Focus on Arts and Ecology

Amy Bower and the Accessible Oceans project can turn data into sound.

By Allison Braden, March 30, 2024

Up on deck, black smoke was spewing from the stack of oceanographer Amy Bower’s research vessel, but she didn’t know that. She was locked in her stateroom below. The plume of smoke came from an engine in overdrive; the vessel was lurching at top speed across the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Yemen, with grenade-launching pirates in pursuit. The crew, Bower, and her team of scientists had drilled for this, but now it was actually happening. 

Before long, the pirates gave up the chase. The scientists, rattled, revised the mission. They continued to collect data while staying at least 50 miles from the coasts of Yemen and Somalia. That trip, in 2001, might have been Bower’s most dramatic, but for the longtime oceanographer, every research cruise is an adventure.

Bower studies large-scale ocean currents and smaller ocean features called eddies, often deploying drifting subsurface buoys to collect data. Her work lately has taken her to the North Atlantic, where the days stretch long in summers, but Bower’s research cruises have grown increasingly dark. 

Forty-one years ago, at 23, she was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative retinal disease. At the time, she was just a few years into her doctorate, and she was going blind. “It was devastating,” she says. “I didn’t know a single blind person, much less a blind scientist, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, can you do this?’”

Bower, now 64 and a senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, has proved that you can. Her recent research has focused on thermohaline currents in the far North Atlantic, an important part of the great ocean conveyor belt, which helps regulate the ocean’s—and the Earth’s—temperature. In 2018, Bower set out from Iceland on a research cruise to collect data east of Greenland. As chief scientist, she coordinates with the captain and oversees the data collection on board.

Soon after her diagnosis, an ophthalmologist suggested she abandon research and pursue science administration instead. “I decided to ignore that advice,” Bower says now, recalling the early prognosis.

Over the ensuing decades, she has been fortunate on two fronts. Her vision loss was gradual, which gave her time to strategize how to best do her job, and she found Gerald Friedman, an optometrist in Boston with an infectious can-do spirit. He introduced her to a video magnifying device that let her put printed material under a camera to magnify it in high contrast. As her vision loss progressed and magnified text was no longer enough, Bower learned to use screen readers, assistive software programs that render text and images in speech. 

This technology is vital. As a physical oceanographer, Bower primarily works on the computer. She doesn’t use, say, test tubes or microscopes, the way a chemist or biologist would. Screen readers don’t work well for graphic data plots, so she also depends on sighted assistants to describe complex charts and graphs.

Several years ago, Bower encountered a nascent technology that could upend the way vision-impaired people interact with statistics. Data sonification converts strings of numbers to sound. If you measure the temperature of a harbor over time, Bower explains, you can map your values to frequencies—for example, high values become high frequencies—and listen to how the temperature fluctuates. She imitates how it might sound, a rising and falling reminiscent of whale song. A colleague calls it Bower’s “data karaoke.”

While it’s great for representing values over time, it’s less well suited to other complex spatial visualizations that Bower may work with, such as topographical maps of the ocean floor. Sonification, as with screen readers, is not a catchall accessibility tool, but it holds enough value that Bower and a cross-disciplinary team of scientists are experimenting with how to harness the sound of data for public outreach. Bower is the principal investigator for Accessible Oceans, a National Science Foundation–funded pilot study that designs inclusive auditory displays to promote the understanding of ocean data in such places as museums and aquariums.

For one display, the team explored the daily vertical migration of zooplankton off the Oregon coast in nine audio tracks, and it takes about eight minutes to listen to the whole thing. (You can listen here.) “Let’s explore with our ears,” the narrator says. 

The project aims to promote data literacy for everyone—not just for those with sensory limitations. For the general public, scientific findings can seem to come down from on high, and data sonification offers another path toward understanding: The displays invite the public to look at the world a different way—by not looking at all.

Jessica Roberts, a coinvestigator on the Accessible Oceans project, was afraid she’d have to rein in the project’s oceanographers when they developed long scripts for the audio displays. Roberts, a Georgia Tech–based learning scientist who researches how the design of interactive technologies can facilitate learning, was unsure that potential museumgoers would want to sit and listen to long displays. She was surprised when the team tested the display prototypes with blind and low-vision students and adults, and, “as it turned out, people do want to sit there for [about] 10 minutes and listen,” she says. 

Bower also encourages young blind people to pursue science. She takes students from the Perkins School for the Blind on field trips to Vineyard Sound, off the coast of Massachusetts. They’re often thrilled that she uses a screen reader, just like they do.   

Those with vision impairment, she tells them, can approach science differently. Bower doesn’t get lost in charts with millions of data points because she can’t see them. “I tend to spend more time thinking and talking to people about the big picture,” she says. “What does it all mean?”

These days, Bower isn’t slinging instruments on research cruises much anymore. Instead, when she’s not busy with headings and weather forecasts, she uses her mobility cane to navigate the ship deck, up ladders and through passageways she knows by heart. In the open air, she revels in the awe-inspiring privilege of experiencing the world thousands of miles from shore. She likes to listen to the hiss of the ship slipping through the waves.

(Sources: The Magazine of Sierra Club)

Antibodies that target blood stem cells can rejuvenate immune responses in mice. 

By Heidi Ledford, March 27, 2024

Old mice developed more youthful immune systems after scientists reduced aberrant stem cells in the aged animals1. The technique strengthened the old rodents’ responses to viral infection and lowered signs of inflammation.

The approach, published on 27 March in Nature, treats older mice with antibodies to diminish a population of stem cells that give rise to a variety of other cell types, including those that contribute to inflammation. Excess inflammation can wreak havoc in the body, and these pro-inflammatory stem cells become dominant as mice and humans age.

It will be years before the approach can be tested in people, but many aspects of the stem-cell biology that underlies immune-cell production are similar in mice and humans. “It’s a really important first step,” says Robert Signer, a stem-cell biologist at the University of California, San Diego, who was not involved in the research. “I’m excited to see where they take this work next.”

Skewed immune system

For decades, researchers in Irv Weissman’s group at Stanford University in California have painstakingly tracked the fate of blood stem cells. These replenish the body’s stores of red blood cells (which carry oxygen from the lungs to all parts of the body) and white blood cells (which are key components of the immune system).

In 2005, Weissman and his colleagues found that populations of blood stem cells shift as mice age2. In young mice, there is a balance between two types of blood stem cell, each of which feeds into a different arm of the immune system. The ‘adaptive’ arm produces antibodies and T cells targeted to specific pathogens; the ‘innate’ arm produces broadbrush responses, such as inflammation, to infection.

In older mice, however, this balance becomes skewed towards the pro-inflammatory innate immune cells. Similar changes have been reported in the blood stem cells of older humans, and researchers speculate that this could lead to a diminished ability to mount new antibody and T-cell responses. That might explain why older people are more prone to serious infections from pathogens such as influenza viruses and SARS-CoV-2, and why they have weaker responses to vaccination than younger people do.

Restoring the balance

If that were the case, then restoring balance to the populations of blood stem cells could also rejuvenate the immune system. The team tested this by generating antibodies that bind to the blood stem cells that predominantly generate innate immune cells. They then infused these antibodies into older mice, hoping that the immune system would destroy the stem cells bound by the antibodies.

The antibody treatment rejuvenated the immune systems of the treated mice. They had a stronger reaction to vaccination, and were better able to fend off viral infection, than older mice that had not received the treatment. The treated mice also produced lower levels of proteins associated with inflammation than did old, untreated mice.

This is an important demonstration that the different populations of blood stem cells influence how the immune system ages, says Signer.

But it’s also possible that the antibody treatment did more than just affect the dominant blood stem cell population, says Enca Montecino-Rodriguez, who studies the development of white blood cells at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. The treatment might also affect the environment in which the blood stem cells live. Or it could clear other aged cells from the body, or trigger immune responses that affect how the mice respond to vaccines and viruses, she says.

Weissman says that his team is working on a similar approach to rebalance aged human blood stem cells. But even assuming ample funding and no unexpected setbacks, it will be at least three to five years before they can begin testing it in people, he says.

In the meantime, his team will continue to study mice to learn more about other effects of the antibody therapy, such as whether it affects the rates of cancer or inflammatory diseases. “The old versus the young blood-forming system makes a big deal of difference,” says Weissman. “It’s not just a difference in the bone marrow. It’s a difference all over the body.”

References

(Sources: Nature)

In this article I wish to narrate in terms of their approaches to their neighbours the contrasts between two countries – Israel and Singapore and argue that while one, while Israel chose hostility, cruelty and occupation as its strategy to exist, Singapore, chose peaceful engagements with its giant neighbours as its path to peace, security and prosperity.

Israel’s “Road to Hell”

Since its establishment in 1948, Israel, a colonial construction has consistently pursued hostility towards its neighbours and occupation of the land of its immediate neighbour, Palestine as its strategy to secure itself as a state in the Middle East.

Since the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, that resulted in deaths of 1500 Israelis and abduction of 250 Israeli hostages, Israel went on a revenge mission that has surpassed all human imagination of cruelty and destruction.

Indeed, the world has been watching with horror the last five months the genocide of Israel against the Palestinians that have killed and maimed thousands till now more that 35000 that include old men, women, and children and counting. Despite visible outcry internationally, the marauding Israeli Defence Forces, under orders of equally inhuman Netanyahu government and with the active support of morally depraved allies, the United States, UK, Germany, France and a few others Israel continues with its killing mission, undeterred.

The Gaza Strip itself has been bombed mercilessly and turned into a pile of rubbles with civic amenities such as water, electricity, gas, schools, hospitals, and infrastructures razed to the ground.

Of late, the Israelis have started to use starvation and total ban on food supply to the beleaguered and foodless people of Gaza as yet another cruel arsenal in their genocidal mission, to punish the Gazans.

The carnage is showing no signs of abatement even though the ICJ has issued a clear ruling, after hearing long and arduous legal arguments from both, Israel, defending its culpability on one hand and South Africa, bringing before the world’s highest court of justice Israel’s blood lust  of annihilation of an entire nation, the Palestinians, on the other. Indeed, South argued with evidence That “… there was enough evidence of a genocidal intent by Israel on the Gaza Strip and it should protect the Palestinians from the risk of genocide by ensuring sufficient assistance and enabling basic services”.

As is its wont Israel rubbished the ICJ ruling and continued with its killing spree with the sole objective of exterminating the Palestinian population and forcing them out of Gaza. All of these are happening in broad daylight under the very watchful eyes and direct support of the  so-called human rights champions, who continue to supply arms to Israel’s killing mission and at the same time, relentlessly lecture the world to follow international rules. To the West, the Palestinians didn’t count as human beings, and they were fair games for hunting down.

With more than 35000 Palestinians dead and counting and a whole city razed to the ground and more than a million made uprooted from their homes, can Israel claim that it is more secure than before and on a path of stability and prosperity? The answer is anything but clear.

Singapore’s Peaceful Engagement

Now I want to bring into perspective the Singapore story. Singapore, like Israel, is also a hybrid country, populated by mostly Chinese migrants, that came into being in 1965 due to certain political anomalies of the time between Singapore and the Malay Federation.  The separation was neither smooth nor without bloodletting. But soon sanity returned to the leadership of the two countries who worked hard to control the situation. Since then the two countries never got entangled in any armed conflict, though there have been considerable social, political, security, and economic tensions between them. Having lived in Singapore for a little over four years I have observed how Singapore built    a relationship of trust, understanding, empathy, and mutual respect with its neighbouring countries regardless of their religious, social, political, and economic matrix through constant dialogue and regular interactions to settle any disputes. The great political thinker and strategist of our time Mr. Lee Quan Yew, who fathered the birth of Singapore and single-handedly nurtured its growth and prosperity to transform it from a sleepy regional port to the level of one of  the most modern, prosperous, and richest countries in the world within a short span of 30 years, strictly followed two sacrosanct and ironclad state policies. He was conscious of Singapore’s complex geographical reality, being surrounded by big Muslim nations, though not outright inimical but with mixed feelings. So, as Singapore was becoming rich, being aware that the new wealth status of the country was likely to breed jealousy among its neighbours , he consciously constructed  a policy of “rich thy neighbours ”- meaning,  as you grow also pull your neighbour along , averting any potential misstep. Second, he also concurrently  built the Singapore armed forces into a regional formidable force, by implementing an universal compulsory national conscription strategy and introducing a large swath of the latest arms and weapons including modernisation of air and naval power.  The philosophy behind such an ingenious move was aimed at creating a strong  deterrent for  the  potential invader – while it may not be eventually sustainable for the country to avert an invasion; it would be so costly for the invader that they would  lose all incentives for such an adventurism. The outcome of these proactive policies have engendered a conducive condition in the region for creating common good for all.

Singapore’s policy of peaceful and equitable engagement policy that was applied both within and across that the country has now emerged as one of the most stable, peaceful and inclusive nation in the world and its policy of inclusiveness has gone so far that in 2025 it elected as its President – a constitutional head – a woman who happens to be a Hijabi Muslim as well.

Whither Israel?

Time for Israel and more importantly its allies, especially the US to pause and ponder. They must acknowledge that Israel’s policy of intimidation, occupation, and murder of its neighbours to secure itself as a stable, secure, and prosperous nation has not worked. According to some, the murderous actions of Netanyahu has weakened the “political and moral fabric” of Israel.

Indeed, from the ICJ ruling, to persistent UN resolutions as well as worldwide condemnations of Israel’s genocide in Palestine has made it the most hated nation on earth and its allies, especially the US, the most despised.

The West’s, especially the US’ cowardly obsession or pitiable kowtowing to Israel emanates from two indivisible  factors – political financing by the AIPAC, a front for the Zionists, from the president down to a congressman, regardless of the party they belong, and an unfounded and imaginary strategic theory  that Israel serves as a democratic bastion and vital security partner of the US in the vast desert lands of despotic and barbarian Arab nations. Though the available evidence suggests the ground reality is quite opposite. It’s amazing to see how this small population of Jews has enslaved the entire American and major European governments, corporate world, media, and financial institutions including civil and academic societies, to comply with their agendas. Of course, there are a few sane and pragmatic voices, who have miserably failed to sway their nations to see the truth.

For decades Israel has used its holocaust card to cover all their crimes against humanity and violation of the international rules. It’s the only country that has ignored most of the UNSC resolutions- 27 in total.

I have always been bothered by a pertinent question, which is fraught with the risk that it might be construed as antisemitic or heretical by the Jews which is that we all know that the Jews have lived in Germany for centuries, and made great contributions to the economy, science, medicine, and other vital social sectors not only in Germany but to the greater world. Then, why were they hated so much by most of the Europeans, which Hitler took to the extreme which resulted in one of most heinous crimes on earth, the holocaust? What possessed Hitler, who himself becoming and quite rightly so, the most hated man on earth?

Isn’t it Israel doing the same thing to the Palestinians? Why do they hate the Palestinians so much?  

I dare to make an observation, if  a survey is taken in the Muslim world, you will find that anti-Jewish sentiments are less prevalent in those countries than in Europe and America. The Muslim rage emanates not from their inherent hatred against the Jews per se and this because and this is from the religious point of view which is that the prophet of the Jews, Moses (Peace be Upon Him) is also the prophet of the Muslims who has been mentioned in the Quran numerous times as one of Allah’s favourite prophets. It is Israel’s unremitting cruelties and injustices against the Palestinians that by association are also brewing resentments against the Jews which is most unfortunate and uncalled for. In other words, no other but Israel has caught itself in the quagmire of a sense of insecurity, rage, aggression, and furthering insecurity.

The Way Forward: Can Israel Learn from Singapore?

If Israel thinks that more murders in Palestine and more destruction of Gaza would deliver peace and stability in Israel, then they are dead wrong. Israel must take lessons from Singapore, a tiny nation which has since emerged as world’s richest and the most peaceful and stable nation. The secret to Singapore’s rise is its policy of peaceful engagement with neighbours and beyond.

 The problem with Israel is that as a colonial construct, Israel started to act like a colonial invader – they made intimidation, eviction, and uprooting the Palestinians and confiscating their ancestral lands their strategies to establish themselves as a nation. They came not as friends but as colonisers. 

Time has come for Israel to realise that it can’t pursue an aggressive policy against its neighbours for eternity. If indeed, the Israelis are true believe in their holy book, Torah, they should know the tyrants like Nimrud’s and Pharaohs, the worst of worst perpetrators of cruelties and injustices who saw themselves as Invincibles couldn’t save themselves from the wrath of the almighty.

The day of reckoning for Israel will surely come, if not in 10 years, maybe in 50 years or 100 years but it will come. They need to reflect what made their ancestry the stateless people for millennia.

I hope the present political dispensation of Israel will not bequeath their posterity with such a cursed future, being a prisoner of their ego and arrogance.

It’s never too late to start a new page for the next generations for the Israelis as well as for the Palestinians – explore the Singapore model and learn the way to live in mutual peace with neighbours and march to prosperity, together. This will make Israelis and the Palestinians live happily as neighbours and the world a better place.

Ashraf ud Doula is a Bangladeshi is a freedom fighter, former Secretary, and Ambassador of the Government of Bangladesh

(Sources: CounterCurrents)

 This week’s big environmental story, March 22-28

Solar arrays have been illegally installed in Hubei province on farmland important to China’s food security, CCTV (China Central Television) has reported.
 
The land is designated as “basic farmland”, meaning it is important for food security, and “shall not be occupied for other uses in the long term,” according to regulations on its protection.
 
Anlu, a prefecture-level city in Hubei, is renowned for its rice production. However, since 2021 some of its basic farmland has been taken over by solar panels, covering hundreds of hectares, CCTV found.
 
A typical case occurred in Muzi, a township in Anlu. Local farmers told CCTV they were pressured by the village committee to lease their land to a solar company. They reluctantly did so, receiving an annual rent of only CNY 500 (USD 69) per mu (667 square metres). 
 
Local rice fields normally yield 700-750 kg per mu per year, one farmer said. Last year, the government’s guaranteed minimum rice price was around CNY 2.6 per kg. So the farmer’s income would have been at least CNY 1,820 per mu, over three times the rent.
 
The contract between the farmers and the company is only legal if the site is not classified as basic farmland. Although a company staff member and a local government official told CCTV it is not, farmers showed their land contracts clearly showing it is.
 
Since CCTV’s exposure of the illegal occupation, the local government has been investigating the problem, Chengdu Economic Daily reported.

(Sources: China Dialogue)

The aquarium trade devastated wild populations. Conservation and restoration is now on the agenda, but management and data gaps remain. 

By Ari Syamsudin, March 25, 2024

The people of Bone Baru village in Indonesia have historically been farmers, but global demand for a small “ornamental” fish pushed them to go to sea.

In the 1990s, the Banggai cardinalfish became a must-have for aquariums in Indonesia and around the world, coveted for its pretty white spots over stripes of white, black and silver.

Demand grew for the fish, originally found only in some of the waters around the Banggai Islands of Central Sulawesi province where it is known as Capungan Banggai.

Saleh B. Lalu, who lives in Bone Baru, tells China Dialogue Ocean that local people took notice of the price traders were willing to pay.

“Compared to fish for consumption, the price for Banggai cardinalfish is high,” he says.

People used to working primarily as clove and coconut planters began catching cardinalfish to boost their income. Requests for the fish began to arrive daily and residents would catch extra to allow for deaths in transit and animals rejected by buyers. Increasing demand drove increasingly extreme methods: Saleh says villagers started to use bombs, and not just swimming masks and nets, to stun and catch the fish.

Things got so bad that the fish was listed as endangered in 2007, with the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) saying it believed 900,000 were being caught every year for the aquarium trade. Protection measures were brought in and wild catching plummeted. But fishing for aquariums has not disappeared in the region, and the fish is still listed as endangered by the IUCN.

Moving cardinalfish to new waters

Samliok Ndobe, a senior lecturer at the Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Faculty of Tadulako University in Central Sulawesi, has been studying the aquarium trade around the Banggai Islands.

He says there has been no fishing for Banggai cardinalfish in their natural habitat in recent years.

But in a paper published earlier this year, he estimates that catching for the aquarium trade still generated nearly a fifth of the annual income of fishers in the Banggai archipelago. Targeted species include blue tang and yellow goby, which are exported around the world, bringing vital income to local people.

Samliok says that fishing for the Banggai cardinalfish still occurs in Indonesia but has shifted from its natural habitat to areas where it has been introduced by humans. This includes Manado of North Sulawesi, Kendari of Southeast Sulawesi, Palu of Central Sulawesi, Banyuwangi of East Java, and Bali. Here, fish that failed export screening have been released to form what the government calls “export delivery sites”.

“The location is around the harbours, where they shipped fish for export,” says Samliok.

He is concerned that the Banggai cardinalfish there may breed with other species, diluting their genetic uniqueness. “There will be [species] mixed and that is our concern.”

Continuing to catch the cardinalfish

While the new populations bring problems, they also provide new opportunities.

Catching of the Banggai cardinalfish has shifted to these new populations, which are harvested based on recommendations of the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN).

Sarminto Hadi is coordinator of area and fish species management at Indonesia’s fisheries ministry. Sarminto told China Dialogue Ocean that BRIN usually publishes the recommendations at the end of each year, before distributing them to permit holders the following year. “The quota will be done based on the population survey data and quota permit proposals from business.”

In 2024, Sarminto says BRIN decided a total of 38,000 Banggai cardinalfish could be caught: 13,000 from Bali, 2,000 from East Java, 10,000 from Central Sulawesi, 10,000 from Southeast Sulawesi, and 3,000 from North Sulawesi.

Erwin Dwiyana, director of marketing at the fisheries ministry, says Banggai cardinalfish is a protected species under ministerial decree, meaning catches are limited to certain areas and certain times. Where they occur naturally around the Banggai Islands, they can only be fished outside of their peak spawning period of February-March and October-November.

Concerns about the trade have not disappeared and some conservation groups want it to be banned.

Regulation lacking, data too

According to Indonesia’s statistics agency, what are known as “ornamental fish” – those sold to be displayed in aquariums rather than eaten – continue to be a growth area. Exports grew from US$36.43 million in 2022 to US$39.06m in 2023, with 30% of the total going to China, 12% to the EU and 12% to the United States, according to figures supplied by Erwin.

Despite the importance of the trade to local people and the potential environmental damage that comes with it, there are big questions over how well this activity is managed in Indonesia.

Gayatri Reksodihardjo, managing director of the LINI Foundation, which focuses on sustainable fisheries in Indonesia, says demand for marine ornamental fish is “still high”. There is no overarching management for catching them, although a governance framework is currently under development, she adds.

“Because of no management, it is difficult [to obtain] data and information on ornamental fish. So, this needs to be improved,” says Gayatri.

Businesses, associations, and the government all hold different and separate data on Banggai cardinalfish, for example, stymieing efforts to understand the trade, she adds.

Sarminto, of the fisheries ministry, also says that there is currently no management instrument for ornamental fish, so protection relies on customs and export controls.

Understanding a complicated global market

Indonesia is not unique in struggling with this trade.

Gordon Watson, a zoology professor at University of Portsmouth, UK, tells China Dialogue Ocean that the ornamental market is one of the most complicated issues in fisheries and conservation. A lack of data on what is being caught and where makes understanding the issue difficult, he adds.

Last year, Watson published what he believes is the first estimate of the global trade. It suggests 55 million organisms are sold every year for aquariums at a retail value of US$2.15 billion. Watson points out that this number is equivalent to the trade in some major food fish such as tuna.

The Coral Triangle – a region encompassing Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, and Timor Leste – is a key part of this. It covers more than 6.5 million square kilometres and is home to more than 600 reef-building coral species (75% of all such species globally) and 3,000 coral fish species (40% of the global total), according to NOAA.

Watson believes the ornamental fish trade can support livelihoods but good management and better data are needed to ensure it is sustainable. If this can happen, fish trade for aquariums could prove an effective way to incentivise protecting the world’s increasingly threatened coral reefs.

Around the Banggai Islands, trade in aquarium fish continues, but catching the Banggai cardinalfish for export has ceased, China Dialogue Ocean has been told. In Bone Baru village, Saleh says the locals are again focusing on cultivating cloves and coconuts for now.

Ari Syamsudin

With Prabowo winning the election, now is the time to enshrine Indigenous rights, write Michelin Sallata and Roberto Duma Buladja. 

By Michelin Sallata, Roberto Duma Buladja, March 27, 2024

On 14 February, shortly after Prabowo Subianto and his running mate emerged as the presumed winners of Indonesia’s presidential election, Prabowo told a crowd in Jakarta that “this victory should be a victory for all Indonesians.” 

That proclamation may ring hollow for the country’s Indigenous peoples. Prabowo’s new government appears set to continue expanding Indonesia’s domestic resource-processing capabilities. This signals the continued, unjust plunder of Indigenous territory.

The government of the incumbent president, Joko Widodo, has been indecisive, and seemingly toying, with taking care of Indigenous communities. That their protection remains a normative and romantic discourse is apparent in government policy that does not protect them.

Numerous food security policies have not adequately considered Indigenous territories or sovereignty. Take for example the “food estate programme”, announced in 2020, to develop vast food plantations across Indonesia. Implementation of the programme in Gunung Mas Regency, Central Kalimantan province, failed to consult local knowledge. The disastrous results not only fell far short of achieving Indonesian food sovereignty, but also ignored the historical and philosophical value that Kalimantan people place upon Gunung Mas.

Indigenous voices vs political agendas

According to data from Indonesia’s Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago, as of January 2024, the country is home to 2,565 Indigenous communities, representing 22 million people. These communities are spread widely throughout the country, so it can be argued that the basis and characteristics of Indonesian society are its Indigenous peoples. However, the misalignment of political policies with the protection of Indigenous peoples does not reflect this situation.

The major problems encountered by these communities are deforestation, agricultural crises, marginalisation and discrimination, and the usurpation of customary rights. These problems often coincide with massive extraction operations in indigenous forests by giant corporations.

Another issue is electoral participation: identification cards must be presented at polling stations, but Indigenous communities have faced difficulties in obtaining these.

The romanticisation of Indigenous peoples is a typical component of an Indonesian political campaign, with elites acknowledging related issues and making pledges. However, this is usually nothing more than a tactic for garnering electoral support.

For example, Widodo made six pledges regarding Indigenous rights during his 2014 election campaign. These were incorporated into his Nawacita programme, which would ratify Indonesia’s Indigenous Peoples Bill (RUU Masyarakat Adat) and create an independent task force for Indigenous communities, among other commitments. The Nawacita programme’s goals are yet to be realised.

Prabowo, a former defence minister, and his running mate, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, Joko Widodo’s son, did not reveal many concrete plans to bolster Indigenous rights during their election campaign, which calls their commitment to these issues into question.

The Prabowo–Gibran campaign championed ongoing investments in mining to capitalise on the energy transition. Indigenous communities are typically cast aside when these mega projects encroach on their territories.

For example, nickel mining in Halmahera, on the island of North Maluku, has led to the marginalisation and criminalisation of Indonesia’s isolated O’Hongana Manyawa (“the people of the forest”). While the tribe attempts to defend ancestral territories on Halmahera Island from the area’s biggest mining company, Weda Bay Nickel, deforestation and pollution has ensued.

No formal legal recognition

Currently, there is no legal umbrella that protects the existence of Indigenous peoples in Indonesia, and their status and recognition requires one. The Indigenous Peoples Bill was first proposed in 2009, but is yet to be ratified, despite Joko Widodo’s repeated promises to do so.

Once sworn in on 20 October, Prabowo and Gibran must therefore prioritise this bill. Obtaining consensus from Indigenous communities is crucial for the management of their lands, especially considering Gibran’s frequent promotion of downstream projects during the election campaign.

Indonesia’s Indigenous agenda is still far from attaining substantial progress. It should never again be used merely as a campaign tool to grab votes.

What’s next?

Despite the challenges, the current government has issued some policies pertaining to Indigenous inclusion. For example, the Ministry of Education and Culture has made efforts to incorporate Indigenous schools into its databases. And in 2023, the movement Indigenous Youth Front of the Archipelago (BPAN) received significant acknowledgement from the state when it won a Ministry of Youth and Sports award for its access-to-education advocacy.

Civil support for Indigenous communities continues to be taken seriously, evidenced by initiatives such as the Nusantara Fund, which claims to be “Indonesia’s first direct funding mechanism for Indigenous peoples and local communities”.

Indigenous peoples do not only demand recognition and protection of their individual rights, but also the enablement of land restoration and collective rights. These demands are reaffirmed by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Indeed, the grand idea of ​​protecting Indigenous peoples is a tenet of sustainable development, but a transactional economic system that prioritises capital accumulation undermines it.

As the excitement of Indonesia’s general election subsides, we need to witness a practical realisation of policies that intersect with Indigenous rights. After years of fighting and struggling, the government must ratify the Indigenous Peoples Bill.