Title: Indigeneity and Resource Management in Indonesia Today: The Reformulation of Adat among the Lindu People of Central Sulawesi

Submitted by: Greg Acciaioli, Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, University of Western Australia

The Lindu people have in the last decade made gaining government recognition for their local custom (adat) the centrepiece of their struggle to resist resettlement due to a planned hydroelectric scheme at Lake Lindu. Such NGOs as Yayasan Tanah Merdeka (The Foundation for Free Land) have used participatory mapping and sponsorship of visits to other peoples resisting government development to focus Lindu awareness on local land management. The discourse of resistance now jointly authored by these parties stresses how the Lindu people exemplify the struggles of indigenous peoples throughout the world and how the `local wisdom' encoded in their adat functions as an effective community resource management system. While local custom has been transformed and re-empowered in such discourse, questions remain as to the long-term viability of adopting a strategy that depends upon the equating the continuing operation of adat with indigenous identity.

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Carol Burnett
Asialink
The University of Melbourne
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Victoria AUSTRALIA

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Email: c.burnett@asialink.unimelb.edu.au