From the sacred lands of the Batak Indigenous Peoples in North Sumatra, Indonesia to the global stage, Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP), PEREMPUAN AMAN, and the Network of Indigenous Women in Asia (NIWA) deliver a message that cannot be ignored: Indigenous Women are not asking to be included. We are demanding transformation.
The Tano Batak Declaration is our truth. It exposes the violence we face—land grabs, climate crisis, gender-based violence and it elevates our solutions rooted in ancestral knowledge, community resilience, and intergenerational leadership.
We are not victims. We are leaders. We are rights-holders. We are healers, seed keepers, educators, and defenders of our land, territories and waters.
We reject false climate solutions that commodify nature and erase our lifeways. We lead with lived experience—not theory. With wisdom—not extraction.
Our demands are clear. They are urgent. Our rights are not up for negotiations.
The Declaration outlines our urgent and specific demands to:
- Governments
- ASEAN
- Donors (bilateral, multilateral, private)
- Private sectors in climate and biodiversity markets
- Conservation organizations
- UN Human Rights and Indigenous Peoples bodies
- European Union
- Civil Society Organizations
- Academic actors
- Media
Let Indigenous Women lead the way to climate justice.
*Tano Batak is the ancestral land of the Bangso Batak Peoples in North Sumatra, Indonesia. It is inhaited by six Indigenous groups: Toba Simalungun, Angkola, Mandailing, Karo and Pakpak. The region is mountainous and is home to Lake Toba, the world’s largest volcanic lake.
