Indigenous Women’s Connection to Forest: Colonialism, Lack of Land Ownership and Livelihood Deprivations of Dayak Benawan in Indonesia

Abstract

Forest is essential for indigenous women in Indonesia. This article discusses the connection between Dayak Benawan women’s lives with their land. Dayak Benawan women today face the challenge of preserving their forest and traditions. Meanwhile, the existence of the Dayak Benawan women is the source of protecting native forests in West Kalimantan. Indigenous women’s identity is often connected to living in poor conditions with low quality of life and limited access to various public services. Their daily activities in the forest are part of the way they maintain their traditions in ecological knowledge. Based on long-term ethnographic research, we concluded that the indigenous women’s tradition represents the closeness between humans and nature. The connection between ecological and women’s knowledge have existed for hundreds of years in the Dayak Benawan community.

Keywords

• forest
• indigenous women
• Dayak Benawan
• land ownership
• livelihood