ABSTRACT
In the midst of a growing movement to promote and secure Indigenous land rights recognition in Indonesia, a small community in Sulawesi (the Kajang) became known as the model site for reclaiming state land under the Indigenous title. Other Indigenous communities, coalitions of activists, government officials, and international observers alike began to visit Kajang to learn not only about the regulatory process to secure Indigenous land title, but also to better understand what one local official described as the most participatory of regulations. I describe my research collaborations in Kajang and how this process prompted me to shift my research focus beyond the securing of regulatory outcomes. Rooted in a framework of participatory action research, collaborative ethnography, and participatory geographies, I describe a process to establish and undertake research partnerships in Kajang over a 21-month period. I deepen methodological engagement on knowledge co-production by engaging voices within the landscape to be more clearly heard. I do this through the day-to-day actions of families farming their fields as well as through the planning processes that village administrators undertake to reshape the region.
