Rassela Malinda - Papua, Development and Politics From Below

Rassela Malinda - Papua, Development and Politics From Below

From Talking Indonesia by Talking Indonesia

March 25, 2026 · 41 min

About this episode

Rassela Malinda discusses the struggles of indigenous communities in Papua against resource extraction and development plans.

Rassela Malinda – Papua, development and politics from below In his inauguration speech in October 2024 President Prabowo Subianto reiterated his campaign pledge to “achieve food security in the shortest possible time”. He was not the first Indonesian president to make such a declaration. For Jokowi’s administration too and now Prabowo’s, West Papua occupies a central place in its ambitions to achieve both food and energy security, with the rollout of massive sugarcane and palm oil plantations to meet increasing biofuel targets, as well as mega rice production. These plans involve the clearing and development of hundreds of thousands of hectares of forests, the customary lands of the indigenous peoples of these regions. Resource extraction at such scale by the state and the corporations is backed by military force, often rendering the indigenous communities helpless to respond. But some are fighting back. So just what recourse do the customary owners of the forests of Papua have to resist and take a stand, in the face of such powerful forces? In this week's episode Jemma chats with Rassela Malinda, a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne who lived and worked with…

People in this episode

Host: Dr Jemma Purdey

Guest: Rassela Malinda

Topics covered

  • Papua
  • development
  • politics
  • indigenous rights
  • resource extraction
  • food security

Keywords

  • Papua
  • indigenous communities
  • food security
  • resource extraction
  • Prabowo Subianto
  • Jokowi
  • sugarcane
  • palm oil
  • mega rice production

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Melbourne, Yayasan Pusaka Bentala Rakyat

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