IF Not Us . . .?
The Indigenous Youth Homecoming Movement In Indonesia
Most of our communities are still doing their traditional farming and they are safe. Their food stock is full for the next two years. But not in communities whose territories are used for mining—they don’t have any surplus. We are trying to ensure that the communities keep planting so they can also deliver support to the communities in crisis. We really want to implement the principle of reciprocity.
Youth organized community garden.
CS: What is the Indigenous Youth Homecoming Movement? MS: A few years back, Indigenous youth had a big gathering
M
ina Susana Setra (Dayak Pompakng from West Kalimantan) is an Indigenous, environmental, and land rights activist. She is currently the deputy secretary general of the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), an Indigenous organization based in Indonesia. AMAN spans 33 provinces with 2,271 member communities serving 19,000,000 people via 21 regional and 119 local chapters. Their mission is to ensure that Indigenous Peoples are politically sovereign, economically independent, and culturally dignified. Cultural Survival recently spoke to Setra.
Cultural Survival: Tell us about AMAN’s work on Indigenous food sovereignty. Mina Setra: AMAN has been working on Indigenous issues
since 1999, cross-checking issues on Indigenous rights. These days, the issue of food sovereignty is very, very important, especially during COVID-19. Everywhere now, governments are struggling to ensure food security for their nations. Food sovereignty is really important for Indigenous Peoples. We are trying to ensure the right to land for Indigenous people so they can manage their territories. There’s so much potential in Indigenous territories that have not been utilized or managed yet. It is really important for the communities to manage our territories, because if we don’t, then somebody else will. Governments or companies come to take away our land and exploit it for business. During this pandemic, we can see clearly that in these territories where the land is already gone there is more crisis and hunger compared to the Indigenous communities who still have land and forests that they can manage for farming. We decided that we are not going to wait for the government to come to support us. Communities have established their own response teams. We have 118 teams working with the communities making sure that every community starts with planting so that they have crops in 3 months to harvest.
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and they decided to start this movement, calling their colleagues from the cities to return back to their communities to help defend, protect, and manage their territories. They realized if everyone leaves the community to go to school in the cities and they don’t return back to their communities, who is going to manage their territories? Since the movement started, there is much progress. The first initiative was establishing Indigenous schools everywhere; now we have 55 Indigenous schools all over Indonesia. Many children attend the formal schools as well, but after school they have lessons from the elders. They learn traditional knowledge. They go to the forest with the elders, they practice traditional farming, learn about traditional medicines and dancing rituals, and learn their cultures. This is to ensure that the children are connected with their ancestors, with their elders, with their communities, ensuring they have strong ownership of their identity, especially now in modern times when the cell phone easily makes people forget everything. Many young people have lost their way because of that. The Indigenous schools help connect children with their communities and their territories.
Youth planting with elders in community gardens. All photos courtesy of AMAN.
