Swimming for West Papua
‘Swim for where?” This is the question I most often hear when I tell people about what we’ve done. Is it surprising? Not really. Does it bother me? Not in the slightest. On the contrary, starting a conversation about West Papua is the whole point.
Only one short month ago, on the 29th of August, I, along with five other team mates, swam in relay along the entire length of lake Geneva (Lac Léman to the locals) in Switzerland. Over 70 km in length and more than 300 m at its deepest point, Lake Geneva is - to quote Ben Barham, founder of the Lake Geneva Swimming Association (LGSA) and responsible for introducing open water swimming to Worth School - “a monster”.
After having arrived at Geneva the morning of the 28th August we headed straight to our accommodation on the other side of the city centre in order to settle in and focus on the giant task ahead of us. It was early afternoon when we got the call -
“We’ve spoken with the pilots, you're on for tomorrow. Meet them and the boat at the start point - 8:30am sharp.”
The news wasn't a surprise. The LGSA had kept us up to date throughout and yet, despite this, the mood changed. Suddenly it was real and there was no turning back. The team sprung into action and got busy shopping for last minute groceries, packing bags, double checking swim gear and re-packing bags. The plan was, get up at 5am, load up the van and get on the road with plenty of margin to meet the boat on the other side of the lake at Villeneuve. The last thing we wanted was to get caught in traffic and fret about being late. Tension was high enough as it was.
Our forward thinking paid off and we arrived, relaxed and ready, at the pontoon at Villeneuve in plenty of time, and were even rewarded with an incredible and colourful sunrise, the warm light peeking through the surrounding mountains and steadily slipping its way down the horizon and onto the lake.
The next part went like clockwork, taking us no time at all to load up the boat, motor over to the start point, run through the safety briefing and have our first swimmer jump into the water to head to the start beach. Swimming the length of Lake Geneva is a beautiful experience for many reasons, but the start beach is especially memorable, being tucked around the corner from the Château de Chillon - the stunning island castle dating as far back as the 11th century and immortalised in Lord Byron’s The Prisoner of Chillon. One immediately gains a sense of the history ingrained those stone walls, which imbues an air of gravitas to the whole occasion. The swim is no longer a stand alone event but already feels part of a tradition.
To add to the occasion our swim did not begin unnoticed, but was seen off by a crowd of West Papuans, singing traditional songs and sounding a large conch shell. The significance of our swim for them was hard to comprehend. My friend Joel first approached me towards the end of last year to explain to me his idea.
“We’re going to swim a petition across Lake Geneva and deliver it to the UN”
He went on to explain that during some time spent scuba diving in the region he had become aware of West Papua. The western half of the island of New Guinea, made up of the provinces of Papua and West Papua, is under Indonesian control. Formerly the Netherlands New Guinea, Papua was retained by the Dutch after Indonesian independence in 1945 but the province was annexed by Jakarta in 1963. Indonesia then formalised its control over West Papua in 1969 with the Act of Free Choice, regarded by many as the ‘Act of No Choice’, selecting a handful of West Papuans and forcing them to vote in favour of Indonesian annexation. Today there exists a Free Papua Movement, which has provoked significant military involvement from Indonesia. Reports of extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary detention, excessive force and mistreatment of peaceful protesters are commonplace. Unfortunately there is little independent scrutiny of the situation in West Papua, as human rights organisations and journalists are restricted from visiting.
The atrocities going on in the region, combined with a shocking lack of awareness of the situation, inspired Joel to want to do something. His idea was to write a petition asking the United Nations to allow the West Papuan people the right to an independently supervised vote for self governance. A petition with a million signatures on it. A petition which would be swum (symbolically) across the length of Lake Geneva, all 70 km of it, and delivered to the door of the United Nations. Joel casually asked if I would be up for being a member of the six-person relay team which would actually carry out the swim. Before thinking I said yes. Fast forward a year and here we were, on a boat in the middle of the lake with the swim well and truly underway.
As conditions on the lake go we could not have asked for a better day. The sun was shining, the water was like glass and in the sky a few clouds offered the odd patch of welcome shade. Days like these help to remind me of how lucky I am. They also belie just how much of a challenge this swim is. With the majority of our team being completely new to open water swimming we had our work cut out for us. Guaranteed at least five hours of swimming each (the average swim takes over 30 hours), it would be a test of mental and physical resilience as each person dived into the water to complete their next swim-leg, over and over again, all through the night and into the next morning. Luckily our team, both swimmers and non-swimmers, was hugely dynamic and supportive, singing songs and doing crazy dance moves. It sounds stupid but it’s undeniable the amount of energy it gave each of us when we thought we couldn’t continue.
If our departure from Chillon was special, the arrival at Bains-des-Paquîs was even more so. 28 hours 7 minutes and 48 seconds later Joel brought the swim home, and we were greeted by a mob of cheering voices and smiling faces. West Papuans in traditional grass skirts and traditional feathered headdresses were singing and dancing, while the local Swiss looked on in curiosity and amusement. Most people weren’t aware just what it meant for those West Papuans, as we six swimmers stepped out from the water onto the pebbled beach in Geneva. For those of us who knew their excitement was contagious. We laughed, we cried, we stood in silent amazement that we had finally arrived. We achieved what we had set out to do and in that moment, nothing else mattered.
Our work was finished, but the work of the Free West Papua Campaign was just beginning. Although our swim and petition was a separate initiative the campaign backed us all the way and played a vital role in helping to spread the word about our petition and gather support. As i am writing, the petition is being delivered to the UN with nearly two million signatures, including those of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Ralph Regenvanu, Revd Steve Chalke MBE, Peter Tatchell and Otennili Latu Langilangi (Captain of Tongan rugby) to name a few. We have smashed our target and can only hope that more and more people will add their voices in support of West Papua. Our swim has got the ball rolling - the rest is up to you.
To find out more about swimming and the petition visit the websites below (or find us on Facebook!)
