Email: anindita@sokola.org

Affiliation: Bogor Agricultural University

Nationality: Indonesian

Constructing the Third Space: Orang Rimba's Tenurial Knowledge as Resistance

Abstract

Since the 1970s, modern development and conservation efforts have profoundly altered the ecological landscape, access, and territorial rights of the Orang Rimba, a forest-dwelling hunter-gatherer group in Jambi Province, Indonesia. Large-scale projects such as transmigration settlements, rubber and palm oil plantations, and national park designations have not only fragmented their ancestral forests but also imposed rigid, ahistorical boundaries that conflict with their indigenous tenurial system. Unlike the modern perspective that divides nature into separate categories—such as conservation areas, agricultural land, and settlements—the Orang Rimba perceive hutan tano as an integrated, living space where social, spiritual, and ecological dimensions are inseparable.

Based on ethnographic research and over two decades of fieldwork, this paper explores how the Orang Rimba navigate and resist the ongoing encroachment of their physical and cultural spaces. Despite imposed territorial constraints, they construct a "third space"—a fluid, adaptive realm where their traditional tenurial knowledge interacts with and subverts modern land-use categorizations. This third space is not simply a passive response to development pressures; rather, it represents a strategic resistance that allows them to sustain their cultural identity and redefine spatial boundaries on their own terms.

This resistance manifests through various practices: the continued assertion of their mobility across landscapes now labeled as state or private property, the maintenance of traditional subsistence strategies such as hunting and gathering, and the negotiation of access with external actors, including government authorities, plantation companies, and conservation agencies. Rather than accepting the imposed spatial order, the Orang Rimba use their knowledge of hutan tano to challenge and reinterpret these boundaries, treating them not as fixed barriers but as negotiable and permeable spaces. In doing so, they resist the ontological fragmentation of land and reaffirm their holistic relationship with the forest.

By centering the Orang Rimba's tenurial knowledge, this study contributes to broader discussions on indigenous land rights, spatial politics, and resistance. It challenges dominant narratives that portray indigenous groups as either passive victims of development or obstacles to conservation, instead highlighting their agency in constructing a third space that enables both survival and cultural continuity. Ultimately, the Orang Rimba's struggle underscores the necessity of rethinking land governance policies to accommodate indigenous ontologies of land, rather than imposing rigid frameworks that disregard their lived realities.

Bio

Aditya Dipta Anindita completed her undergraduate studies in Sociology at Gadjah Mada University (UGM), Yogyakarta, in 2002. Her journey with the Orang Rimba, a hunter-gatherer community in Bukit Duabelas, Jambi, began when she worked as a campaign specialist in a conservation project. In 2003, Anindita co-founded the Sokola Institute, a non-profit organization providing culturally relevant education to indigenous communities in Indonesia. The institute's pilot project was launched in the Orang Rimba community, co-designing educational programs that addressed the challenges of modernity. Over the first 15 years, Sokola's programs supported the Orang Rimba's advocacy efforts to defend their ancestral lands, which had been designated as a national park, and to challenge the regulations threatening their existence.

In addition to its educational work, Sokola advocates for the provision of specialized education services for indigenous communities so they can protect their knowledge and accommodate their cultural distinctiveness and unique challenges. Sokola has worked to disseminate its methods through various training programs and publications. By 2025, Sokola had developed 17 educational programs in 11 Indonesian provinces, impacting over 15,000 people with the support of more than 100 volunteers. In recognition of its work, Sokola was awarded the UNESCO International Literacy Prize in 2024.

Anindita earned a master's degree in communication from the University of Indonesia in 2006 through a Ford Foundation scholarship. She received the UGM Alumni Achievement Award in 2016, participated in the US International Visitor Leadership Program in 2019, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Rural Sociology at Bogor Agricultural University with a Ministry of Education and Culture scholarship.