The event was organised by members of West Papua Support Dunedin as part of an international movement of solidarity with the West Papuan people.
Flying or even owning the Morning Star, the flag of Independent West Papua, is illegal in the flag’s own country, and anyone who tries faces the prospect of imprisonment.
Speaker Jeremy Simons, of the Centre of Peace and Conflict Studies, told the gathering that 500,000 people had died in the half century since West Papua was taken over by Indonesia.
West Papua Support Dunedin highlighted the lack of human rights for the indigenous population, and that the territory’s environment was under increasing stress because of pollution and deforestation.
Mr Simons said a recent report had shown that the Indonesian Government had opened remote areas of West Papua to international investors in the palm oil trade, resulting in the loss of vast areas of forest.
"This situation is continuing and has an ecological impact that affects all of us," he said.
One reason to hope was that the Black Lives Matter movement had migrated to Indonesia and had sparked a Papuan Lives Matter one.
"Our journey with them continues, as they struggle for freedom."
