Koteka Wenda is an indigenous West Papuan activist, storyteller and cultural performer. She was born into a West Papuan refugee community on the Papua New Guinea border. Her family fled to the UK to escape political persecution.
As the new UK spokesperson for the Free West Papua campaign, she speaks passionately about her people’s fight for freedom from Indonesian colonial rule, the secret genocide and ecocide currently taking place, and the responsibility of petrol giants like BP & Shell.
Koteka is also a cultural performer and member of the Lani Singers, a West Papuan folk family band. Who dance and sing traditional ancestral songs in order to raise awareness of their peoples struggles.
This session is part of a day of talks and workshops exploring “Decolonial Perspectives on Climate Change” – what does it look and feel like when social injustice and systemic inequality is the starting place, when we think and talk about climate change?