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At the Edge of Mangrove Forest: The Suku Asli and the Quest for Indigeneity, Ethnicity and Development Takamasa Osawa PhD in Social Anthropology University of Edinburgh 2016 Declaration Page This is to certify that this thesis has been composed by me and is completely my work. No part of this thesis has been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification. 30th January 2016 Takamasa Osawa PhD Candidate School of Social & Political Science University of Edinburgh ii Abstract This thesis explores the emergence of indigeneity among a group of post-foragers living on the eastern coast of Sumatra. In the past, despite the lack of definite ethnic boundaries and the fluidity of their identity, they were known as Utan (‘Forest’) or Orang Utan (‘Forest People’). Since 2006, however, many Utan have adopted the new ethnonym of Suku Asli (‘Indigenous People’) and begun claiming their position within the Indonesian State as an integrated and distinctive ethnic group – a group, that is, associated with a unique ‘tradition’ (adat) and a particular ‘indigenous’ identity. As Suku Asli, they have been trying to integrate this identity and protect the ‘ancestral’ lands with which it is thought to be intimately associated. The emergence of this identity does not reflect only their own aspirations but, also, their entanglement with a number of government development programmes or interventions aiming to transform the lives of local ‘tribespeople’. Throughout these contexts, the most important change has been the development of their indigeneity – an indigeneity which, in the context of Indonesia, is ‘imagined’ and recognised in a very particular way by the State. It is on the basis of this indigeneity that the Suku Asli have begun to re-configure their traditional identity and their place within the Nation State. Focusing on some of its most important manifestations and embodiments, the thesis attempts to chart the emergence of this indigeneity and relate it to the entanglement of the people and the government. Treating indigeneity as a perspective that is created between the locals’ traditionally fluid identity and the government development programmes, I describe some of the ways in which ‘tribespeople’ come to embody, resist and transform the government image of ‘indigenous people’ and accomplish their ‘modernisation’ – a ‘modernisation’ demanding, first and foremost, a distinctive and well-bounded indigenous identity. iii Contents Abstract iii Acknowledgements v Abbreviations vii List of illustrations viii Introduction 1 Chapter 1. Under State Politics: State Formation, Ethnic Category and Development Subjects 37 Chapter 2. Identity as Non-Muslims: Orang Asli, Peranakan and Ancestral Worship 78 Chapter 3. Consolidation of People and Place: Foraging, Space and Historic Continuity 106 Chapter 4. Establishment of an Organisation: Leadership, Power and Government Intervention 140 Chapter 5. Manifestation of Tradition: Adat, Performance and Integration 165 Chapter 6. Creation of Homogeneity: Religion (Agama), Buddhism and Abstraction 190 Conclusion 220 Glossary 224 References cited 226 iv Acknowledgements It would have been completely impossible to write this thesis without the warm and generous support and assistance of a number of people in Bengkalis regency. In particular, the villagers of the Suku Asli and Akit received me as a member of their communities and spent days together without any distinctions. This experience is a great treasure to me not only as a researcher but also as a person who lived in a different culture and society. Malay and Javanese villagers and the regency officials also gave me their views on the Suku Asli. Thanks to their kind cooperation, this thesis could include multiple perspectives on tribespeople’s life and their position in Indonesian politics. This research was also sustained by many Indonesian partners. The staff of LIPI and RISTEK permitted my application to research the people and assisted the procedures at government offices. Prof. Nursyrwan Effendy at Andalas University accepted the role of Indonesian counterpart, and his student, Pak Irfan Maaruf, looked after my life in Pekanbaru. Dr. Nofrizal at Riau University gave me much information of coastal life in Sumatra and an opportunity to make a presentation in the university. His colleagues, Pak Romi Joenari and Pak Isjoni provided me with articles on mangrove forests and other tribespeople in Riau. In preparing for my field research and writing up the thesis, staff and colleagues at the University of Edinburgh gave me great support and assistance. In particular, I really appreciate my supervisors, Dr. Dimitri Tsintjilonis and Prof. Alan Barnard. Dimitri’s enthusiastic and motivational tuition always inspired me with fantastic arguments and deeper explorations of the people’s world. Alan’s broad knowledge of indigenous people provided me with ways to connect the issues of being ‘indigenous’ with international problems. In the writing-up seminars, staff and colleagues gave me tough, detailed and critical comments, and these comments dramatically developed my arguments. In addition, I appreciate Prof. Akifumi Iwabuchi at the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, who first encouraged me to conduct my fieldwork on the eastern coast of Sumatra. Dr. Geoffrey Benjamin at Nanyang Technological v University and Prof. Sumio Fukami at Momoyama Gakuin University personally sent me very important articles which I had not been able to access. I would also like to thank my two examiners: Dt Kostas Retsikas (SOAS) and Prof. Janet Carsten (University of Edinburgh). Their comments and constructive criticisms helped me focus my argument in a clearer fashion and gave me the opportunity to reformulate some of my ideas so that they encompassed a broader, yet deeper, scope. Finally, I would like to express deep gratitude to my late parents, who died during my first fieldwork in 2007. By submitting this thesis, I hope to partially fulfil those duties I forsook when I could not attend your deathbeds. vi Abbreviations AMAN Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (Alliance of Indigenous Peoples of the Archipelago) IKBBSA Ikatan Keluarga Besar Batin Suku Asli (Suku Asli Headman’s League) KAT Komunitas Adat Terpencil (geographically and politically isolated adat community) OPSA Organisasi Pemuda Suku Asli (Suku Asli Youth Organisation) SKSA Surat Keterangan Suku Asli (certificate of being the Suku Asli) VOC Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (Dutch East India Company) vii Illustrations Maps Map 1. Coastal area of Riau province 23 Map 2. Bengkalis Island 108 Map 3. Village of Teluk Pambang 111 Tables Table 1. Kinship terminology: The Suku Asli way 87 Table 2. Kinship terminologies: The peranakan way 88 Photographs Photograph 1. Dukun at a séance 90 Photograph 2. Bomo Cina; Kiton at a séance 90 Photograph 3. A keramat and offerings for datuk 91 Photograph 4. A datuk kong that was built at a keramat 91 Photograph 5. A canoe and Raya River 119 Photograph 6. A house of the Suku Asli 119 Photograph 7. ‘Man-made forest’ in Teluk Pambang 126 Photograph 8. A swamp being washed out and mangrove seedlings 131 Photograph 9. A sign board that shows the ownership of a mangrove forest by a Javanese group of Makmur Bersama 132 Photograph 10. Marriage ceremony and dance (tari gendong) of the Suku Asli 185 viii Introduction When I first met Pak Koding1, one of my best informants, he insisted that now everything is different and more and more people ‘become (jadi)’ Suku Asli. Now, as he puts it, he and his people identify themselves as Suku Asli, translated as ‘indigenous people’. I am going to explore who the Suku Asli are and to explain the recent emergence of their ethnic identity first and foremost in terms of indigeneity. Indigeneity as an international concept Indigeneity in relation to others Since the 1980s, the concept of ‘indigenous peoples’ has become increasingly important at the international political level in a number of challenges attempting to improve the marginalised situation of native or autochthonous peoples. Indeed, the United Nations (UN) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) defined ‘indigenous peoples’ and emphasised the need to protect their rights in 1986 and 1989, respectively. At this level, the definition of ‘indigenous peoples’ is composed of four points: the priority of land occupation in time, cultural distinctiveness, identification by themselves and others, and the experience of marginalisation (Saugestad 2004: 264). The UN, then, declared the International Year of Indigenous Peoples in 1993 and the UN International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples between 1995 and 2005. In 2007,