Saving the Hongana Manyawa Tribe
The Hongana Manyawa are one of the last hunter-gatherer tribes left in Indonesia. They live in the rainforests of Halmahera Island, North Maluku:
Of the 3,500 or so members of the tribe, roughly 500 remain uncontacted by modern civilization, avoiding outsiders to preserve their traditional way of life. They survive by hunting wild boar and deer and using plants for food and medicine. Their entire society is based on a symbiotic relationship with the rainforest. Indeed, the name “Hongana Manyawa” means “People of the Forest.”
The Hongana Manyawa believe that trees have souls. At birth, they bury a child’s umbilical cord beneath a newly planted tree. That tree then becomes the person’s “soul tree,” which they revere throughout their life. Harming the tree is seen as harming the person’s soul, causing them deep emotional and spiritual distress.
Unfortunately, the very forests on which the Hongana Manyawa depend are now under direct attack. Starting in 2019, companies began large-scale mining operations there to extract nickel for electric vehicles:
These companies have already destroyed 40% of Hongana Manyawa land, including soul trees. Pollution from the mining activities is damaging the soil, air, water, and trees. Just air pollution alone has caused a 25-fold increase in respiratory diseases between 2020 and 2023. Forced contact with previously uncontacted people is also introducing disease into groups that have no natural immunity.
One of the leading defenders of the Hongana Manyawa is a group called Survival International. Among their many activities, they:
- Launch global campaigns to highlight the damage being done to the Hongana Manyawa’s rainforest and way of life.
- Organize pressure campaigns urging electric vehicle manufacturers to reject nickel mined from the Hongana Manyawa land.
- Pressure the Indonesian government to strengthen protections for the Hongana Manyawa.
- Capture images and record videos of the Hongana Manyawa people and the damage being done to their environment and way of life.
To get more information on what is happening to the Hongana Manyawa, see https://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/honganamanyawa. To join Survival International’s email campaign to stop the destruction of the Hongana Manyawa’s land, sign up here: https://act.survivalinternational.org/page/124732/action/1.
Don’t just stand by. Together, we can stop greed from destroying innocent people.