Preserving Ancestral Heritage: The Food Barn and Territorial Rights of the Moronene Indigenous Community

The Moronene Hukaea-Laea Indigenous Community is located in Hukaea-Laea Village, Watu-Watu Village, Bombana Regency, Southeast Sulawesi. They face challenges in maintaining their customary land rights and maintaining their traditional farming practices amidst industrial expansion and the establishment of a national park area.

After a long struggle, the local government finally issued a Decree recognizing the customary territory of Hukaea-Laea Village as part of the Moronene customary territory. As a concrete step to strengthen their position in the area, the Moronene Hukaea-Laea Indigenous Community with the support of Nusantara Fund Direct Funding built a food barn and mapped the customary territory as an effort to strengthen their sovereignty over resources and land rights.

The Moronene indigenous community is an agricultural community. Shifting cultivation in the Moronene tribe is called motasu, which is an activity of the community managing forests for the purpose of planting dryland rice. Activities are carried out starting from opening/clearing land for farming, sowing seeds, preventing plants from pest attacks, harvesting, until the harvest is stored in a barn/traditional storage place.

The program began with a process of identifying community needs, where the indigenous community held a customary meeting to determine priority steps. From the meeting, they highlighted that four barns that had been built independently by the community years ago were severely damaged and could no longer accommodate optimal harvests.

The first step was planning the construction of two new barns that functioned to strengthen their food storage capacity. The new barns were designed with stronger structures and larger capacities to accommodate various crops, including dryland rice which is the main result of community farming activities. They arranged for the procurement of building materials such as wood, nails, and cement to be purchased in stages and transported to the barn location.

Building materials had to be provided in stages because access to the location located in the interior was sometimes hampered by muddy road conditions, especially during the rainy season. Starting from preparing the foundation, building walls and roofs, to coating the structure to ensure weather resistance. As a result, two new food barns were successfully built in a relatively short time and could be used immediately to store the harvest.

The other two barns are still in better condition but have been damaged in some parts. The process of repairing the leaking roof structure and patching the rotten walls so that the barns can be used again for long-term storage. With four barns, the Moronene community now has sufficient capacity to manage their food stocks in the long term. The barns are planned to be used for traditional events such as the Mewusoi harvest festival and the Montewehi Wonua ritual, as a symbol of the food sovereignty of the Moronene Indigenous Community.

In addition, mapping of customary areas was carried out to strengthen their claims to land and customary boundaries. The mapping team, consisting of community representatives and assisted by external parties, began conducting field surveys to identify precise boundaries. They utilized local knowledge of the topography and history of the area that had been passed down from generation to generation to mark areas that were part of their customary lands.

The data collected from the mapping will be used to strengthen the legal recognition of their land rights, considering that their customary land status has been recognized by the local government. With structured mapping and maps of fields, gardens and settlements, the community has stronger evidence in defending their customary territory and can anticipate potential conflicts with outsiders.

Strengthening food security through food barns and recognizing land rights through mapping customary areas are strategic steps to achieve social justice, sustainable environment, and protection of Indigenous Peoples’ rights. Food barns strengthen community efforts in maintaining traditional farming systems to strengthen food sovereignty.

In addition, mapping the area not only provides legitimacy for indigenous communities in managing their land, but also serves as an advocacy tool to counter threats from parties with commercial exploitative interests against indigenous territories. By clarifying the boundaries of their indigenous territory, the Moronene indigenous community is in a stronger position to defend their rights to their indigenous territory.