Institut Dayakologi: The Challenges of an Information and Advocacy Centre of Dayak Culture in Kalimantan

Abstract

Over the past quarter of a century Institut Dayakologi has played a leading role in the revitalisation of Dayak identity and interests in Kalimantan. It has done so in collaboration with a large number of non-governmental organisations and community groups with the aim of advancing the position of Dayak people in particular and the rights of indigenous peoples more generally. Tracing the origins of new thinking about the challenges facing the Dayak community to meetings of students and activists in the late 1980s, the chapter examines both the institutional and programmatic development of Institut Dayakologi. Operating at first under the difficult circumstances of Suharto’s New Order regime it surveys the institute’s contribution in building spaces and conditions for Dayak culture to be able to survive. This has been achieved through research projects, documentation programmes, collaboration and facilitation programmes, advocacy and networking, publications and legal challenges. Major challenges remain: the appropriation of traditional Dayak land rights and attendant environmental destruction; destructive government policies; and globalisation and its impacts. These new realities compel Institut Dayakologi to play new roles in the context of current Dayak circumstances and challenges.