A growing network of Indigenous journalists across Java and Jambi is taking media representation into their own hands to protect their customary forests and report on intense land conflicts. Through a specialized training organized by Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (AMAN), an Alliance of Indigenous Peoples of Archipelago, dozens of community members with no prior writing experience have transformed into active reporters.
By Anonymous Journalism Fellow from Indonesia
Rifya Rusdi, one of the women reported in a criminalization case while protesting to defend the existence of Indigenous communities in Sagea and Kiya Villages, North Weda District, in Indonesia, confirmed that she, along with Sulastri Mahmud and Ua Lada Ridwan, has been singled out as the masterminds behind the protests rejecting nickel mining in Central Halmahera Regency.
By Anonymous Journalism Fellow from Indonesia
By Anonymous Journalism Fellow from Indonesia
By Rama Wijaya (Ma’la’bo’)
Before we began broadcasting about mining, we were already witnessing changes around us. The forests in our highlands were slowly being cleared. Trucks passed through village roads more frequently. Rivers that once ran clear began to turn cloudy after heavy rain. Farmers started questioning whether their soil would remain fertile. In Mamasa, environmental change is not an abstract issue. It is something we see, hear, and feel every day.
By Anonymous Journalism Fellow from Indonesia
On May 28 and 29, 2026, in commemoration of Indonesia’s Anti-Mining Day, a coalition of local residents and environmental activists staged silent demonstrations across several strategic locations in Weda Bay, North Maluku. The protesters called for an immediate halt to the rapid and aggressive expansion of the nickel industry in the region.
By Byron Tenesaca (Kañari Kichwa, CS Staff)
By Gerard Tiwow (Minahasa)
“Nowhere in Indonesia has the old culture so fast and so completely disappeared as in the Minahasa” – Hetty Palm, Ancient Art of Minahasa (1958)
By Hendro Karundeng, Kelung Contributor, Tontemboan Tribe, Minahasa Nation
In the misty hills of Kolongan, a group of young Minahasan men and women gathered with a shared purpose: to reclaim their ancestral stories and traditions through the power of writing and media. This marked the beginning of “Mapantik ne Kelung” (The Writing of the Shield). The name evokes a powerful image of a kelung (shield), a tool once used by ancient Minahasan warriors, now wielded in a new kind of battle—one fought not with steel, but with words and images.
By Ellen Moore, Reposted from Earthworks
On Obi Island in Indonesia, residents in Kawasi Village, the ancestral land of the Tobelo Galela Indigenous Peoples, are calling for action from Harita Nickel. The company operates a large nickel mining and processing operation on the island near the village.
By Ellen Moore, Earthworks
From June 10 to 13, 2025, heavy rainfall hit Obi Island in Indonesia. As a result, muddy floods submerged three villages in the Island where one of largest nickel mining companies in Indonesia, Harita Group, has been operating.
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.
