Sepaku, East Kalimantan – 68-year-old Sernai lives in a picket home that when belonged to her great-great-grandparents.

It’s a easy house — there isn’t any glass within the home windows, and it’s principally unfurnished.

That is the place she has lived her complete life. However her village is not the quiet place she associates together with her childhood. Lately, she wakes each morning to the sound of heavy equipment in her again yard.

Indonesia is constructing a brand new capital metropolis in East Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo. Town shall be known as Nusantara, and it’ll substitute the present capital Jakarta, an overcrowded and polluted metropolis and the world’s fastest-sinking metropolis.

Sernai’s village, the place she lives with fellow Balik Indigenous folks, will ultimately be a part of the brand new metropolis.

“Folks from the capital are coming. They’re pushing us out. They’ll take my home ultimately,” she informed Al Jazeera. She misplaced a part of her home and farmland to building of an consumption reservoir for a dam to service the brand new capital. “We are able to’t even get water anymore as a result of the river is blocked. The river was once our supply of life. We’d drink from it, bathe there, and use it for cooking. Now we will’t entry it anymore.”

Sernai stated the federal government gave her household, which incorporates her 17 grandchildren, about $3,000 in compensation.

However she stated it isn’t sufficient to make up for the disruption to their lives.

“We used to plant coconuts and plums. There have been rows of timber, and they’re all gone now. We had all types of fruits that we may promote on the market, like mango. Now, there’s nothing we will promote,” she stated. “We used to dwell good lives, we by no means had to purchase issues like wooden, water or greens. Now, we dwell depressing lives,” Sernai stated.

‘Sacrificed within the title of nationwide growth’

The Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance of Nusantara (AMAN) estimates that no less than 20,000 Indigenous folks shall be relocated as building on Nusantara progresses.

“Indigenous folks additionally want growth, however this type of growth will destroy them,” stated AMAN’s Muhammad Arman. “When the brand new capital is absolutely developed, there shall be migration of individuals from different locations. Indigenous folks will find yourself pushed out of their land, it’s only a matter of time. Improvement mustn’t violate the human rights of Indigenous folks, they will’t simply be sacrificed within the title of nationwide growth.”

Advocacy teams like AMAN say one of many most important challenges for Indigenous folks is proving land possession to safe compensation.

“Indigenous folks’s land possession just isn’t thought-about to have robust legality, if there isn’t any certificates. So, they’re thought-about to be staying on land they don’t personal,” Arman stated. “The inheritance of land in Indigenous communities just isn’t seen as authorized.”

Atim, who can also be Balik, informed Al Jazeera he fears he may quickly lose his land to the event.

“My plantation is inherited from my ancestors. So many people don’t have paperwork. Our proof is in our historical past. Again then, issues weren’t difficult, folks didn’t want written issues. Now we have to show our possession,” he stated. “Many individuals already felt the impression of the water consumption growth. They stated they solely wanted one or two metres, however they ended up taking increasingly land.”

Atim stated he feels his neighborhood is being disrespected and disenfranchised by the Indonesian authorities. A number of weeks in the past, he discovered stakes in his plantation with the letters IKN — Ibu Kota Negara, that means the nation’s capital — painted on them. He stated nobody has informed him what the stakes imply.

“They act like we don’t exist. They act like we aren’t human. I settle for the brand new capital however don’t dismiss our rights. They wish to construct one thing by destroying what’s already right here,” he stated. “There isn’t any communication. They contain folks from different districts, however by no means us. We don’t know what is occurring.”

‘Room for dialogue’

The pinnacle of the Nusantara Capital Authority is Bambang Susantono, an engineer and economist appointed to guide the venture in early 2022.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, he stated the federal government is taking steps to be inclusive of Indigenous peoples and to permit them to be extra concerned. “We now have to respect them. The Indigenous folks, the native knowledge. That ought to be a part of our growth course of,” he stated. “We are going to give some room for dialogue, to allow them to have dialogue with us. Not simply with us however with all of the stakeholders. Typically, there could also be disagreements, so we have now to see the social and anthropological research associated to this and put that as supplies for these circumstances.”

The federal government has promoted initiatives like coaching programmes for locals as consultant of the advantages the brand new capital growth will supply folks in East Kalimantan. A few of these embrace workshops to show folks digital expertise or new farming methods.

Al Jazeera met some residents of Sepaku who had been proud members in such programmes — they stated these initiatives had modified their lives for the higher.

Sri Sudarwati, whose dad and mom migrated to East Kalimantan within the Nineteen Seventies, participated in coaching to be taught hydroponic planting methods together with her neighbours. She stated the brand new capital venture, and the eye it has dropped at her village, have improved her high quality of life.

“With the brand new capital, they opened up so many coaching alternatives. This hydroponic gardening has helped my household’s earnings lots. My life has completely modified,” she stated. “Earlier than the brand new capital plan, we by no means received any consideration. Folks didn’t know the place Sepaku was, we had been very backward. I wish to advise different folks, don’t assume an excessive amount of. Let’s be grateful about Sepaku being a part of the capital.”

Such recommendation is poorly obtained by Balik folks, together with their chief Sibukdin, who informed Al Jazeera he fears the event will spell catastrophe for his neighborhood.

“We don’t wish to be relocated from the land of our ancestors. And we really feel our land shall be taken by the federal government. They stated this capital is for the welfare of all Indonesians? However which Indonesians? We don’t really feel it’s for us,” he stated. “They will simply erase our rights. Such is the greatness of individuals in authority. We contemplate our historic websites to be the supply of our energy. However they even moved the graves of our ancestors. The brand new capital is haunting us, and haunting the way forward for our kids too.”