At present the contestation of the Indonesian state’s dispossessory policies regarding land and other natural resources is dominated by a discourse based on adat. This situation is reminiscent of the colonial period, when invoking adat was a relatively effective means of protecting Indonesians from losing their land to plantation companies supported by the Netherlands–Indies government. However, adat lost its traction when Indonesia became independent and the new state started to vigorously pursue nation building and economic expansion. Only after the end of the New Order in 1998 did civil society groups revive the adat defence against dispossession. This article analyses current debates and developments concerning the place of adat in national land law and its potential for protecting communities against dispossession of their land by the Indonesian state. We argue that the promotion of adat has produced few concrete results and that it is unlikely to be more successful for this purpose in the future. Given Indonesia’s current social and political realities, any land rights strategy for protecting people against dispossession that is based on indigeneity is problematic, and alternative approaches are needed.

目前，印尼政府关于土地和其他自然资源的处置政策的争论主要是基于adat的论述。这种情况让人想起殖民时期，当时使用adat是一种相对有效的方法，可以保护印度尼西亚人免于土地损失给荷兰－印度政府支持的种植园公司。然而，随着印度尼西亚独立，新国家开始大力追求国家建设和经济扩张，阿达特失去了吸引力。仅在1998年《新秩序》结束之后，民间社会团体才恢复了抵制剥夺的adat辩护。本文分析了有关adat在国家土地法中的地位及其在保护社区免受印度尼西亚国家剥夺其土地方面的潜力的当前辩论和发展。我们认为，推广adat几乎没有产生具体结果，并且将来在此方面不太可能取得更大的成功。考虑到印度尼西亚当前的社会和政治现实，任何基于土著性的保护人民免遭剥夺的土地权战略都是有问题的，需要其他方法。