There are an estimated 3,000 Orang Rimba in Jambi province in Central Sumatra. The area spans across 148,000 acres (60,000 hectares). The forest does not look like it did in the past. There was a time when the forest was very beautiful and full of massive trees. Today, large swaths of forest have disappeared. It didn’t take long for this to happen. The palm plantation corporations and their local minions began to burn the forest without mercy. The massive 2015 fires burned more than 21,000 sq km of forest and peat land, severely exacerbated by a seasonal drought which helped spread the blazes. Ever single year, plantation owners start fires to clear the land, with terrible consequences on the forest, environment, and indigenous peoples. Nevertheless, the Orang Rimba are still fighting for their human and land rights.
“Our main goal is to preserve the forest according to the customary traditions of our people. If there’s no forest, there’s no Orang Rimba and the other way round,” says Bepak Pengusai, head of customs in a rombong, or group area, belonging to the Orang Rimba, an aboriginal people in Sumatra. (By Angel L. Martinez Cantera in Jambi, Sumatra, June 7, 2016; Indonesia’s Forest Fires Threaten Sumatra’s Remaining Orang Rimba).
The expansion and intrusion of the palm plantation corporations and massive slash-and-burn activities has gradually expelled the 11 tribes that make up the community in Jambi’s Bukit Duabelas National Park, which has shrunk by an estimated 30 percent. The government usually holds indigenous people responsible, but doesn’t punish the powerful corporations that stimulate the fires. In October 2015, President Joko Widodo declared that there would be new housing for the Orang Rimba on 6,177 acres (2,500 hectares) of forest in Jambi after a meeting with tribal leaders. This tiny gesture will neither protect the forest or solve the Orang Rimba’s existential problems. They want to live on their own land following their tradition.
“We don’t refuse assistance from outside if it benefits us, because we know we can’t fight modernity ourselves and alone. But the jungle belongs to the Orang Rimba,” said Bepak Pengusai. (ibid).
“The majority of Orang Rimba do not wish for a ‘house’ by Indonesian standards... Their home is the forest. Their landscape must be restored for their very survival. Otherwise, history will record that the government of Indonesia successfully pushed the Orang Rimba to extinction,” said Rukka Sambolinggi. (ibid).
The Piraha are an indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. They live on the coast of the Amazon River. They call themselves Hiaitsiihi, a group of human beings or bodies that distinguishes them from other human beings. There are 300 to 400 Piraha. The Piraha are known as the people of the Maici river, and some say the happiest people in the world. They speak the Piraha language. They are hunter-gatherers, able to communicate quite well by whistling, cries, and ‘eat speech’, which also helps them when hunting. Most men can understand Portuguese, but some have a hard time communicating in the language. In general, women have little to no understanding of Portuguese, from not having contact with Portuguese-speaking individuals. Piraha are descendants of, and are the last surviving sub-group of the Mura. Piraha society as a whole does not use force or coercion; people don’t order others around. There’s no official hierarchy, and no designated leaders. Canoes are used for fishing and for travel by river. When canoes break or run their course, slabs of bark are used in their place but for short-term use. Huts are basic, containing a few articles. Piraha sleep for short periods of time, rarely sleeping through a night.
Piraha are simple people who don’t care about not having the modern amenities of this world. Piraha live for the here and now, forgetting what’s not essential; only a few members of the tribe can remember the names of their grandparents. The list below was extracted from Alexander Mishkov, documentarytube.com: HOW THE PIRAHA PEOPLE BECAME THE HAPPIEST TRIBE IN THE WORLD?:
The Piraha have an unusual naming system which is strongly connected to their cosmology. A person receives his or her first name while still in its mother’s womb. This ‘first name’ is believed to be responsible for the creation of their bodies. If the person survives, he or she will receive additional names from beings living in the different layers of the cosmos.
The Piraha were first discovered by non-Indians at the end of the 19th centur. Nimuendaju came across the Piraha on the Marmelos river (Portuguese: Rios dos Marmelos) and again on the Maici river. In 1921, FUNAI established a post on the Maici river in order to have normal contact with the Piraha. Nimuendaju believed that the Piraha were content with their poverty and until then had given little thought regarding the advantages of civilization, excluding tools, they had little contact with non-Indians, were lazy but peaceful, till then, no recorded hostility towards ‘civilized people’. But there were conflicts with nearby Indian peoples. The American linguist-anthropologist Daniel Everett gives a contrasting opinion:
“The Pirahã are supremely gifted in all the ways necessary to ensure their continued survival in the jungle: they know the usefulness and location of all important plants in their area; they understand the behaviour of local animals and how to catch and avoid them; and they can walk into the jungle naked, with no tools or weapons, and walk out three days later with baskets of fruit, nuts, and small game.” (John Colapinto, April 16, 2007; “The Interpreter: Has a Remote Amazonian Tribe Upended Our Understanding of Language?.” The New Yorker).
The Rabari people (Rawari, Desai) are an indigenous tribal caste of nomadic herders of cattle and camels, and are shepherds that live in different regions of Northwest India mainly the states of Gujarat, Punjabi, and Rajasthan (a state in Northern India). Other Rabari groups are found in Pakistan mainly Sindh Desert. The word ‘Rabari’ means ‘outsiders’, a good description of their main occupation and status within Indian society.
Exactly where the Rabari originated from is not known. One theory holds that the Rabari migrated to India from Iran via Afghanistan through Baluchistan about a millennium ago. Another theory supposes that there’s a clearer link to Rajputs of Rajasthan.
Most Rabari follow the Hindu faith. Officially, there are 133 sub casts. They believe that they were created by Matadevi (Pavarti), the companion of Lord Shiva and mother goddess of India. One of the interpretations of the story is that she cleaned dust and sweat from Shiva as he ruminated deeply and moulded a camel from dirt. Another Interpretation is that Shiva created the first camel for her for amusement, but the camel kept running away. Parvati created the first Rabari to care for it. This is probably why the Rabari consider themselves their herd’s guardians rather than their owners. For the Rabari, keeping animals is an almost sacred occupation.
By tradition, Rabari were nomadic, living in tents or out in the open, raising camels, cattle, and goats. The full nomadic lifestyle is now less acceptable in India. Today only a fraction of Rabari live a truly nomadic lifestyle. Most are on the outskirts of cities, towns, and villages, living a semi-nomadic lifestyle, following the seasonal rains and then returning to their villages. While the men are searching for grazing pastures for their livestock, the women and children are in the villages. Rabari women are an important part of the economic and religious domains. The Rabari believe the institution of marriage is very important. Traditionally, weddings were lavish events, occurring on a specific day of the year, the feast of Gokalashtami Day. Strangers and visitors to weddings are not welcome, and are told so, bluntly. Robari are generally friendly and hospitable, but not on this day. Rabari practice endogamy, and usually within closely related families. Remarriage is allowed for the widow and widower.
Going to the local village or town market is an essential part of daily life. Rabari women sell and trade milk, milk byproducts, wool, and leather, in order to buy goods they don’t produce themselves. Rabari women are known for their extraordinary art, especially the decorating of their homes and villages. The wool is spun from sheep and goats, which is given to local weavers to produce their blankets, veils, woollen skirts, and turbans. Due to the pressures of modernization, Rabari are abandoning their customary dress for modern clothing.
The Rohingya people are an indigenous ethnic minority group in Arakan (Rakhine) State, in what was previously known as Burma, now called Myanmar. Rohingya families can contain from a few members to many children. Prior to the 2015 Rohingya refugee catastrophe and the large-scale military atrocities of 2016 2017, there were an estimated 1.3 million Rohingya in Myanmar. Their worldwide population is estimated at 3.5 million. Because institutionalized racism, persecution, discrimination, and violence many have left the area to live in Australia, Europe, New Zealand, North America, the Gulf States, Pakistan, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere. Large refugee communities have been set up in Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Thailand. Many more are internally displaced persons (IDP) in Myanmar.
The Rohingya speak an Indo-Aryan sub-category of the IndoEuropean language family. Rohingya has been written in Arabic, Hanifi, Roman, Urdu, and Burmese script. But due to continuous persecution most Rohingya are illiterate, only a minority of Rohingya are given an opportunity to attain higher education. Many are now unemployed. Up to 98 percent of Rohingya are Muslims, the remainder are Hindus and Christians. They have a tight social and familial bond emanating from their Islamic faith. Commonly, men pray in congregational prayers at the mosque or at home, women pray at home. Many men wear beards, the majority of women wear a hijab or burka. The Myanmar Government does not recognize the Rohingya as a ‘national race’, as such, they were stripped of their citizenship rights under the 1982 Citizenship Law; thus, they became unrecognized foreigners, without citizenship rights in their own country. This being the case, irrespective of the fact that the Rohingya have a very long, continuous history on their land.
In numerous conflicts around the world rape, sexual violence, and other related crimes, specifically directed at women and girls, and to a considerably lesser extent boys and men, have been, and are currently being used as a powerful weapon to destroy the honour, dignity, and self-respect of the victims, and as a tool for mass expulsions and ethnic cleansing. Notwithstanding the passage in April 2019 of UN Security Council Resolution 2467, which is designed to increase justice and accountability pertaining to cases of wartime rape, governments aren’t taking appropriate action. The Rohingya Muslims have endured mass slaughter, rape and torture, the burning and destruction of countless villages, looting, and large-scale ethnic cleansing.
“We’ve seen ethnic cleansing in Rakhine state before, when HRW documented ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya in 2012. No one was held responsible for those atrocities, everything was swept under the rug by the Myanmar government. No one should forget either that the Myanmar military conducted similar security sweeps and committed atrocities against the Rohingya in 1978 and 1992, driving hundreds of thousands of Rohingya into Bangladesh in both instances," said Phil Robertson, Deputy Director of the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch. (By Will Worley, November 25, 2016; independent.co.uk: Rohingya Muslims Being ‘Ethnically Cleansed’).
Acts of rape by Myanmar military forces is thorough and well-organized. Many women and girls have conveyed horrible rape stories, but fearing that the authorities will kill them or their relatives if they speak out, victims use aliases.
R, a 13 year-old girl was fearful of Myanmar military personnel. In August 2016, 10 soldiers smashed their way into R’s house. They seized her 2 younger brothers, tied them to a tree then physically assaulted them. R tried to flee the area, but they snagged her. They tied her arms to 2 trees, forcefully pulled off her earrings and bracelets, and pulled off her clothes. R screamed at the men, asking them to stop; they spat on her. The agonizing pain began during the first rape. Shockingly, she was raped by 10 men. She passed out.
R’s elder brothers carried her to the border. As soon as they were in Bangladesh a physician gave her emergency contraceptives. R desperately misses her younger brothers. She has nightmares on a regular basis, and has little or no appetite for food. She said that before she was gang-raped she was pretty. Some Rohingya rape victims are blamed by their families (what was she supposed to do? What could she have done? Could the blamers have done any better to defend themselves?). This is a common occurrence in many cultures around the world.
In August 2017, K and her family were eating breakfast, suddenly they heard some other villagers screaming. Her husband and 3 elder brothers ran out the door. K couldn’t do that because she was pregnant and was caring for 2 toddlers. The men forced their way in, threw K on the bed, yanked off her jewellery and took the money she had hidden in her blouse. They ripped off her clothes and then tied her hands and feet with a rope. She tried to resist, so they choked her. Then they proceeded to rape her.
She was too horrified to move. One of the rapists put a knife near her eye, another rapist put a gun to her chest. This happened while the third man was raping her. When he finished, they switched places, doing this another time, until all 3 men had raped her. K started bleeding; she believed that her foetus was dying. She passed out, awakening after the rapists had left. Sadly, her husband blamed her for the assault, berating her for not running away. K’s family was able to flee to Bangladesh. 2 weeks later, K gave birth to a boy.
M was at home with her husband, sister-in-law, and sisterin-law’s brother in late August 2017. Security forces invaded their village. The men fled, neglecting M, and her sister-in-law who was taking a shower. 3 men kicked the door open, then tied M’s sister-in-law’s hands behind her back. They dragged her sister-in-law out of the shower. Like beasts, they bit her face and body so hard flesh was torn off. The 3 men raped her, then stabbed her breasts and torso with their knives, killing her.
One of the rapists approached M, pulled off her clothes and snatched her earrings. He unzipped his pants and then pushed her onto her back. He proceeded to rape her, choking her and punching her in the face and chest, then bit her eyebrow, a real beast. She was terrified at the prospect of being killed like her sister-in-law. Thankfully, she mustered enough courage to scream as loud as she could, the rapists fled as the neighbours began to converge upon M’s house. She has made it clear that she doesn’t w