The Rimbawan Muda Indonesia (RMI) established in 1992, dedicates its work to youth and indigenous peoples’ communities mainly in the form of community organising and advocacy. RMI gives emphasis to empower rural youth, including those who are members of indigenous communities, to be the agents of change of their own situation and that of young peers.

Ever since RMI has carried out various projects and activities that empower them and provide space for them to be part of their communities’ development. Youth platforms namely Relawan for Life, Suara Muda Nusantara and Teens Go Green are amongst the strategies developed by that empower youth # both rural and urban # to promote indigenous youth participation in Kasepuhan Indigenous Peoples Community’s Forum that has always excluded women and youth voice.

Furthermore, in 2017, RMI was appointed as the coordinator of a regional youth and land platform within Asia, under the International Land Coalition-Asia.

The Being and becoming indigenous project is led by Rimbawan Muda Indonesia (RMI) and implemented in collaboration with the Asian Farmers Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA). The project opens up spaces to support the local economies of indigenous youth whilst sticking to customary law that applies in their communities in Indonesia and the Philippines. Such spaces are intended to allow indigenous youth to co-learn and to discuss the concept of indigeneity in their own terms.

This is of importance given the situations that they are in the era of the rising digital economy and new technological advances (besides other social changes caused by modernisation), which promote individuality as a way of living, as opposed to collective or communal lifestyles that have been practised for centuries in their communities of origin. The project strengthens indigenous youth in Indonesia and the Philippine’s perceptions on indigeneity (around the question: what does it mean to be indigenous?) and promotes ownership over their own identities, as a way to enhance their participation in regenerating/reproducing their own traditions.

In order to be able to achieve the mentioned objectives, co-learning sessions to obtain an understanding of the concept of indigeneity in present days will be conducted as a start. The next series of discussions is on digital literacy and digital economies as well as the strategies in using information technology and other technological innovations as tools to support the conservation of indigeneity.