonesia-Jayapura)
Vembri Waluyas is a freelance photographer and visual storyteller, born in Sumatra, grew up in Yogyakarta and since 2015 has decided to settle in Papua. Vembri is fascinated by the issues of workers, exploitation of natural resources, and the neglected development of the Papuan society.
One of his personal projects “Puzzle of Violence” portrayed how the local society is experiencing economic difficulties in 42 districts in Papua. In this project, he highlighted the complexity of the issue regarding discrimination against Papuan workers on their own land, natural exploitation by seizing land belonging to indigenous peoples, and various other social problems that the general Indonesian population may have never heard of. Vembri has participated in several exhibitions including: 6×6 Exhibition to travel in Iraq, Baghdad, Iraq (2020), 2020, The 12th Yangon Photo Festival, Myanmar (2020), Indonesian Culinary, Goethe Institut, Indonesia (2019).
“The Cost of Trans Papua” (2017-ongoing)
Print on Plywood
Variable size
Papua is the easternmost as well as the most problematic region in Indonesia. The government has always been employing the (infrastructure) developmental and security approaches to overcome the problems in Papua. But this is not the case. The construction of Trans-Papua lane as long as 4,330.07 km, which was expected to break through regional isolation and boost the local economy, actually resulted in a prolonged conflict, triggered deforestation on a massive scale, and marginalized the indigenous Papuan communities.
Through photography, Albertus Vembrianto explores these stories. Throughout his independent project, Vembri had to deal with the systematic efforts of the government and some Jakarta-based media that try to create the impression that the government had succeeded in ensuring the welfare of the indigenous Papuan communities and such endeavor did not involve any human rights violations in Papua. Some of the story projects are displayed as prints on processed wood, which is one of the main products of deforestation and expropriation of the indigenous people’s land on a giant scale for oil palm plantations.
