Indonesian Papuans

According to the official Indonesian law, Papuans more specifically indigenous Papuans or native Papuans are the common native-derived internationalized endonym in Indonesian English for the Native Eastern Indonesians of Papua-origin (as opposed to “New Guineans” term coined by the British colonizers). They are closely related to the Oceanians (and to some extent, the Australian Aboriginals), who natively inhabited the Eastern Indonesian provinces of Central Papua, Highland Papua, Southwest Papua, West Papua, South Papua, and Papua in Indonesia (which historically part of the larger Sahul palaeocontinent). They natively speak numerous languages belonging to Austronesian languages or Papuan languages, each with its distinctive and unique linguistic features that may only be found on the island.

The Papuans are one of the indigenous people of Indonesia that are protected under the national law by the government of Indonesia, to ensure their stability in economic and development.