As the president of the New Guinea Council, Jouwe was the highest ranking Papuan politician in the colony. After the colony was ceded to the United Nations Temporary Executive Authority in October 1962 and later to Indonesia six months later, Jouwe left New Guinea for the Netherlands, where he settled in the town of Delft. He vowed never to return to his native land if it were still occupied by Indonesia, but nevertheless resettled to West Papua in 2010 to die there.