This study presentation examines the Indigenous Papuan struggle following Indonesia's state dispossessions. The Indigenous movement to repossess land has led to institutional and cultural fragmentation. Land repossession has fueled inter-clan litigation, state-court battles, and "jual di atas jual" (selling on top of selling)—a pattern in which overlapping customary titles are repeatedly resold to multiple buyers. Additionally, customary inheritance rules marginalize Indigenous women by restricting their land rights.

Ultimately, this presentation demonstrates that Indigenous land repossession does not always end in a simple romantic story of Indigenous people returning to communal land and restoring the broken ecologies. Rather, it shows how Indonesian settler colonialism has not only damaged the environment and dispossessed Papuans of their land, but also fractured Papuan selfhood in relation to their livelihood landscapes and ecologies.

Speaker

Hatib Kadir (KITLV) is an environmental humanities researcher specializing in ecological crises in peripheral regions. Over the past seven years, he has conducted research in coastal areas of the Eastern Indonesian archipelago, spanning from Maluku to West Papua.

Discussant

Carolien Jacobs is Assistant Professor at the Van Vollenhoven Institute. She is a socio-legal, qualitative oriented scholar with an interest in interdisciplinary research.Her research covers the broad fields of law, governance and international development, especially in Africa and in conflict-affected countries. Migration in the contexts of conflict and of climate change are at the core of her research interests.

Format, date, time & venue

This hybrid seminar will be held in Room B030 at the Kamerlingh Onnes Gebouw (KOG), Leiden University and online via Teams.