Indigenous Peoples and Culture: Orang Rimba’s Education
Butet ManurungT

he survival of many indigenous peoples around the globe depends on the preservation of their cultures. Their cultures teachthem three main relationships in life: maintaining harmony withnature, other human beings and the Creator. Therefore, culture plays a verysignificant role in the way they educate themselves. I apply this principle
in my work with the Orang Rimba community in Sumatra and indigenous
peoples in other parts of Indonesia during the past twenty years. My teamand I believe that culture should be the dna in the educational program forindigenous peoples.
The Orang Rimba
The estimated 5,700 Orang Rimba are nomadic hunter-gatherers living in
the central part of Sumatra island.1 Majority of them live in two nationalparks in Jambi and Riau provinces – Bukit Duabelas (Twelve Hills) with approximately 2,500 Orang Rimba, Bukit Tigapuluh (Thirty Hills) with four
hundred people and along the Trans-Sumatran Highway with 1,200 people.
The Orang Rimba communities have a clan-based structure, with eachclan headed by a chief (tumenggung), who is assisted by various intermediate-level leaders including an advisor (tengganai), depati, mangku, menti,
and anak dalam, all of whom have specific tasks within the clan (known asrombong).
The communities are not in regular contact with each other, and marriage usually occurs within the clan. The Orang Rimba family is matrilocal
with husbands usually residing with the wife’s extended family and parents
preferring daughters rather than sons.
The Orang Rimba classify the forest area into several types of use: living, birthing, farming, burial, religious rituals, and place for good and bad
spirits. Each clan has a specific territory; in some cases, if members of otherclans want to use a clan’s area, permission has to be sought. But due to the

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pressure of encroachment by mining and agricultural industries, some clans
are forcedly displaced and wander around mainly along the Sumatran highway or become dwellers at palm-oil plantations.
The Orang Rimba believe that the forest has many gods who exert apowerful influence in their lives. Gods can be benign or malevolent but
many Orang Rimba regard their gods with fearful respect, believing thatmost misfortune is due to behavior that angered the gods. Particular areas
are designated as the preserve of gods and Orang Rimba do not live or cultivate such areas. They also believe that gods move about the forest throughrivers and creeks and they thus place great emphasis on the cleanliness ofwaterways. Only shamans (dukun godong) have the power to intercede withgods and dispense natural remedies and mantras to cure illness or to counteract evil spirits.
The Orang Rimba hunt and eat almost all forest animals, including
snakes, bears, wild boars, bats, lizards and birds. They domesticate animals
only as pets and do not hunt animals regarded as belonging to the gods, suchas tigers and Hornbill birds.
Though they want little contact, outsiders increasingly come to themas government officials, doctors and nurses, teachers or non-governmentalorganization (ngo) activists, miners, loggers, surveyors and illegal hunters.
Community-Orang Rimba RelationshipThe mainstream community in Jambi in Sumatra island tends to view theOrang Rimba with prejudice, often using denigrating language to describe
them and perpetuating unflattering stereotypes about their culture, intelligence and intentions. The Orang Rimba are called kubu to mean primitive, lacking good hygiene, ignorant, immoral and lacking any religion. Local
communities have popular sayings that express their dislike for the Orang
Rimba such as having black magic powers to lure business clients, seduce
potential lovers and cause or heal sickness.
In recent years, indigent Orang Rimba have been traveling to the cities and towns around Jambi and the Trans-Sumatran Highway to beg formoney or food, or sell forest goods such as animal skin. People in the cities
and towns do not see these activities in positive light.
However, many Indonesians want the Orang Rimba (and other indigenous peoples for that matter) to have a greater role in the country by giving
them education, housing, employment and even religious enlightenment.

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State Policies
The Dutch colonial government did not pay much attention to the indigenous peoples of Indonesia; but its transmigration programs in the 1920s2
adversely affected them. Under these programs, many people from Java
cleared the forests of Sumatra and settled there. Agricultural plantation andextractive industries started to spread in the island.
After independence, the Indonesian government classified the indigenous peoples as isolated and undeveloped communities (or masyarakat
tertinggal which literally means “left-behind communities”) and thus sought
to bring socio-economic development to them. But the state development
programs were imposed on the indigenous peoples, which marginalized
rather than helped them. Laws during the Soeharto period treated the indigenous peoples as incapable of developing their lands and displaced themby promoting investments in forestry, agricultural and mining industries intheir (indigenous peoples) areas.3
The government also imposed new political structures that disregarded
adat (traditional) structures and installed new administrative systems at
the village level headed by people who needed to have certain level of literacy and formal educational attainment.4 These structures and systems effectively excluded the indigenous communities including the Orang Rimba
from participating in decision-making processes. In other words, the Orang
Rimba communities were systematically disempowered in governing theirown areas.
The post-1998 Reformasi period (post-Soeharto government reform
process) has mixed results for indigenous communities. Some laws andgovernment regulations allowing exploitation of forest areas and permitting
state intervention in adat areas continued the New Order policies. In recent years, there has been increasing awareness of Orang Rimba rights andcultural richness, accompanied by government attempts to better protect
their communities. However, the devolution of state power to the local level(under Law number 22/1999 and Law number 25/1999) had not brought relief to the Orang Rimba and the other indigenous communities because it
allowed local businesspeople and political elites much freer access to natural
resources with little or no scrutiny from national authorities. More income
from the exploitation of the local natural resources meant more funds sent
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was reason to exploit the forest and other natural resources in the areas of
the Orang Rimba and other indigenous communities. For the Orang Rimba,
devolution left them much more vulnerable to the economic predations of
the so-called “lesser kings” (raja kecil), local powerful figures who used the
new decentralized system for their own wealth accumulation.
Changes to forestry management laws during Reformasi also had significant consequences for the Orang Rimba. In 2000, after concerted advocacy by conservation groups, the area of Bukit Duabelas was converted into National Park. Since 2002, the Natural Resources Conservation
Institute (Balai Konservasi Sumber Daya Alam, bksda), under the Ministryof Forestry, has advised the government on regulating the National Park.
bksda meetings involve various stakeholders, including local governments,
national park experts hired from the US and non-governmental organizations (ngos) that work with the Orang Rimba. Although bksda was welcomed as means of pooling information and discussing policies, its glaring
failure was the refusal to invite Orang Rimba leaders to meetings, seemingly
because officials were worried that the Orang Rimba might not understandBahasa Indonesia. The largest ngo working with the Orang Rimba, Sokola
Institute, of which I am a co-founder, initially participated in the meetings,
but was later excluded after querying about the absence of Orang Rimba
representatives.5
The national park regulations were introduced progressively from 2004
and immediately caused problems for the Orang Rimba, particularly relating to the park zoning system that heavily restricted human movement andactivities in specific areas. Although the management regulations did recognize areas for sacred trees and plants such as Sialang honey trees and
Sentubung and Songoris6 plants, in general, they did not correspond to theOrang Rimba’s own customary zoning. These competing zoning practices
soon led to clashes between the Orang Rimba and forest rangers. For example, rangers cut down all the trees planted by the Orang Rimba in a corezone where humans were prohibited and also shot and injured an Orang
Rimba man who planted trees in the same zone. The rangers’ actions triggered large and angry protests from the Orang Rimba community especiallyfrom young, literate students.
Since 2010, the Orang Rimba in Makekal Hulu (one of the twelve clans
in Bukit Duabelas), have tried different strategies to counter the forest regulations. In 2016, they independently mapped their own traditional territory

Indigenous Peoples and Culture: Orang Rimba’s Education17

in Jambi under the supervision of a ngo, the Ecological Justice for People
Foundation (cappa Foundation). For several months, every family contributed Rp 50,000 (about three and a half US dollars) per month to support
the costs of the mapping. In 2017, the mapping project was completed andsubmitted for registration with the Board for Customary Land Registration(Badan Registrasi Wilayah Adat). This map has become an important resource for bksda in revising its management regulations.
First Contact
I started visiting the Orang Rimba villages in October 1999 as staff of theIndonesian Conservation Community, more known as warsi. I was tasked
to continue the education program started by warsi several years before.
warsi is an environmental ngo that operates in Jambi province, whose
primary programs consist of advocating the living space for Orang Rimba,
facilitating their education by teaching them basic reading and math, andsupporting the Orang Rimba’s children in getting formal education.
My first attempts at giving literacy to the Orang Rimba
were met with resistance. I was
confronted with their thinking
about outsiders giving education to them. One mother told
me “Sokola hopi ado dalam adatkami, kalu kami keno bala, yoya
ketinye kamu nang bekin kedulat!”– School is not in our tradition, if
calamity befalls us, you are theone who caused our damnation.7
How does one react to suchthinking that honestly expresses
the fear of the unknown, the literacy program? How does one
assure the Orang Rimba that literacy is not evil, but has value for
their future?

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H u m a n R i g h t s E d u c at i o n i n A s i a - Pa c i f i c · V o l u m e 9 , 2 0 1 9I did not want to impose on the Orang Rimba my literacy work. I had
to slow down, and waited for the right moment to get them to feel safe inlearning reading and writing.
I decided that I should start with the children, instead of the adults. I
identified potential students among the Orang Rimba children. But while I
was able to initially talk to the boys (aged four to sixteen), I had a hard timecommunicating with the girls.
I had the impression that women and girls have been taught to be cautious of outsiders, making them more difficult to reach. I had to behave likethe Orang Rimba women to follow their culture. I felt, for example, that

Orang Rimba students.

there was a traditional rule that prohibited women from teaching anyone– male or female. I learned at least that it was considered hopi beik (out ofplace) for women to teach men. At the same time, women were probably
disinterested, or a little fearful.
Perhaps the Orang Rimba did not need education after all. But the factthat they had been cheated (through land agreements for example), there
was a basis for saying that they were treated unfairly for not knowing how toread and write in Bahasa Indonesia.

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Initial Learnings
My short experience of giving literacy classes to the Orang Rimba children
gave me the chance to rethink my concept of education. I drew up an education program that I believed would be relevant to them.
I believed that any educational program for the Orang Rimba should be
guided by the following basic requirements:8
Lessons need to be tailored to the Orang Rimba’s daily activities.
The education materials should be relevant to the needs and way of lifeof the Orang Rimba. These materials should also be designed appropriately
to take into account the comprehension levels of the Orang Rimba.
For example, in undertaking an education program for nomadic people,
the school needs to be mobile. During melangun, when the Orang Rimba
leave the place where a person died and stay far away, I walk with thembringing all the school materials in my big backpack. I teach them during
their rest period and only when they ask, because melangun is a painful andexhausting moment for the Orang Rimba.
The materials and subjects should also be only on things that are relevant to their life. I did not know this before, and learned it from them.
When I taught multiplication for example, they asked why was that relevantto their life, when will they use it? They refused to learn about the planetsand the solar system thinking that they were not interesting, and irrelevantto their situation.
The Orang Rimba need to receive some benefit from any education
program.
The recognition of the benefits of education by the Orang Rimba themselves is very important. I recall the advice of the then Dean of Anthropology,
Parsudi Suparlan, whose book I read when I was a student in the Padjadjaran
University. Known to some as headstrong but also as a very pragmatic person, he said that any program seeking to re-direct a certain community outlook would not succeed if the people it is seeking to help do not share thebelief that change is beneficial to them. Program benefits must far exceed
the negative spillover resulting from the acceptance of the change. It is also
necessary that the benefits of change are sustainable for a long time, while
also subject to improvements whenever necessary.

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H u m a n R i g h t s E d u c at i o n i n A s i a - Pa c i f i c · V o l u m e 9 , 2 0 1 9The education process needs to be locally organized.
The involvement of local people, bringing their language, local perceptions and culture into the mix, is likely to aid learning. Total integration by
the teacher into the life of the Orang Rimba, with intermittent time outside
the community, would contribute profound insights into any perception
gaps between the two worlds.
The education program needs to facilitate critical analytical skills
and provide skills to assist the community in coping with the development challenges ahead.
The Orang Rimba have to develop critical analytical skills to deal effectively with development and environmental changes that are threatening theexistence of their communities. Development plans need to be explained ina transparent and honest way to each decision-maker and the inherent risks,
which might affect their lives, need to be made apparent.
The basic goal of any education program includes facilitating the Orang Rimba’s
capacity for self-realization,
providing a vision for the
future and developing selfintegrity within the Rimba
community.
Education
programs
should aim at preparing theOrang Rimba to fend off external pressure, thus enablingthem to determine their own
future.
The Orang Rimba must
represent themselves, voice
their own needs and havetheir own point of view. Selfrepresentation avoids an overreliance on intermediaries tocommunicate with the outside

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Classroom in the forest.

world. In their own words, the Rimba can articulate in greater detail andwith force their own views and identity, their own rights and needs.
My dream is to have one of my students speak up with humility andconfidence in a public forum. Building confidence is important. Wheneverpossible I include in my lessons various topics which can nurture their selfrespect and pride. Hopefully, this addresses the erosive influences of theoutside world, like the use of the derogatory term “Kubu”, which has beenused for years as a substitute word for Orang Rimba.
As I see it, as soon as the Orang Rimba have a clear perspective about
where they stand and their predicament, they will be able to think independently. I am confident that they will find a way out, as the Orang Rimba
would likely do. Another wish is for the Orang Rimba, when faced with outside pressures, to take a stand and decide freely for themselves what to do.
I cannot bear to see the Orang Rimba put in a position where they haveno room to maneuver. Once cornered they will have no capacity to objectively assess the problems coming their way. On a more pro-active note, I
would like the Orang Rimba to have a say in their future destiny, and to doso they need to be empowered.
For me, therefore, this is not just about rainforest conservation. It is also
about the survival of the Orang Rimba.

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I come to the conclusion that reading and writing alone are not adequate preparation for the Orang Rimba to chart their future.
The need for critical analytical skills was demonstrated, partly at least,
when an Orang Rimba boy told the elders not to sign the written agreement
between them and the villagers in settling a dispute on the boundary of aland until after reading the document. He then proceeded to read the document out loud that not only made the elders know the contents of the document but also showed how literacy could be properly used for their benefit.
Provision of educational services has proven to be one of the mostvexed issues for both the Orang Rimba and national government. For many
years, government officials prefer to provide standard schooling using thenational curriculum to Orang Rimba children. The focus has been on literacy, numeracy, and education on national history and principles. But mostOrang Rimba are sceptical about the benefits of formal schooling and seek
an education that is more closely tailored to their community needs and traditions of learning. A good example of their view of education comes from aclass that I was teaching in the forest in 2000. Our class was interrupted by
the growl of distant chainsaws and the eerie sound of falling trees. A childstared at me and asked: ‘Ibu, once we master reading and writing, we canthen stop the logging, right?’ In effect, the child was asking what was the useof education if it would not prevent the destruction of the forest which is so
precious to the Orang Rimba. It was indeed a difficult question to answer as
it raises issues about the purpose of education.
Among indigenous peoples, state schooling has been somewhat ruefully labeled as ‘Sekolah Untuk Pergi’ (School for Leaving), capturing the apprehension that going to formal schools prises students away from their traditional lands and community. Indeed, the experience of the Orang Rimba
over many years is that their children who study in formal schools are far
more likely to leave their homelands. The higher their education, the greater
the chance of them departing. Orang Rimba contend that the national curriculum is created in the capital Jakarta for students who will live and workin cities and towns; it is not intended for jungle dwellers. It does not teachthem the things they need to know to live in the forest, such as how to climb
honey trees, to hunt for wild boar, to treat scorpion bites, to look after rivers
and their gods, and to stop deforestation and forest fires. These are the skills
the Orang Rimba regard as important.

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Effects of Educational Activities?
Several years of interacting with the children made me realize the initial
limitation of literacy program. Instead of empowering the children, the little
knowledge I have given them burdened their hearts. Once they were able toread, they became aware of their issues. Then they became depressed when
they realized that they were unable to defend their own rights.
Once they learned to read, the Orang Rimba became avid readers. Frommagazines, they learned about the law, and came to know that illegal logging
was a punishable offense.
However, there are still important lessons to learn from the attempts ofthe children to act on the problems faced by their community.
In 2002, the children proposed to organize a battalion of rainforest wardens. The idea was to have a group that could prevent theft in the rainforest.
They could write the names of the thieves along with the kind of wood being stolen and where were they being sold. They wanted to call this group
Pasukan Rimba Bungaron Rayo (Strong and Mighty Rainforest Battalion) or
pbpr. With money they collected, uniforms like the green military outfits
were bought in the town. They observed that people in uniform (defense
personnel, police, doctors) in the outside world were treated with respect.
However, the battalion idea failed to get support from warsi, the ngo
working with them. Nevertheless, they went around the rainforest watchingout for thieves. But they could not be wardens all the time because they had
to look for food for themselves and their families.
They then changed the name of the group from pbpr to Bramatala,“BRAni, MAti, TAkut Lapar – ready to die but afraid to starve!”9
Some Orang Rimba expressed the desire to share their knowledge ofthe rainforest with the outside world. Others would like to write about rainforests for newspapers, although their writing skills are not yet up to thestandard required for publication.
Developing a New Educational Program
Orang Rimba youth are concerned about issues of income diversification
as well as maintaining their local traditions. To ensure a source of income,we thought that the students who reach adolescence should become rolemodels for the younger students. This idea was modeled on the practice24

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used by Orang Rimba parents to pass down rainforest responsibilities to thenext generation. Our older students would like to have cultivation plots andlearn to plant and harvest them. At the same time, these plots would deter
the thrust of land clearance by the village people.
The students said, “This is the real school, learning how to live and havea good life.” This saying became the basis for sokola. Sokola contributes
to matters related to daily living and prepares people to deal with the onslaught of new experiences brought on by changing times. The rainforest isdiminishing and the Orang Rimba are already becoming integrated with themarket system. If there are well-protected rainforests and the Orang Rimba
are able to become completely self-sufficient within them, without any market exchange with the outside world, we might assume that they would notneed schooling. However, all the evidence point to the contrary.
We came up with the idea of a boarding school where children stayat school and away from their parents (though still within the territory of
the group). The school would provide everything and all activities would bedone there. Every day would be school day and daily life would center on theschool. And so, school would no longer be just books and pencils. Naturally,
the children would be allowed to visit their parents, especially those children beginning to shoulder family responsibilities.
We focused on the concept of school centers to cater to the dispersedand changing pattern of Orang Rimba rombong (clan) locations. Each center
focused on a different program, depending on the needs of the surrounding
Orang Rimba. Some placed environmental study, agriculture and forestry attheir core, while others concentrated on reading and writing. But we foundthis idea difficult to sustain due to the need for more people, funding aswell as monitoring. We decided to establish one school site where all programs were done for one rombong, and which moved whenever the Orang
Rimba transferred to another place. We established such schools in otherrombongs.
We began to expand our curriculum to include knowledge of flora andfauna. We dissected a frog to show its respiratory and digestive systems.
We stressed however that only frogs could be subjected to this exercise, nothumans.
We also took the children to attend Orang Rimba’s adat meetings. Allof us, the children, my colleagues and I took notes during the proceedings.
We learned how the elders subtly created rhymes to convey their messages
or to share their feelings.

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We encouraged the children to speak up and express themselves inopen forums. If a government official was present, the children tended towhisper among themselves, too timid to stand up. Here we would encouragethem saying, “Pak, this is Pengendum and he has something to say.” We setthem up to talk, which otherwise would not have happened. If Pengendum
sulked, we would deal with it later.
We often invite the Orang Rimba elders to chat with us at SOKOLA.
Through casual chatting, the children picked up knowledge and guidancefrom the elders’ life experiences. The children asked about legends, spells,
traditional medicine, ghosts, mythology, and a myriad of other things.
Apart from running the school, we also made the rounds visiting eachof the Orang Rimba homes spread out in the forest. Occasionally, we would
have sessions with the wider rombong group, depending on their issues.
Usually this was done upon the request of the Orang Rimba. If the request isduring the melangun, then we traveled with them.
In the context of the Orang Rimba, a school curriculum must be designed according to the needs of its pupils, not a form of template that has
been approved by others. Even the best of intentions can flounder when we
do not comprehend the needs of the intended recipients. The Orang Rimba
would feel humiliated and hurt receiving what would be termed by the outside world as “donations” or “aid”. People might find it idealistic or heroic
in giving things such as cloths because they see the Orang Rimba as not
clothed enough, but this aid can be perceived as an insult.
These activities started the formal establishment in 2003 of the Sokola,a not-for-profit organization which provides educational opportunities andadvocacy skills for indigenous people. Its vision is for indigenous peoples “tohave the ability to determine their own destiny and be sovereign over theirterritory and natural resources through learning processes.” It specializes inproviding schooling to the Orang Rimba which is sensitive to their culture
and tailored to their specific needs.
In 2005, sokola became a legal entity and spread its activities to otherprovinces: Makassar, Aceh, Flores and the Moluccas. Some of the schools
were closed due to either financial limitations or the fact that the indigenous
community could run their education or advocacy programs by themselves(they are at the stage where they are able to identify their problems and seek
support to resolve them through their network). When schools close downbecause of financial problems, we seek donation and reopen again.

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Impact of SOKOLA
At various forums, Orang Rimba youth have been campaigning on the significance of their forest - the forest being their life, their home, their identity
and source of food. Destroying the forest means ending their world. They
share stories of their wisdom about ecology or their tradition in the jungle.
Also, they want to raise awareness on their values about life, meaning of
happiness, view on what is meant by being civilized or having wealth. They
basically want to be left alone in the jungle and to be free to choose thechanges or the way they would adopt modern things/life. This is in responseto the many programs provided by the government and other institutions
to “modernize” them (by introducing a new religion, housing, clothes, stateschool, etc.).
Their attempts at communicating to the outside world are meant toprove that they are just fine without the meddling by those from the outside
world about their life in the jungle. And while they need support, such help
must be sensitive to their ways of life. They often mention indigenous rights
especially in relation to making informed decision in communicating to theoutside world.
During the 2004-2018 period, the young Orang Rimba teacher trainees went many times to the National Park Board office and the Forestry
Department to request for the protection of the Bukit Duabelas National
Park where they live; gave two presentations at the Constitutional Court ofIndonesia in 2007 and 2010 about customary law, community and recognition of their/indigenous peoples belief; joined the forum organized by the
National Commission on Violence Against Women and spoke about indigenous life especially the women’s important role in the Orang Rimba tradition; shared the 1999-2017 experience of the Jungle School/Sokola Rimba
and its impact at the World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education(wipce) held in Toronto in 2017; discussed the topic of children and biodiversity at the Terre Des Hommes South East Asia Forum in Jakarta andYogyakarta; fundraised at the Asia-Pacific philanthropy events of the Rotaryclub in Bali, and attended several meetings with officials of the Education
Ministry to discuss the proposed curriculum for indigenous people.
They also gave presentations at other occasions such as the forums organized by the different Ministries (such as those of Social Welfare, Education,
National Development Planning Board) to discuss child rights in relation

Indigenous Peoples and Culture: Orang Rimba’s Education27

to the rights of indigenous children to hunt or help parents in the farm orin fishing though they were below eighteen years old. Rather than see these
activities as against the international conception of child rights, these activities of the indigenous children should be understood as “education” andnot “work/labor.” Their activities should be seen in their context, not fromcity people’s mindset. They also attended seminars at several universities inIndonesia; taught at student nature lovers’ clubs in universities; gave interviews for TV and radio programs, and newspaper; spoke occasionally at the

Introducing forest materials to visitors.

celebration of the National Education Day; and shared their experiences insessions during ngo/civil society group events.
The young Orang Rimba teacher trainees formed an organization called
Kelompok Makekal Bersatu (Makekal Group United).
Changing Situation of the Orang Rimba
The Orang Rimba’s life is directly being challenged by the changing times.
The forest kept on disappearing, while government programs try to modernize them (by offering housing, clothing, religion, state schools, etc.). Where28

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will these changes lead to? Should we re-focus our education objectives?
Can changes brought by the outside world be avoided? Do we fight thesechanges or just go along with them? Given the rate of change, I realize that
we are racing against time. We must push to continue studying and striving
so that we can cope with this new future. It is like developing anti-viruses forcomputers, forever chasing one’s tail.
Sokola continues to examine its role in the life of the Orang Rimba. Its
program has to fit the changing situation. To do so, two cases of education
for Orang Rimba10 are important considerations.
Besudut
Besudut was one of my first students when I started teaching in 2000.
I gave him intensive tuition for about four months until he mastered basic
literacy and numeracy. I then lost contact with him as I moved to other partsof the jungle to teach new students. He and his Bedinding Besi clan had ahigh level interaction with the outside world, including selling permits tologgers to fell trees. Besudut always longed to have a modern schooling ofa type he could not obtain in the forest. He gained his wish when a rattan
merchant from the village of Tanagaro, Raman Kayak, adopted him and sent
him to elementary school starting at grade 3. Besudut converted to Islamand changed his name into Irman Jalil.
People in the village and at school enthusiastically assisted Besudut, sokeen were they to prove to the world that an Orang Rimba can be “successful.” They wanted him to go to university, then become a public servant – amodel for what other Orang Rimba might achieve. At primary and secondary school, his teachers, the principal and other education authorities gave
him special attention, perhaps more than what was wisely needed. He wasassisted to pass his examinations, even though he did not always attend andperform well at school.
When Besudut graduated from high school, the government enrolled
him in a primary school teaching degree at the University of Jambi, the first
Orang Rimba to attend university. Metro TV interviewed him on the highrating talk show “Kick Andy,” during which Ministry of Education officials
appeared to present him with his scholarship and commend his example
to others. The local regent also gave him scholarship and warsi provided him with additional financial support. Thus, he became a “poster boy.”
Unfortunately, despite the generous funding, Besudut did not complete his

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studies. He dropped out in the second year of his course and turned up at asokola basecamp saying: “I can’t do this [university] anymore (Akeh hopi
endok lagi).” Soon after he was offered an honorary public servant positionin the Social Affairs Ministry. He remained there for about two years doing little more than preparing coffee for guests, doing photo-copying andother menial tasks. After this, another honorary administrative position
was given to him, this time in the local sub-district head’s office, performing
similar work. He soon left that job after becoming bored. Now in his mid30s, Besudut recently accepted nomination by a political party for the local
Jambi legislature (dprd). If elected, he will be the first Orang Rimba to be alegislator.
Besudut was viewed as a success by the mainstream media,10 and by
many in the general public who followed his career. Many people personallycongratulate me for assisting with Besudut’s achievements, even though I
try to tell them that the case is more complex and less positive than theyrealize. For the Orang Rimba community, Besudut was a failure. To them,his story proved that formal schooling takes Orang Rimba away from theirland and alienates them from their traditions. The Besudut case shows themarked contrast in aspirations between the Orang Rimba and Indonesiansociety in general. The things that many Indonesians think are important
and would like indigenous people to achieve are not those that most Orang
Rimba value. Formal education, salaried government jobs, recognition in
the media are all matters of little moment to the Orang Rimba, though
Besudut’s case illustrates that these are markers of success for the wider society and officialdom. Besudut sees himself, in some ways, as a failure too
because he cannot be himself and is tired of trying to meet the expectationsof others, particularly those outside his Orang Rimba community. He may
yet become a successful politician or official, but it is unlikely that his community will praise his achievement.
Pengendum Tampung
Pengendum, who is now in his late 20s, began his schooling at Sokola Rimba
in 2001. He did so against the wishes of his parents, who believed that reading and writing would make him evil as they involved the use of pencils,
which they regarded as wicked. He was the only one among his siblings tojoin the school and complete his education (this means having enough capacity to become a “teacher” for other Orang Rimba and to be an “advocate”

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who can represent the Orang Rimba community). Although he intensely
disliked math and science subjects, he was drawn to studying words and thelaw, saying that he wanted his literacy to be of use to him and his people.
He would often ask about legal matters and rights, particularly when there
was a difference between adat and Indonesian civil law. As he got older
and gained a better command of Indonesian, he began studying legal texts
and travelling to the Legal Aid Office (Lembaga Bantuan Hukum, lbh) in
Padang, Jambi and even Jakarta to learn more about human rights, especiallyrelating to adat. He was also a gifted public speaker and debater and quickly
developed a reputation in indigenous circles for his articulate advocacy onbehalf of the Orang Rimba. Over the last decade, he has appeared several
times on local and national television, speaking on indigenous issues, hasgiven expert evidence to parliamentary committees and the Constitutional
Court on the adat and rights of the Orang Rimba, and has also spoken at
an international conference for indigenous peoples in Canada in 2017. All of
this was achieved without any formal schooling.
Pengendum also went against his parents’ advice and married an outsider, a Jambi woman of Javanese descent, with whom he now has a family.
He lives in, and moves easily between, both the worlds of the Orang Rimba
and mainstream society. He and his family have a house in the district capital of Bangko, about two hours from his clan’s traditional land, but he di-Pengendum speaking at an international conference for indigenous peoples in Canada,
2017.

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vides his time evenly between living in the city and the forest. He has been
involved in producing and appearing in documentary films on adat communities, for which he and Mijak, one of his friends, won an award from theMelbourne Film Festival. In addition to his cultural activities, Pengendum
has been successful in business as well. Like many Orang Rimba, when theforestry management guidelines were announced, he claimed an area ofland as a plantation lot. He now has a sizeable number of rubber trees – acommon practice for the Orang Rimba as rubber trees can be planted within
the forest causing minimal harm to the existing flora and fauna – and has
also developed rattan farming which has proven lucrative.
Pengendum represents a different kind of “success” to Besudut. He remains an integral part of his clan and is equally at home living its culture as
he is residing in mainstream Indonesian society. He has been able to engage
with the outside world and advocate on behalf of his community without
abandoning his identity as an Orang Rimba. Indeed, at every point in his
career, he has made decisions on his own terms and not succumbed to pressure to become something other than what he wanted to be. He is much admired in Orang Rimba communities as someone who has not “lost his soul”
or his dignity, despite partly living in the city and being feted by state institutions and the media. Interestingly, he and Besudut are good friends and thelatter often expresses admiration for how Pengendum has managed his life.
What then is the future for the educational program of Sokola for theOrang Rimba? Sokola has become the largest ngo provider of educational
services to the Orang Rimba.
Future Plans
In 2018, after fifteen years of existence, we renamed sokola as Sokola
Institute to become a professional organization not only doing education
work for indigenous peoples but also advocacy and consultancy on indigenous peoples’ issues. In order to cover these activities, we added a new
department in the Institute: research and development division.
For the advocacy work, the Institute mainly undertakes activities to 1)
influence policy and programs toward indigenous people and 2) raise awareness among the public on how indigenous/local wisdoms and their survival
have to be supported. The Institute, for example, has been an advisor to the32

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Ministry of Education for the past three years in developing a curriculum
for indigenous peoples.
For consultancy, the Institute provides experts and trainers to anyone
who wants to develop educational programs for indigenous peoples. It has
programs being undertaken as part of corporate social responsibility, or
those of the government, ngos/civil society, teachers or the public.
The Institute has been campaigning to present the great value of local
knowledge through public events, social media such as the introduction of
the hashtag #pendidikanlokaluntukdunia (this means local knowledge forthe world), and publication such as my book the Jungle School and its awardwinning film with the same title. The film has been screened around theworld including Japan.12
And to fulfill this, the Institute is committed to developing a module/
guide book for people who want to do educational activities in indigenous
communities and within their organizations/institutions.
Apart from that, the Institute is still continuing its educational programs. It manages an average of four programs (one program for one indigenous community) at a time in different parts of Indonesia. The schools run
with varied duration, depending on the complexity of the situations faced by
the local communities. There was one program that ran for two years, othersfor eight years. The program in Orang Rimba Sumatra has been running for
fifteen years and will perhaps run for another five years or more. In this program, we in the Institute are actually the learners rather than the teachers.
We always believe that we have to learn first from the indigenous people before we can teach them, and the indigenous students are our best teachers.
Endnotes
1 Central Sumatra has four provinces: South Sumatra, West Sumatra, Jambi
and Riau.
2 The Dutch colonial government launched programs that brought people
from the highly populated Java to other islands in Indonesia to make them clear
land and start agricultural activities. See Hilda Masniarita Pohan and Yodi Izharivan,“Inside The Indonesian Migration: A Historical Perspective,” Jurnal Manajemen
Maranatha, Volume 16, Number 2, May 2017, 133-212, available at https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2910/991758515478aa4cf75e7322eced74109686.pdf .
3 The 1967 Law on Foreign Investment is a prime example of laws that displaced the indigenous peoples.
4 See Law no. 5/1974 on Village Government and Law no. 5/1979 on Regional
Governance.

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5 Sokola Institute was established in 2003, is a not-for-profit organization
which provides educational opportunities and advocacy skills to indigenous people.
6 Every Orang Rimba has her/his own Sentubung and Songoris. Sentubung isa tree under which the umbilical cord of someone is buried under, while Songoris isa tree whose part is used for a ceremony by the shaman for a newborn baby. Orang
Rimba prohibit cutting down both trees, believing that any harm to these trees
would also hurt their “owner.”
7 From my book, The Jungle School, SOKOLA (Jakarta, 2012), page 82
8 This list is from The Jungle School, pages 100-101.
9 The Jungle School, page 178.
10 Excerpt from Butet Manurung, ‘Normalising’ the Orang Rimba: Between
Mainstreaming, Marginalisation and Respecting Indigenous Culture, undated.
11 For an article about Besudut as a success story, see http://thejakartapost.
com/news/2013/05/28/first-orang-rimba-graduates-senior-high-school.html
12 See Focus on Asia Fukuoka International Film Festival, www.focus-on-asia.
com/2014/entry/5131.
Bahasa Indonesia words
Adat – (traditional) structures
Kubu – primitive, lacking good hygiene, ignorant, immoral and lacking any religion
Melangun – time when the Orang Rimba leave the place where a person died andstay far away
Rombong – clan
Acronyms
BKSDA – Balai Konservasi Sumber Daya Alam (Natural Resources Conservation
Institute)
WARSI – Indonesian Conservation Community