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‘How can we give them up?’: Sabuai people bring fight to protect sacred forests
The indigenous people of Sabuai village in Maluku have proven time and again their tenacity to go up against commercial entities out to desecrate their sacred forests.
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Indigenous Sabuai people block heavy equipment to prevent what they claim is illegal logging on their customary land and forest on Seram Island, Maluku, in February 2020. (Courtesy of/Kaleb Yamarua)
I
t has been almost a year since 21-year-old Khaleb Yamarua, a resident of Sabuai village in Maluku’s Eastern Seram regency, was arrested for a vandalism charge after trying to protect his village’s heritage forest.
Yet, he was still able to grimly recall the details of that day as if it only happened yesterday.
On Feb. 18, 2020, at around 10 a.m. Eastern Indonesian Time, police officers stormed his village and proceeded to round him and dozens of other residents up, following a report filed by CV Sumber Berkat Makmur, a logging firm, accusing them of malicious destruction of property.
A day before the police questioned them in relation to the company’s damaged equipment, the indigenous Sabuai people staged a protest to stop the loggers from felling trees on a site they claimed was part of their tribal land.
Read also: Indigenous groups combine rituals, protocols in effort to banish virus
The police account stated that the protest had allegedly turned into a riot, which culminated in what is claimed to be the chaining down of heavy machinery used to extract timber from the forests of Sabuai’s Mount Ahwale.
The police ended up naming Khaleb and his relative, Stefanus Ahwalam, as suspects on Feb. 24. While neither were thrown in jail, both were put under house arrest and asked to regularly report to the police.
