Vien Sawor is the director of the Cooperating Organizations for West Papua and co-founder of the Papua House Knowledge Centre. She advocates for the right to self-determination of the Papuan people and works to increase knowledge and awareness about the history and current situation of West Papua.

Sawor was born during her parents’ flight from West Papua to Papua New Guinea. Her father, Zacharias Sawor, wrote the book I Am a Papuan in 1969. In it, he describes the situation in Western New Guinea after the transfer of administration in 1962: a testimony about human rights violations, oppression, and the Papuan struggle for recognition and independence. He later received political asylum in the Netherlands, where he continued to speak out against human rights violations in West Papua.

After completing her studies, during which she researched the Biak language—the mother tongue of her parents—Sawor dedicated herself to strengthening the wellbeing and amplifying the voices of Papuans in West Papua. For Read My World, she is contributing to I Am a Papuan, a theatrical performance followed by a discussion, based on her father’s book.