page_title: Native Indonesians
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Native Indonesians / Background
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Foto. Deze foto is gemaakt tijdens de Commissiereis naar Centraal-Borneo van A.W. Nieuwenhuis. Maskerdans tijdens de zaaifeesten van de Bahau Dajaks, Boven-Mahakam
context_page_description: Native Indonesians, also Pribumi, are Indonesians whose ancestral roots lie mainly in the archipelago, distinguished from Indonesians of known foreign descent, like Chinese Indonesians, Arab Indonesians, and Indo-Europeans.
context_section_description: Pribumi make up about 95% of the Indonesian population. Using Indonesia's population estimate in 2006, this translates to about 230 million people. As an umbrella of similar cultural heritage among various ethnic groups in Indonesia, Pribumi culture plays a significant role in shaping the country's socioeconomic circumstance.
  The United States Library of Congress Country Study of Indonesia defines Pribumi as:
  Literally, an indigene, or native. In the colonial era, the great majority of the population of the archipelago came to regard themselves as indigenous, in contrast to the non-indigenous Dutch and Chinese (and, to a degree, Arab) communities. After independence the distinction persisted, expressed as a dichotomy between elements that were pribumi and those that were not. The distinction has had significant implications for economic development policy
  — Indonesia: A Country Study, Glossary
  There are over 300 ethnic groups in Indonesia, of which 200 are of Native Indonesian ancestry.
  The largest ethnic group in Indonesia are the Javanese people who make up 41% of the total population. The Javanese are concentrated on the island of Java but millions have migrated to other islands throughout the archipelago. The Sundanese, Malay, and Madurese are the next largest groups in the country. Many ethnic groups, particularly in Kalimantan and the province of Papua, have only hundreds of members. Most of the local languages belong to the Austronesian language family, although a significant number, particularly in North Maluku and West Papua, speak Papuan languages.
  The division and classification of ethnic groups in Indonesia is not rigid and in some cases are unclear as the result of migrations, along with cultural and linguistic influences; for example some may agree that the Bantenese and Cirebonese belong to different ethnic groups with their own distinct dialect, however others might consider them to be Javanese sub-ethnicities, as members of the larger Javanese people. The same considerations may apply to the Baduy people who share so many similarities with the Sundanese people that they can be considered as belonging to the same ethnic group. The clearest example of hybrid ethnicity are the Betawi people, the result of a mixture of different native ethnicities that have merged with people of Arab, Chinese and Indian origins since the era of colonial Batavia (Jakarta).
  The proportional populations of Native Indonesians according to the (2009 census) is as follows:
caption: A troupe of Bahau Dayak performers during the Hudoq festival (Harvest festival) in Samarinda, the Residency of South and East Kalimantan, Indonesia. (Taken c. 1898–1900)
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