Daughters of Papua

Seven-year-old Leksi and two animals, the dog Pum and the pig Kwee, tell the story of three generations of women in Papua: Leksi, her mother Mace and her grandmother Mabel, of the Dani people. As a bright girl of eight, Mabel was taken to town by Dutch missionaries who said they would adopt her; she worked in their house and learned to read and write, but was never allowed to go to school. Back in her village she lived through a failed marriage, then a second husband who turned to drink and beat her after a foreign gold-mining company took their land. Now a respected, outspoken woman who despises the outsiders stripping Papua and the locals who serve them, Mabel wants Leksi to be educated so that no one can cheat her, while soldiers and police weigh on everyone around them.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

237 pages in the original

Genres

Family, Politics (assigned by AI)

Set in

Indonesia

First published

2009 by Gramedia Pustaka Utama

ISBN

9789792245677 (original)

9780983627395 (Dalang Publishing, United States)