Starting Point
It was 1999 when volunteers from the Baileo Maluku Network formed an ad-hoc organization named Tim Relawan Kemanusiaan (TRK). Much of its activities revolved around providing humanitarian relief during the first year of its establishment, followed by reconciliation and rehabilitation efforts for the following two years. A strategic change was introduced when Himpunan Maluku untuk Kemanusiaan (HUMANUM) was established in place of TRK during a Baileo Maluku assembly in February 2003.
As the conflict dwindled, the HUMANUM mandate transitioned from providing emergency relief to advocating for the marginalized indigenous peoples of Maluku. It intends to strengthen the autonomy of indigenous communities and their economic entities in regulating their people and their use of natural resources. HUMANUM also has several provisions regarding gender equality, such as recognizing the rights of Indigenous women and promoting gender equality within the bureaucracy of Indigenous villages.
Peace Journey
There is a substantial disconnection between the Indonesian official village bureaucracy administration and the indigenous peoples’ village bureaucracy. The official administration requires the appointment of a village head through a public election, whereas Indigenous peoples firmly believe that their village head, “Raja Negeri”, must be the descendant of the previous ruler. The Maluku government offered a compromise to the Indigenous villages, “negeri”. The negeri are allowed to not hold a public election to elect their Raja Negeri, however, the Maluku government will have the authority to appoint their public servant as the acting village head. A compromise is a compromise indeed, as they didn’t fully satisfy both parties. A few negeris in West Seram Regency are threatened to convert to nontraditional villages, although they risk losing their communal rights to Indigenous land. The rest of the negeris are forced to live under the command of the acting village head, which isn’t exactly ideal according to their customs.
HUMANUM seeks to mitigate the friction and prevent the emergence of conflict out of this dubious status quo. It enacts reconciliation efforts by building the indigenous peoples’ capacity to verify information and negotiate their way out of conflict. Another way is to hold intra and internegeris FGD for Indigenous peoples to relearn their governing system which has been passed down for generations. Besides that, HUMANUM also advocates for the participation of women in governing the negeri by citing several Indigenous norms that value women, although such an idea hasn’t received much reception among the negeri elites.
Success Stories
Vivi and her colleagues often receive security threats during their travels to remote areas and small islands. The threats were exponentially more dangerous for fellow female activists, especially when they were advocating for more women in leadership positions. Female activists have specific vulnerabilities compared to men, as they are more likely to be victims of sexual violence and they have to deal with menstruation, pregnancy, childbearing, and nursing during the length of their careers.
That said, it didn’t exactly hinder her in advancing gender equality as a female activist. Through HUMANUM, Vivi and her colleagues advocate for Indigenous women to change their formal occupation in their ID cards from housewives to fisherwomen. Those women gather fish and crustaceans just like their fishermen's husbands, although on a smaller scale. However, to apply for fishermen's insurance programs, their ID cards must state their occupation as fisherwomen. HUMANUM also campaigns against child marriages that often occur in Indigenous communities.