ABSTRACT
As this chapter shall demonstrate, indigeneity administration and power intersect in specific ways in newly decentralized Indonesia. The framework decentralization laws of 1999, and subsequent revisions (Laws 32/2004 and 12/2008), provide the procedural and normative basis for the revival of adat. While this can be viewed largely as a technical exercise in administrative reform, it has also prompted a surge of political activity in districts throughout Sulawesi. The right to self-govern according to historical antecedents is often thought to be a natural right based on received wisdom, although in Indonesia this must have a basis in law, which introduces the dilemma of official recognition. In pursuit of recognition, local communities (or those acting on behalf of local communities) must be represented, and political representation is by nature a contested process prompting various types of mobilizations based on disparate meanings and interpretations of adat.
