Indigenous Territory Map: Efforts of the Dayak Tewoyan Indigenous Community to Protect Their Living Space

The Dayak Tewoyan Indigenous Community is an indigenous community encompassing 19 villages in North Barito Regency, Central Kalimantan. They are currently committed to protecting their customary territory by providing a map of their customary territory, the boundaries of which are agreed upon by each of the 19 villages. This is one of their responses to the threat of large-scale companies operating within and around their customary territory. Coal mining companies are one example, and other companies that hold Forest Concession Rights (HPH) permits to harvest timber from natural forests also threaten their customary territory.

The mapping of the Dayak Tewoyan customary territory began with a consolidation process in 15 customary villages. Initially, they thought their customary territory encompassed only 15 villages, but after identification through customary deliberations, data was obtained that members of the Dayak Tewoyan Indigenous Community are spread across 19 villages in the Teweh Timur and Gunung Purei Districts of Central Kalimantan. This was confirmed by the results of a social data collection on the 15 villages obtained by a data collection team consisting of one person from the PD AMAN North Barito and 1 person from PW AMAN Central Kalimantan. During the team's social data collection, they learned from traditional elders that four other villages are part of the Dayak Tewoyan community. This is demonstrated by the shared history of their origins.

The fifteen villages are Liju, Benangin I, Benangin II, Benangin III, Sampirang I, Sampirang II, Tanjung Harapan, Linon Besi I, Linon Besi II, Muara Mea, Lampeong I, Lampeong II, Lawarang, Payang, Berong and the other four villages are Tambaba, Baok, Liju II and Mapuak Villages.

Prior to conducting participatory spatial mapping, the mapping team conducted a consolidation meeting in each village to obtain approval in the form of a minutes of agreement on the mapping implementation. Of the 19 villages that had previously verbally agreed to map the Dayak Tewoyan customary territory, 10 (Linon Besi I, Lawarang, Muara Mea, Baok, Berong, Benangin I, Benangin II, Benangin III, Tambaba, and Payang) received written approval. The remaining 9 villages were not visited in person due to time and other technical constraints.

The next step will be to finalize the approvals from nine villages. This approval is crucial for implementing the subsequent stages of the mapping process, starting with workshops for technical mapping training, field coordinates, discussion forums with traditional elders, and finally, the final stage of map finalization. The resulting customary territory map will strengthen their foundation for advocacy for recognition of Indigenous Peoples' rights through district-level regulations and decrees on customary territory recognition issued by the regent. This recognition will then serve as the basis for reaffirming that the areas currently subject to mining permits and HPHs belong to the Dayak Tewoyan Indigenous Community. This program impacts 221,05 hectares of customary territory.