Bogor, Indonesia — In January 2022, for the first time in its 10-year history, BPAN elected a woman, Michelin Sallata, to lead the Indonesian indigenous youth movement. However, gender equality within the communities and the organization is still not considered a relevant issue to be brought to the discussion table.

The Indigenous Youth Front of the Archipelago or Barisan Pemuda Adat Nusantara (BPAN) is an autonomous organization of AMAN (Alliance of Indigenous Peoples of the Archipelago) in Indonesia. Established on January 29, 2012, BPAN incorporates indigenous youth ages 15-30 from 7 regions of Indonesia: Papua, Kepulauan Maluku, Bali-Nusra, Sulawesi, Jawa, Kalimantan and Sumatra. Of the 77 sub-regional chapters, there are only six women with a strategic position within the organization.

Despite the fact that AMAN has had Rukka Sombolinggi as its leader since 2017, for the youth, as for the indigenous communities in Indonesia, the idea that only men can lead and occupy strategic positions in a political organization is still rooted, and the participation numbers of women in BPAN confirm this: they remain below 30 percent.

In order to address this problem, AMAN and BPAN, in conjunction with The Invisible Thread (TINTA), developed the project “Reinforcing tools and capacities in BPAN to improve women’s participation within the structure and promote their “homecoming” movement with a gender-inclusive perspective”.

In 2021, TINTA conducted a series of interviews in order to understand the gender dynamics, needs and priorities of BPAN as well as the “homecoming” movement in depth. Following this research, in January 2022 we started a set of meetings, activities and online communication materials to discuss and reflect on gender equality and the importance of the inclusion of women within the youth organization with around 20 young members of BPAN.

In one of the different online sessions, a dialogue was shared with Fany Kuiru and Nemo Andy Guiquita, women leaders from Colombia and Ecuador respectively, as well as with Ikiamianuwa Uyunkar and Kankwana Canelos, community communicators from the program Remando from la Voz de la CONFENIAE, a community radio station of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon.

The reflection process ended with the first face-to-face workshop «Gender Inclusion with the Front of Indigenous Youth of the Archipelago (BPAN): Socio-ecological analysis and planning for the implementation of strategic activities 2022-2023» facilitated by TINTA in Bogor, Indonesia between the days May 10 and 13. 15 young representatives from 7 different regions where BPAN has a presence participated in this space.