The Contestation of Indigeneity Discourses
among the Actors Engaged with Indigenous Peoples in Kalimantan,
Indonesia
The
existence
of
indigenous
peoples
in
Indonesia
is
firmly
acknowledged by the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia that
officially names them as Masyarakat Hukum Adat (MHA or customary law
communities). However, actors concerned and engaged with indigeneity
issues in Indonesia show different and even conflicting views in addressing
this acknowledgment. The competing notions between national and
international discourses on indigeneity in Indonesia regarding the existence of
the tribal communities is among the factors that contributed to this condition.
As a nation-state with thousands of local ethnic groups, to date, the
Indonesian government tend to refuse the concept of indigenous peoples
embraced by international agencies that refers mostly to Anglo-American
colonies and Scandinavian countries’ conception. Meanwhile, the grass root
movements of those who identify themselves as Aliansi Masyarakat Adat
Nusantara (AMAN or the Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance of the Archipelago),
that insist the state’s acknowledgment of the indigenous peoples’ existence,
emerged as a fast-growing counter discourse that should be taken into
account.
Such a difference of conception then developed as a contestation of
discourses in defining indigeneity issues in Indonesia. While the former tend
to put the MHA under the notion of ‘isolation’ and ‘remoteness’ that need to be
adjusted to the mainstream society, the later asserts the notion of
indigenousness that embraces entitlements of local sovereignty in terms of
politic, economic and socio-cultural life. This form of difference leads to not
only dynamics of the indigeneity issues in Indonesia, but also question of how
the existence of the indigeneous peoples should be addressed. Each of the
actors come up with their own conception and programs/ activities which are
not only unintegrated but also, sometimes, conflicting. On top of this, the
genuine voices of the local indigenous peoples are potentially burried under
this contestation.
It is interesting then to bring this issue to a local context of a region in
Indonesia. Kalimantan seems to be a perfect place to do this since there can
be found the convergence of three main components of this issue: community
groups identified as indigenous peoples, development and activism. While
facing the development challenges, the indigenous peoples living there should
deal with actors who come up with their different interests and missions.
Based on this condition, this inquiry will be mainly focused on
answering the question of ‘how does the contestation of indigeneity
discourses in Indonesia affects programs or activities of the actors engaged
with indigenous peoples in Kalimantan?’. Regarding this main concern, the
study will be addressing several issues: 1) who are the actors intensively
engaged with the indigenous peoples in Kalimantan?; 2) how does each of
the actors conceive the indigenous peoples and how does it affects their
programs/ activities?; 3) how does the indigenous peoples in Kalimantan
conceive themselves and how do they respond to the programs/ activities of
the actors engaged with them?; 4) how do the indigenous peoples in
Kalimantan and the actors enganged with them respond to the discourses of
indigeneity in Indonesia.
This inquiry is aimed firstly at exploring more deeply, regarding the
dominant national-international discourses, the local discourse of indigeneity
in Kalimantan. Secondly, this inquiry is directed to formulate a map of
activisms regarding indigeneity issues in Kalimantan. Thirdly, through this
inquiry, the roots of differences or conflicts among the actors are attempted to
be well-explained. Finally, this inqury expectedly would contribute to a
problem solving regarding indigeneity issues in Kalimantan.