The land is an important part of the identity of the Bataks, ethnic group who predominanly inhabit North Sumatra province of Indonesia. For descendants of the Bataks, the surname behind their name is linked to the land where they come from. The lineage of this clan is recorded in Tarombo, a form of a generational tree. The development of the Bataks, who migrated and moved around, caused them to disperse and open their own huta, or villages.
Huta Natinggir in Habinsaran is one of the oldest Batak’s village. It is located in Borbor District, an area overlooking Lake Toba, the largest volcanic lake in the world. The descendants of Opung Raja Nasomalomarhohos Pasaribu have been living on this land for the last 325 years. Like other Batak indigenous communities, the descendants of Pasaribu in Natinggir have passed down the story of their land through oral stories, known as marturi-turian.
The Natinggir community has long depended on the kemenyan (frankincense) harvest. Toba kemenyan (Styrax Sumatrana) is endemic to the Toba highlands. It is said that through marturi-turian, kemenyan is told as the incarnation of a girl who sacrificed herself for her family. The white sap produced from the tree is the cry of a woman who chose to become a tree to save her family and village community from poverty. This is why the kemenyan tree is considered sacred. And the Batak people who live around the kemenyan forest will feel hurt if the tree is cut down.
“Everything in Natinggir land is a blessing from God, not from man,” says Tomu Pasaribu
According to records, Natinggir’s kemenyan has been a favorite and traded along with camphor to other parts of the world through the port of Barus on the west coast of Sumatra since thousands of years ago. In addition to kemenyan trees, there are also various other types of trees with their own importance for Huta Natinggir. There are also rattan plants that are used as baskets for kemenyan, tampi and baskets for sweet potatoes. Unfortunately, a lot of these trees are now hard to find due to industrial expansion.
The Company Invasion
The arrival of Toba Pulp Lestari began with the government’s reforestation program in 1972, with a total area of approximately 15 hectares. The reforestation program on Natinggir customary land was carried out after the government asked one of the huta elders and gave a pago-pago. For the Batak community, pago-pago is a legal form of agreement that can be in the form of food or money. There is no buying or selling here.
Over time, however, the company considered the pago-pago as a land compensation fee. This was how PT Inti Indorayon Utama, the company’s name before changing to PT Toba Pulp Lestari, claimed that the Huta Natinggir area and its surroundings were its legal concession area after the reforestation program was completed. This claim is based on the Indonesian Minister of Forestry’s Decree on the Granting of HTI Concession Rights to PT Inti Indorayon Utama in 1992.
The indigenous people of Op Raja Pasaribu Nasomalomarhohos Natinggir who depend their livelihood on the land and forests are beginning to feel the impact of the company’s presence. Those who generally raise buffaloes cage-free must deal with the concession area. The parjampalan area, where people graze their animals without cages, has been transformed into a monoculture plantation. As a result, it is difficult for the people to feed their livestock.
In addition, kemenyan trees, which grow in the middle of the forest, have declined due to deforestation and concession expansion. Bayon, a rattan plant used by the Natinggir community, is also no longer easy to find. As a result, the community has switched from cultivating kemenyan to growing secondary crops. “In the past, we all harvested and lived from kemenyan trees, but now there are none left,” said Tomu Pasaribu, a leader of the Natinggir indigenous community, while showing the remaining kemenyan inherited from his father.
There are several water sources in the center of the Natinggir customary territory. The Aek Natinggir, Aek Bontar, Aek Bulu, and Aek Naoto rivers, which provide drinking water for the village community and also flow into Lake Toba, are often muddy and yellow from the company’s use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides on the eucalyptus trees.
Since 2018, the people of Huta Natinggir have been fighting back. However, they admitted that they were not yet sufficiently organized and understood how to reclaim their land. A year later, the Natinggir people met with Kelompok Studi dan Pengembangan Prakarsa Masyarakat (KSPPM), a non-governmental organisation that conducts studies, research, organizing, education and advocacy for marginalized communities in North Sumatra. With the help of KSPPM, the indigenous people of Huta Natingir began documenting their community, from customary laws, history, to mapping, in order to know fully the size of the Natinggir customary area.
The Huta Natinggir community reclaimed their land in 2019. From the total 1,495 hectares of land owned by the Natinggir indigenous community, approximately 56 hectares was successfully reclaimed in early 2022. This number was then increased by 17 Ha in March 2022. On World Food Day 2022, the Natinggir community, together with the Toba Farmers Union, planted kemenyan seeds in part of the area. But trouble came again. About 6 hectares of the location where the kemenyan seedlings were planted have now been converted back into eucalyptus trees by the company.
Fostering the Struggle
“My father and I used to rest here after harvesting kemenyan. This used to be the path to the kemenyan forest, but this is it now,” says Tomu Pasaribu. His eloquence about the history of the land and his memories of the Natinggir land are still preserved. In his old age, he still has kemenyan trees inherited from his father. Tomu has long been a witness to land struggles and conflicts between the Natinggir indigenous village and companies.
Since the company arrived in Natinggir’s customary territory, Tomu and his family have found it difficult to rely on forest products. He left a message for his son, Sahala Pasaribu, to always fight for their land “May the future of my grandchildren be blessed, so that the next generation will always be on Natinggir land,” Tomu said. In May 2024, Tomu Pasaribu passed away at the age of 59.
Sahala Pasaribu (34) has been the leader of the Natinggir Traditional Village community struggle since 2019. The village is now home to around 50 households. His ideas have given the younger generation of Natinggir the spirit to continue their fight.
“Humans and nature are interdependent. Nature gives us oxygen and fresh air, so it is our duty to protect it,” says Sahala Pasaribu.
Sahala and his wife live in a house they built on the land they reclaimed. Like the other houses, theirs was built in collaboration with the other villagers. Every day, Sahala works in the fields to provide for his family’s needs. He also often represents the Natinggir indigenous community in various training activities and discussion forums on indigenous sustainability.
Sahala is joined by Rumenti Pasaribu who represents women in the fight for the rights of the Natinggir community. She and other women often discuss how to empower women to protect their inherited land. “If the men work in the fields and go home, we women go home thinking about the needs of the house. We are the closest to home, to the next generation of this land,” says Rumenti.
Sahala and Rumenti are central for the Natinggir indigenous people’s struggle. What they do is not for profit, but to uphold the will of their ancestors. To this day, they continue to nurture their struggle, fostering the fight of the Natinggir people for their land rights.
Translated by Astrid Reza
Text Editor: Muhammad Fadli
