Pengendum Tampung, "We don’t have birth certificates. You can’t do much without one"

Pengendum Tampung seems like a typical 21-year-old, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. But at home, he hangs up his jeans for a loincloth, and hunts and gathers alongside his father. Pengendum is an indigenous Orang Rimba – or “person of the forest” – and his home is the Bukit Dua Belas National Park in lush Jambi Province, on Indonesia’s Sumatra Island. The nomadic Orang Rimba are one of Indonesia’s many marginalized indigenous groups with poor access to health and education.
 
Thanks to a philanthropist who established a school in the forest seven years ago, Pengendum now speaks fluent Indonesian, a language worlds apart from his native Bahasa Rimbo. He spends most of his time teaching at the school where he was educated, but sometimes takes the three-hour bus ride to Bangko City, where he spoke to IRIN:
 
“There are still a lot of Orang Rimba who think education is a bad thing. They are worried that learning Indonesian and mathematics will change our way of life, our customs.
 
“People from the forest were always reluctant to send their children to schools in the outside world, but when the Rimba school started up in the forest, a few parents sent their children along. They were less suspicious because they could see what was going on.
 
“We learned Indonesian, mathematics and even ways to use and protect the forest. We would study just a few hours a day and then help our families gather firewood and fruit from the forest.
 
“After I finished my studies, I started leaving the forest occasionally. Now I come to Bangko City quite often to attend teacher training. At first, I felt really silly wearing jeans and a T-shirt. I had no self-confidence. It probably seems strange, but I was used to wearing nothing but a loincloth.
 
“When I visited the city, I realized how hard it would be to live here. I thought our rights as indigenous people living in the forest were bad, but they seem just as bad here.
 
“Orang Rimba don’t have birth certificates. You can’t do much in the outside world without one. You can’t vote or buy a motorbike or mobile phone. You can’t go to a regular school either.
 
“This needs to change. I’m glad I’ve learned Indonesian, because now I can teach the new students their rights. I can help them fight when the government or companies try to take our trees and resources.
 
“I want to ask the Indonesian government to recognize all indigenous people’s rights and provide us with health and education facilities, just like other people in Indonesia have. If some Orang Rimba want education, they should be able to have it. If others don’t want it, then that’s fine as well. That’s our right.”
 
ad/at/mc/mw