Good morning. How are you Indigenous Women? Keep spirit!!
Indigenous Peoples, Rise up! Come together! Be Sovereign. Rise Up! Cohere! Be Independent! Rise Up! Unite! Be Dignified!!
Thank you.
Ladies and Gentlemen and Indigenous Women!
I am happy to be here. Therefore, I would like to welcome all of the audiences, loyal supporters, The National Commission of Women. We applaud the National Commission of Women who is always with us. The Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection, is also with us, has she come? Maybe she is on the way to come here. Our best friend, Mr. Lutfi, I would like to thank you for coming here. The North Luwu Regent, having helped the community in North Luwuk through decrees and regulations, has not come yet. We hope that he will come.
I also would like to greet our brothers from Misac, Jerimias and Lilian, our friends, supporters, Samdhana, Asia Foundation, Tebteba, And of course my brothers and sisters, especially the Indigenous Women and others. We give applause for them.
Assalamu’alaikum Wr. Wb. Best Wishes. Salam Nusantara.
When we talk about the struggle of the Indigenous Peoples to reclaim their rights, surely we also put the Indigenous Women in this topic because it is a part of the Indigenous Peoples. In the history of our journey, rarely is Indigenous Women discussed. Yesterday, I took twelve names of national heroes to be posted. I asked people which ones the Indigenous women are among these twelve national heroes. But no one answered.
I am sure that there are more heroes of Indigenous Women than the twelve national ones. But, it is not recorded. I think this also happened at AMA and in the Indigenous Peoples’ Movement.
Every time I go to the area, I often find the heroine or the main female fighters. The last time I attended the trial, Indigenous Peoples sued the company, I met a woman named Mrs. Fransisca. She also came to attend the trial. Then, I just found out that the young mother that I met was a heroine. As far as I know, most of fighters or heroes are men.
These people have not been able to be detected by any organizations. If the women like writing and being active to tell about themselves in the newspapers, the organizations will be able to know them. However, there are still many women, especially Indigenous ones keep struggling in silence.
When their customary territories were taken over by oil palm, they had no longer forests. Mrs. Fransisca and her friends had no choice that they should work in a company. They suffered so much and were tortured to receive their salaries monthly from the company that took away their land. Therefore, once again they continued to fight but they still worked for the company. They were given tens millions to move to Malaysia, on the other hand, they did not go because they would continue fighting by staying here with the Indigenous People until now and they had to testify against the company where they worked. Give them applause!
We can imagine the situation where we work and serve the people whom we know that they are our ‘colonizers’, but, we have no choice. Testify in court! This is the struggle of Indigenous Women. That is not recorded.
In my opinion, there are still many people like Mrs. Fransisca who feels that she struggles alone and she has no friends. Where do we find people like them? We do not replace her struggle but we just say that there are many people behind us, don’t be afraid, they are with us wherever we are, we pray each other, and we greet each other so we can stay the same! That is, I mentioned this name, Mrs. Fransisca, just a month ago. But I found many people like Ms. Fransica. But, we have not been able to reach what Mrs. Fransica struggles. That is our challenge.
Why do these Indigenous Women have to organize themselves? It has already been SAFE. That is why I think about it, AMAN actually has 40 women as the keepers and plus AMAN’s Women. Actually, I have been at AMAN’s house. There are 40s men and 60s women. In addition, AMAN’s women cause the number of women more than men.
What does it mean? It means that Indigenous Women are urgently needed, they are so important. They are much more important than men like me. They are so needed. Try to imagine! They do many things like taking care of their houses, children, husbands, the indigenous community, other organization. They do all of them at the same time! If they do not manage these things, the situation will be, even, worse.
Why? Look at the situation of Indigenous Peoples! We used to be banded by our customary territory. Indigenous people say that they should have are one male and one woman, so they cannot be separated. And, as we know, in indigenous peoples’ lives, that they used to take care themselves and to depend on indigenous territories. But, then, religions came. And our religion, ancestral religion, is considered not to be a religion.
The religions did not only bring new religions, but they also gave us new cultures. Islam, Hindu and Christian conveyed their concepts to their people. However, they did not apply their concepts into the state. Yet, they caused us be foreigners, being more Western than its’ native people, etc.
Indigenous women are the most suffering social group. They have more burdens in their families and communities. I am surprised why AMAN can be like this now. There are still a lot of things to be faced like facing the conspiracy of the Central Government, Regional Governments, Companies and Capital. How do Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous Women live in this conspiracy? That’s the challenge that we need to face.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In AMAN, we try to place the position of the Indigenous Women better than just being the first group in AMAN Congress I. Because the AMAN Council’s members are fifty women and fifty men, The AMAN Board as the highest decision maker in the organization must choose fifty percents male and fifty percents female. That is the standard regulation. Even, it was almost changed.
Although there are many Indigenous Women in the constitution, they have not been effective. Because I can see that women can behave like men. They forget. When they were in AMAN, they forgot that they represented Indigenous Women. So, AMAN women should be a pressure group for AMAN. AMAN will not be better if AMAN Women do not do something. So, before improving the country, reform AMAN, at the community level.
I imagine that Indigenous Women, in the AMAN’s Movement, will be very important. Why? The future of the Indigenous Peoples’ Movement is not in us. The future of the Indigenous Peoples’ Movement is actually in children. In the future, we will know about Misac’s experiences. They say that the future of Indigenous Peoples is not in our parents but in teenagers who are 12-15 years old. They are the people who will start arouse the Misac Indigenous People’s Movement.
The children that we mentioned were actually uprooted from Indigenous Peoples. We must return them to ‘adat’ and it cannot be done by Indigenous Women. Most of children spend their times more with their mothers than their fathers. If we want our children to wear traditional clothes, we should let their mothers handle them. The task of Indigenous Women is precisely to restore our culture, the people’s, and indigenous identity.
This is the Second Meeting of Indigenous Women. The first one was in Tobelo, 2012. But I remind you that the Indigenous Women’s Movement in AMAN has begun since 1999. Indigenous women fight in AMAN. Space for Indigenous Women in AMAN is not a gift but it is a fight, fight, fight in the congregations. Look at all our documents! I’m sure that Indigenous Women still have to continue it. If they do not do it, SAFE (AMAN) can be like an uncontrolled giant. It will be worse because there is no change.
SAFE has big influence slowly. One day, there will be recognition and legal protection for Indigenous Peoples in the future. But it will be dangerous if we really don’t turn back to be Indigenous Peoples, so we have customary rights in our hands but we are not indigenous people anymore. What will happen next? We will become invaders against ourselves.
In past time, our country was colonized by foreign nations, Europeans. Now, we are free, but the colonialism still exists. It can be seen through the law and political vision which is tantamount to the invaders’. We still colonize ourselves. Although we will obtain legal recognition of customary rights in the future, we have not gone back to be Indigenous Peoples. Then, we will colonize ourselves. Good forests and land will be sold. It means that there is a big risk which will be faced by indigenous people when legal recognition and protection have been obtained. But we also turn away from indigenous people. It makes us to be destroyed! It causes us to be destroyed!
If indigenous peoples do not want to be destroyed, then, we, Indigenous Women, must return this. Build and restore indigenous peoples! They do not only get back their rights but they also go back the indigenous peoples so that the right is in accordance with our dreams. What are our dreams? Be Indigenous Peoples who rise up, unite, and be sovereign. Rise Up. Unite. Be independent. Rise Up. Unite. Be dignified. Those are our dreams. The sense of the same fate will disappear. If we change this into having the same dreams, then we will not colonize ourselves. However, we still use this sense, having the same fate, we will damage ourselves. And Indigenous Women should prevent it. Indigenous women must be there.
How do Indigenous Women organize themselves in AMAN? Indigenous women are very close to the children, the families, the values, so, the Indigenous Women, in my opinion, are most likely to be able to make changes at the smallest level, in the family. Educate children to become indigenous children; return schools in the community to customary ones; back to be indigenous people.
We can learn from Misac people. They inspire us. They had been colonized for longer time, over 500 years old. We had seen the Dutch’s practice for three hundred years. It was actually colonialism in Java and East Sumatra. That’s why some say it’s better in the Dutch era than in Indonesia. But for people in Java, Indonesia becomes better because of being colonized more than three hundred years.
Concrete forms of colonialism outside Java was seen when the HPH was introduced in the early 1970s. The same HPH system had been already applied in Java around the 1800s. It becomes a Perhutani which is a plantation conflict in East Sumatra. The Movement of Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous Women are actually a continuation of the movement of the decolonization carried out by the nation’s founders. We can see it in the opening of the Constitution which explains that liberating and standing on the colonialism is a kind of subjection toward our own nation. That is our job.
This National Meeting is a kind of a reminder for us that the Indigenous Women’s Movement will be strategic from the whole Indigenous Peoples’ Movement because the most problems happen in women and children. If the husbands have affairs, the wives and children will be the ones who suffered. We can see, now, trafficking, trafficking of women. More and more Indigenous Women are trafficked across the country.
I have just got the information from Ms. Den Upa. For me, Toraja, the rich city, has also exported humans. The question is, “what’s wrong in Toraja?”
Incidentally, Ms. Den Upa told me “oh I met a Toraja person in Malaysia”
“Oh it means there are a lot of Toraja people”
It means that there are fundamental problems in our customary territory that we do not export the culture and the products anymore but we export humans. In my opinion, Indigenous Women must do something to fight against the trafficking in human trafficking and the spread of HIV AIDS.
Because of that, Mothers and all of you, we still have much work. Our task is tough. As a representative of AMAN, the main organization, I want to assure all of us that AMAN will continue supporting the decision of the National Meeting together. Therefore, we pray, we ask for mercy from the Almighty God and we also ask for blessing, assistance and enthusiasm from the ancestors. I opened the AMAN Women’s Second National Meeting which the theme is “The Consolidation and the Strengthening of the Indigenous Women’s Movement to actualize the Equitable and Equal Development”.
I, officially, open this National Meeting!
How are you Indigenous Women? Keep SPIRIT!!
Rise up Unity Indigenous Peoples! Be sovereign! Rise Up! Unite! Be Independent!. Rise Up! Unite! Be dignified!
Hotu !!Yey !!
Wass. Wr. Wb.
Leave a Reply