Indonesia’s Indigenous Akit community faces exploitation & land loss (commentary)

Indonesia’s Indigenous Akit community faces exploitation & land loss (commentary)

For the Akit tribe of Bengkalis and Pelalawan districts in Riau province, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, land is more than just soil beneath their feet: it is their identity, their lifeblood, and their heritage. As one elder has said, “Adat is like a part of the body, an epitome of blood and heart,” where adat means cultural values passed down through generations, with one of its tangible forms being land. Embedded within their ancestral l…