Indonesia: Prestigious award for Papua’s Indigenous Awyu activists
The Awyu of Boven Digoel are fighting for justice, land rights and the rainforest (© Pusaka)
Aug 10, 2024
A great honor for the Indigenous Awyu people of Boven Digoel in southern Papua: The Indonesian Alliance of Independent Journalists awarded them the Tasrif Prize for their perseverance in defending their rainforest and their right to ancestral lands.
For years, the Indigenous people have stubbornly resisted the destruction of their forests. The Awyu live in Boven Digoel, the easternmost district of Indonesia in southern Papua. Their forest, home to tree kangaroos and birds of paradise, is the largest intact rainforest in Southeast Asia. But the Indonesian government and corporations want to establish palm oil plantations here. The Awyu are fighting for their right to legal recognition as an Indigenous community, for their rights to land, water, forest, food, a healthy environment and, last but not least, the climate of our planet.
They are taking their demands to court and seeking a just verdict from the Supreme Court in Jakarta. The Awyu hope the court will rule “pro Natura” and against opening the forests to palm oil companies – for the Indigenous people and their children and for the protection of humanity from ecological and social crises.
On August 9, 2024, the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) awarded them and the people of Rempang on the island of Batam the 2024 Tasrif Prize for Freedom of the Press and Expression.
We congratulate the winners and especially the Awyu, who are defending the rainforest with great tenacity.
In Rempang, local people are resisting resettlement to make way for an Indonesian-Chinese industrial development. Rempang is located on the island of Batam, not far from Singapore. Sand mining, as well as glass and solar panel production facilities are planned there.
This year’s theme of the journalists’ association is “building resistance in a fractured media landscape and growing authoritarianism”.
The Tasrif Prize is awarded to individuals, groups or institutions that have persistently defended freedom of the press and freedom of expression. It is named after Suwardi Tasrif, a lawyer and journalist who was a lifelong advocate for press freedom. In Indonesia, Tasrif is considered the “father of the journalistic code of ethics”. The first awardee in 1998 was human rights activist Munir Said Thalib, who was murdered in 2004.
Rainforest Rescue supports the Awyu in their efforts to protect the rainforests of southern Papua.
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Papua: “Surrendering our land would be suicide”
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