Indigenous Peoples consisting of Customary Law Societies and Traditional Peoples are a group of people who partially or fully have the same cultural identity, live for generations in certain geographical areas based on ancestral origin ties and/or common residence, have strong relationships with their customary territories and have a value system that determines economic, political, social, cultural, and legal institutions.

Promises Engraved in the Mother’s Womb

Indonesianness is not a building that stands up suddenly. It grows out of a long history of cultural interactions, values, and diversity of life practices. In that foundation, Indigenous Peoples play a central role as guardians of local values, living spaces, and knowledge that shape Indonesia’s character as a pluralistic nation. But ironically, they are often marginalized in the narrative of development and state policies.

Indonesianness is the recognition that Indonesia stands on the existence of Indigenous Peoples, their life values, and their customary territories, so the denial of the rights of Indigenous Peoples means the denial of the nation’s identity.

Indigenous Peoples have existed long before the concept of the Indonesian state was born. The customary law system, territorial governance, and harmonious relationship with nature are proof that they have a mature civilization. The values of mutual cooperation, deliberation, and social justice, which today are formulated as the values of Pancasila, have actually been practiced for a long time in the lives of Indigenous Peoples. In other words, Indigenous Peoples are not a “marginalized” or “remote” part of Indonesia, but a core part of the Indonesian identity itself.

Indonesia was not born out of a stretch of empty land. As Mr. Soepomo testified at the BPUPKI hearings, there have been more than 250 sovereign communities since the beginning. We are the villages in Java, Nagari in Minangkabau, to the Marga in South Sumatra – independent political units that have taken care of the universe before this Republic knew its own name. Indigenous peoples have existed long before Sayuti Melik’s fingers danced on the typewriter to knit proclamations and before the singular duality shook the air on Jalan Pegangsaan Timur 56.

Indigenous peoples are the heartbeat that beats in Article 18B paragraph (2) of the 1945 Constitution. An article that obliges the State to recognize and respect Indigenous Peoples. Our sovereignty is also validated by Article 28I paragraph (3) of the 1945 Constitution which affirms our cultural identity and rights as a traditional society. Historically and inherently, we are the subject of otohton law. We are not refugees seeking asylum from the State.

We are Indigenous Peoples – bringing together Indigenous Peoples and Traditional Peoples in one breath. We are bound by the same cultural identity, living for generations in the living space that we call indigenous territories. Our sovereignty is not born from gifts, but from the bonds of ancestral origins that are preserved beyond the age of the Republic. Our relationship with indigenous territories is a deep spiritual relationship. Land, water, and space are mirrors for value systems that independently determine economic, political, social, and legal institutions.

Silenced by the Law

However, in state practice, recognition of Indigenous Peoples is often symbolic. Agrarian conquest, the dispossession of indigenous territories, the criminalization of indigenous peoples, and the exploitation and development of extractive industries indicate that there is a gap between constitutional recognition and reality on the ground. The protection of the existence and rights of indigenous peoples is increasingly deteriorating with the increasing state interest in natural resources, which are nevertheless within Indigenous Peoples’ territories.

Article 18B paragraph (2) of the 1945 Constitution does mention the recognition of Indigenous Peoples, but its implementation still depends on various administrative and political requirements that are often difficult. With various laws and regulations, the state develops various policies, which in essence are to reduce, hinder, limit, and/or revoke the traditional rights and rights of origin of existing Indigenous Peoples.

Tangible evidence of the existence of indigenous peoples is contained in the records of the Customary Territories Registration Agency (BRWA) which until August 2025 recorded around 33.65 million hectares of customary territory in Indonesia. It is in the expanse of customary territory that indigenous women plant prayers in every seed and guard the spring as if to protect the pulse of their own children and grandchildren. There, too, the wisdom of traditional elders becomes the fairest judge for the universe. Indigenous peoples carry out customary justice not with a cold hammer, but with a moral scale inherited through oral speech and memory.

Customary law is our way of reknitting the broken peace, ensuring recovery for the sake of the integrity of the universe. In the midst of the climate crisis and environmental damage, the existence of Indigenous Peoples actually offers a way out. Traditional knowledge about food sovereignty, forest conservation, sea, and living areas has proven to be able to maintain ecological balance. Many customary territories remain sustainable precisely because they are protected through customary law and Indigenous peoples’ conservation systems. This confirms that the protection of Indigenous Peoples is not only a matter of human rights, but also a matter of the sustainability of Indonesia’s future.

True Indonesianness is an Indonesianness that recognizes and respects diversity as a strength, not an obstacle. Ignoring Indigenous Peoples means denying the nation’s own history and roots. On the contrary, strengthening the recognition and protection of Indigenous Peoples is a form of Indonesia’s consistency towards its identity as a country that stands on the principles of social justice and humanity.

But on the customary territories that indigenous peoples take care of, people come with maps of concessions or forest claims. Machines with their long iron hands scratch the earth while chainsaws roar in front of their chests. Our earth’s guardians languish behind bars just for farming, harvesting frankincense, picking honey, or picking wood in ancestral forests. The Alliance of Indigenous Peoples of the Archipelago (AMAN) noted that throughout 2025 there will be 135 cases of land grabbing that have lost 3.8 million hectares of living space in 109 communities. Our noble judiciary is considered non-existent, replaced by rules that only worship numbers. Indigenous peoples are called encroachers on their own land. They are considered strangers in their own homes.

Conditional, Layered and Sectoral

The promise of the constitution is now lost in the maze of terms in various policies. Research by the Indonesian HuMa Association reveals that the identity of indigenous peoples is divided into eight different faces. From Customary Law Communities, Local Communities, Traditional Communities, to Remote Indigenous Communities.

The confusion of this term is not accidental, but a semantic net that makes the sovereignty of indigenous peoples easy to break for the sake of sectoralism. This uncertainty is exacerbated by cold and expensive bureaucratic walls. Being sovereign on one’s own land now seems to be a luxury. It takes hundreds of millions of rupiah just to give birth to a single Regional Regulation to “recognize” the existence of indigenous peoples. Data from the Indonesian HuMa Association notes that until 2024, of the 461 regional legal products published, only a few truly dare to recognize indigenous peoples as sovereign legal subjects. The rest are just piles of paper that demand endless derivative rules.

As if that were not enough, a piece of local law products is meaningless in the eyes of the bureaucracy. Indigenous peoples are forced to go to one ministry and to another. At one table we plead for Customary Forests, at another we pursue Communal Land, and in another corner we beg for Coastal Management Areas. The state forces us to divide the intact customary territories into scattered administrative pieces.

Inviting Appointments in 2026

Therefore, the ratification and implementation of partisan policies—including comprehensive regulations on the protection of Indigenous Peoples—is an urgent agenda. The state is not sufficiently present as a regulator, but must be a protector. By placing Indigenous Peoples as legal subjects and equal citizens, Indonesia is not only safeguarding the rights of certain groups, but is taking care of its own Indonesia.

Indigenous Peoples are a mirror of the past as well as the key to Indonesia’s future. As long as they continue to be set aside, Indonesianness will always lose some of its meaning.

Disclaimer: This article was written in Indonesia and has been translated by Google Translate. In case of dispute or discrepancy, the original language of the article should prevail.