The Threefold Logic of P apua‐Melanesia: C onstitution‐writing in the Margins of the Indonesian Nation‐ S tate

Clashes over the status of W est P apua and the political future of the territory proliferated markedly following the end of I ndonesia's New Order regime in 1998. Amid a wide variety of demands for justice and independence, and a series of demonstrations, mass gatherings and prayers, only a few Papuans mused on how P apua could become a state and what would constitute its nature as being distinctly P apuan and/or Melanesian. One exception is the work put into the C onstitution for W est P apua entitled B asic G uidelines, S tate of W est P apua , a document edited by D on A.L . F lassy, a bureaucrat, writer and thinker, with a preface by late Theys H . Eluay, then chairman of the P apuan C ouncil. In this article I analyse this C onstitution to show how a combination of C hristianity and local customs, and a mimicry of elements of Indonesian nation building and symbols of the Indonesian nation‐state are reshaped to oppose Indonesian nation‐building agendas. The C onstitution shows that when Papuans imagine an independent state, forms of vernacular legality play a central role. ‘The state’ has journeyed to P apua and encouraged faith in ‘the law,’ and B asic G uidelines is partly the effect of this growing vernacular legality. My analysis shows that it is essential to see how legal mobilisations and imaginations of the state articulate with other normative systems and practices – in particular C hristianity and custom ( adat ) – and how they mutually allow for and invite strategies.