Asserting land rights through technology and democratic expression

Abstract

Indigenous communities in Indonesia have been proactively mapping, communicating, photographing and documenting their connections to forests, asserting rights increasingly recognised in domestic and international laws. In 2013, Indonesia’s Constitutional Court found forestry laws that vested ownership of forests in the state to be unconstitutional, given Indigenous peoples’ rights. In so doing, the court recognised the possibility of customary land rights for Indigenous peoples in that country; however aspects of these rights are yet to be realised. Indigenous communities have been proactively using digital technologies to map their lands, demonstrate ancestral knowledge and share photograph..