This thesis provides an examination of how Papuan university students in eastern Indonesia react to Indonesian governance. Qualitative interviews investigate students' understandings of HIVIAIDS, an emerging threat in Papua around which the state makes moral claims and promotes development. Media discourse analysis reveals the way that "development" is used by the state for control, evaluation, regulation, and to make assertions about the quality and qualities of local people. Papuan students in Manado, Sulawesi are strongly influenced by development ideology. As they negotiate their way through state discourse, they show conformity and resistance to Indonesian development ideology, and by extension, governance.