Page 40 - Islands Business March 2022

Music Music

COBB SEEKS ‘FREEDOM’

By Rowena Singh where some Indonesian military had stormed in and burnt the
houses down and did some things to the women. So he lived
Chris Cobb’s song Freedom is inspired by two tragedies, the with that pain.
ongoing human rights abuses of the indigenous people of West “My paramilitary friend is from West Papua but living se-
Papua, and the sinking of the MV Rabaul Queen. cretly as a PNG citizen.
Freedom was released on December 10—Human “He was forced to be
Rights Day—last year and highlights West Papua’s on the PNG side and he
60 years of struggle and resistance to Indonesia’s found himself a job with
colonisation. the police constabulary
“Freedom started when I was sitting down with a where he does paramili-
paramilitary friend (who wishes to remain anony- tary activities,” Cobb told
mous) in a small town called Bulolo,” Cobb said. Islands Business.
“He told me about some stories that he had gone The soulful melody of
through in life when he was at the border. He is Freedom comes from
working for the PNG constabulary now. His mum is another tragedy.
from the other side and his dad is from this side “Freedom [is] originally
(both are West Papuans). He had seen is riding on the melody of a
some pretty horrific scenes song when I was in Rabaul, on
on the border the sinking of Rabaul Queen
around 2012,” says Cobb. “I
was working on the mill
and I suddenly heard all
my workers crying
and I thought oh
this sounds like
a big chant. I
walked over
to the other
shed and there
were a lot of
females that
worked in that
section and I
realised that
all the girls
were cry-
ing.”
The com-
munity was
shocked by the
sinking which
claimed more
than 140 lives.

40 Islands Business, March 2022