00:01Deep in the rainforests of northern Indonesia, the last of the country's nomadic hunter-gatherers are fighting for survival.
00:09Uncontacted for centuries, the Hongana-Manyawa have had to fend off trespassers and face forced relocation,
00:16as the world's largest nickel mine encroaches on their land.
00:20After the companies entered this area, my relatives had to move.
00:24A lot of my relatives in this forest are now very far to reach, thanks to the mining companies.
00:29They keep clearing the forest, while this is our land, our birthplace.
00:33Over 500,000 tons of nickel come from here, nearly 20% of global supply.
00:40It's used for wind and solar power and in electric vehicles and stainless steel.
00:45But as demand for green energy rises, so does the cost for the Hongana-Manyawa people.
00:51There are only 3,500 of them left, and their daily lives are heavily dependent on the dwindling forest.
00:58Turning the area into a concession zone or using it for mining to boost the economy hasn't really solved any problems so far.
01:07Instead, it's created new problems.
01:09Now, what will happen to the Hongana-Manyawa people?
01:12If the government keeps using their economic arguments to justify their marginalization,
01:17then it amounts to a human rights violation.
01:20Ancestral land is protected under the Indonesian constitution, but critics say the law is not always enforced.
01:26And with the Hongana-Manyawa unseen for so long, they have no defined legal status,
01:31leaving them vulnerable to mining concessions like this one,
01:35jointly managed by French and Chinese companies who say their operations here are not breaking any laws.
01:42The destruction of the land is not the only challenge facing the Hongana-Manyawa.
01:49This river, as you see, was in the past a source of life for the Hongana-Manyawa people.
01:54But now it's dirty. Hongana-Manyawa people are in misery.
01:59Despite the misery, they say that they have no plans to give up their land and traditions,
02:05that see them born in the river and buried within the sacred trees of the forest.
02:10Let me reiterate, this is our land, our home. We will not consent to its destruction.
02:17So I'm telling them, this is our home, and we will not give it to you.
02:21For now, the Hongana-Manyawa do what they can, with or without the country's legal protections.
02:27In the face of big business and capitalist interest,
02:30they're determined to uphold their traditional role as the land's protectors,
02:34honoring the sanctity of the place they call home.
02:38Devin Tsai and Miriam Brunner for Taiwan Plus.
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