Violence and the construction of identity : conflict between the Dayak and Madurese in Kalimantan, Indonesia

For Dayak people of Kalimantan, from all four provinces, the past decades have seen their access to forests all but disappear, their access to rivers and wetlands recede, and their opportunities to earn income from other sources shrink. In every instance, the people who appear to stand in their way are migrants, and frequently Madurese migrants. Further, Madurese are active in small town trade, in transport from Kalimantan's cities, they are the local face of the timber industry, and in regional towns like Sampit, Madurese had established their own communities and did not mingle with locals. In 1997 this group was targeted by the Dayak. "Dayak" may have begun as an imposed name but by 1997 it had come to mean a pan-Kalimantan indigenous identity. "Dayak" now denotes indigenous status and it is employed to invoke a notion of indigenous rights to resources, rights that the Dayak see as having been usurped by some recent migrants, including Madurese, as well as by the activities of timber companies. Ongoing marginalisation in their own land, coupled with the local empowerment seemingly promised by decentralisation, served to justify attacks in Madurese as defensive acts, in protection of "the homeland". Such acts further reinforced the "new" Dayak identity. Dayak can no longer be rejected as a colonial imposition, rather, it demands investigation as a regional Kalimantan identity.