Press Release 29 March 2016 JAKARTA, Indonesia – Advocacy group PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP) today joined peasant and indigenous groups, land activists, and human rights campaigners in the region in … Read more
Press Release 23 March 2016 PENANG, Malaysia – As various peasant and indigenous people’s groups gear up for the “Day of the Landless” on 29 March, regional advocacy group PAN … Read more
We, as members of the international community from Asia and the Pacific, Africa, Latin America, Europe and the continental United States, convened by Pesticide Action Network, are gathered in Hawai`i … Read more
Press Release 15 January 2016 PENANG, Malaysia – Regional advocacy group PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP) raised alarm over the current state of human rights in Ethiopia. According to a report … Read more
Today, rural women from 20 countries across the globe are taking a strong and united stand against the unprecedented scale of land and resource grabbing in the world. For the … Read more
MANILA, PHILIPPINES – At a farmers’ picket-protest against land grabbing in Rodriguez, Rizal, PANAP in coordination with AMIHAN Philippines (National Federation of Peasant Women) launched yesterday the 16 Days of … Read more
Follow the journey of the 45 women from 7 countries.
Through the eyes of Sumen, an indigenous community strives to preserve their land and way of life in the rich rainforests of Sarawak. His will to stop a palm oil plantation is as strong as the currents of the mighty river Rajang.
“In this film, we tried to relate the indigenous people’s resistance against massive land grabbing in Sarawak through the eyes of Sumen. We felt that the best way to articulate their struggle is through their own words and experience. Thus, in the film, the ‘script’ was Sumen’s narration as told to us. We hope that it can be an effective tool to educate the public, including Sarawak’s policy makers, about the issue of native customary rights and how these are violated by big corporations and plantation and logging operators,” said Gilbert Sape, coordinator of PAN AP’s Food Sovereignty and Ecological Agriculture program and executive producer of the film.
It was their native customary land until palm oil companies came and claimed it as their own. With the help of corrupt politicians, almost 10,000 hectares of forest and agricultural lands were flattened. Fences were put up, barring indigenous peoples from entering their own ancestral land. This is the story of Melikin.
The story of many indigenous peoples in Sarawak.
For a 56-year old indigenous woman, her 2-hectare farmland in Southern Philippines is her life and livelihood. But for Dole, the biggest producer of bananas in the world, it is just a piece of cheap land that is good for the expansion of its monstrous plantation.
Her name is Marina and in 11minutes, she narrates her fight and captures the plight of millions of small food producers around the globe who choose to assert their rights to land and food.