Amazing Grace! The Black Pearl English Academy Opens in Papua

The Black Pearl Network (BPN) grew out of an exposure trip to West Papua organised by the Uniting Church WA (UCWA) in 2008. Members of the All Saint’s Floreat Uniting Church Mission and Outreach team went along to see what was happening in this land so close to our northern borders. Over many years the BPN has grown, as interested members of the UCWA have joined us in the work we do in partnership with the Gereja Kristen Injili di Tanah Papua (GKI TP), the Evangelical Christian Church in the Land of Papua.
Story by Lee-Anne Burnett, first published in the August 2025 edition of Revive magazine.

Every year members of the BPN travel to what are now the six Papuan provinces of Indonesia multiple times to work with the Black Pearl Papua Foundation (BPPF) and GKI TP in partnership on many programmes relating mostly to English language education, health and clean water.

The most recent and arguably the most ambitious of these is the establishment of the Black Pearl English Academy (BPEA) in the central city of Nabire. To date, Papuan students wishing to access international scholarships to study overseas have had to travel to Java or Bali to complete the advanced English studies required. With the opening, later this month of the BPEA, there will now be an educational facility much closer to home and the savings to both the students and provincial governments will be significant.

As with all BPN projects, the costs of establishing the Academy have been shared with the local people through grants from the Papua Tengah government, donation of land by a local philanthropist and countless hours of donated labour by BPPF staff. Still, large sums were contributed by BPN thanks to our faithful supporters in Perth and Victoria. Without this support the Academy would have been just a great idea left on the drawing board.

The spin-off benefits for the local community of Nabire will be substantial too. The Academy is expected to attract people and investment to Nabire and it is hoped by the local government that the presence of the Academy will promote Papua Tengah province as a centre for Papuan advanced education. This accords with BPN’s aims to assist with community development as long as there is a partnership in which all parties contribute to the outcome.

In late June this year, four BPN members travelled to Papua Tengah for the gala opening of the BPEA. The ceremony was slated for Thursday 26 June at 10.00am. On the previous Monday, 23 June, our party arrived in Nabire to visit the Academy. The donated land was large and spacious with plenty of room for future expansion and just 50 metres from the seashore. The new white building shone in the sun. There weren’t actually any doors or windows installed at this point and upon entering the building, there was no sign of the ceramic tiles meant to conceal the concrete floor, and most rooms did not yet have a ceiling. The concrete floors were littered with building rubble. The opening ceremony was just three days away.

Our Papuan friends were not worried. Twenty teachers and administration staff had gathered in Nabire for the annual Black Pearl English Course (BPEC) Teachers’ Conference and we were involved in leading sessions with them on the Protection of Vulnerable People (based on the UCA Safe Church Program) and various sessions dealing with administration issues for their centres. We also delivered sexual and reproductive health education sessions in line with the Days for Girls program which we promote in the Papuan provinces through the BPEC centres.

By Wednesday (the day before the opening) there was a great deal of excited activity going on with all the teachers working on either building and cleaning up duties at the BPEA site or on the production of food in preparation for the ceremonial meal, scheduled to follow the opening ceremony. The family of Fred Bundah (CEO BPPF) were hosting many of the teachers and their kitchen was operating at full force until 4.00am Thursday morning.

By the time we arrived at the site at 9.00am, there had been a transformation inside the building. Floors were clean and swept, some furnishings were in place including book stands to store donated textbooks and a large wall banner featuring the BPEA logo. Beautifully draped tables had been set up in the teaching areas to accommodate lunch guests and the food smells were amazing! A worker was hard at work hanging the new front door in readiness for the ceremonial opening and others were racing to install the building’s front windows. Two of our teachers were unrecognisable in their work clothes as they laid bricks across the muddy ground to the shade pavilions erected for the ceremony and rows of chairs were awaiting the arrival of the many guests.

The governor of Papua Tengah Province, Mr Meki Nawipa had flown in from Makassar and the GKI TP moderator Rev Andrikus Mofu and Rev Joyce da Costa from the Department of Diaconia had flown from Jaypaura to share the celebration with us. Rev Brian Thorpe opened the proceedings with a message from UCWA Moderator Rev Dr Ian Tozer. Gathered supporters were entertained with English language songs from choirs made up of the children of the local BPEC classes and by the BPEC teachers and admin staff themselves. The climax of the celebration arrived with the cutting of the ribbon binding the front doors to the Academy. There was hardly a dry eye on the block.

The opening of this college is the realisation of a dream for so many and we hope it will open many doors for the Papuan people. As the governor said in closing his address, “This place, is amazing grace!”.

Story by Lee-Anne Burnett, first published in the August 2025 edition of Revive magazine.