About
The narrative thread of the film centers on Emmanuela Shinta, a rising Dayak activist who sees video and social media exposure as the key to holding her government to account. Acting as an eyewitness to both the civil rights abuses and the environmental degradation, Shinta and her team visit Dayak villagers to record their experiences and ride along with firefighting teams during the dry seasons to expose the tragic consequences of the modern-day palm oil empire in her home province of Central Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo). Through a close collaboration with local people, the film develops and threads this narrative into the reality of the situation there. The film weaves together the many personal narratives of loss with broader observations on current political and social conditions within the Dayak community. In tandem with a quest for answers and accountability, the film constructs a stark portrait of the lasting effects of crony capitalism, now over two decades into the Post-Suharto Reformation.
EMMANUELA SHINTA
“The police came and arrested my son. I was forced to sign a letter that stated I was lying, and stated the land rights belonged to [the corporation].”
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Ukaiman is a sixty-year-old farmer. His land was stolen, his son criminalized, and his wife now picks trash for income.
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In contemporary Indonesia, Bupatis (local politicians) buy elections with palm oil cash, issuing government approved licenses to palm oil planters, and often using local police to achieve their goal: to rob villagers of land.
This is the case with Ukaiman’s story.
Shinta lives in Kalimantan’s bustling capital, Palangka Raya, meaning, “Vast Sacred Site.” Shinta’s Dayak heritage is precious to her. As a filmmaker, she sees herself as their storyteller. But she does not want their story to be tragic.
Preparing, traveling to a conference to speak to NGOs and academics, Shinta says: “To be honest, for the first seventeen years of my life, I was never proud to be a Dayak. Though I was offended by what people said about Dayaks, deep in my heart I was ashamed of my own identity.”
UKAIMAN
MARDIANA
With the aid of NGOs, Mardiana has been helping villagers to understand their rights and bring their cases to court, to demand that companies stop their operations.
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“I’m assisting the community in Apar Batu Village to defend their rights. The company said it’s important to arrest and torture people to show them a lesson.
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We have to fight for our rights.
If not now, do we want to wait until our land in East Barito is gone?”
TOPICS
Indigenous Land Rights
Human Rights
Endangered Species
Environmental Degradation
Environmental Justice
Palm Oil/Industrial Agriculture
Deforestation/Rainforest Destruction
Climate Change
CENTRAL KALIMANTAN
Central Kalimantan is one of the five provinces of Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo. It is the third largest Indonesian province. The region is populated by the Dayaks, the indigenous inhabitants of Borneo.
The Landscape of Indonesian Borneo Threatened by Industrial Agriculture
“Peatlands provide livelihoods for millions of people worldwide and have tremendously important environmental functions. We need to support local communities in finding the best way forward. When we put people first, then we can make progress for the climate too. The reverse order is not desirable, or even possible.” Director General, Peter Holmgren, The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) at the Global Landscapes Forum, 2017.
In the words of University of Texas at Austin public policy Professor Rajeev Patel (author of The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy), “The story of industrial agriculture is all about externalizing costs and exploiting nature.” He, and many other academics, believes that industrial agricultural is driving extinction of life on Earth due to mass deforestation to clear the ground for single crops like palm oil and soy.
This film addresses the situation in Borneo, ground zero forindustrial oil palm plantations. It draws attention to the use of Indonesia’s tropical peatland, which, when dried out for palm oil production, can become extremely explosive, and, once ignited by fire, will emit heavy smoke as in 2015 when Central Kalimantan was blanketed with a thick haze: thousands of orangutans died of starvation and thousands of people were hospitalized for smoke inhalation.
AN ACTIVIST IS BORN
The film follows Emmanuela Shinta and her team as they force the Indonesian government to acknowledge the people of Central Kalimantan’s plight as they not only lose land and food security but are exposed to fires without proper protection, recompense, or healthcare. The film shows how Shinta was able to bring the attention of international media to Central Kalimantan to pressure her government, after over 500,000 people were sickened and an estimated 100,000 people died from the fires’ smog.
Even after government aid, supplies were meager and inadequate. The government’s plan to fight the fires involved digging canals in the peat forest, which further accelerated the problem of draining the peat swamp, drying it out, and making it more susceptible to fire. Real help came through social media campaigns and donations to organizations including the Borneo Nature Foundation and Shinta’s organization, Ranu Welum, who were then able to supply the fire fighters and feed them, and, when possible, help the vulnerable and the elderly by providing adequate masks and opening oxygen centers. These initiatives, rather than government action, saved lives.
As much as the story is a local one, it affects all of us throughout the world. Although palm oil is ubiquitous in chocolate, toothpaste, detergents, candy, and other everyday products used in Western societies, few modern consumers are aware of this far-removed bio-cultural holocaust. In the U.S., few are aware that the scale of emissions from global deforestation is more significant even than the fossil-fuel guzzling transport sector. This film is a globally relevant film that champions an indigenous young woman’s leadership and that shows the injustice and pains—human and environmental—of the undeterred crony capitalism that has led to unchecked palm oil plantation spread. The film shows that, in spite of a joint commitment made in 2014 by many of the world’s major palm oil, pulp, and paper companies to stop clearing natural forests by 2020, the area of forest cleared since 2013 has in fact increased in Borneo.In Kalimantan, in particular, forests in 2016 were cleared at the fastest rate since 1997, with nearly 400,000 hectares lost that year. Much of this deforestation occurred on flammable peatlands.Although regulation stipulates that burning must be done on a bed of concrete to avoid spreading the fire, most companies still do not comply.
The world’s largest carbon sinks, peatlands support communities, diverse species, and provide clean air, water, and other ecosystem benefits. Draining, burning, and conversion of peatlands for agriculture and other purposes must come to an end.
Not only are remaining forests threatened, but the Dayak people are struggling to regain territory illegally confiscated by the Indonesian government. This film will stand at the center of a campaign to restore land to them through reparations.