Events

CHAIRPERSON

Assoc Prof Maribeth Erb, Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

“In struggles over land by communities, adat claims on land are the most promising, the most complex and the most frustrating.”
(Mariaty, NGO activist in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan)

Land governance and environmental management are pressing issues in today’s Indonesia. Especially in the remote and forested regions of Kalimantan, increasing resource extraction such as coal mining and the extension of oil palm plantations lead to rising conflicts over land. Marginalization and the violation of indigenous or customary (adat) laws during the New Order (1965-1998) in Indonesia were followed by a period of ethnic revitalization which opened the opportunity to assert claims on land and resources by indigenous people. In Kalimantan, Dayak peoples’ rights organizations establish adat land management schemes in order to secure the access and rights to land of Dayak people. However, representatives of Dayak organizations, Dayak adat leaders and villagers conceptualize adat land in various ways. We show that the high diversity of how Dayak people practice adat land is often not reflected in adat land management schemes. We argue that in these schemes, often hegemonic notions of land are enforced and adat laws are used as a political tool in order to pursue personal interests rather than secure villagers’ access to land. Drawing on case studies from Central Kalimantan and East Kalimantan, we describe how different actors negotiate between different approaches to adat land. We show dilemmas in their attempt to formalize adat laws and to fix the highly diverse and dynamic relation to land practiced by Dayak people. We argue that hegemonic approaches to land prevail and adat laws tend to be instrumentalized rather than enhance villagers’ rights.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Kristina Grossmann is Professor for Anthropology of Southeast Asia at the University of Bonn. Since 2017, she has led the participatory and transdisciplinary research project “FuturEN: Governance, Identities and Future along Categories of Differentiation. The Case of Coal Mining in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia”. Her main research interests are environmental transformations, dimensions of differentiation in ethnicity and gender, and civil society organizations in Southeast Asia. Her latest publications include the articles “‘We have been awake for years’: Conflicting ecologies in an indigenous land management scheme in Indonesia” published in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (2020) (in print) and “‘Dayak, Wake Up’ – Land, indigeneity, and conflicting ecologies in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia” published in Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde (2019).

Semiarto Aji Purwanto is Associate Professor at the Department of Anthropology, University of Indonesia. He holds a PhD in anthropology from the University of Indonesia and serves since 2017 as Program Coordinator for the Under Graduate Study. His research interests span over from development studies, environmental/forestry studies, agriculture, health & family, arts & culture, to ethnographic studies and the use of information/technology. His recent publications include: Purwanto (2018) “Back to the river. Changing livelihood strategies in Kapuas Hulu, West Kalimantan, Indonesia” published in Forests, Trees and Livelihoods, Vol. 27, 3, 141-157; Purwanto & Haryono (2019) “Dimensi Adat dan Dinamika Komunitas Dayak di Kalimantan Timur.”, in Antropologi Indonesia Vol. 40, No. 1, pp. 67-87; and Wibisono, H., & Purwanto (2020) “Affective technology and creative labour in Indonesia’s extractive industry.” International Journal of Management, Innovation & Entrepreneurial Research, 6(2), 55-63.

REGISTRATION

Registration is closed, and instructions on how to participate in this webinar has been sent out to registered attendees. Please write to aritm@nus.edu.sg if you would like to attend the webinar.