Translator: MIrza Arif Reviewer: Reno Kanti Riananda
(Applause)
Climate change,
or climate crisis,
is not a natural disaster.
What we are experiencing now
is a consequence of human actions
that exploit our earth.
The crisis that is happening now to our environment,
our earth,
can still be restored
to their ideal condition.
But we can only do this if we stand as a big family,
all human beings work together.
I want to bring our memory back to the end of the last year, in December,
to Glasgow, England,
where a conference, the COP26, was being held.
Goverments from all over the world
met and agreed to what so called as “a way out”
to reduce a minimum of 1.5 degree of earth temperature.
The solution that they propose,
the most popular one, is carbon trading.
From Indigenous People side,
this is not a solution,
since it is still
How was it possible...
that the agreed solution...
didn’t even consider the role of Indigenous People from all over the world.
Currently,
80% of the biodiversity and culture
left on earth,
were all protected by Indigenous People.
What will happen when carbon trading materialized?
What will happen is:
corporates in Kalimantan, Sumatra, and all over the world
can continue polluting the earth
as long as they buy or give money
to other organization that plant trees,
or so called carbon project.
The reality on the field is
there are so much problem that Indigenous People faced.
Not only their territory get dispossessed,
but also the territories that will be restored for the sake of carbon itself
has contributed in depriving Indigenous People rights,
robbing their sacred lands.
Dayak people can’t farm on their own sacred land
because it has been taken for carbon projects.
Sumatran Rimba people as well.
Fake solution.
Two weeks ago, I visited Flores.
In Flores, there’s a place called Rendu Indigenous People.
I’ve met Mama Mince and other Mamas
who currently facing problems regarding Lambo Reservoir.
What happened to them was
the best place for Rendu Community, Rendu Sacred Territory,
a place where Mama Mince farms and lives,
location of the natural springs of the river and wells,
a herding field for cows and buffalos,
graveyard of the ancestors and a ritual holding place,
was threatened due to the construction of Lambo Reservoir.
If Lambo Reservoir get built,
then this best place
will be sunk underwater.
They will be extinct.
They’ll become homeless human being.
But, Rendu Indigenous community was well aware of the changing times.
Mama Mince, Mama Melda.
Parents of Mama Mince was well aware that we needed an alternative.
We needed to support the development,
we needed new energy, we needed water for our fields.
They weren’t rejecting developments.
So they proposed an alternatives.
Their offer was to give their land and territory in another location,
free of charge,
so that their best place, that keep them alive,
will not sink.
But, the offer from Mama Mince
was not accepted by the government.
I am Rukka Sombolinggi.
I am the Secretary of AMAN, Nusantara’s Indigenous People Alliance,
which has 2.500 communities
all over Nusantara from Sumatra to Papua.
AMAN consists
20 million people out of 70 million Indigenous People in this Country.
We live in a sacred territory,
a group of human beings with a same history.
We live to manage sacred territory harmoniously with nature.
We protect the forest
and the other pristine places left in this country.
We were known as Indigenous People in all over the world.
There are 370 million of us.
Most of us live here in Asia,
almost 70% of the world’s Indigenous People.
In Indonesia, we also contributed
in protecting the remaining 80%
of earth’s biodiversity.
However,
this time our earth is threatened.
Sacred lands are threatened. Indigenous People are threatened.
We are all threatened by climate change.
I encourage you all, my friends, my families,
to come together with Indigenous People, to protect our home, our mother nature.
Protect our self and our families.
Support Indigenous People
so there will be regulations for Indigenous People
that can regulate social infrastructure
that are decent enough
to keep Indigenous People live and prosper.
For our Mother Earth,
for our future.
Me, you, all of us,
together as a family.
I believe we can do it.
Support the legitimation of Indigenous People regulations.
If not us, who else?
If not now, then when?
Let’s do this together.
I’m Rukka Sombolinggi,
Secretary of AMAN, signing off.