Rabu, 30 April 2014
Customary Rights; Cross Country Boundaries - Case from Yeinan, Merauke
When more than 30 leaders of Yeinan tribe siting in the
seminary houses of Catholic Church in Merauke – Papua Provinces of Indonesia
and talked about their rights I was amazed to know that about 10 of them are
coming from Papua New Guinea the neighbor of Indonesia. Recognizing their
brotherhood, same vision in protects their rights and solidarity to solve their
society problems they have forget for their different of nationality and siting
in harmony using their traditional Yeinan language discussed, inputted,
clarified and verified the information of their tribe boundary.
Realizing the threat of Merauke Integrated Food and Energy
Estate (MIFEE) implementation to their ancestral land the community of Yeinan
in 2012 were called for customary boundary mapping. They considered that the
best way to shows their rights and make it recognized is by having a
territories right maps. Maps and recognition that be strengthening with strong consensus
on the community would become a strong pole for the Yeinan to fight against large
scale MIFEE program that have now plan to capturing almost 90% of their
customary land.
Responded to the community requested, a collaboration of
Catholic Church justice and Peace units in Merauke (SKP KAM) with Participatory
Mapping Networking (JKPP) and funding from Samdhana Institute since 2013 has
initiated the customary boundary mapping of Yeinan. The mapping was conducted
using large scale mapping approaches developed by the Native Land. Taking
almost a year of facilitation the 1st draft of Yeinan boundary maps
was released and showed the tribes boundary is crossing the country boundaries.
The 1st draft shows that Yeinan rights are about 630,000 and about
200,000 ha of which are parts of Papua New Guinea (PNG) while the rest are
Indonesia.
Overlay maps of Yeinan with Papua Province - Indonesia administrative boundary maps. Source: Draft 1 Yeinan Maps
Yeinan case has bring us a critical lesson of customary
rights are not recognizing the administrative boundary. Connection of culture
and livelihood of society are cross official arrangement of citizenship or ID
so understanding the clear culture and anthropological connection of people in
Papua is crucial to develop a proper and low conflict natural resources
management arrangement. When MIFEE program is expanded to the Yeinan ancestral
land there are not only Merauke – Indonesia people whose claim and fight to
protect their land but also their brother and sister from South Fly in Western PNG Province are joining them to claim for their rights in Indonesia.