On the Indonesian island of Halmahera, two members of an “uncontacted” indigenous tribe were filmed facing down a logging company’s bulldozer. The rare encounter caught on camera testifies to the growing threat that industrial activities – particularly nickel mining managed in part by a French company – pose to indigenous tribes. For members of an indigenous rights NGO, the video serves as a reminder to the government and companies that uncontacted populations exist.
On October 26, an employee of a logging company on the island of Halmahera, Indonesia shared an incredibly rare series of videos on Facebook showing an encounter with members of an indigenous tribe. The encounter, filmed from a bulldozer, is only the third known record since 2016 that documents the “uncontacted” indigenous population of the island.
“Uncontacted” peoples are indigenous communities with little to no sustained contact with their neighbours or the outside world.
From across a stream, we see two men approaching, shouting and waving their arms. They appear to be armed with bows and machetes. In one of the videos, one of the men steps into the stream and briefly appears to aim at the bulldozer. When the vehicle's engine roars violently – presumably to scare him off – he lowers his weapon and retreats.
The videos went viral on Indonesian social networks, especially after being shared by the Indonesian NGO Jatam which campaigns against the destructive effects of mining in Indonesia, and the NGO Survival International. While the person who posted the videos characterised the incident as "an attack", others saw it as a gesture of legitimate resistance by tribesmen protecting their land.
The two men in the videos are members of the Hongana Manyawa tribe, one of the last nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes in Indonesia. There are around 3,000 of them, most of whom are in contact with the outside world, but between 300 to 500 choose to remain uncontacted.
'It’s very traumatic for indigenous people who have no idea what’s happening'
Callum Russell, who works for Survival International on the case of the Hongana Manyawa in Halmahera, found the images a cause for concern.
What the worker was saying was like “We were attacked by a violent tribe who kills people and attacks people”, a message full of stereotypes. And that they survived thanks to their engines and machinery, something like that.
They were not attacked at all actually. What happened is that the logging companies have bulldozers in their forest, so the Hongana Manyawa are basically having their forest attacked. You can see them in the video shouting and throwing weapons at them. At one point, one of the men is crossing the river and aiming an arrow directly at the worker and at this moment the bulldozer revved and they went back to the forest.
It’s very traumatic for indigenous people, who have no idea what’s happening. We speak to the relatives of the Hongana Manyawa who have contact and they were very concerned about their uncontacted relatives in the forest. They don’t know what [the bulldozers] are and they just see something destroying everything they need to survive.
Although the incident on video involved a logging company, Survival International is even more concerned about the impact of nickel mining in Halmahera on uncontacted tribes.
A few kilometres from where the video was filmed, the huge Weda Bay Nickel (WBN) mining concession is managed by the Chinese company Tsingshan (its majority shareholder) and the French company Eramet (37.8 percent shareholder). The French government holds a 25.7 percent stake in Eramet via a public investment bank.
Eramet plans to use the nickel to manufacture electric car batteries for international companies. But the lucrative project is widely criticised by NGOs that defend indigenous rights, who say that huge swathes of the forest where the Hongana Manyawa live have already been destroyed or polluted.
‘The Hongana Manyawa never gave their consent for this’
Satellite images provided by Survival International show the mining concession encroaching on Halmahera's forests.
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© {{ scope.credits }}Most of the nickel mined in Halmahera is used for car batteries. The irony is that the most ecological people in the world, the Hongana Manyawa, are suffering so that people can live a supposedly sustainable lifestyle.
The Hongana Manyawa never gave their consent for this, especially not the uncontacted ones because they can’t. They could be wiped out. They are extremely vulnerable because they have no immunity to outside diseases like the flu or measles.
A contacted Hongana Manyawa told me a few months ago: "I will never give the company permission to use our land. Weda Bay Nickel has tried several times and the police have also tried to obtain my consent and that of others. For a new project, the company is doing everything it can to get permission, but we will never give it to them."
Survival Internation accuses Eramet and the Weda Bay Nickel company of continuously mining Hongana Manyawa territories since 2013, despite knowing that uncontacted people live in their concession.
Eramet told the FRANCE 24 Observers team that Weda Bay Nickel’s activities on the island are carried out with respect and dialogue with indigenous populations, with the help of independent studies.
The company claims that there are only nine members of the Hongana Manyawa tribe on their concession, and that they regularly interact with workers on the site. Eramet told us that no uncontacted people are living on their concession.
While our team was able to consult documents indicating that the WBN concession overlaps with Hongana Manyawa territory, it is not possible to estimate the number of uncontacted people living within this area.
‘This kind of footage is important to show that uncontacted peoples do exist’
A spokesperson from Eramet also questioned the term “uncontacted people”, arguing that this term has no significance in international law.
According to Survival International's Russell, this is one of the major difficulties in legally protecting the Hongana Manyawa, who have no defined legal status. In Indonesia, they are only covered by a law protecting old-growth forest.
Nevertheless, according to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the consent of the individuals concerned is required for all developments on indigenous territories.
Survival International respects the desire of uncontacted tribes to stay isolated. That’s why videos like these that emerge are so important to raise awareness of their situation, Russell said.
We have only three of these videos. As a matter of principle, since we don't try to contact people who don't want to be contacted, we rely on documents from people working for mining companies.
This kind of footage is important to show that uncontacted peoples do exist, despite what the companies or the government may say.
